I see it time and again with these free to play games. Constantly creating new “content” to sell more packs, items, cosmetics etc. and then leaving the game play behind. You have proven you don’t or can’t figure out how to balance your game yet you are constantly creating new cards to “keep people interested”. We all know this is just to sell more and more. When does it end? It’s like World of Warcraft, grind and grind and grind endlessly. If only developers would realize this is awful for long term. I would much rather have a focus on balanced meaningful (and actually strategic gameplay). But we constantly see new cards come out that are unbalanced that go unchecked for months. I am so ashamed of you Blizzard. I have played your games since the original StarCraft. You are just not the same anymore. I understand you need to make $ but milking people actually drives them away in the long term, especially when game play takes the biggest hit. As a long time fan I will never spend another cent on your games until you change. Nintendo is my savior these days with plenty of FUN games that aren’t all about milking it’s customer dry (in $ and TIME). It’s sad growing up with consoles way back since Nintendo and seeing how many game developer these days have turned into nothing more than addiction machines that feed on young kids and adults alike. Shame on you.
Your comments are much better suited for about 6 months ago.
We’ve received a record amount of balance changes since then and, most importantly, card buffs for the first time in hearthstone history.
World of Warcraft is fifteen years old. It doesn’t get much more long term than that in this industry.
It’s not the same, agree
Standard is in a better place than it has been, in my opinion, since the release of Boomsday. There are still annoying decks, there always will be, but there is a decent amount of viable options. Your judgement (and mine) on fun is completely objective obviously. As for balance changes and buffs, the increased frequency (and buffs) is the devs listening to the community overall it appears
For me the fixes are too little too late. I have been around since two weeks after beta and am about to leave this game for good. Nothing about it is enjoying anymore. I was hoping the new Dalaran Heist would prove me wrong but it has not. It’s RNG based and shows me how little these devs understand in true game design. I’m not saying i’m a pro game designer by any means, but it’s easy to spot when you see it. I see nothing but $$ grubbing from Blizzard now. The prices they charge on cosmetics is outrageous, and frankly sickening. I would be ashamed to know I’m getting people addicted to slot machines hidden under a veil of video gaming. Thankfully indie devs are out there and other AAA’s that care about customers. Also, if it means anything I have been in the game industry for over 13 years doing QA and it’s sad to see how little quality matters in the current climate.
How long have you been playing for ?
Judging by your name I can tell you’re faily new.
I have been playing HS since two weeks after beta but only recently I have posted.
Okay then leave.
It’s that simple.
I’ve been playing since beta started, and they have made more significant changes in the last 6 months than any period before then (except perhaps wild and standard mode).
The phrase “to little too late” just seems spiteful. You acknowledge this is what you want but you refuse to appreciate it now.
If this is too little too late then nothing will ever be good enough, so find another game to play that you enjoy.
I agree that I felt the adventures were a bit much. The prices on cosmetics, huh? Do you mean pay walling them because originally when they did portraits they were $10 by themselves for the three paid ones.
They’re trying to design around ‘Curvestone’ through discover and RNG mechanics making the optimal play not always be highest stats. It is partially why I’ve gone to MtG:A being my competitive game but I do still enjoy HS for being a decent digital card game for fun… but not for focus if that makes sense.
Yeah… the stories I have from my short stint working @ Mythic was sad in and of itself. I am sure you have better horror stories than I have ><;
They make significant changes because of how bland and boring the meta becomes after a week or two. Constantly changing the game doesn’t instantly mean they are quality changes. They are just changes to create an illusion of improvement imo.
Then like I said, if the most significant effort they have ever made has no value to you, I doubt you will ever enjoy this game. I never believed they would reverse their no buffing streak that has spanned the entire life of this game.
If the first buffs ever to unused cards is not a tremendous design change to you and you don’t enjoy the game more with the meta shaken up again, then I think you just don’t like this game and that’s fine.
It’s surprising isn’t it? Such massive changes to a meta that was already boring after two weeks still doesn’t have me interested.
How often do you play? I mean, I think Hearthstone, more-or-less, is a fantastic game for what it is - I’ve been playing HS since release, and I play it very regularly, but I play it on and off, a game here and there on my breaks, or if I fancy something more light hearted than slogging it out in Skyrim (for example).
It sure has its ups and downs, but heck it’s been providing me simple fun for years on end now.
Having said that (and bringing me back to my question) - I couldn’t imagine playing Hearthstone for hours on end. I’d get burnt out on losing streaks, not having enough cards, the dust returns etc etc.
I just figure it’s a pretty casual game, and if you treat it like that, you’re bound to have more fun.
The true failure of World of Warcraft’s latest expansion was that they rushed it out. Legion was an excellent expansion despite having many grindy elements, but BFA was clearly far from finished on release.
There were a lot of half-baked concepts, content and game systems that needed more brainstorming, internal testing, feedback and revision. The story was dull and uninteresting with a lot fewer endgame quests, the new dungeons and raids were dull and uninteresting, the new advertised features (Island Expeditions and Warfronts) were both poorly designed and poorly executed, the new artifact system was less interesting and less fun than the previous one, there were no new features or content besides Island Expeditions and Warfronts; and the reward systems were all either identical to the ones in Legion, or worse.
Given another 6-8 months at least, BFA could have been much more well-received. But on release, it was just a worse version of Legion, so I unsubscribed.
I’ve come to the conclusion that F2P CCGs are always going to have this problem. The vast majority of CCGs are inherently unequal simply because everyone doesn’t start with a complete collection of cards, meaning that those who can throw out more money to buy packs or spend more time grinding in game currency due to lack of job, school, or family obligations will always have an advantage due to having a larger cardpool. If you only want to focus on one deck/class you probably will be able to build something that can decently compete after awhile, but obviously you’'ll likely get less enjoyment out of the game than those that can build multiple decks on a whim.
The problem is with CCGs there’s no good way to remedy this. Other games can give F2P players all the same advantages as paid players and make their money entirely off of cosmetics that don’t affect gameplay (skins, outfits, etc.) but in a CCG your only real cosmetics are cardbacks and heroes, and history has shown they’re not going to make enough off of that to keep the game afloat. They need the pack and preorder sales. The only way to fund the game while giving everyone equal access to all cards would be a subscription based model where you have to pay X amount per month/year to be able to play the game at all, but you are able to use 100% of the cardpool without having to grind for it or throw down extra money. It’s something I’d personally be fine with if the price was cheap enough, but I realize a lot of people would be heavily against the idea meaning you’d likely be looking at a significantly smaller playerbase.
The other option is to go the route of these “living card games” that have been popping up lately, where with each new expansion you can pay a set amount to get ALL cards in that expansion without having to dust or craft anything. I can see both sides of the argument on this one, on the one hand that can make the game even more pay to win, but on the other hand people might be more likely to put down their money for it since it saves them from pack RNG. My issue with this is I doubt Blizzard would price it reasonably enough to compete with the pack/preorder route, much less price it attractively enough for the more casual gamers, so it’d probably become just another P2W scheme.
Yay more over dramatic complaining ab HS.
Where’s my popcorn
Haha
Salted or unsalted?
Always got some prepped for the occasion.
tl;dr REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The official Hearthstone forums in a nutshell 
The core of ccgs is built on this.
Card packs or booster packs for physical card games were loot boxes before they were cool.
Guess what the first C stands for. If they stop producing content, that first C is non existent.