1 year, that's how long I predict this game has left

One cannot compare the viewing figures of LoL and DotA2 with HotS. Both of those products fall into the elitist MOBA category which have formed their own inflated eco systems so those people will never go anywhere else. It does not help that their players criticize HotS and create social pressure that anyone playing HotS is a kid just because they love wasting their time last hitting things.

The decline in HotS activity likely coincides with the rise of battle royal and other such games which take away causals but are perceived as more accessible. HotS never got large enough to form its own ecosystem, with much of it parasitizing off players from other Blizzard games.

If one looks at Blizzard’s library currently there is not much new being added. Some of the recently added games are not even from Blizzard and Warcrat III Reforged is basically an updated Warcraft III. I suspect the reason they are pushing HotS towards maintenance mode is that the developers time would be more impactful if put towards another new product that will get new players. Think of more Overwatch like successful games being released, and Overwatch was hugely successful. This is not saying that HotS will be completely ignored, in the distant future work might pick up on it again similar to Warcraft III.

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on these points…

  • true, but 2019 updates are coming with an MMR update. so we can see what happens then. right? :slight_smile:
  • TL is where the action is. besides this 2019 updates is bring us back to merged ranked system like it was before ppl asked for it to be separated.
  • do you think they will no longer support the game? did you know they have continued support for Diablo 2 (patches) long after it became literally what can be considered dead as far as population?
  • meh reddit sucks anyway.
  1. Citation needed
  2. Blizz even posts their banwaves from time to time.

Loss forgiveness is on its way (when someone is disconnected).

The stealth change was aimed for the pros with the casuals in mind. Samuro, Zera and Valeera all saw good success after the changes at HGC.

Almost none was because of esports. And funny to see this complain after a complain about cattering to casuals. It seems the game shouldn’t be balanced around casuals nor the pros…

Specialist was always a failed role which ppl misunderstood from the beginning. They weren’t really good at teamfighting, so players focused on laning with them, ignoring obj and teamfights. This only works against ppl eith bad macro (not pros). So they changed it.
XP change was against snowballing. Again, not because of the pro scene.

This game actually did a pretty good job at balancing the game around good players but still caring for their casuals.

I agree with your post, but when it comes to long term support of this game, I think comparing it to Diablo 2 or D3 is a bad example. Both of those games don’t require a game population to play or enjoy. HOTS was made as a team game with vs AI primarily for training.

If the game loses too many players it may still be supported, but outside of VS AI, it won’t be playable as intended.

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I can always tell who’s a teenager/early twenty something on these forums because of their belief that popularity matters in the long run.

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Popularity does matter when the population gets so small that you can no longer play the game, or at least play certain gamemodes.

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I think ppl underestimate WIII reforged, as it will be packed with dota so basically Blizz will be one now selling “classic dota” with updated graphics. So even the mentioned “elitists” will be up to try it out, smartest decission they could ever do.

Also i can;t wait to play Enfos, castle fight, hero siege, footmen frenzy, vampirism fire, battleships (basically moba with ships, check it out!)

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That’s not what’s meant by “popular”.

Is Warcraft 3 a “popular” game?

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=warcraft%203&geo=US

It’s search trend is considerably smaller than Heroes of the storm.

https://sullygnome.com/game/Warcraft_III_Reign_of_Chaos

Warcraft 3 has 0.3% less viewing hours on Twitch than Heroes of the Storm.

According to these criteria, HotS, by comparison, has a SIGNIFICANTLY larger presence in the mindspace of the public, yet are you going to tell me that NOBODY plays WC3 anymore and that it’s a “dead game”?

No, don’t be silly. Just because WC3 isn’t the latest craze with the kids (ie popular), doesn’t mean any of those things.

So no, over the long term, being a popular video game isn’t really that important to the players who are continuing to play the games that they enjoy.

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True, but it still impacts the quality of the gameplay experience.

Any new players who try to get into the game will find a very hostile environment where they will suffer one crushing defeat after another, until they either practice and read up on guides to the point where they can actually compete with the people who’ve been playing the game for years, or they quit.

Any gamemodes that aren’t popular with the diehard fans might as well not exist. Unless you have a group of willing friends, you’re generally stuck playing in only the most popular gamemodes and lobbies.

And if you run into players you don’t like because they’re rude/elitist/griefing/cheating, you’re generally stuck with them. They’re likely to be friends with the rest of the diehard playerbase and thus can’t be kicked or avoided.

So yes, a game doesn’t live and die by how much it’s trending on twitch, but a lack of popularity is still a very real concern for an ongoing multiplayer game.

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You never played SC2 did you. I still play. It’s still crushingly hostile to someone who’s played the game for 8 years let alone a new player. Yet people still play SC2, even new players.

Welcome to life new person. It’s generally not ideal for you here. That’s no reason to quit though, as un-ideal as it sounds, it really does have it’s moments. Good luck & have fun!

I just proved this sentiment wrong but whatever, continue to march on with your own internal narrative I suppose.

I’ll hold you to it. If this game is still standing in one year, I’ll expect your resignation from the forums.

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Why would the game not be standing?

The OP’s doom and gloom makes it sound like the games servers are going to be turned off, which is the only way I video game can “die”.

Evolve Stage 2 had about 30-60 active players per day but the game was not dead because the servers were still hosted. They’re down now, so yes, that game is dead, but as long as hots is hosted on Blizzard’s servers, it is not a dead game.

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Highly unlikely to happen unless something significant changes at Blizzard. Even then, there are often 3rd party solutions if there is enough of an interest for it.

ya thats not happening. if blizz can keep a game as old as D2 up this long with its less than active population i think they can handle HotS with its more active crowd.

Seriously? A game with 30-60 active users could go on for 3.5 years before being canned but a game like HotS with THOUSANDS of active players is on borrowed time for a year or less?

Get out of here.

You’re are misinterpreting my position.

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Could you point me to an actual new player in Starcraft 2? I play it occasionally too, but I can’t remember the last time I saw someone asking a total noob question or saying that they’re new. There were a few after the game went free-to-play, but I haven’t seen much since then.

You seem to be implying that these problems are present in every multiplayer game. This is not the case for popular games with a large, healthy playerbase. Even the most unpopular gamemodes in League of Legends, DotA 2 and Overwatch still have some people who will play with you, and if you run across a player you don’t like for whatever reason, you can always avoid them, report them and/or mute them; and even if you don’t, you’re unlikely to see them again.

…no you didn’t. You just downplayed the significance of the issues that come with a lack of popularity.

Plus, for every game like WC3 that still has a diehard fanbase, even years after the game’s popularity has faded, there are a dozen multiplayer games that truly died when the servers shut down, or have become so unpopular that it’s almost impossible to actually play with other people. Lawbreakers, Nuclear Dawn, XCOM 2 Multiplayer, and hundreds of other forgotten titles that neither of us remember.

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lol

It actually matters in a fully online game.

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I don’t know why people think Hots is alive. This game is dead since December 13, people just can’t understand it. Devs are gone, Kevin is gone, patches will come less frequent. Plenty of good people (pros and players from higher ranks) uninstalled right after the announcement. A lot of players stayed, but the question is for how long. The lack of players is not very prevalent now, because there was Kid event and Imperius was released, but how will Hots look like after first 2 months without any new content? it will definitely happen sooner or later this year! Hots players got used to regular new content, but what if it wouldn’t come? In my opinion we will se serious lack of players in months…

I think servers will be online for a long time, but without players. Maybe some smaller local servers (like the Singapore one) will be closed or merged, but EU or NA will be online for years. Without players…

I think you have no idea how game server works and the difference between Evolve and Hots!

First of all Evolve had dedicated servers. It means that you lease server from the owner. You gain full control, but have to pay for it. In this case Evolve’s devs leased servers from Valve. The key is you never lease server for a day or for a week (especially if you are big company such as 2K)!! You do it for months or years. Servers were shutdown when they had to renew the lease, but the income was lower than the cost.

However, Hots doesn’t have dedicated servers, because Blizzard has its own ones. There are so many servers for all of their games, so maintain a few more is barely noticeable. But it doesn’t mean Hots is alive!

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