I actually think QM was one of the worst things for the game in the long run. In short it’s a great mode.
As someone who used to play QM religiously I think it sets bad habits and while great for the casual and people who want to practice that isn’t really what MOBAs are about.
Personally I think with ARAM available they should get rid of QM but thats just me (please don’t @ me)
BTW great topic and everyones being generally pretty much on the same page
I am not sure what would be the benefit of removing QM completely.
ARAM is cool to learn more about heroes but it doesn’t really help players to learn more about the real game. Beginners who started with ARAM and moved on to ranked might be confused why there are 2 or 3 lane maps and what objectives are…
QM is great for beginners, it’s a good mode to work on your personal hero roster and experiencing all the different maps. Balance doesn’t matter for beginners because they make so many mistakes that overshadow the imbalances completely.
Maybe there should just be a better description about the modes ingame. Maybe even rename QM into something like “Beginner mode”.
In my opinion the problem is that many players don’t understand which game mode they should play. Also some people find enjoyment in very odd ways of playing a game, those are a minority tho. Similar like WoW players who only play it as a economy simulator, playing the auction house and nothing else.
I am sure we have role players here in hots who just want to feel like Arthas and have no intention to get good at this game.
I don’t want to go into because I already made a topic on it (feel free to necro 
) but essentially IMO there is AI for beginners to learn (There needs to be a better tutorial), ARAM if all you want to do it brawl, UD if you want to learn but still play properly and Rank for everything else.
In saying this I don’t think they will ever get rid of QM as its the most popular mode
AI is for absolute beginners who never had a mouse in their hand 
They need to learn the basics like how to move the character…
Many new HOTS players already have gaming experience, some even played other MOBAS or RTS games. Those players want to face other human players while learning the game so QM is their mode. These players might already know how to stutterstep and how do combos within their own kits - they just need to get familiar with HOTS.
Couldn’t they also learn in Unranked draft? While I do learn from QM it’s because in my region there is no UD. If I had that option I would. Just looking at LOL it doesn’t have a QM mode but people still learn?
As I said I don’t want to derail this subject. If you want to reply about this point reply to my other thread. I give you permission to necro Someone else please change the subject I like this thread!
UD is good to learn about drafting but to be really able to draft one already needs to have their own hero roster established (owning heroes from different roles and being familiar with them). Drafting is kinda worthless if players don’t have a choice and just go with the hero they know how to use. It’s even more worthless if they pick heroes they don’t know ^^
QM is good to build up the roster and once a player has his starting roster (2 heroes for every role) then drafting is a good next step.
UD isn’t even a thing in EU, it’s probably the least played mode over all. Most go directly to ranked mode i think.
I don’t know how LOL handles it now. in the early days one just had to instalock the champion once you got into a normal game lobby.
You know why? Cos players who want to play more seriously are playing other games.
No one wants to play the RNG randomness generator that is quickmatch.
There’s no option for people to play somewhat seriously but without rank points at stake, unless you’re willing to tolerate the queue times of unranked draft and the super slow ban/pick phase.
Dota’s casual mode (turbo) and league’s casual mode (blind pick) both don’t have this kind of stupid levels of randomness inherently baked into it (league has some level of it since you can be counterpicked without knowing but at least your team can assemble a somewhat reasonable comp). They both have some level of drafting, and funny thing is, they both start extremely quickly too, almost as quickly as quickmatch.
No one wants to waste 20 minutes of their life playing as a tank on hanamura when the only dps on your team is a murky classified as an assassin thanks to the matchmaker
I know, and I don’t think this can be solved for HotS because our player base is 50-100x (?) smaller than LoL’s.
We do have Unranked Draft here but as you said yourself, due to population issues it’s a dead mode and not worth queuing for.
The only thing that will push up player numbers in HotS is a massive, expensive ad campaign, and that’s just not going to happen most likely.
Why insult indeed, but the sad reality is they’re probably just recouping their own damages even if it’s not anything to do with the game.
I agree it absolutely is a detriment but there isn’t really a working solution since smurfing is all but coddled in the game.
(Why no UD?)
The “slow” ban/pick phase is there in Ranked as well and the price ppl pay for not having to deal with what QM is.
So we’re left with the long queues. But… why are the queues long? (A minor reason maybe because it matches ppl with closer mmr, so no QM shenanigans, price, yada-yada.)
The queues are long in UD because no one plays it. Why? If all the ppl who complain about QM and UD queue times would just play UD the problem would fix itself.
Which makes me wonder that… it’s either:
And I think that’s the biggest issue usually with multi games. Selfishness and greed (be it about time or anything else).
Ppl don’t want to wait for balance or create balance (draft). They want balance granted for them for free.
Ppl don’t want to sacrifice the Hero they desire to play, they want a team who drafts around them.
I’d say this is just humans being humans. But if there is an actual issue creditted for QM, the real issue is that HotS is all about its Heroes.
Ppl usually come here to play their favs. Most of the other MOBAs, ppl can’t do that, because they don’t know the characters. They don’t play with lore or nostalgia in mind. They just play a MOBA. But Heroes of the Storm is all about that nostalgia and lore. And imo the main reason QM is the most popular PvP mode.
-Blizzard laughed at the idea of developing Dota
-MOBA genre explodes with multiple tiers of accessibility, arguably oversaturated
-Blizzard shows up late and tries to make a quick buck off Blizz fans
Blizzard didn’t “kill” HOTS because they weren’t smart about giving it a chance in the first place.
In fact, it is the developers who wrote the code in which toxic players are thrown to normal players, and weak ones against strong ones. It is the developers who do not open the MMR, it is they who gave people an unlimited reporting system, it is the developers who do not struggle with the Smurfs problem, which they themselves have created with unlimited reporting, etc. And the players are just a consequence of the developers actions.
I agree the community, being rather insular, may have pushed the game into a narrow focus… but part of that comes from the way HotS was marketed: a casual MOBA for Blizz fans, with little mention of its strategic complexity.
It’s an excellent love-letter to us, but it doesn’t exactly do outreach to new players on its own very well - it only exists in context to other games, making it feel like an add-on or mini-game. It still doesn’t feel like a Blizzard game in its own right.
That’s why I wanted them to open up more on original characters/story. It’s important that this game can create emotional and memorable moments for the player, not just ride on the nostalgia of other games. I’d argue their failure to achieve that is a bigger stain than esports.
I doubt Activision will allocate more resources, so it’s all water under the bridge now, but it’s frustrating as I don’t enjoy other MOBAs very much. I appreciate the elegance of HotS’ balance paradigm and it’s a shame to see it go to waste.
Judging a draft game by QM sounds like a fair and honest effort towards a useful summary of all the people that make you upset by not listening to you wig out in a random
And when you call them on it, even nicely you get reported for abuse.
Unranked is dead, that’s why.
And everything I wrote after that pointed out that it’s dead because ppl buried it alive.
Also true.
Isn’t that what you do with the terminally ill? Euthanasia?
Considering the game was first promoted as “Blizzard all Stars” or something like that, “brawl as your favorite Blizzard heroes.” I do wonder how popular the game would have become if they committed more to that idea.
It wouldn’t be exactly like ARAM, but somewhat more like it, fewer maps perhaps, more of a streamlined brawler. I’m glad they went in the direction they did, I would get bored fast if it was a more simplified brawler. Given the propensity for players in my QM games just to brawl it out mid lane, as if it’s the only lane on a three lane map, I wonder though? 
Woah, that suddenly got dark Mumrah. 