Just a showerthought. This is microsoft-acquisition copium post #4589478 lol
Just thinking back to the very divisive reception to the “Nexus” being fleshed out as a world with its own lore and characters, and being a confusing point for players to understand as it wasn’t quite clear if it was an afterlife (like how Varian and Ragnaros got there) or an alternate reality entirely? Then Shadowlands came out for WoW and made it all the more confusing.
I think the way Super Smash Bros. does it is honestly better. It’s one giant fanfic with next to no lore, but instead banks on the appeal of seeing these characters interact simply because they can. Smash Bros cinematics are the crown jewel of that game outside it’s gameplay, but outside of the literal campaigns themselves (subspace emissary, world of light), it’s just accepted at face value as it is, with little need or desire to justify everything as concrete canon.
In the small but hopeful chance HotS gets rebooted with battle passes and such, I genuinely hope the new creative direction sees them drop the HotS lore and instead rebrand the game as an all-star battle. In fact, as a means to more explicitly be that which it is, I’d even argue dropping the HotS name for a far more nostalgic “Blizzard All-Stars” (an acronym that wouldn’t be shared with a starcraft II expansion no less) would once again get people talking enough to at least try the game out.
In a best case scenario, people frustrated with League’s complacency and WoW/D4/Overwatch 2 players in general could find this game as an additional hook to stay in the blizzard ecosystem.
Driving the copium one step further, eventually integrating an autobattler into BAS/HotS ala TFT for League of Legends, or just making a standalone autobattler entirely outside of Hearthstone would be a fantastic strategy for Nu Blizzard to reclaim it’s former glory.
On the subject of the game reboot title. I’m hesitant in agreeing on that name. There were several bad pr blows that blizzard has received starting I think since 2016. The brand has taken a toll for the worse so. I’d rather the alternative of staying in Nexus lore, it’s a lot less known and was barely advertised from the start. I’d change the name to have the word Nexus in it.
Firstly, I appreciate a positive post, they are understandably somewhat rare on these forums of late.
Having said that, I don’t think what little lore Hots has, or the IP title, was a factor in Hots being abandoned. Unless Blizzard finds a path to rehabilitate their brand (this won’t happen overnight), having “Blizzard” being front and center in the title probably won’t attract many new players.
I’d be down for a new Hots, i’m not sure the confidence is there for the series though.
Either they could try and lure away exsisting MOBA fans from Lol or DOTA but that probably means making it a little more si.ilar to those games.
Or they could try and gain exsisting and new fans for a hots style game.
You would have thought most people interested in mobas would be playing one already. Unless they really nail a new game that gets critical acclaim and attracts a lot of new players.
That wouldn’t do anything. If you make a game that’s a clone of an existing game, nobody has any reason to jump ship from the game they’re already invested in. You’ll just alienate the people who already like HotS.
All HotS needed (or maybe needs?) is better marketing. I have literally never seen an ad for Heroes of the Storm out in the wild. Why? It’s like they expected the E-sports scene to be their marketing, when that was never going to compete with LoL or Dota.
The Nexus is a world-consuming dimension where realities clash.
It’s a vortex that devours realms. Probably none of it is “og”, since it came from a singularity (“nothing”). But there are realms that are part of it for longer. Those are the “Nexus realms”, and it became HotS when it started to bite off parts of WoW, SC and Diablo (and more), gaining its Heroes.
It was never an afterlife.
Shadowlands claims there are 5+infinity afterlife realms. So it easily works even if you consider HotS one.
Many people who make game reviews for a living already explained how the (I hesitate calling it new at this point) mechanics of shared exp and talent tree substitute over items positively affect the game. If they made it similar to the other mobas, they’d be reintroducing unwanted things. Hots is technically already the good parts of a moba, with the frustrating parts skimmed out.
Although if you clarified more what you meant, maybe youre seeing something I’m not.
To anyone speaking ill of the battle pass idea, I wouldn’t worry. Even though this is all hypothetical, WoW’s Traveler’s Log (aka WoW’s version of a battle pass) can be completed in a few hours and then you’re good for the month. And as of late, it seems game developers are realizing that making gigantic battle passes will either make or break a player’s interest in a game, because they simply cannot get around to doing them all anyways. If HotS had a battle pass, I imagine it would be the sort that could theoretically be completed in 50-100 games, which when stretched out over a month of even the most casual play, would be more thank achieveable.
Also this would all happen in a Blizzard free from the clutches of Gallywix Kotick
That is true enough, at least in my case. I’ve been playing Hots since launch, if a such a Battle Pass concept is forced upon me, that will be a hard pass.
Most battle passes have a free tier and a premium tier where you can unlock items by simply playing the game, but the purchasing the premium tier unlocks more for you. I don’t think this is a bad idea for the consumer or the company. Casual non spending players are not forced to purchase anything but are still rewarded for playing the game and have the option to purchase the battle pass if they feel they want those extra rewards.
HOTS lore has many questions and mysteries. I liked it but at the same time I didn’t like being strung along. It didn’t turn me away from HOTS, and I’m sure this is not the reason for all of the players leaving the game.
Think of 42nd st back in the late 70s. Nice scenematics with some gameplay.
“all-stars” is overused and boring.
The problem here is I keep seeing people not being able to let go of Blizz. There is a plethora of other games and companies much more deserving of your time and money.