How To Make HOTS Grow

  • There is little to no effort for marketing the game to increase playerbase
  • Individualism is not in the game when it’s the heart of the moba genre
  • A proper party finder is not in the game
  • Swimsuit skins have been discontinued
  • ARAM is not permanent
  • Mei is not on the hero roster
  • Pharah is not on the hero roster
  • Brigitte is not on the hero roster
  • Ashe is not on the hero roster
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It’s cute how the young crowd always misses the point by acting like a perfect consumer who only cares about stuff… Pretty sure not so long ago games had little to no skins, banners, sprays and all the other fluff that doesn’t matter. What matters is playability. When you force a crappy matchmaker onto people and then ban them when they get frustrated no amount of gems will ever save you.

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People will come and go, people will be replaced, and depends on how much they like the game.

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Here we have a well thought out and admirable attempt to better the game. There are some other things that I think could go a long way to improving the game as well but I wish the forums were filled with more posts like this. A quality post with user ideas has infinitely more value than trolling, personal attacks, and defamation attempts. Cheers to OP for the high effort post! :smiley:

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Umm. You all are missing a point. The reason why we cant get more players is due to MobA genre stagnating. There is no players to get since no new players looks for a moba.They look for Royale,Warframe or great singleplayer games(there was a insane amount of great games this year).

All mobas are loosing players. All of em. So Acti has seen that this genre cant grow unless there is a massive commercial investment(prb in bilions of $) that they are not confident will pay off(only idiots invest in a failing business).Mobile games still grow so they switch to that.

Most ppl who leave dota and lol do not look to play a second moba. They had their fill and wont just move from the game they had invested 1k h of playtime in.

So we need to find new players in a genre that barely gets any new players. When you look at it like that its kinda ez to figure out why they are giving up.

At least smite has console market to help em.We compete with Dota and LoL for new player. And even before they gave up, those 2 looked more promising due to massive population.

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Lol, everyone is trying so hard to salvage this game while the company that owns it plans for it’s demise. Time to face the music, folks. The game is officially done. There is no redemption.

You should stop wasting your time trying to save a game that doesn’t want to be saved.

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What utter rubbish.

League is still gaining players, and growing like mad.
Only HotS has been crap from the start, and Blizzard has finally gotten tired of throwing money into a losing project and thus decided to cut back on it.

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Finally a high quality post.

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If they do want to save this game, they should really start by fixing long-time existing bugs (major and minor ones) like that ready queue button bug and improve recon system.

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The first thing it needs to do is to ban all the feeders and asshats throwing games.

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No it aint. And if it does its due to massive commercial that is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOxkGD8qRB4

Like that one video got LoL more players then any other.Its given LoL quite a lot of spotlight.And it cost a LOT to make. Way more then HotS can pay(well blizz can pay but the chance for paying of is nearly zero).+ its a gamble if it will explode like that.

DotA lost a lot of players.Here is the proof. Just look at “all”. Lost over 1/3 of players over 2016-2018 period.From 1.2 mil to 0.8 mil.
https://steamcharts.com/app/570#All

Smite lost em as well but since its only moba on console it will live.Got proof on that as well but ill show em only if someone is interested.

So the only game that maybe got players got em after investing a MASSIVE amount of money for advertisement.Well guess what. When you aint at the top like Fortnite or LoL that is rly hard to do and not bankrupt.

While not a bad idea, this will flood the item pool with recolors people don’t really care about, which will reduce the chance for them to get stuff they actually want :stuck_out_tongue:

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Couple things that I think held this game back…

The platform that it’s on. Other successful Moba’s were 2 things… F2P and on steam. They got a lot of casual people that really came for one of the many other games to give them a try. Battlenet has people that play a few select games, and the people that play them for the most part are invested in those games heavily. Many do not want to make a switch from what they came for.

Reason number 2, Steam strait up has an easier means of payment than battlenet. I could go out and get a steam gift card from Best buy with cash. Battlenet… set up your paypal? creditcard? Assuming you are an adult and have those. I know my parents would not have given me that for an online game when I was young, and honestly now that I am an adult. I’m also hesitant of using credit-cards for stuff like online gaming.

Reason #3. The social aspect. I was dragged to give this game a try by friends that have since left a long time ago. People since (including myself) seem not as efficient at dragging their friends into playing the game with them. They expect Blizz to give them people to play with, and honestly complain a lot more when they don’t get along.

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These ideas actually can work. Most online games are on steam as well as having their own launcher. Warframe is one such game. It has 2 versions for their own launcher and steam(same game tho,no difference).

But will it help the game tho.Our game is in the declining market.Will it give us a boost. Also social aspect does not matter in this case. In WF you cant communicate no matter the platform.

Also steam takes a part of game profit so its not as good as it looks.So the game must redirect you to blizz site or battle net again for every purchase to work around that.

Honestly this can get us more players just by getting in seach bars on steam. After all steam has a lot of players and its easy to just try the game. So if some who try it stay it will at least pay off.

Not sure how hard is this game to put on steam tho. It prb needs some work. Not sure how much tho.Still problems but at least has a chance to work. After all mobas need publicity not these moronic changes that aint gonna get us any players if ppl dont even know game exists.

Its marketing that gets new players not changes.And this at least is marketing.

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It’s nice to hope for things but the writing is on the wall. HoTs won’t ever grow.

HoTS has an active user problem. Increased conversions on monetizing the playerbase would be nice but if the playerbase is shrinking then high conversions aren’t that significant.

The HoTS team failed to see what was needed for the game to grow. The marketing department did a good job but the design team didn’t.

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HotS is very unique/fun game that people would like to play quite a bit, the problem is the frustration after some few months play when MM gets “control” over your “identity” overall

The game becomes a massive compensation creep at that point which simply deters people from playing further… Doesn’t even have to change in general but AT LEAST give some information/control to the player, there was a game where had Zarya/Thrall/Jaina and I decided to 1st pick Tyrande as everyone expected last player to pick a tank, well that player DID pick a tank (Tyrael) but had like 30% WR on the hero :P, not only we got thrashed/dived to no end in that game but also dude didn’t even pick an appropriate engager hero

How could’ve I known that ? = well maybe if I looked at profile then see warrior WR% average some 35% and then see maybe most played “warriors” being Tyrael/Sonya, but = you have like 25 seconds (total) to make a decision

If at least some information/control can be given to the player, things would go better a lot, posted in long format, posted in shorter, here’s even shorter = just GIVE SOME RESPONSIBILITY/CONTROL mechanisms to the player, make them able to prevent (or at least PREDICT) a bad/non-functional team comp and adapt on time though

Heck even the slightest change of making/sorting the most flexible player (the one that plays most heroes/roles) being last pick per draft, even that might contribute to better player-based control

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Woah woah ! Hold on right there copypastable ! Are you looking at other female characters now ?! I thought you only had eyes for mei ? She wasnt good enough for you now was that it lol ?!

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Pharah I’m fine with, Ashe fine

Mei, whatever

But Brigitte ?, come on man, could it even be possible to think of something more boring tbh : P

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Id rather see reinhart then Bridget no offense xD

His voice actor is awesome !
Check out the video you get most of the actors at once its great lol
" this reinhart and reinhart and reinhart and reinhart ! And we are here to deliver. Payload ! A payload of joy my friend ! Haha!!"

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Huh, I expected this to die quietly. Neat.

“Can be” is closer to the truth than “is”. You have to get lucky with multiple high-value quests and have access to multiple low-level heroes to hit milestones for Gold rewards. Unless you have a day off, you’re unlikely to be able to rouse up 10k in 24 hours (especially if you’re new).

I don’t believe that. HOTS is beloved enough for major players to make their own HGC-esque leagues out of nothing - which, if you’ll recall, is how DotA started its rise to prominence. If the game is good enough and the love is strong enough, all you need for the “full MOBA experience” is the monetary flow to sponsor development, balance, and official tournament organization. HOTS is obviously doing enough right for people to want to see it played at a professional level, so it can’t hurt to make it easier to get into and easier to spend money on.

Subjective feedback here, but I haven’t been running into that many report-worthy individuals.

True. But that can easily change once the game becomes more accessible.

HOTS is not and does not have to be like other MOBAs. People’s interest in the professional scene is proof of that.

True, and it could definitely use one.

What are you talking about? Stitches got plenty of new variants. :stuck_out_tongue:

True, and I desperately want it to be.

HOTS is not comparable to older games because older games weren’t free. HOTS is, and you have to make your money somewhere. A free game being addictive and fun doesn’t generate the developer any money.

We’d have a lot more coming and a lot less going if the game was easier to stay on.

Thank you! I don’t post very often but when I do, I try to make it worth something.

The MOBA genre is losing players to simpler games like Fortnite because they’re exactly that: simple. They’re drop in, play for however long you want, and drop out. There’s no organization, no planning, just gameplay. HOTS netted a ton of MOBA fans because it was simpler than its competition without being weird about it like Smashmuck Champions, so obviously there’s a market for a casual MOBA. All HOTS needs to do is tap the market a little better (for example, by being better to its casual players by opening up the roster and making things easier to buy) and it’ll get some life back.

Giving up makes you weak. There’s no harm in trying and hoping for something better doesn’t hurt anyone, so I might as well.

Hello again. If HOTS was crap from the start, it wouldn’t have grown like it did - it would’ve died like Smashmuck Champions and the countless other MOBAs that tried to break into the genre.

Aaay, thank you! That means a lot coming from you.

I agree. They need the income to sponsor that kind of work first though.

That would be pretty nice, yeah.

It can’t be any worse with how flooded the item pool is with emoji packs, sprays, avatars, and banners that people don’t really care about. Adding a bunch of skins will at least give players more Skinergy options. Plus, Step 2 of the proposal involves “allow players to buy whatever they want with Gems at any time”, so if people don’t want to deal with the drop pool, then… they won’t have to!

I agree with your first statement up to a point. League was never on Steam, but it was free and it was the original stand-alone alternative to DotA.

Second point is definitely valid, but the market is becoming increasingly online and brick-and-mortar stores are dying a slow and steady death. Adding Blizzard Balance cards to stores might not be worth the effort.

Third point is valid, but can be helped. The original 20-hero bundles brought in a ton of new blood, so there’s precedent for player drives paying dividends. All Blizzard needs to do is care enough to make it happen.

Would you mind explaining why you consider “make things better for new players, make spending money on the game easier, and make more content that people want to spend money on” to be moronic changes?

Word of mouth does a lot more than you would think. League’s initial boom was because people tried it and told their friends - the initial advertising run wasn’t really that prevalent.

“HOTS won’t ever grow” is a defeatist attitude. Of course it won’t grow if you’re already convinced it won’t. I still have hope because HOTS gives me gameplay that isn’t available anywhere else, so I’m not ready to give up on it.

That said, I don’t think it’s the design team’s fault. HOTS has gameplay issues and QoL issues, but it’s not like its more successful competitors haven’t had those same issues (and in League’s case, had them for years).

Honestly, I would love for HL/UD to have an unordered pick like TL. Sure, selfish players can abuse it to instalock their given choice, but at least that way you’re not relying on someone being shoehorned into a role because they happened to be the last pick.

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