But Johnnies aren't cool. Johnnies are angry. [...] All these things are great distractions, but more than anything else Johnny needs expansions and resets because given enough time the illusion will break and Johnny will be inevitably miserable [...] None of this is to say Johnnies don't matter. Indeed, as I said earlier they're 99% of the posters on social media. From a Dev perspective, keeping them happy is absolutely critical. [...] As explained above, there's nothing to be done, except string Johnny along with new content.
You seem to like that Rosewater terminology a lot. But I would strongly disadvise to make any further assumptions, or practice pseudo-psychology, based on that. And if you truly believe that anybody who states an opinion does so purely for the sake of self-expression and emphasizing individuality, you are a madman.
Anyone who likes to operate with models must be aware of their limits. If you take that very simple and debatable formula to identify player types, and want to use it to rationalize away the entire topic, which it certainly is not suited for, you probably have no actual interest in discourse.
I strongly disagree with your conclusion that "there's nothing to be done", but I'm sure I will not be able to convice you otherwise.
Look man, I'm not trying to just handwave you off. I just feel like you're making a molehill out of a mountain when you act as if Blizzard could genuinely solve these problems.
Let's put it another way: how many decks are in Tiers 1, 2 and 3 throughout a single meta? 20? 25? If there are 75 million Hearthstone players and a third of them are aspiring deckbuilders, that's about a one in a million chance at "winning" at deckbuilding — well, one in 500 thousand, technically, assuming equal interest in Wild. If Blizzard introduced 8 new formats — 8 new sandboxes with special rules that create new and previously unexplored metas — and worked to maintain those formats, AND each format received equal attention, AND they were all balanced ten times better than Standard is now so 250 deck archetypes were viable... STILL 99.99% of deckbuilders would still create decks that are Tier 4 or lower, especially if those deckbuilders refuse to develop the Spike and/or Timmy sides of their game.
Simply put, playing this game solely to win at deckbuilding is like playing the lottery hoping to hit the jackpot. For almost everyone involved it's a one-way trip to the salt mines. I mean, what do you expect: thousands of different Tier 3+ deck archetypes? Not gonna happen.
One possible solution would be to do like in combat sport...
Instead of having only one category of deck (super heavy category) due to net-decking, a possible option will be to set "weight" categories. For example deck worth less than 500 dusts, decks from 500 to 1000 dusts, deck worth 1001 to 2000, etc.
Ideally there might be 5 categories for example.... I do not know which could be a good split as I have a large collection and am playing HS since the end of Beta.
The system will automatically find a player having a same deck category than yours while laddering (plus the usual star system). So, this system is seamless to the player. There is nothing special to do. No option to click or not. It would be just an indication by the system stating in which category your deck is.
This way, you could reach legend in the super-light category or mid-category or the super-heavy category for exemple.
It is not a perfect system. Obviously there will be more aggro on lower category and more control on higher categories (although creative people will be able to create controlish deck with less than 500 dust). Also this might split a bit the ladder. However in combat sport, it is not a big issues... yes heavy-weight are generally less moving and stronger than light-weight and that heavy-weight is more popular then super-light (due to the power level) but then it allows everyone to compete and not only the 100 kgs+ muscle fighters... which is the situation where HS ladder is now... the only difference being some fight better than others but they all look very similar (4000+ dust).
However, this will generally put the net-decking into the last category (as decks are becoming really expensive nowadays) while creative deck could be seen in lower to mid categories. It will create several meta (one by category) and thus the player experience would be more various too as many "worthless" card will be useful again.
That actually wouldn't do anything to get rid of netdecking, that would just make it so you would have different netdecks at each level. Contrary to what you believe, net decking is not exclusive to people with expensive decks. This would also cause several issues as now they would have to balance several metas at once, and we know how good Blizzard is at balancing. Sometimes the best deck in the game is also really cheap, so imagine how ridiculously OP that deck would be if you removed all of the more expensive decks that had a chance against it.
Only solution for real new players to have somewhat a chance is an Basic set only mode in my opinion.
So at least you can do your quests and win some games as long as you build up your collection as a new player.
Also OP should give new ladder mode some time after 1-2 month most netdeck players that play at least a bit will be rank 9 start of season and new players can be around 25-10.
Even that wold be problematic. you'd have 2-3 decks which have strong basic set only. Mage, Priest (with combo), Hunter maybe. The meta in that would be even more stale than standard, which least evolves and changes regularly.
My suggestion is not for diversity purpose, its for giving new players a chance to play with an equal chance because card pool is the same for evrybody.
Yes its stale and limited but at least you dont get slaughtered by netdecks.
New players atm have the real problem that they cant even finsih most quests since they cant win any games due to everybody in all modes is netdecking with full collection.
Thus we need a save room for new players. Maybe that suggestion is not the most creative but it would not take much afford to programm it and it makes the game better for new players.
New players atm have the real problem that they cant even finsih most quests since they cant win any games due to everybody in all modes is netdecking with full collection.
Thus we need a save room for new players. Maybe that suggestion is not the most creative but it would not take much afford to programm it and it makes the game better for new players.
That isn't the way to do it. Instead, you just timestamp when each account defeats Illidan to unlock PvP, then include timestamp proximity in matchmaking. I'd personally advocate...
Priority 1: Format-specific criteria (ex: rank in Ranked, record in Arena or Tavern Brawl, skip this step if Casual), favoring closeness
First tiebreaker: time since last played against this opponent (Blizzard keeps a log of all players each player has played against with a timestamp for most recent matchup), favoring never-played then longest time
Second tiebreaker: time between "birth" of account, favoring closeness
This would naturally pair new players against other new players whenever possible, which would limit blowouts to new players who drop a lot of money into the game early (rewarding them for doing so).
Don't take this the wrong way but this was my mentality a few months ago. Realize you must be making misplays. Think about what you could do differently after each game. And then you will climb ranks.
What many don't want to accept is that netdecking is beginner-level and actually constructing your own deck is expert-level, not the other way around. For each and every netdeck, there was a time before it was a netdeck where someone made the list themselves. The people who made those decks were fast and accurate, and you are not. Their choices beat your choices and the number of choices that beat their choices are quickly exposed by deck tweakers who, again, are faster and more accurate than you.
This is only a problem if you are trying to be something you're unqualified to be. You are allowed to simply copy their work, and if you're not an expert you should do precisely that. So basically, if your rank isn't Legend, you should probably be netdecking.
I don't get where people get the arrogance to believe that, despite clear indications that their piloting ability is a tier or more below ideal, that they have some kind of entitlement to design decks that get good results. Wrong. Proving your mettle as a pilot is what indicates that you have what it takes to design decks that perform well. For those who make it to the top, tweaking decks to metagame shifts can be the winning play. But not at Rank 20, or even at Rank 5.
This is a game where choices (usually) matter. You want to be able to have your incorrect choices yield positive results. This isn't going to happen, ever. The closest you could hope for is a metagame where a surprisingly large number of decks constitute Tier 1 such that the variety among netdecks provides you with a variety of decks to compete against; however, the end result of even a healthy but stagnated meta is, at best, a population-skewed version of paper-rock-scissors with perhaps some internal complexity (for instance, a five deck metagame where there are three different "Paper" decks, one "Rock" and one "Scissors," and the Paper decks have a PRS relationship within themselves), and thus there is only the reasonable expectation of all nine classes being viable with 3 viable archetypes per class if the devs somehow are brilliant enough to create a PRS meta where each of the three broader categories "inception" into PRS which then each "inception" into PRS again, which is not one or two but three full layers deep. Frankly, Blizzard isn't that good and probably never will be — and I can't blame them, because I certainly am not either.
Honestly the best post I've ever read on this site.
At Rank 20 facing Cubelock, Jade Druid, Aggro Paladin, and Aggro Mage. I've been playing this game for almost 4 years and don't know how much more of this I can take.
while I agree with much of the message of the post, I believe that some logical jumps were taken that should not have been. I originally balked not at the idea that players are arrogant in their thinking and stupid in assuming that a 'home-brew' deck should win, even though it is proven to be subpar, but I fundamentally disagree that skill in piloting a deck automatically leads to higher rank. While I agree that there should be a direct correlation between rank and skill, there will always be outliers on both sides. For example, there are high-skill players who simply do not play enough or competitively enough to hit legend, and there are low-skill players who are able to grind legend with a deck such as aggroadin, where the number of additional percentage points that can be squeezed out by truly skilled players is low.
While I have bias as a player (f2p) who has never hit legend, I still believe that I have a higher skill-level than most players. While I do not believe that I am entitled to high ranks, I do believe that I am "entitled" to expect a winrate reflective of my skill level even with subpar decks. And while I do not expect to be rewarded if I make incorrect choices, I do not believe that just playing netdecks will substantially improve my winrate. This is because I play better with different archetypes, mostly because of my experience doing so. Essentially, the assumption was made that all netdecks are essentially the same, just with slight differences in winrate and favored machups. This is simply not the case. All players have different areas of expertise; while it is the goal for everyone to be able to play every archetype equally, most players lack the ability to play at least one archetype.
In essence, I believe that while there is a lot of truth to the above post, not all of what was stated was the case.
Feel free to disagree with me, I understand that I am biased, but I truly believe all that I have stated here.
Solution? Easy, launch an entire expansion with 500 cards or more in each one every two months, with a larger pool is much more harder to optimize lists and much more chance to find nice decks for all classes.
For example, Call To Arms, this card is the only thing make paladin strong, without this card paladin will be in garbage tier with rogue, shaman and warrior, with a pool of hundreds of card every class should have a least one "Call to Arms" power level making possible to play, when something start to dominate a new expansion hit and start all over again.
New players atm have the real problem that they cant even finsih most quests since they cant win any games due to everybody in all modes is netdecking with full collection.
Thus we need a save room for new players. Maybe that suggestion is not the most creative but it would not take much afford to programm it and it makes the game better for new players.
That isn't the way to do it. Instead, you just timestamp when each account defeats Illidan to unlock PvP, then include timestamp proximity in matchmaking. I'd personally advocate...
Priority 1: Format-specific criteria (ex: rank in Ranked, record in Arena or Tavern Brawl, skip this step if Casual), favoring closeness
First tiebreaker: time since last played against this opponent (Blizzard keeps a log of all players each player has played against with a timestamp for most recent matchup), favoring never-played then longest time
Second tiebreaker: time between "birth" of account, favoring closeness
This would naturally pair new players against other new players whenever possible, which would limit blowouts to new players who drop a lot of money into the game early (rewarding them for doing so).
That idea has some flaws thought, two main ones in my opinion:
1. Close account creation doesnt mean close card collection. Some new players maybe just wanna play some games and test hearthstone and others for example a Trump that want to play free to play run legends or people that invest money.
In both cases the new player that just wanna play hearthstone casualy still gets slaughtered with your matchmaking so that sollution doesnt realy solve things for those players.
2. Ofcause you could just add variables into matchmaking search but that will defenitely increase matchmaking timer which is verry bad for a casual intended game like hearthstone. You realy dont want a long search time in an online card game.
1. Close account creation doesnt mean close card collection. Some new players maybe just wanna play some games and test hearthstone and others for example a Trump that want to play free to play run legends or people that invest money.
In both cases the new player that just wanna play hearthstone casualy still gets slaughtered with your matchmaking so that sollution doesnt realy solve things for those players.
If you want to tell me that a new account isn't a fair fight against an old account because the old one has many more months of quest/brawl gibs* than the new one, I'm amenable to that. If you're trying to tell me that two accounts of the same age aren't a fair fight because one is better at Arena or spent real money supporting the game, you can stop wasting your time. The better and/or paying players deserve their rewards.
2. Of cause you could just add variables into matchmaking search but that will defenitely increase matchmaking timer which is verry bad for a casual intended game like hearthstone. You realy dont want a long search time in an online card game.
How the server prioritizes variables for matchmaking is a separate issue from how long it holds matchmaking requests before matching them. Yes, the longer it holds them the better a match it can get, but even a 1 second hold is long enough to apply filters — and with the volume of players Hearthstone has, you'd probably get a great match with just that 1 second hold.
What you actualy mean with this topic is why there are so hard players at rank 20, is the fault of websites like heartpwn and Pro Players, 75% of the players are sound rank 20-15 and lets say 90% of the players MIMIC denk and read what they neer to do with that deck, 1 of the reasons think even the only reason you see always the same deck and not able to progress easly, then i think why copying decks from others the chance as a MIMIC to make the championships is low and playing for fun ain't either
What you actualy mean with this topic is why there are so hard players at rank 20, is the fault of websites like heartpwn and Pro Players, 75% of the players are sound rank 20-15 and lets say 90% of the players MIMIC denk and read what they neer to do with that deck, 1 of the reasons think even the only reason you see always the same deck and not able to progress easly, then i think why copying decks from others the chance as a MIMIC to make the championships is low and playing for fun ain't either
Ban netdecking, the game is full of tealentless sheep following each other, sooooo boring at the moment
How do you want to do that exactly? You can't prohibit players from going online or replicating a deck they have seen on ladder.
Only way I see to make ranks matter more is to combine the current system with the one from starcraft 2. That way you would have your general rank (bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, master, legend) and within those you could have the established ranks. Changes in general rank could occur every month depending on your performance (maybe everyone in top 2 ranks advances, while lowest 3 drop down a rank). I see several advantages with a system like this. First, it provides beginners some stability in the beginning, since they would most likely only see beginners in the lowest general rank (you could of course drop down to bronze over a couple of month but I doubt anyone would do that). Second, a system like this gives a little more meaning to the ranks in general, since you can drop down, remain or advance within your rank depending on your standing. Lastly, I figure it would remove some of the grind for more dedicated players to become legend.
I think maybe a mode where you had to build a deck for each class, then face off with one of them at random. Why would this matter? Well, I think it's quite doable to build one netdeck on a budget. Building 9, especially from 9 different classes is WAY harder. Obviously this format would favor those folks with large collections, but it would have the effect of making the lower ranks power level lower.
And it might actually be a fun way to play the game. Sort of like Whizbang vs. Whizbang every match, but with you building the decks.
At Rank 20 facing Cubelock, Jade Druid, Aggro Paladin, and Aggro Mage. I've been playing this game for almost 4 years and don't know how much more of this I can take.
Solution? Easy, launch an entire expansion with 500 cards or more in each one every two months, with a larger pool is much more harder to optimize lists and much more chance to find nice decks for all classes.
For example, Call To Arms, this card is the only thing make paladin strong, without this card paladin will be in garbage tier with rogue, shaman and warrior, with a pool of hundreds of card every class should have a least one "Call to Arms" power level making possible to play, when something start to dominate a new expansion hit and start all over again.
If you want to tell me that a new account isn't a fair fight against an old account because the old one has many more months of quest/brawl gibs* than the new one, I'm amenable to that. If you're trying to tell me that two accounts of the same age aren't a fair fight because one is better at Arena or spent real money supporting the game, you can stop wasting your time. The better and/or paying players deserve their rewards.
* As in free stuff, welfare, charity, etc
What you actualy mean with this topic is why there are so hard players at rank 20, is the fault of websites like heartpwn and Pro Players, 75% of the players are sound rank 20-15 and lets say 90% of the players MIMIC denk and read what they neer to do with that deck, 1 of the reasons think even the only reason you see always the same deck and not able to progress easly, then i think why copying decks from others the chance as a MIMIC to make the championships is low and playing for fun ain't either
Ban netdecking, the game is full of tealentless sheep following each other, sooooo boring at the moment
Don't necrothread pls
Leper Gnome
How do you want to do that exactly? You can't prohibit players from going online or replicating a deck they have seen on ladder.
Only way I see to make ranks matter more is to combine the current system with the one from starcraft 2. That way you would have your general rank (bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, master, legend) and within those you could have the established ranks. Changes in general rank could occur every month depending on your performance (maybe everyone in top 2 ranks advances, while lowest 3 drop down a rank). I see several advantages with a system like this. First, it provides beginners some stability in the beginning, since they would most likely only see beginners in the lowest general rank (you could of course drop down to bronze over a couple of month but I doubt anyone would do that). Second, a system like this gives a little more meaning to the ranks in general, since you can drop down, remain or advance within your rank depending on your standing. Lastly, I figure it would remove some of the grind for more dedicated players to become legend.
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#JeSuisFieryWarAxe!
I think maybe a mode where you had to build a deck for each class, then face off with one of them at random. Why would this matter? Well, I think it's quite doable to build one netdeck on a budget. Building 9, especially from 9 different classes is WAY harder. Obviously this format would favor those folks with large collections, but it would have the effect of making the lower ranks power level lower.
And it might actually be a fun way to play the game. Sort of like Whizbang vs. Whizbang every match, but with you building the decks.
Galavant Animation
Please don't necro threads. Closing this.
CLOSED.
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