Hearthpwn

Covering a number of topics on the thread. So very long post. Also this is opinion, I in no way wish anyone to feel their opinion is wrong nor do I feel I am an expert in these matters. So if this upsets you, my apologies but at least thanks for reading.

Price of a single pack of MtG cards ~$4.25 - 15 cards per pack most sets are around 250 cards. All random just like HS. Just like HS the value is stated (HS is at least 1 rare and 4 commons) 1 rare 3 uncommon 14 common in an MtG pack. In order to collect the whole set with 100% accuracy of each pack giving NO duplicates (which you can get many duplicates in one pack) it would cost $70.83 (no tax) for 17 packs.

Now being it's random in a pack let's presume at least one duplicate per pack, depending on the rarity of the duplicate it requires a varying number of additional packs.

On average it will require around 390 packs to collect a set which translates to $1657.50 (no tax). So with that in mind for a physical card game vs an electronic card game pricing seems fair.

The big difference is you can shave off a majority of your expenses on a physical card game by trading (TCG) where as an electronic card game is only collectible (CCG). Thus the cost is constant and feels like a heavier burden on the bank account.

The lootbox legal war is understandable, it is gambling by nature if not by law. If the rewards are cosmetic only it has no bearing on the validity of gameplay that should be allowed without regulation. If the rewards directly influence gameplay or quality of life in game (i.e. exp boosters, playable characters, gear, currency) then it should be regulated wether by a specific level of value per lootbox or a static value per tier of available rewards.

HS as an example would have to have it so each pack was worth say ### dust no matter the variety of cards inside (Not actual numbers only an example). This would however change the whole structure of the crafting function. This is true as well if it were to change to the sale of dust instead of packs.

The other option is to make it so every tier of card has a static drop value (in essence what Apple is asking for by wanting the numbers from lootbox companies). Legendary is at a 40 pack pity timer. Change that to 25 packs = legendary, 15 = rare etc. This may result in the duplicate rule being removed however, and double the packs needed for golden versions. This would let the customer base know exactly what to expect but still random enough for the endorphin rush. This module would still upset some people because there is still the chance that some time will be needed to collect all the cards

Another option to help the whole game would be to implement trading as well an actual release of the % chances per pack of each rarity. To make trading more viable to collections, could make it so you are unable to trade if it is your only copy of a card.

This is a very good and well thought out explanation. I personally would love to see trading come to Hearthstone. I recently picked up Magic so your insight in to the pack odds and pricing was enlightening. I'll probably stick to trading cards! Haha. As for Hearthstone I almost never buy packs with money, I just save up my gold and play Arena to earn packs. Maybe if they make some of the changes you suggested I'll buy some packs!

HS has always been too expensive, but they completely lost me when they started throwing good basic cards in the hall of fame set. 

That's nothing more than a sad excuse to make the pool of good basic cards smaller, forcing you to buy more good cards from each new set. Which are also only playable in standard for 2 years. 

The fact that Blizzard would rather change what they're selling rather than simply telling people what they're buying tells you everything you need to know about this.

I would love this. I have been saying this since launch. Buying cards so you can D/E Card bloat and hopefully farm the dust to make the ~20 relevant cards per expansion is very punishing.. This would be AMAZING.

This is actually saying something.  It's saying that laws are trying to protect us, the consumer from bad or unfair pricing modals.  That a purchaser should have guaranteed value for their purchases, or it will be considered a "gambling risk" . Offering small bit's of "dust" with packs to "go along with it" is just skirting the issue.   Blizzard needs to guarantee value for the money they are taking. 

"A guaranteed Legendary for every 20 packs opened" I guess is a way of doing this.  I think they are afraid to say this, because people might feel it's not worth it. 

If they said something like "For every 10 packs you open, we will guarantee you a legendary", I think they wouldn't be having half the issues they are having now with people feeling like they wasted their money, or got ripped off etc.   

Opening a batch of shitty packs feels the same as losing everyting at the slot machine.

Of course we are.  We're collecting virtual cards in a computer game.  WTF?

Perhaps we could get an interview with the all-powerful 'whole different team of people' so they could explain their vision for the direction of the game to us good people paying their kids' college tuition.

you lucky b*stard.....

I am at one in every 23 packs, based on opening 600 packs over the course of 2 years.

170 pack 7 leggendary
counting 1 in the first 10 pack
it's 6 legendaries in 160pack 
:/

FeelsBadMan

It would be fine with me if we had to buy dust but I hope we can still open packs. 

Thought I'd add my opinion to the discussion.
imo HS is too expensive. even if you only play 2 classes it takes the entire expansion to get all the cards for their good/fun decks due to the amount of legendaries that are required. Other games (I play Duelyst and have taken a quick look at Gwent) that are based on "being cheaper than HS" are a lot more lenient when it comes to the card crafting system.
However; changing the card pack format WILL NOT solve this issue. On average, even if it doesn't feel like it, you will still get the same amount of dust as long as you play the game long enough that you'll have bought a fair amount of packs. If anything, this will make it more tedious because, if a fully dusted pack is worth X dust and instead of packs they give you said amount of dust, you'll no longer gain the cards from the packs you'd usually keep and thus this will only make everything more expensive.
The only thing I can quickly think of that would address this issue is

• letting us choose the legendary we get from the set. This way there will be one less card to craft instead of getting a DK that you didn't want and having to dust it for 1/4 of its worth
• loosening up on the dust system's cost. Give us 10 dust for dusting commons and make legendaries cost 1200 dust. This would go a long way in making this game way more affordable while still making it feel tedious enough to have players buy large amounts of packs.
• Make the daily quests "play a game as X class" instead of having to win. I'm sick of having to grind out multiple games a day on the casual ladder with a shit deck in the hopes of meeting up with someone with a shitty enough deck for me to stand a chance against them (mind you that bonemare and creeper are cards and those make this a tedious as all hell exercise)

I'm tired of looking at streams and seeing all these cool decks that I'll never be able to craft because I'm a free to play player that doesn't wanna invest his entire life into this game. Pls blizzard, think of this part of your playerbase too

its because the greedy blizzard is using vanilla reward systems for a fast expanding game. Not sure wth they were looking in keeping these rewards the same.

Then don't play. Or spend money. I have hearthstone fun, because I spend Hearthstone money.  Otherwise, have fun watching streams.

I opened up almost 100 packs this expansion and 66% of them were "40 dust" packs... absolute waste of time and money and its pretty disgusting how pay to win/pay to have fun this game has become. I have money and would gladly buy more packs because of how most of the fun cards i really wanted to play with are epics and legendaries, but I don't want to support blizzard after what an abomination this game has become. I literally cant play the game anymore because every single good AND bad deck you can play requires like 10K dust and none of the cards overlap. It's really a joke when you compare hearthstone to blizzard's other games. Heroes of the storm probably needs more devs and is a lot more difficult to program, and I have literally spent 0$ on it and played WAY less of it than HS, and I have 2/3 of the heroes and a ton of skins and other stuff you can spend real money on. On top of every week they give you 8 random heroes that you can play for free! Same thing with WoW. The game's free in every expansion until the most recent one. Yeah you have to pay 15$ a month, but you spend 50$ on the "SPECIAL DISCOUNT" of every HS expansion and you don't even get to experience half of the expansion. Someone did the math and you need like >200$ EVERY EXPANSION to get all the cards.

Since when do games cater to the kind of idiot who regularly pays $200 for dinner? Go away.