Iksar Explains why no Keyword Exists for "Can't be Targeted by Spells or Hero Powers"
Referred to as Elusive unofficially by many community members, this block of card text is a subject that's been brought up in the past and recently hit the front page of reddit again.
- There's now 10 collectible cards in the game with the exact effect or a variation on it.
- This year we've seen 5 cards added to the game with the effect, and an entire keyword that can add it to cards (Adapt).
- Interestingly, a change to a single word could make Deathstalker Rexxar's hero power change as it's shorter text.
Noteworthy historical blue mentions on the card text.
- 2014: Ben Brode stated the team had discussed Shroud, Untargetable, and Ethereal as potential keywords. (Source)
- 2014: Yong Woo stated when they have enough cards with the same effect they may turn it into a keyword. (Source)
Now, here's what Iksar is saying today.
- There isn't a great word for the effect that clues you in to what it does.
- Trying out Elusive or Ethereal ending up being more misleading than helpful.
- The effect isn't going to be used on many cards in the future as having too many of these minions decreases the ability to interact with an opponent.
Blue Posts
Quote from IksarWe've talked about this before but opted to spell it out. A keyword is essentially something we ask you to read and understand, so in the future you can look at a card and quickly understand what it does without having to parse through a bunch of text. Sometimes when we can use the right word, you already have a pretty good idea of what a keyword does without reading the description. Divine Shield does a pretty good job of this. People on the team have different opinions on this subject, but one of the reasons not to keyword it is that there isn't a great word for 'can't be targeted by spells or hero powers' that would clue you in to what it does. It's sort of a strange concept to begin with that something can be targeted by a battlecry or an attack but not by a spell. When we used something like 'elusive' or 'ethereal' or various other words I think it ended up being more misleading rather than increasing the ability to understand it quickly, which is counter to the point of making a keyword in the first place. Lastly, this isn't a concept we plan on using on many cards in the future. It's cool to have one-offs like Shimmering Courser or Soggoth but having too many of these types of minions greatly decreases your ability to interact with your opponent. (Source)
Or, and this is a long shot, but what if a keyword was a descriptive-enough single word that defined itself when you hovered over it.
We often state, then restate, then restate this again.... but trying to keep the game easy to pick up and grasp does not also equal a belief that the playerbase lacks intelligence. It's very rare that one particular thing is so complicated that no one will understand it, it's more that in order to protect against a death by a thousand cuts we have to stay vigilant when accessing all decisions (no matter how minor) to make sure that by adding an increase in complexity we are getting something valuable in return. (Source)
Then why does the Counter keyword exist?
Correction: ''trying to keep the game easy to pick up and grasp (as long as you have the money) for new players)
Yeah that's a good point, adding a keyword to Faerie Dragon would...make the game a lot cheaper???
In the WoW TCG, we had Spellshield, wich was exactly that kind of effect. I wonder why they didn't even think about it :/.
Probably because it's also hero power shield
Guyzzz
It wud make us confuzzzd
Me new player not understand wut im doing... please keep it simple... more simple... again this game is tu diffucult.... Plz stop make things conrfusing my simple brain cannot afford it......
Final fantasy “Shell”
It's amazing the same "community is too stupid to understand" argument. It's sad what they did to the WOW ip, a world created with passion for the kind of art video games are. Now exploited by greedy devs, yes the devs are greedy they've been designing the game to keep 50% wr and get the slot machine effect when random positive effects happen, they are not trying to make a good game, they are trying to make it addictive and rewarding for bad players, the same way tobacco companies put extra cancerous shit to make it more addictive, the same way mcdonald's does disgusting shit, that's HS design stop defending bad developers. Can you imagine a guy like metzen saying sth so stupid? I can't
Constantly calling us idiots to our face
Did you actually read to the end of the article? Iksar states that he believes that the community has intelligence, its simply that they're worried about "Death by one thousand cuts". They don't want the little complicated things to get out of hand, so they're squashing it when the returns are low. We don't need a keyword for this ability, because they don't intend to use it much, and it is clear as is.
Damn you! Made me laugh at work. Boss gave me a funny look.
there isn't such a great word... Ermh Resistance maybe? :D
I wish, we could get a bunch of new "hexproof" minions. :)
(And yers, I know, it's not exactly hexproof. I Just want more minions, which can't be targeted. ^^)
Ethereal sounds cool.
Reminded me of the Spiritwalkers and Bloodmage ability in the WC3: TFT. Man I miss that game.
Just call it: "Anti-Hero Shell"
It's close to Anti-Magic Shell, and perfectly describes what the effect is (can't be targeted by hero spells or powers, but can still be targeted by minions/battlecries.)
Not all keywords have to be a single word, just a shorter description. Even their own example, Divine Shield, is two words.
This is just going to re-ignite the entire 'Team 5 thinks players are stupid' debate. The whole point of keywords is to learn them as a mnemonic for the effects of the cards. It's part of learning how to play the game. When you hover over a card in hand, it pops up a tool-tip explaining the mechanics of the keyword. Eternal has some doozies when it comes to keywords - Revenge, Spark, Ultimate - I guess you have to be a Mensa member to play that game.
Perhaps the confusingness of the effect indicates a problem with the effect itself. Why can some things not target it but other things can? I guess I can agree there isn't a word that describes it.
I don't understand why Team 5 always think that something will confuse the players, like we're all a bunch of tards or something. It's a virtual card game: if you mouseover a card, tooltips will pop up to explain you its abilities and effects so why can't they use keywords for common effects? Why can't they get some consistency in their wording (I'm looking at Recruit that won't be used on previous cards with the exact same effect)?