Ben Brode Answers Your Hearthstone Questions and More!
WIRED asked Ben Brode user questions from Twitter in their Tech Support series of videos. Ben had quite a bit to say so we've recapped it in an easy to digest format. You should watch the video though, it's worth it!
Here are the quick takeaways.
- Lord Jaraxxus exists thanks to Horde and Alliance heroes in Hearthstone's early days and a WoW Engineer's burning question.
- They may consider adding Wild back to shop in the future, they certainly hear the feedback from players.
- Old card backs will come back one day, they just need to find the right balance on how players can obtain them.
- The hero level game system feels satisfying and extending it in the future would be great. Not sure how to do that just yet though.
Video Recap
Here is absolutely everything. Some answers included here may already be known but have been included as newer players are likely not familiar with them.
- The Coin was not the only idea the team had for balancing going second.
- Allowing the second player to only draw a card lead to a 60/40 win ratio, favouring player 1.
- Giving the second player extra life didn't feel good, they were still playing from behind.
- Starting with a 1/1 minion in the battlefield or giving their first minion +1/+1 made it feel like the second player could overcome the turn 1 advantage.
- They ended up with The Coin and like it due to it taking an active role. You choose when to use it. 51/49 win ratio, still favouring player 1 but not as bad as other options.
- They have to be careful about adding additional cards to the Classic set to replace holes left by the Hall of Fame because they don't want to create the same problem they had before where decks weren't changing enough due to Classic having too strong of cards.
- Some cards may be brought back out of Wild and into Classic that set class fantasy strongly and tell you what each class is about.
- Lord Jaraxxus was added to the game thanks to a relic of Hearthstone's past.
- Originally, there was a Horde and an Alliance hero for each class.
- The original Warlock hero for Horde was Cho'Gall and Alliance's was Wilfred Fizzlebang.
- They had a tough time finding a satisfying Alliance hero for Warlock.
- Wilfred Fizzlebang is famous for summoning Lord Jaraxxus, EREDAR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGION, in The Argent Tournament raid in World of Warcraft.
- Pat Dawson, an engineer of the WoW team, was playtesting Hearthstone with Wilfred Fizzlebang and was curious if the gnome had a Lord Jaraxxus card in his deck.
- Ben Brode immediately designed Lord Jaraxxus to destroy your current hero, Wilfred, and come into play.
- Ben agrees there's a lot of cards that could use a buff, but the goal isn't to get every card to a similar power level. Some cards are intentionally bad. They also like to make challenges for players.
- Some weak cards today may not be weak in the future due to new additions.
- No plans for Wild cards in the in-game shop; They want to keep it simple. Lot's of people asking for it though and it's something they may consider.
- Tournament Mode will be basic to start. Conquest, Last Hero Standing, choosing the number of decks for the tournament. Feedback will help shape the mode in the future.
- There are indeed female Kobolds, "Hard to tell, maybe."
- Inspire could come back one day but they have fun ideas they want to get into the game that aren't Inspire, and they want new sets to be new and exciting.
- There will eventually be a way to get old card backs again. They still don't know the best way to accomplish this goal though, people who earned them in the past like feeling unique. There needs to be some difficulty in obtaining them.
- Ben's favourite golden card is Crushing Walls.
- Decks with 60 cards were experimented with in the past. It makes it harder to build a more cohesive deck.
- Having an increased deck size could make for an interesting Tavern Brawl, but not the core game mode.
- No plans for spectating random players, watch Twitch streams instead.
- Ben likes the hero level system and how it can be satisfying. Making it last longer then it does now would be nice, but they don't have any ideas right now.
- Molten Giant was nerfed to keep Standard different, not for balancing, as they wanted to change up decks that relied on it. With the rotation to Hall of Fame, they are changing it back since it won't disturb Standard.
- Changing cards back to their original state prior to any changes will be made on a case by case basis if cards end up moving to Wild.
The Video
And now, for an epic classic from the past. YOU FACE JARAXXUS!
Ben Brode Gets Personal
A reddit thread was inspired by the above video and prompted some more personal questions for our favourite game director.
Quote from Ben Brodethe idea that this belongs on the HS Subreddit is dubious, but i will reply anyway, because I cannot abide /u/mdonais being the top comment
1) What is your favorite non-Blizzard game?
You have to go pretty deep because War3, SC2 and World of Warcraft are WAY up there for me. But outside of that, Tron 2.0.
2) What is your favorite place to grab a quick bite to eat?
Carl's Jr. It's important to note that the abbreviation here is not "CJ's", as Bob Fitch would have you believe. It's "C's J". It's Carl's Jr, not Carl Jr's. This is important. Also, C's J used to have great chili burgers and I'm really sad that they don't any more. Their Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich is still pretty good.
If you want a more exciting answer, I really love Le Diplomat in Irvine, even though it's not as close by as C's J. Get the Chicken Dijon. I love it so much i created an animated gif of me eating it.
3) Are there any inter-department competitions that we should be aware of?
I used to play a ton of basketball - it's really fun exercise, and I get to cheat by virtue of being tall and heavy and thereby unmovable once I set up in the key. (6'4", 280lbs) I also enjoyed getting to meet and hang out with folks from all over the company. But I wouldn't say it's very competitive.
4) When you became Hearthstone Game Director, were you prepared for how many videos you would be doing?
I have actually done less videos since then, mostly because I'm less involved in actual day-to-day design (the design team is 20 people, now!), and my kids are older and sleeping less. :) We're democratizing videos more and I think that's awesome. (Dean Ayala's video went live last week.)
5) Where is your favorite place that you have traveled to?
Korea! My wife is Korean, so we have family there. This was one of the home-cooked meals we had. drool emoji
Mike Donais Swoops In
Mike Donais saw the aforementioned reddit thread before Ben and decided to answer up.
Quote from Mike DonaisI am not sure where Ben is so I will answer in the mean time.
1) Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. One thing I love about card games and DCSS is how every time you play you are in new situations with slightly different resources to deal with them. You are constantly discovering new things and that keeps it fun for a long time.
2) I like Sushi. There is a place with really good Alaskan rolls called Octopus or Tomikawa that I go to when I am choosing.
3) We do a lot of Teambuilding things, but that is pretty much the opposite of competitive. We share design knowledge, we loan devs, we play in the same WoW guilds, etc. We even had 9 teams in the last DCSS tournament.
4) I feel like Ben was born for that stuff.
5) I love Spain and Europe in general. The vibe is great and the people are great. I especially like the less populated areas (not major cities). I also like old architecture and castles which you really can't find in the US.
I will also let Ben know about this thread, although I suspect he will see it either way :)
With the risk of getting down-voted to the ground, i think card-backs should be earned and not plain bought.
They should take into consideration all the beta players that have all their card back collection, make an average of their wins, split the wins by the nr. of card-backs and for each card-back you-ll have to win a precise nr. of games. First card-back you win is the last that came up, and every expansion the number of wins for getting that very first card-back is forever rising, that way what you missed not playing from day one can be compensated by hard work. Also they could be added for extra prizes in hero XP, after you finish all gold basic cards. Also the card-backs that were won during the seasons where some decks were predominant should be awarded to those heroes. For example: august 2016 brought secret paladin, that card back should be rewarded when paladin reaches 100 lvl xp, or smth like that!
The card-backs that were straight up bought should be available to craft through dust after you got those required nr. of wins, people actually were determined to buy those just for that card-back so it-s only fair. On a second thought to be really fair they should be attached to pack promotions as well.
I actually think your opinion is less controversial than saying that old card backs should be purchasable. Either way, never be afraid to state and defend your opinion!
Your model of "earning" old card backs is actually kinda nice, if only too complicated. I think the game could need a few more "achievement"-like things. Getting a number of wins with a specific class per month to earn the card back could be interesting.
Then again, I think card backs are one of the best sort of microstransactions Blizzard could add to the game. Even though I tend to agree with Jim Sterling on why "it's just cosmetics" is a silly and inappropriate response to criticism against microstransactions, card backs are less prestigious and desirable than Hero Skins, since other players also pay less attention to them.
It would be nice to earn card backs somehow, but I also wouldn't have a problem if they offer them for 2,50$ a piece. I think it is a bit sad when playing with a card back from 2014 or 2015 loses its meaning that you have been playing for that long, but other than that, I think players should be able to buy them if they want them.
10:00 "When are we gonna see Pepe in Hearthstone"
Fan creation forum : "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
Hmm, nerfing a card just so ppl dont play it no more seems like not the best way to go about things, but hey, im no developer :o
Is it just me or is the pity timer busted? Been buying Knights packs but haven't gotten a legendary even since the mammoth bundle.
Whehter you like him or hate him, you must admit, that this man has a HUGE charisma.
One might even say he has a YUGE charisma.
Go away, Billy Fuccillo.
that is actually a great idea, I think it would help a lot of people that struggle with deckbuilding as well, like myself
as you say, you could throw in a lot of cards to have a general idea for a deck then trim down leaving the best version to your liking or even find some new synergies or ideas for later
So I watch the video and if though there are many points in the video, I'm going to focus on the card back issue.
To me I can understand why people could be upset. If you went to BlizzCon or you brought a special copy of a Blizzard game, but a month later someone played a fraction of the cost (whether that be gold or dust) to get the same card back, this would make the card back less unique. Now for me I would do the following, if a card back hasn't been available to obtain for one whole year, you then get the option of crafting that card back for a price.
This would mean that if you just started playing the game you would get the option to buy certain card backs, if you like a certain design. However at the same time, if you took the time to go to the BlizzCon or spend money to get the lasted WoW expansion, you would get that rare card back design for a whole year, something which no other player can get until they wait it out for a year.
As for cost... I think it would have to depend on the way you have to get the card back. Reaching rank 20 in a month would be very cheap, however rare card backs (like BlizzCon or Promotional) I feel would have to cost a bit more.
I think special events card backs should not be available ever, they should be unique for those who attended an event or pre-ordered a game or expansion.
Only those who are easily and free to obtain (ranks or blizzard giveaways) I see no problem because people who doesn't have it is probably because they weren't playing at that time.
I agree with your solution.
hi is ben brode on a drink diet ?
u should get wild dust, and to get pack can be solo content quest, not everyone would do them.
Ben, I love you man, but some of this is just... dumb.
You might consider adding Wild Sets to the in-game store, someday in the far future?! JUST DO IT! You don't lose anything. You might have to update the interface a bit, maybe figure out how to list an ever increasing amount of sets without it getting hard to navigate, but just saying "we don't feel like it" and effectively keeping all Wild sets behind a paywall is stupid. Even moreso, when you have said, not even a year ago, how important Wild could be to keep the game fresh and interesting, when Standard is in a critical spot. And no, "just craft old cards" is not a reasonable answer. 20 commons and 16 rares from GvG for 2400 dust is a terrible, terrible deal. Spending 1600 dust on Reno Jackson alone instead of 700 gold + getting a bunch of other cool cards is also a terrible, terrible deal. It only makes the mode more exclusive and hard to access than it already is.
Also, if you despise Classic so much except for the "theme", just give it up already. I know that you are concerned with Standard changing regularly, but if you are so anxious that a card from Classic might ever be too influential, that you can't even figure out how to replace cards you remove, just dump the entire set and be done with it, instead of nerfing/rotating another few cards every year until there is nothing left. I don't even get what your big concern is. Most of the Classic set is either intentionally weak, outdated, nerfed or just situationally useful, pretty much the way you want it to be. There are a few remaining strong cards, that are utilized in many decks. So, either stay true to your word that the core set should feel like a solid basis and deal with it, or remove all of them. This "we might nerf/rotate some more" every half a year is really getting annoying. Even if Classic were still the best set all around, it is nowhere near as influential anymore as it was a few years ago. You release 3 expansions per year, and all of the last few were very strong, very influential, and have changed Standard and Wild massively. We are really beyond the point that every deck consists of 20 classic cards, and the few decks that do are almost always Hunter or Mage decks. Give these classes some reasonable alternatives and choices, and they will stop using Eaglehorn Bow, Animal Companion, Unleash the Hounds, Fireball, Mana Wyrm etc. in every deck.
And finally, there is a big difference between "buffing" cards and putting them on the powerlevel of, let's say, Voidlord or Call to Arms. Just as there is a big difference between "balancing" a card and giving us Warsong Commander. I think there is PLENTY of space inbetween, and you know, even if you ever made a card a bit too strong by accident, it's a DIGITAL card game. You can change it back. You can change it as many times as you want. Aside from that whole multiplatform update approval issue, try to be a bit more adventurous instead of looking 3+ years ahead for every minor thing. I'm not suggesting to be like the Gwent team that had changed Restore like 3 times in less than 4 months, but don't be like "Oh no, if we give a card a little buff now, it could be too good someday if we ever wanted to do this or that".