Hearthpwn

Did they forget about the card back?

july 22 o/

July 22nd or riot!

Just start rioting now...seriously...

୧༼ಠ益ಠ༽୨ NAXX OR RIOT ୧༼ಠ益ಠ༽୨

Haha, I thought about that when I posted it. I should go play some LoL! Haven't played in some time :)

I've heard people make some good points on why they think it will be on the 22nd. But if I open my heart to love Blizz...they might hurt me again :(

Hold me Blizz, hold me.

Soon™

what is taking so long lol, this is so ridiculous, and once it does release it will not officially release for another month after that. 

It will probably be like July 29th, and Blizz will be like "what?!? It is still in July."

Naxx still not released...will this affect my Card Gainz?

From some of the posts, I see some bickering regarding pricing/new cards. Be thankful that this game is in fact FREE TO PLAY. Blizz could decide to say "Well, these unappreciative fucks can suck a hard one - let's charge $9.99/mo!"

Be thankful. If you're going to bitch about anything - bitch about Rogues/Priests/Mages :P

Well if they're trying to time it to holiday, Next Tuesday is Pi Approximation day, and the 29th is International Tiger Day, so I think the release date would be pretty clear from that

Quote from mrfusticle »

Speaking as someone who hasn't got all day to play Hearthstone (A casual! burn him!) the idea of 400 new cards a year is not appealing.

Well, I can see why you'd say that - but you are assuming a lot.  Think about the dust cost of those cards - there would be a certain amount of soulbound cards for each expansion (~20% for the expansions) and the majority of the cards would be "Common" or "Rare".  If they keep designing like the core game, then "Epics" and "Legends" will be corner-case cards - meaning that they are very specific, with very specific uses.  I don't think ~$100 a year - which is about what it would take to stay "competitive" if you aren't lost in the dream of being completely F2P (which is pretty silly if you are time-limited) - is too unreasonable.  Hell, there are SINGLE CARDS in other CCG's (J:tMS and Fetches, I'm looking at you) that are more than that!

400-600 cards a year puts it well beneath MTG (though you have to take the lack of lands into account), and players have little issue with that.  As long as they release the content on a schedule, where casuals like you know ahead of time when their money [and/or time] is at risk, I don't think you'd actually have the issue you are presuming.

Also, I do wonder about the "F2P Problem".  In MTG, even casuals don't have much of an issue dropping $100-$400 on a competitive deck 5 times a year, partially because the cards have intrinsic value (ie, they can sell them), and partially because "that's just what it costs".  Hearthstone's F2P model hangs a carrot and tells you the game is free - then asks you to spend 100's of hours to actually make that "free" happen (the Arena).  As the game expands, it will become harder and harder to actually stay competitive in a F2P situation, even assuming they make card acquistion relatively painless (Adventures soulbound, Expansions pack-based and non-overlapping).  That's good for Blizzard, but bad for the punters - since they are giving them way too much time to get used to the idea that the game is "free".  

I feel like there may be a drop off of the F2P players around the time of the second expansion - something that is NOT good for the game - but that once people come to terms with the fact that Blizzard has to actually make a damn profit, it'll pick back up with more steam than before.  That is, of course, if they can get their scheduling issues under control...

Quote from bisks »t

sorry to burst your dream bubble but don't compare paper CCG with digital ones. each hearthstone card has a gold animated version, which require a lot more work than regular paper ones. Plus I think blizzard does much more card testing than MTG because they are less cards available, plus decks are 30 cards, which make each new card a potential game changer or breaker if not properly balanced...you saw how much changes the original cards had during beta and even after the game release.

I would except no more than 30 cards each expansion. Yes i'm also sad about Naxx not releasing yet, they are taking way to long, but i won't expect the amount nor the periocidy you are sugesting...it's just not reasonable.

I would say 1-2 expansions (50-60 cards) plus 1-2 adventures (30 cards) each year at most

 

First off, what I was saying before was that these first steps - the Core Game, Naxx, and the First Expansion - are probably designed (if they have a lick of sense) to get the "workflow" issues of rapid development out of the way.  In addition to that, the animation, art, and sound assets are no where near as time-consuming or expensive to make as the [commissioned] art and packaging for a traditional CCG - a big plus for the all-digital model.  As long as they aren't stupid with project management (I doubt they are, hence the "we are hiring"), then that shouldn't be an issue at all compared to a traditional paper CCG.

As far as testing goes, they probably do a similar amount of testing as the MTG team.  I have no idea why you'd assume that the lesser card pool would mean MORE testing, not LESS.  In addition, for now there are only two formats - Arena and Play - as opposed to the multitude of MTG formats.  Also, there is less incentive to get it "perfect" the first time - with a paper CCG, it is really hard to issue sweeping "errata" (imaging changing the casting cost after the fact like they did with UTH), while with an all-digital one, it is as simple as redefining assets in an API.

They have already said that the expanisons will be 100-200 cards!!!

As far as periodicity goes, they do need to work that **** out.  There are very good reasons for having a predictable release schedule with a competitive game, not least of which is the "carrot chase" which keeps people coming back for more.  The game will die if they don't keep it competitive - and they know that.  Every successful CCG has used a predictable schedule, and given the team working on Hearthstone came from that background, I'd expect them to know that.  It is less the dev team I'm worried about than the management - it has always struck me that Blizzard's timeliness problems come from the top, not the bottom.  An opinion, of course.

Your loss.  Some people like to express themselves completely, not kneejerk "OMG".  It tends to make life more interesting.

Yup.  Except I'd say that it is "Kneejerk reaction or no interest".  People don't actually pay attention to things larger than sound bites - hence the kneejerk.  If they actually stopped to think about things, they might find out they don't actually know anything...

Oh well, I guess we'll all just have to assume another day for it to come out on.

And many suicides happened that day... :S

(My life has no meaning now... Path of Exile Racing Season is over, 1 month until the mini-expansion, no Naxxramas, no more Game of Thrones... WHAT WILL I DO?!)

Well, two more Tuesdays! I wouldn't be shocked by the 22nd, I guess, but my gut's saying the 29th.

Of course, I was really expecting today, so maybe take that with a grain of salt!