Hearthpwn

First of all, let me clarify this more time I really enjoy playing HS. I think it is a fun game. Different classes give game a dimesion which makes a big difference. Every class has its own identities, pluses and minuses. But I personally feel like Hearthstone is a very simple game, with not much complex strategies or deep thinking required to play the game. I hate people talk about HS like they talk about rocket science.

Almost evey game is won or lost based on mulligan and first four draws. There's not a whole lot of things to think about everytime it's your turn to play:

1. What cards do I have?
2. What cards are on the table?
3. What cards will my opponent have in the next turn? (Usually related to the mana pool of said turn)

There's really not a lot of necessary memorizing going on, since there can only be 2 cards of each in a deck (unless arena), and sometimes overthinking it can cost you games too (Games don't tend to often last longer than 10-15 turns, so everytime you play too careful because you're afraid your opponent might play a certain card next, or are afraid that that one secret is the one you fear most, you might end up giving your board control away out of fear for something that isn't there).

Decks are also pretty small, meaning shorter games usually.

So it's pretty easy to learn the game and to reach a certain 'skill cap' in my opinion. (Honestly when I watch people in invitationals or championships play there are never really any people that stick out for their cardplay skills, they all just play the smartest moves possible everytime it's their turn with the cards RNG handed them.)

This is not necessarily a bad thing. The fact that it is so simple might be what makes the game more fun perhaps for many people and easy to pick up and play during breaks or whenever.

But what do you think?

Easy to learn, hard to master. How I see it. Simple mechanics are advantage.

Simple is subjective; you can have a low skill level and find the game simple or you can have a pretty high skill level and find difficult plays. You can tell the game is simple when you play against the best players and you win 70% of these games IMO. There are more difficult game? Sure this doesen't make HS objectively simple. This is a game easy to approach and difficult to master and this is probably the reason why many people play it. I can make an example out of the celestial invitational today match eloise vs. Lifecoach. Lifecoach is objectively one of the very best HS players; today he had to play a format wich consisted in standard + naxxramas. Long story short he lost 9-3; this tell that for him HS is pretty simple but when he can't predict the meta there are some issues and the game suddenly become pretty complicated.

Quote from Falco_HS >>

Simple is subjective; you can have a low skill level and find the game simple or you can have a pretty high skill level and find difficult plays. You can tell the game is simple when you play against the best players and you win 70% of these games IMO. There are more difficult game? Sure this doesen't make HS objectively simple. This is a game easy to approach and difficult to master and this is probably the reason why many people play it. I can make an example out of the celestial invitational today match eloise vs. Lifecoach. Lifecoach is objectively one of the very best HS players; today he had to play a format wich consisted in standard + naxxramas. Long story short he lost 9-3; this tell that for him HS is pretty simple but when he can't predict the meta there are some issues and the game suddenly become pretty complicated.

It's simple in comparison to some other card games but it gets more complicated as time goes on.

I feel like as the card complexity grows, so will the game.

Easy to learn, easy to learn the basics to have fun is the advantage of this game compared to other CCGs.

Hard to play ranked or master as you need more experience and to be more familiar with the majority of meta decks.

I think it's a good level. Keeps it casual, something you can just pick up and play and come back to again later.

Yes.  The game is simple.  I've been playing since Beta.  Every expansion and or adventure is simply a re skin of the game.  A illusion to help the game feel fresh and new, but basically under the hood it is the same simple game.  Why?  Because all we ever have to play around with are Minions or Spells; Cards in Hand or Randomly pulled or Discovered from somewhere else.  There are two spaces to either side of the board I would like to see used.  The game needs more Card Types that aren't necessarily built around Pawns running into each other and can be placed on the sides of the board.  Just as examples Enchantments and Artifacts.  Maybe increase the deck size to 40 cards to accommodate the addition of the new card types. 

Its time Blizzard started doing what Blizzard does best.  Steal great ideas from their competitors and slide it into this game.  All the new cards games have at least 1 thing each game does really well and usually better than Hearthstone.      

It's Blizzard's mobile game - it needs to be simple to pick up with fast games. If the mechanics are too complex or if games go too long, they lose more casual players. I believe I read in one interview or forum post from a dev that they even dumbed down the tutorial even more from what it was in the beginning.

Blizzard is a huge company so the data they have on mobile players spending habits is probably extensive. My assumption is that they've figured out that the more casuals they have in their playerbase, the more money they make.

Hi guys, more and more I feel like this game nothing but RnG fiesta, almost no skilled involved. There is essentially zero player interaction in the game. The game is essentially just two players each playing a solo game kind of like what MTG has become in recent years except way more so. This is due to the fact that there are no instants or instantly activatable abilities (in fact you can't do anything on your opponents turn unless you have a secret down, and those trigger automatically and are very easy to play around).

The game is essentially just play dudes and turn them sideways. This also applies to the fact that your opponents gets to pick and choose what to do with his attackers rather than you determining blockers (taunt does not count).

There are almost no advanced mechanics in the game. Most abilities in the game are extremely simple and are all triggered, there is no stack, the way triggered abilities trigger is also generally far more simple than most card games (some would argue this is for the good), etc.

Playing is extremely easy and dumbed down. Regardless of which class you happen to prefer, there are some simple facts about the game: every class has nearly identical tools: minions and spells that either support them or kill them. There is very little 'other' types of stuff in the game, leading those few things to be extremely OP (Mind Control, Flamestrike, Entomb anyone?). In short, the counter balance that control/combo provides is almost entirely absent in HS.

I really want to know how veterans feel about this game now?

Hearthstone never really was difficult. You get cards way too easy and you don't really need any skill compared to other games. Finally, I guess it is too easy to craft certain cards. I mean either they have to increase the amount of dust by a lot more or as an example make legendary minions uncraftable but only getting them out of cards

im curious, the people who think this game is "hard to master" have you ever played other card games?

I feel like most of you guys haven't played many CCGs. The successful ones all started simply (MTG, YGO, Pokemon). As the devs and players begin to understand the game, it evolves and becomes more complicated.

Honestly, if you look at it without the hipster lens most of you view the game through, you can see that this is already happening in HS. We've received cards that buff cards in decks, cards that buff cards in hand, cards that rely on cards that were buffed in the deck...baby steps.

The ones that start out really complicated don't gain traction because they're just not that fun to play right away. Also, as an online game, there are certain limitations that must be conceded if you desire functionality. Things like blocking are probably never going to be available because it's really clunky when not IRL.

Quote from Falco_HS >>

Simple is subjective; you can have a low skill level and find the game simple or you can have a pretty high skill level and find difficult plays. You can tell the game is simple when you play against the best players and you win 70% of these games IMO. There are more difficult game? Sure this doesen't make HS objectively simple. This is a game easy to approach and difficult to master and this is probably the reason why many people play it. I can make an example out of the celestial invitational today match eloise vs. Lifecoach. Lifecoach is objectively one of the very best HS players; today he had to play a format wich consisted in standard + naxxramas. Long story short he lost 9-3; this tell that for him HS is pretty simple but when he can't predict the meta there are some issues and the game suddenly become pretty complicated.