So, my wife installed Hearstone on her iPad the other day (!!) and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the new player "experience" from a not so new player's perspective. Overall, I think the game is great for new players and really accessible provided you're not in a rush to hit the ladder any time soon.
Going through the first few games to unlock all the characters and learn the basics was a lot of fun, we had a great time doing it. She also really enjoyed leveling up to get more of the basic cards, and every time we unlocked one she took her time reading it and regardless of what the card was, she was just excited to get new stuff. It made me happy seeing that and it reminded me of how I felt when I first started playing - everything is new and exciting. It's a shame that we lose that feeling the more we get into the game.
Once we unlocked all the classes it was time to play some games to earn some packs. Again, this was so much fun. It was great building a deck with such limited resources and just putting stuff in because you needed 30 cards rather than agonizing over which one card out of your collection of thousands will take the last available slot in the deck you hope will be the new meta breaker.
As you can imagine, all the decks we built were pretty similar - nearly everything ran 2 Yetis, 2 Shattered Sun Clerics etc but it was still great. Each time we got enough gold / were rewarded a pack we opened it as soon as we could in the hope of finding something that we could use to make her deck better. And in her 3rd pack ever she pulled a Deathwing! I know it's not the best but she didn't care. It went straight into her deck and actually won her a couple of games.
After a couple of days I convinced her to buy the welcome bundle because it's just great value. Nothing amazing, Prophet Velen as the legendary and then a bunch of mostly 40 dust packs but we did get some of the essentials like Wrath, Acolytes, Azure Drakes etc. So bit by bit, the collection was improving and so were the decks we could build.
The actual games themselves were probably the most fun I have ever had in Hearthstone and really reinforced just how important the basics of trading, positioning, and tempo really are. With such limited cards you really have to think of how you can extract max value out of each one. The first couple of days we mostly queued up against other fellow noobs all running River Crocolisks and a bunch of random cards thrown together and just learning the game. With my expert coaching (kappa) we had about a 90% win rate over 3 days and honestly, I don't think I've ever won so many games!. To date I think she has a total of 5 losses after a fair number of games - really impressive.
After enjoying a great run we starting getting matched up against players with much stronger decks - pretty much the same archetypes you face on ladder. And the surprising thing was, we still did amazingly well given how limited our card pool was. There was one game that I want to mention because nothing in the 18 months I've spent playing this game has ever made me so happy:
We queued up against a proper, 100% net decked mid range shaman in casual (shame on you!!). I couldn't believe it. Decent opening of Claws and Tunnel Trogg too. Anyway, we absolutely destroyed this guy - proper bullying. He was being beaten down repetitively with Yetis, Amani Berserkers, Lord of the Area - he just had no answers to the constant stream of threats. It was just beautiful - although I can imagine this guy was super salty afterwards. The game ended with us on more than 20 health and some armor to boot and we had a Yeti, River Crocolisk and an Acolyte on board (we were playing Druid). In a way I felt bad for the guy (but not really) because he probably quit the game after that. But for me, as I said before, that was the highlight of my Hearthstone journey to date - no contest.
And that brings us up to speed. My wife has enjoyed the game so far and loves the decision making etc. And she finally understands why I get frustrated when she tries to speak to me while I'm playing because you need to concentrate!
As I said before, this was the most fun I have ever had with Hearthstone and it's made me see the game in a completely different light. My wife is also enjoying the ride and I hope she'll stick with it. She's been looking for a decent game to play when she has some free time and I can't think of anything better. It's just a great game, even when playing causally with a limited collection and not giving a crap about the ladder. Right now I'm wondering if playing that way may just be better overall.
If you haven't started a f2p account for yourself or maybe helped someone get into the game then I highly recommend doing so. It was so enjoyable that I hardly played my account the entire weekend. We were playing on her account together and each win really meant something.
All in all, even though it takes a new player a long time to build a decent collection, the game is a lot of fun even with a limited selection of cards. While I know she enjoyed playing learning the game I don't think she enjoyed it nearly half as much as I did!
This made me nostalgic to back when I was new. Nowadays I rarely get excited by Hearthstone: even if I see that orange glow I think to myself ''Meh, I hope it'll just be a useful legendary and not a duplicate''.
And I play and see matches way differently than I did before: Whenever I play a big minion I don't get excited or anything, I'm only thinking about the play. It doesn't feel like an epic duel between heroes and huge monsters anymore, but more of a mathematical puzzle.
This happens to every game I play. I long back to when I was just new to the game, and everything was exciting and unexplored.
First of all really nicely written and it's great that you can enjoy the game with your wife. I actually wanted to get my fiancée into playing too, but I was always afraid the beginning would just be too rough. Now that I read this though I might just try and who knows maybe we'll have a great time too.
Thanks man. The weird thing is that my wife just started downloading the game herself, without me asking. She'd never expressed anything other than contempt for the game but I know she was looking for something to play... I walked into the kitchen and saw her downloading HS. I nearly fell over!
But I would highly recommend getting your fiance or significant other into the game. Even a buddy. At worst, they'll lose interest quickly but at best you'll have someone in your inner circle that you can actually chat to about the game and enjoy it together. No matter what happens though - you will have a great time showing them the ropes and it can give you a new perspective on the game.
Good luck!
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Missing lethal since June 2015.
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So, my wife installed Hearstone on her iPad the other day (!!) and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the new player "experience" from a not so new player's perspective. Overall, I think the game is great for new players and really accessible provided you're not in a rush to hit the ladder any time soon.
Going through the first few games to unlock all the characters and learn the basics was a lot of fun, we had a great time doing it. She also really enjoyed leveling up to get more of the basic cards, and every time we unlocked one she took her time reading it and regardless of what the card was, she was just excited to get new stuff. It made me happy seeing that and it reminded me of how I felt when I first started playing - everything is new and exciting. It's a shame that we lose that feeling the more we get into the game.
Once we unlocked all the classes it was time to play some games to earn some packs. Again, this was so much fun. It was great building a deck with such limited resources and just putting stuff in because you needed 30 cards rather than agonizing over which one card out of your collection of thousands will take the last available slot in the deck you hope will be the new meta breaker.
As you can imagine, all the decks we built were pretty similar - nearly everything ran 2 Yetis, 2 Shattered Sun Clerics etc but it was still great. Each time we got enough gold / were rewarded a pack we opened it as soon as we could in the hope of finding something that we could use to make her deck better. And in her 3rd pack ever she pulled a Deathwing! I know it's not the best but she didn't care. It went straight into her deck and actually won her a couple of games.
After a couple of days I convinced her to buy the welcome bundle because it's just great value. Nothing amazing, Prophet Velen as the legendary and then a bunch of mostly 40 dust packs but we did get some of the essentials like Wrath, Acolytes, Azure Drakes etc. So bit by bit, the collection was improving and so were the decks we could build.
The actual games themselves were probably the most fun I have ever had in Hearthstone and really reinforced just how important the basics of trading, positioning, and tempo really are. With such limited cards you really have to think of how you can extract max value out of each one. The first couple of days we mostly queued up against other fellow noobs all running River Crocolisks and a bunch of random cards thrown together and just learning the game. With my expert coaching (kappa) we had about a 90% win rate over 3 days and honestly, I don't think I've ever won so many games!. To date I think she has a total of 5 losses after a fair number of games - really impressive.
After enjoying a great run we starting getting matched up against players with much stronger decks - pretty much the same archetypes you face on ladder. And the surprising thing was, we still did amazingly well given how limited our card pool was. There was one game that I want to mention because nothing in the 18 months I've spent playing this game has ever made me so happy:
We queued up against a proper, 100% net decked mid range shaman in casual (shame on you!!). I couldn't believe it. Decent opening of Claws and Tunnel Trogg too. Anyway, we absolutely destroyed this guy - proper bullying. He was being beaten down repetitively with Yetis, Amani Berserkers, Lord of the Area - he just had no answers to the constant stream of threats. It was just beautiful - although I can imagine this guy was super salty afterwards. The game ended with us on more than 20 health and some armor to boot and we had a Yeti, River Crocolisk and an Acolyte on board (we were playing Druid). In a way I felt bad for the guy (but not really) because he probably quit the game after that. But for me, as I said before, that was the highlight of my Hearthstone journey to date - no contest.
And that brings us up to speed. My wife has enjoyed the game so far and loves the decision making etc. And she finally understands why I get frustrated when she tries to speak to me while I'm playing because you need to concentrate!
As I said before, this was the most fun I have ever had with Hearthstone and it's made me see the game in a completely different light. My wife is also enjoying the ride and I hope she'll stick with it. She's been looking for a decent game to play when she has some free time and I can't think of anything better. It's just a great game, even when playing causally with a limited collection and not giving a crap about the ladder. Right now I'm wondering if playing that way may just be better overall.
If you haven't started a f2p account for yourself or maybe helped someone get into the game then I highly recommend doing so. It was so enjoyable that I hardly played my account the entire weekend. We were playing on her account together and each win really meant something.
All in all, even though it takes a new player a long time to build a decent collection, the game is a lot of fun even with a limited selection of cards. While I know she enjoyed playing learning the game I don't think she enjoyed it nearly half as much as I did!
Missing lethal since June 2015.
Nice! I just started a f2p run on another region and its pretty fun to play with good old yetis and tazdingos again.
Missing lethal since June 2015.
This made me nostalgic to back when I was new. Nowadays I rarely get excited by Hearthstone: even if I see that orange glow I think to myself ''Meh, I hope it'll just be a useful legendary and not a duplicate''.
And I play and see matches way differently than I did before: Whenever I play a big minion I don't get excited or anything, I'm only thinking about the play. It doesn't feel like an epic duel between heroes and huge monsters anymore, but more of a mathematical puzzle.
This happens to every game I play. I long back to when I was just new to the game, and everything was exciting and unexplored.
All good things come to an end.
Fuck cubelock
Missing lethal since June 2015.