I know the title sounds cynical, but I assure you that this post is not...
So I haven't been playing Hearthstone since Knights of the Frozen Throne, yet I've still been keeping up with the meta and the expansions. Why? Because I'm burned out.
I have a problem with games in general: If I like a game, I tend to play it all the time - to the point that I play it until there is nothing left to discover. And this is exactly what happened in Hearthstone. I managed to collect a majority of the cards and I was playing the game daily. I was constantly building new decks, and trying out new combinations and strategies. After a while, I ran out of things to do, so I took a break from the game shortly after Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. I then revisited the game when Un'Goro came out, playing much more casually than before. Then, when Knights of the Frozen Throne came out, I played shortly, but I didn't come back when Kobolds and Catacombs was released. Why?
...Because after not being active for a while, it feels like a lot of your progress has been erased. The decks you had previously created had been eclipsed by even better decks from new expansions, and it feels like you're starting from scratch again, trying desperately to accumulate cards from the new expansions. Of course, if I had committed, I would have caught up in a year or so, but I didn't feel like it was worth it. I like Hearthstone for everything that it is, but I couldn't force myself to regularly play a game that I felt I like was playing with a handicap.
Hearthstone is a great game, but for a game that markets itself as a casual experience, it sure seems to do its best to keep casual players away. Something that could fix this would be a mode in which you could play old seasons (e.g.: year of the Mammoth) because even if you get to keep playing with all the cards in wild, cards from the new sets still affect wild too.
I just wanted to share my experience, I hope that this read was an enlightening experience for some.
I don't blame you, but it sounds like you're trying to casually be competitive. You say Hearthstone markets itself as a casual game, well it can be! Play with the cards you have in casual. Casual will guide you toward a 50% win rate while you play your suboptimal cards.
If you want to play ranked, you're going to have to be a little more serious and catch up.
No, Hearthstone is one of my favorite games, and the CCG genre is one of my favorites too. I think that Hearthstone has many things going for it, but also many things going against it. Card collection is really hard for casuals, to the point of frustration - and for the professionals, the game isn't skill reliant enough to feel rewarding - hence why Lifecoach quit. So... the game is frustrating for both hardcore players and casuals. I believe Hearthstone is for a demographic that falls somewhere in between these two, and that's me. I don't play to win: I play to have fun, but I play a lot...
If you love this game, I'd recommend never taking a break from it like I did.
I know exactly what you mean, but I don't agree with your assessment.
Very rarely, I encounter a C'Thun deck out there on the ladder. And whoever is playing that doesn't do it to break the meta or even play competitively, they do it because they like it or want to pöay somethimg off-meta. Yes, it will not be a top 2 tier deck, but I've seen decks like that at ranks 10-5.
I too wish for a play mode where I can be more creative in my deckbuilding and still have reasonable success. But let's face it, it is not going to happen in play mode. If you do want to have fun inventing and playing decks, you should gather a couple of friends and play against them. That's where you can enjoy truly casual games and have a more fulfilling hearthstone experience.
If you do want to be competitive but not spend any money, play arena. There you have more of a skill based competition rather than a deck based competition.
Only if you want to play competitive ladder do you need some cards of the latest expansions.
And maybe in the near future, with tournament mode entering the game, it seems likely the option to limit decks to certain expansions will be implemented, giving you the option to go back to those old times.
In the end, Hearthstone will give you what you want, if you look for it. If you wont be back, have a nice life, you'll be missing out in my opinion though. :)
It sounds like you are complaining both that there was not enough content (nothing left to discover, ran out of things to do) and that content is created too quickly (new expansions eclipse existing decks, lose progress, etc.)
You can't have it both ways. Not having all the cards is not a big handicap; there are always cheap meta decks. It just means that you don't have the choices you did when you were more dedicated, which is only natural.
My suggestion is too keep up more than casually but not enough to burn out. Hearthstone is more fun than ever, IMO. Year of the Mammoth has been my favorite year, and I started playing in open beta.
I do think it's a problem for the players (but great for Blizzard) that this gradual power creep seems to kill off all your old decks before they rotate out. I would hope that if I was doing decent with a deck I liked, I could augment with a few new cards and it should maintain being decent.
Let's just look at the C'thun decks as an example. All the cards are still in standard, but no one plays it at all. The only really big hit it took from the last standard rotation was Brann rotating out but it's still worthless in Wild. This used to be a top tier deck and now you can't really build around it at all. That aspect of the game is frustrating.
I don't want the top decks to stagnate, it would just be nice if new expansions gave us more options instead of making decks so powerful that the older decks are unplayable competitively.
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I know the title sounds cynical, but I assure you that this post is not...
So I haven't been playing Hearthstone since Knights of the Frozen Throne, yet I've still been keeping up with the meta and the expansions. Why? Because I'm burned out.
I have a problem with games in general: If I like a game, I tend to play it all the time - to the point that I play it until there is nothing left to discover. And this is exactly what happened in Hearthstone. I managed to collect a majority of the cards and I was playing the game daily. I was constantly building new decks, and trying out new combinations and strategies. After a while, I ran out of things to do, so I took a break from the game shortly after Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. I then revisited the game when Un'Goro came out, playing much more casually than before. Then, when Knights of the Frozen Throne came out, I played shortly, but I didn't come back when Kobolds and Catacombs was released. Why?
...Because after not being active for a while, it feels like a lot of your progress has been erased. The decks you had previously created had been eclipsed by even better decks from new expansions, and it feels like you're starting from scratch again, trying desperately to accumulate cards from the new expansions. Of course, if I had committed, I would have caught up in a year or so, but I didn't feel like it was worth it. I like Hearthstone for everything that it is, but I couldn't force myself to regularly play a game that I felt I like was playing with a handicap.
Hearthstone is a great game, but for a game that markets itself as a casual experience, it sure seems to do its best to keep casual players away. Something that could fix this would be a mode in which you could play old seasons (e.g.: year of the Mammoth) because even if you get to keep playing with all the cards in wild, cards from the new sets still affect wild too.
I just wanted to share my experience, I hope that this read was an enlightening experience for some.
Definitely sounds like it's not a game for you. Hope you find one that is.
I feel that way too, just doing dailies for the packs. Once new expansion launchs, i'm gonna open all these packs i've gathered and leave
Play Exalted instead. It’s awesome (and not at all a card game - or even a video game).
I don't blame you, but it sounds like you're trying to casually be competitive. You say Hearthstone markets itself as a casual game, well it can be! Play with the cards you have in casual. Casual will guide you toward a 50% win rate while you play your suboptimal cards.
If you want to play ranked, you're going to have to be a little more serious and catch up.
No, Hearthstone is one of my favorite games, and the CCG genre is one of my favorites too. I think that Hearthstone has many things going for it, but also many things going against it. Card collection is really hard for casuals, to the point of frustration - and for the professionals, the game isn't skill reliant enough to feel rewarding - hence why Lifecoach quit. So... the game is frustrating for both hardcore players and casuals. I believe Hearthstone is for a demographic that falls somewhere in between these two, and that's me. I don't play to win: I play to have fun, but I play a lot...
If you love this game, I'd recommend never taking a break from it like I did.
I know exactly what you mean, but I don't agree with your assessment.
Very rarely, I encounter a C'Thun deck out there on the ladder. And whoever is playing that doesn't do it to break the meta or even play competitively, they do it because they like it or want to pöay somethimg off-meta. Yes, it will not be a top 2 tier deck, but I've seen decks like that at ranks 10-5.
I too wish for a play mode where I can be more creative in my deckbuilding and still have reasonable success. But let's face it, it is not going to happen in play mode. If you do want to have fun inventing and playing decks, you should gather a couple of friends and play against them. That's where you can enjoy truly casual games and have a more fulfilling hearthstone experience.
If you do want to be competitive but not spend any money, play arena. There you have more of a skill based competition rather than a deck based competition.
Only if you want to play competitive ladder do you need some cards of the latest expansions.
And maybe in the near future, with tournament mode entering the game, it seems likely the option to limit decks to certain expansions will be implemented, giving you the option to go back to those old times.
In the end, Hearthstone will give you what you want, if you look for it. If you wont be back, have a nice life, you'll be missing out in my opinion though. :)
It sounds like you are complaining both that there was not enough content (nothing left to discover, ran out of things to do) and that content is created too quickly (new expansions eclipse existing decks, lose progress, etc.)
You can't have it both ways. Not having all the cards is not a big handicap; there are always cheap meta decks. It just means that you don't have the choices you did when you were more dedicated, which is only natural.
My suggestion is too keep up more than casually but not enough to burn out. Hearthstone is more fun than ever, IMO. Year of the Mammoth has been my favorite year, and I started playing in open beta.
I do think it's a problem for the players (but great for Blizzard) that this gradual power creep seems to kill off all your old decks before they rotate out. I would hope that if I was doing decent with a deck I liked, I could augment with a few new cards and it should maintain being decent.
Let's just look at the C'thun decks as an example. All the cards are still in standard, but no one plays it at all. The only really big hit it took from the last standard rotation was Brann rotating out but it's still worthless in Wild. This used to be a top tier deck and now you can't really build around it at all. That aspect of the game is frustrating.
I don't want the top decks to stagnate, it would just be nice if new expansions gave us more options instead of making decks so powerful that the older decks are unplayable competitively.