I think blizzard is just becoming more generous over time. Remember the festival of fire and double gold? The free pack a day? Increasing the number of packs with the preorder bundle? The get in here bundle? They realized that HS needs to keep it's player base, so they start throwing us freebies more often
I think blizzard is just becoming more generous over time. Remember the festival of fire and double gold? The free pack a day? Increasing the number of packs with the preorder bundle? The get in here bundle? They realized that HS needs to keep it's player base, so they start throwing us freebies more often
Last August, we got the Death Knight hero cards, and with few exceptions, they've been a must-have for the nine classes.
Excluding the free one, 8X1600 = 12800 dust, plus or minus ones you opt not to make or the Hearthstone Pack Gods don't supply you with.
So far, only Shaman has received a new hero (considering most evolve cards flew out at the start of the new year). I'm expecting new hero cards in the next two expansions.
If you ask a developer, the answer will of course be, that they just want to give players some cool events that are fun and different and make you enjoy the game more. And they probably mean it, but of course. this also has a business perspective to it.
Events like these are primarily promotion. The game offers you special bonuses for a short time, so you play the game more often, might be willing to spend more, and I am pretty sure that by the time the event ends, the new expansion is getting announced, so players who played the game regularly for three weeks will be around to see that there is new and exciting stuff coming out soon, and stick around for that expansion. More players means more money.
Ideally, it is a win-win: Players enjoy the game more, and Blizzard is making more money.
But I think, it is possible that Team 5 and Blizzard are getting genuinely concerned about keeping their playerbase high and thus feel more of a need for such promotional events. I have no official numbers or anything, but my impression over the last two expansions has been that the game is losing more players than it gains. In the past, new expansions always brought a good number of new players into the game. Probably they still do, but my impression in KnC and Witchwood has been that this is not really working out anymore, or a larger percentage of starters is dropping the game again. And while this is of course related to a lot more competition in the market, I think it is also strongly related to the fact the new player experience is relatively bad, which is partially because Hearthstone is one of the more expensive digital card game out there.
So, events like these might also be aiming to make the game more attractive again. And Blizzard probably feels a lot better about giving out some small bonuses here and there instead of changing the pricing structure of the game entirely.
Whether or not this is enough remains to be seen. I'm a little skeptical.
It is purely because Magic Arena is expanding it is beta phase, opening for a huge number of new players and offering a store which you can use your money (including reverting all your money back in form of in game gold when the wipes occurs). They increased the amount of gold of missions when Gwent opened it is open phase, but Gwent did not really took off. Magic in contrast is already the biggest physical card game by far, and if they can get the economy right (is really looking like earlier Hearthstone right now) they are a great for HS dominance over TCG market.
I think blizzard is just becoming more generous over time. Remember the festival of fire and double gold? The free pack a day? Increasing the number of packs with the preorder bundle? The get in here bundle? They realized that HS needs to keep it's player base, so they start throwing us freebies more often
And long may it be so
Last August, we got the Death Knight hero cards, and with few exceptions, they've been a must-have for the nine classes.
Excluding the free one, 8X1600 = 12800 dust, plus or minus ones you opt not to make or the Hearthstone Pack Gods don't supply you with.
So far, only Shaman has received a new hero (considering most evolve cards flew out at the start of the new year). I'm expecting new hero cards in the next two expansions.
If you ask a developer, the answer will of course be, that they just want to give players some cool events that are fun and different and make you enjoy the game more. And they probably mean it, but of course. this also has a business perspective to it.
Events like these are primarily promotion. The game offers you special bonuses for a short time, so you play the game more often, might be willing to spend more, and I am pretty sure that by the time the event ends, the new expansion is getting announced, so players who played the game regularly for three weeks will be around to see that there is new and exciting stuff coming out soon, and stick around for that expansion. More players means more money.
Ideally, it is a win-win: Players enjoy the game more, and Blizzard is making more money.
But I think, it is possible that Team 5 and Blizzard are getting genuinely concerned about keeping their playerbase high and thus feel more of a need for such promotional events. I have no official numbers or anything, but my impression over the last two expansions has been that the game is losing more players than it gains. In the past, new expansions always brought a good number of new players into the game. Probably they still do, but my impression in KnC and Witchwood has been that this is not really working out anymore, or a larger percentage of starters is dropping the game again. And while this is of course related to a lot more competition in the market, I think it is also strongly related to the fact the new player experience is relatively bad, which is partially because Hearthstone is one of the more expensive digital card game out there.
So, events like these might also be aiming to make the game more attractive again. And Blizzard probably feels a lot better about giving out some small bonuses here and there instead of changing the pricing structure of the game entirely.
Whether or not this is enough remains to be seen. I'm a little skeptical.
It is purely because Magic Arena is expanding it is beta phase, opening for a huge number of new players and offering a store which you can use your money (including reverting all your money back in form of in game gold when the wipes occurs). They increased the amount of gold of missions when Gwent opened it is open phase, but Gwent did not really took off. Magic in contrast is already the biggest physical card game by far, and if they can get the economy right (is really looking like earlier Hearthstone right now) they are a great for HS dominance over TCG market.
Dusty event yes... but 14 straight quests and rerrolls only of 60 dust..a bug ??..the most unlucky guy on earth ?