Hearthpwn

and they are more fun to play! :D thats whats all about. You can keep playing the game while crying and not having fun ^^

i have been playing hearthstone since july 2015, the witchwood bundle of 70 packs for $50 was the first thing i have purchased in this game because it represented a good value, i don't know if there is the same value with either of these bundles and was quite bummed when i heard that they weren't doing the same deal. granted the value of a golden legend is probably better than what i would have received in the 20 packs but I am still disappointed and don't know if I will pre purchase either

I really can't understand the hatred coming from here.

You have the option to preorder if you'd like by spending money into a free to play game, strictly voluntarily. By doing this you get a boost into the new expansion, which is a clear incentive as to why you would by a preorder. In addition they added some more packs and cosmetics for a higher price. Where is the concern?

The hero is purely cosmetic and serves as an incentive as to why you would want to buy the more expensive bundle, it's simple marketing. Is every single player entitled to the cosmetics they make for the game? Is Blizzard not allowed to make a special thing for people who willingly spend money on their game? 

All I see is a smart business move from Blizzard, who truly succeeded in creating an attractive cosmetic for the game. The paywall isn't a problem. If you don't want to put money into the game, then don't, which is perfectly fine. But then you won't get the hero. If you desperatly want the hero, then spend the money. 

Quote from Skyi101 >>

Honestly I agree that the pricing is getting out of hand. Just to pre-purchase now and support the devs it's 50*3+80=230 US dollars/year (or 289 for us Canadians) for a children's card game. We have surpassed WOW sub costs, it's insanity and greed AF by Blizzard.

That's said it's a cosmetic, it doesn't effect game play and if your upset about it being behind a paywall you're just greedy as a person and acting entitled, in no way does it change the actually playing experience.

I'm pretty fed up with the pricing model myself, but I have a great job and disposable income so if I chose to purchase the Mega bundle it qill be based on the quality of the expansion overall, not based on the cost of it.

 I think after this calculation of the amount of money we send blizzard per year, I might have a changed point of view on this discussion.  $230 is ridiculous, and for someone like me in Costa Rica, it's even worse.  That's freakin 130,489 Costa Rica Colón, which is $230 multiplied by 567 (not an exact number, but you get the idea)... i swear blizzard needs to change these prices fast...

I'm not reall

Quote from Yuusukeseru >>

Hi,

Dr. Scaphandre: Those aren’t adventures. Real Adventures were things like Blackrock and League of Explorers, where we didn’t have to open any cardpacks and got all the cards of the set playing fun boss battles. These are just cheaper single player PvE experiences as an excuse to keep doing three expansions a year.

Just because you can't accept this new Dungeon Modes as Adventures, doesn't mean they aren't Adventures. This modes are still adventures and his arguement is true that you get new Adventures for free for every expansion. Other people already calculated it for you that you basically pays 50/80$ for 50/80 packs (including golden legendary,  cardback and mecha-lordj) and the new adventure what will be given for free.

So stop talking bullshit that Blizzard becomes greedier than before, they are not greedier than before they acting like they did in Hearthstone history.

 I've only been playing since mid KOFT, but the dust and gold thing they ran last month seems more generous than what I've seen from the game so far, although it probably has happened before. 

Quote from Dr_Scaphandre >>

Quote from Arkar >>

plus. They are giving adventures for free now. Do you even talk about that in your post? Maybe you would prefer adventures to be behind the 80$ bundle so it would "feel" more worth it.

 Those aren’t adventures. Real Adventures were things like Blackrock and League of Explorers, where we didn’t have to open any cardpacks and got all the cards of the set playing fun boss battles. These are just cheaper single player PvE experiences as an excuse to keep doing three expansions a year.

 I don't understand how someone can complain about 3 expansions per year.  At no time are you required to buy any to keep playing.  Sure you may not get new cards but you can still play anytime you want and your Classic and Basic cards will be the same.  You don't have to pay a sub fee, and you get free legos and packs every 4 months.  I'm still baffled by the complaints.  This is why you sound so entitled.  it's like a kid complaining about how bad it is to have to work and go to school.  You should just get money from your parents and sleep all day so you can play video games all night.

Do you really want free expansions?  The game will get better with less money?

Does this all boil down to people who want the skin but don't want to buy a big bundle? 

The children's part was to emphasize the ridiculous price point. The majority of players of Hearthstone are probably elementary/highschool students and don't have jobs, rather allowances. Just look at the eSport segment, half the players aren't even legal adults but I will digress.

Quote from mike_kr >>

Quote from cyril2011 >>

The biggest issue nowadays is that casual players cannot keep up anymore without paying a shitload of money. 

Is this actually an issue? Why should casual player be able to easily keep up with dedicated players? This is a game and not communism. Everyone should not be equal. Dedicated long time players should have some advantage.

In principle, I agree with you - if you want to spend more money on the game, you should get more for it. That said, I wouldn't discount what mike_kr is saying; the experience for new and casual players is much worse than for dedicated, long-term players. Players often run meta decks in casual, and even the early ranks in ladder are full of top-tier decks that can be hard to compete with if you don't have a full collection.

You seem to be assuming his reference to casuals implies F2P, but new and casual players aren't necessarily F2P, and any F2P player is a potential buyer for Blizzard that shouldn't be discarded so trivially. Any game that requires (literally or just "functionally") an upfront cost of hundreds of dollars to be on equal footing to the people you'll encounter in game is a hard sell. (Because, as i mentioned, even early ranks and casual mode features players with most/all of the cards, this is a valid concern for new and casual players.)

This problem is tangential to the question being debated here (i.e. is this Mega Bundle "unfair" in some way), and there are aspects of it that have to be solved with ladder improvements, better matchmaking, new play formats, etc., but there are aspects which might be solved with more bundle options too. The Mega Bundle is obviously fine for people who want to spend that much, but maybe Blizzard should also consider adding a smaller pre-order bundle to support players on lower budgets - something like 20 for 20 with a golden legendary or something like that.

Quote from Dr_Scaphandre >>

 

• Well I’m gonna buy it anyway

And these were the comments I were looking for. The comments who support the toxicity of preorder culture without giving it a second thought, then bitch when they get terrible legendaries. These are the true Blizzshills, the ones who are loyal to the brand and will defend it tooth and nail. And the funny thing is they’re paying to be shills, trying to make their ludicrous investment worth it. I suggest you watch this video by the late Totalbiscuit on why preordering (even if it offers a slightly better deal) is always a terrible idea.

 

To quote the modern day prophet, Jay "Well, well, well, look at this morose motherf*cker right here. Smells like someone shit in his cereal. Bung!" Yikes dude, you need to relax a little. Don't play the game if it bothers you so much.

I pre ordered the mega bundle this morning.  I can afford the extra $30 so it doesn't make much difference to me.  Hearthstone is not a cheap game so I take advantage of any deal that offers a little extra value when buying packs. Buying 60 packs would normally cost $70 so getting 80 packs for only $10 more seems like a win to me.

I'm not a Blizz fan boy, far from it. The only Blizzard game I've ever played is Hearthstone (aside from watching my buddies play Diablo 1 back in the day). But I love Hearthstone and I'm going to keep buying packs and pre-ordering until I don't and then I won't. Gwent and Artifact and other online card games have zero appeal to me. Imo Gwent is quite lame, although the artwork is cool. Each to their own and all that.

I don't really care what anyone, incl Totalbiscuit (RIP), has to say about pre-ordering. Nobody forced me or anyone else to do it, we did it because we enjoy the game and it's better value than just buying packs once the set releases. I'm not going to quit the game in the foreseeable future and I'll pre-order for the next expansion as well. Why the hell do you even care?

The new player experience is not as bad as everyone makes it sound.  Every 4 months they get tons of free stuff.  Back when I started around GvG we did not get free legs.  We did not have any guarantee for first 10 packs.  Quests did not give you near as much gold.  And Ranked play was terrible.

Quote from Skyi101 >>

The children's part was to emphasize the ridiculous price point. The majority of players of Hearthstone are probably elementary/highschool students and don't have jobs, rather allowances. Just look at the eSport segment, half the players aren't even legal adults but I will digress.

 

 That's always been the thing with CCGs and TCGs

I think in this particular release Blizzard, Activision, Team 5 whoever is to blame for the lack of CONSISTENCY, blew it big time. I understand the business perspective including the fact that they report to bosses who sadly, report to shareholders.

What we have been hearing forever now is about how Hearthstone players feel it lacks consistency, and the company acknowledging it with promises to fix. The card design process has lost it's consistency over the years, and very clearly now even the platform of selling in game product is now lacking the same consistency. We went from Adventures and Expansions with the same regular expectation of launch time and price, to just expansions with inconsistent preorder offerings. The only thing that has been consistent about the new expansion cycle was the time frame for launches, the preorder card back, and a new free to unlock item, (Maiev - Un'Goro, Arthas - Frozen Throne, Marin the Fox - Kobolds, Lunara - Witchwood). Now, in addition to the preorder pack count changing again, we no longer get the free hero which is now hidden behind the paywall as well. 

At this point it's 100% not about the money, it's about a consistent message and expectation for the players.

PS: I bought the Mega Bundle already because I do not normally spend any money on this game or really any games, so it wasn't hard to justify. However, this cannot be the regular expectation of players.

Quote from Deliguy>>

I think in this particular release Blizzard, Activision, Team 5 whoever is to blame for the lack of CONSISTENCY, blew it big time. I understand the business perspective including the fact that they report to bosses who sadly, report to shareholders.

What we have been hearing forever now is about how Hearthstone players feel it lacks consistency, and the company acknowledging it with promises to fix. The card design process has lost it's consistency over the years, and very clearly now even the platform of selling in game product is now lacking the same consistency. We went from Adventures and Expansions with the same regular expectation of launch time and price, to just expansions with inconsistent preorder offerings. The only thing that has been consistent about the new expansion cycle was the time frame for launches, the preorder card back, and a new free to unlock item, (Maiev - Un'Goro, Arthas - Frozen Throne, Marin the Fox - Kobolds, Lunara - Witchwood). Now, in addition to the preorder pack count changing again, we no longer get the free hero which is now hidden behind the paywall as well. 

At this point it's 100% not about the money, it's about a consistent message and expectation for the players.

Finally a fucking voice of reason.

PS: I bought the Mega Bundle already because I do not normally spend any money on this game or really any games, so it wasn't hard to justify. However, this cannot be the regular expectation of players.

Annnnd now you lost me. 

You cannot imagine how right you are. I do not know if all this greedy shit happens because Brode left, but it... It is obnoxious. I would have NEVER pre ordered any expansion  but now that the package includes a hero, I cannot stop thinking about it. No matter how much I want the hero, I cannot get it because it is hideously hidden behind a $80 deal with nothing special in it. Blizzard are becoming way too greedy.

I don't think consistency in how the pre-order bundle are structured is essencial to the game. They can modify the amount of packs the pre-order gives you in each expansion if they want. But indeed the problem is players expectations, the new bundles both seem less valuable than the WW promo (70 packs for 50 USD), so players feel that they are getting scammed. There is a very fine line between pricing your game correctly and making a lot of people feel that they are losing money.

Yes, for me. 

Totally agree , this is too much .. i play Hearthstone from before nax .. never skip an expansion and occasionally buy promo packs.

But this 80$ is really too much .

it almost half salary (monthly) for average working class here in my country. its Rp. 1.152.000,- , 1 million RP !!

i think Hearthstone is not enjoyable for ppl from small country anymore

ps : sorry, not good in english

I don't understand why so many people are so obsessed with a cosmetic.  I'm a little sad that I can't get Khadgar, sure, but it's not worth 12 pages of discussion.

80 packs for $80 is a good deal.  50 packs for $50 is a good deal.  If you're that obsessed with cosmetics, spend the extra $30 to get 30 additional packs (which a lot of people seem to forget) and the warlock skin.

I've never cared much about warlock, and I don't really like "non-serious" skins (mecha-Jaraxxus has absolutely 0 appeal to me, just like murloc shaman and Nemsy, although she's probably a little less non-serious). Because of that, I have no problem buying the $50 bundle and moving on.  Even when I was a starving university student I could scrape together $60 to buy a new game back then, so $50 today is nothing.

I'm with you man.

I do want that skin sooooo hard.

I never spend money on HS but accumulate gold.

Me sad