Is this gonna be the first expansion Ben Brode wasn't workin on ? If so, I'm pretty excited to see whether he was the good or the bad part of hearhstone team (or it just didn't matter :D).
he was neither. one person doesnt determine the whole direction of a game. Unless its Hideo Kojima
Kojima didn't direct everything in mgs too. He always had a team that keeping him in check. I love him for what he created but he can go bat-shit crazy sometimes
It is the first xpac without him and his team. Very exciting as he put out really bad cards for the past 2 xpacs and basically made it the horrible mess it is right now. Now the new team gets to undo all the crap he approved and steered his team to. Brode was fine at the start but he couldn't maintain a good CCG. Should be a better xpac without his idiocy involved.
he was neither. one person doesnt determine the whole direction of a game. Unless its Hideo Kojima
Kojima didn't direct everything in mgs too. He always had a team that keeping him in check. I love him for what he created but he can go bat-shit crazy sometimes
bat-shit crazy defines Hideo Kojima pretty well. Loved every Metal Gear Solid game. But yeah no company, specially a big one would put all of their cards (pun intended) on the hands of a single person
This expansions are the first that were designed without BB as game director from the ground up, so we may get glimpses at what the new game director's vision is for the game (the heavy metal dude from the new year annoucement). We may not get insane changes in design as the game director needs to take care of a lot of things and early design is still in charge of the same people (Whalen & Co.)
I hated things that happened with Brode on the team so have hope that now we are are moving past the recent 3 expansions he had some input into, the game might be able to go in a direction that I enjoy more. Brode directly defended such things as leaving nerf-worthy decks on ladder to see if people would figure out play-arounds, big random swing cards like Yogg, Mysterious Chalkenger, and Shudderwock, and my pet hate: tried to rationalise why there is no auto-squelch option.
I agree with one of the previous posters that Ben was the reason why some huge power creeps and stupid imbalances were introduced into the game. Hopefully they will stick with the actual direction of the game, undo all the shit Ben has done and make the game more enjoyable.
That also means that I will never buy Ben's games, whatever they are... Simply because they'll get to a point of huge imbalances just for the sake of increasing sales and making more kids play.
I'm not sure how big of an impact Brode had overall, but in the end it is likely to be neither good or bad, but averaging itself out (somewhat).
I guess the thing about designing a game like Hearthstone is that people want change, new mechanics, powerful cards, but also want things to remain somewhat the same, keeping the identity of the thing intact. And that is a fine and difficult to maintain line. Too much new and OP stuff and the game spirals out of control, too little and it feels stale and stagnant.
I like the direction HS appears to be taking, reducing power levels and so on, rotating oppresive cards like Baku and Genn, but it comes with the risk of having it feel underpowered and slow in comparison to the last two years or so. Hopefully they had some good ideas to add some new, fresh aspects, but it's too early to tell.
In either case, the praise or the blame is to be put on the entire team and not just one guy. Even the game director should be held responsible by the other developers and play testers, and if they fail to inform their bosses about fundamental flaws in card design (Rogue Quest, Keleseth, Odd-even) then it is at least in part on them too.
But for now I'll give the new generation of HS developers the benefit of the doubt. And independent from that, even with all the issues over the last two years, I personally enjoyed the game quite a lot and hope I will continue to do so after what is probably the biggest shake up of the meta since the Death Knights, or possibly even ever (depending on the new set).
I agree with one of the previous posters that Ben was the reason why some huge power creeps and stupid imbalances were introduced into the game. Hopefully they will stick with the actual direction of the game, undo all the shit Ben has done and make the game more enjoyable.
That also means that I will never buy Ben's games, whatever they are... Simply because they'll get to a point of huge imbalances just for the sake of increasing sales and making more kids play.
Facing a player with one Shudderwock in their deck sounds bad enough. But, in some circumstances, you might have to face two of them. “There’s a card in Knights of the Frozen Throne called Saronite Chain Gang, and the battlecry is: summon the exact copy of this minion,” Brode said. “That’s pretty good with Shudderwock, because it summons an exact copy of Shudderwock.”
Seeing a playtester pull off that exact trick struck fear in Ben Brode’s heart. “These guys were play testing on Friday,” Brode said. “I watched a guy play Shudderwock, summon an exact copy, and then there’s another card called Grumble, who returns all of the minions to your hand, and now they cost one. And so that battlecry went off, and that second copy went back to his hand with a cost of one. And there’s 20 other battlecries.So this thing went on for a minute—and then he plays the second Shudderwock.” Brode shook his head, laughing.
Brode tried to put a stop to the madness, telling his colleagues: “Guys, whatever card you made that enables this, you just change it right now.” No can do, they told him. All of those cards are going into The Witchwood.
“I was like, ‘Nooooo. What have we done.’ So, um, I’m a little worried about that one.”
Shudderwock was one of the coolest and broken card designs in WW and it was created probably even without Brode knowing. I might be mistaken but I think he officially stopped designing cards after becoming the game director.
But for example his creation " Patches the Pirate " , wich he was a fan of, saw several adaptations for previous sets before they released him in his known form in Whispers of the old gods.
So technically we still could see a card created by him ( or other guys that left the team) , since they keep card/ideas around and release them if it fits the set-theme.
Ben was part of a team. That team now has diferent dynamics, let's hope it's for the best! Anyway i'm really excited for this expansion. Let's face it: the next expansiont cannot be worse than RRumble!
Since the Witchwood came he left the company to make one of his own.
You meant the first year Rotation without Ben.
It has been stated multiple times that they work on multiple expansions at a time, they were already designing stuff for Rastakan when Witchwood was in development. So he did have some say, however minor it would be.
Is this gonna be the first expansion Ben Brode wasn't workin on ? If so, I'm pretty excited to see whether he was the good or the bad part of hearhstone team (or it just didn't matter :D).
he was neither. one person doesnt determine the whole direction of a game. Unless its Hideo Kojima
Ben stopped designing cards in 2016, he was just the game director.
didn't know that, thanks :D
its not the first expansion without Ben.
Since the Witchwood came he left the company to make one of his own.
You meant the first year Rotation without Ben.
They always design like 3 expansions ahead.
Kojima didn't direct everything in mgs too. He always had a team that keeping him in check. I love him for what he created but he can go bat-shit crazy sometimes
It is the first xpac without him and his team. Very exciting as he put out really bad cards for the past 2 xpacs and basically made it the horrible mess it is right now. Now the new team gets to undo all the crap he approved and steered his team to. Brode was fine at the start but he couldn't maintain a good CCG. Should be a better xpac without his idiocy involved.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
-Ben Brode, never forgetti
Why u hav to be mad? is only card gaem.
bat-shit crazy defines Hideo Kojima pretty well. Loved every Metal Gear Solid game. But yeah no company, specially a big one would put all of their cards (pun intended) on the hands of a single person
This expansions are the first that were designed without BB as game director from the ground up, so we may get glimpses at what the new game director's vision is for the game (the heavy metal dude from the new year annoucement). We may not get insane changes in design as the game director needs to take care of a lot of things and early design is still in charge of the same people (Whalen & Co.)
I hated things that happened with Brode on the team so have hope that now we are are moving past the recent 3 expansions he had some input into, the game might be able to go in a direction that I enjoy more. Brode directly defended such things as leaving nerf-worthy decks on ladder to see if people would figure out play-arounds, big random swing cards like Yogg, Mysterious Chalkenger, and Shudderwock, and my pet hate: tried to rationalise why there is no auto-squelch option.
I agree with one of the previous posters that Ben was the reason why some huge power creeps and stupid imbalances were introduced into the game. Hopefully they will stick with the actual direction of the game, undo all the shit Ben has done and make the game more enjoyable.
That also means that I will never buy Ben's games, whatever they are... Simply because they'll get to a point of huge imbalances just for the sake of increasing sales and making more kids play.
Ben warned the team about Shudderwock but it got in the game anyway.
I'm not sure how big of an impact Brode had overall, but in the end it is likely to be neither good or bad, but averaging itself out (somewhat).
I guess the thing about designing a game like Hearthstone is that people want change, new mechanics, powerful cards, but also want things to remain somewhat the same, keeping the identity of the thing intact. And that is a fine and difficult to maintain line. Too much new and OP stuff and the game spirals out of control, too little and it feels stale and stagnant.
I like the direction HS appears to be taking, reducing power levels and so on, rotating oppresive cards like Baku and Genn, but it comes with the risk of having it feel underpowered and slow in comparison to the last two years or so. Hopefully they had some good ideas to add some new, fresh aspects, but it's too early to tell.
In either case, the praise or the blame is to be put on the entire team and not just one guy. Even the game director should be held responsible by the other developers and play testers, and if they fail to inform their bosses about fundamental flaws in card design (Rogue Quest, Keleseth, Odd-even) then it is at least in part on them too.
But for now I'll give the new generation of HS developers the benefit of the doubt. And independent from that, even with all the issues over the last two years, I personally enjoyed the game quite a lot and hope I will continue to do so after what is probably the biggest shake up of the meta since the Death Knights, or possibly even ever (depending on the new set).
Why are people so convinced that Ben Brode was in charge of designing every card of expansions? I mean just read this article https://kotaku.com/hearthstone-director-reveals-the-craziest-card-weve-eve-1825114809
Facing a player with one Shudderwock in their deck sounds bad enough. But, in some circumstances, you might have to face two of them. “There’s a card in Knights of the Frozen Throne called Saronite Chain Gang, and the battlecry is: summon the exact copy of this minion,” Brode said. “That’s pretty good with Shudderwock, because it summons an exact copy of Shudderwock.”
Seeing a playtester pull off that exact trick struck fear in Ben Brode’s heart. “These guys were play testing on Friday,” Brode said. “I watched a guy play Shudderwock, summon an exact copy, and then there’s another card called Grumble, who returns all of the minions to your hand, and now they cost one. And so that battlecry went off, and that second copy went back to his hand with a cost of one. And there’s 20 other battlecries. So this thing went on for a minute—and then he plays the second Shudderwock.” Brode shook his head, laughing.
Brode tried to put a stop to the madness, telling his colleagues: “Guys, whatever card you made that enables this, you just change it right now.” No can do, they told him. All of those cards are going into The Witchwood.
“I was like, ‘Nooooo. What have we done.’ So, um, I’m a little worried about that one.”
Shudderwock was one of the coolest and broken card designs in WW and it was created probably even without Brode knowing. I might be mistaken but I think he officially stopped designing cards after becoming the game director.
Yeah, he stopped designing cards a while ago.
But for example his creation " Patches the Pirate " , wich he was a fan of, saw several adaptations for previous sets before they released him in his known form in Whispers of the old gods.
So technically we still could see a card created by him ( or other guys that left the team) , since they keep card/ideas around and release them if it fits the set-theme.
Ben was part of a team. That team now has diferent dynamics, let's hope it's for the best!
Anyway i'm really excited for this expansion. Let's face it: the next expansiont cannot be worse than RRumble!
It has been stated multiple times that they work on multiple expansions at a time, they were already designing stuff for Rastakan when Witchwood was in development. So he did have some say, however minor it would be.