What took Blizzard so long to figure out that card buffs make way more sense financially than nerfs?
With card nerfs, Blizzard actually loses $$$ because they have to refund the dust value of the nerfed cards to those who have them (while players who don't already have those cards will stop spending dust on them). Card buffs, on the other hand, encourage users to use up their dust/buy more dust to craft and try out new decks with the buffed cards.
It is surely no coincidence that, of the 18 card buffs, 4 of them are Legendary buffs and 5 of them are Epic buffs (i.e. 50% of the buffs are to Legendary and Epic cards even though there are fewer of them compared to Commons and Rares).
Also, establishing that buffs are a possibility creates a stronger disincentive for players to dust any of their seemingly lousy cards (like Dr Morrigan) in the future. This means that players spend more money buying packs to get enough dust to craft the decks they want.
Agreed, which is why I called for Buffs long ago too. I wanted Blizzard to do this because if they make money, they make more cards and more content. So this is a win-win for everyone, even if these newly buffed cards end up never seeing competitive play.
And if someone wants to throw a tin foil hat on and call it a conspiracy, sure. But who cares. The cards were sitting in collections never getting played or dusted because of how bad they are.
Now, they can get a little bolder in design and if a card is too weak, that's ok. They can always tweak the costs or stats later to see if that is what kept it back from being a playable card.
So Bravo to money incentive. It gives the players something too.
A certain number of players have asked for buffs for years, there are tons of almost useless and underpowered old cards it's ridiculous (Illidan I'm looking at you) and I've always seen people get down-voted whenever a thread was made suggesting buffs. Every other digital card game I've played outside of Hearthstone has done buffs quite regularly, and the results are always great. As always, the HS team is slower than a turtle whenever they try to actually listen to fans. Most times it's way after the fact of mattering. Hearthstone is still declining big time, this could be Blizzard recognizing it just isn't working anymore with their past way of doing things. Even though these buffs aren't classic cards, If this is a sign of things to come maybe the game will improve for the better.
They should put a team together that focuses on the game, not just the cards. Hopefully you are right and they will start making fewer, more meaningful cards.
Nerfs feels worse too, they have often nerfed a common card which drag several legendaries into the dumpster. Buffs are a different beast in that regard!
Their main argument against buffs has been to make more room for upcoming expansions. The reason they seem to give up on it is that the players get tired of the metagame too quickly, and the expansions don't come often enough.
Another solution could be to do mini expansions, like how they released Nax 1 wing at a time, creating very short metagames.
We'll see how this works out! In some ways, nerfs and buffs for the sole purpose of change could be a good idea!
I'm still skeptical about the efficiency of blind buffs. There are a lot of useless cards in the game, and you just have to blindly grope through the collection to find suitable buff candidates. OP cards are a lot fewer, and easier to target. Bringing one down usually shakes up the meta one way or another. In other games, buffs usually only manage to make filler cards less awful, but they sometimes pull off decent surprises.
Still, while we're getting both of them, who's complaining? It could be that I am wrong and that buffs end up shaking the meta a lot more than I am giving them credit for.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Start of Year: Provoke the failure of 3 expansions, force nerfs on otherwise balanced cards, bring deckbuilding to an all-time low and get rotated one year earlier for being such a threat to the game's health. - Genn and Baku's historical entry on the White Book of Shit Design, shortly before retiring unpunished
I hope i'm wrong, but buffing or nerfing cards for the sake of having the power creep change from one selection of cards to another shouldn't be their goal. It already seems some of the cards were buffed more than they should've which makes me feel like they are changing for the sake of doing it. And balance will be the first thing thrown out the door...
Blizzard has always in the past didn't put the focus on high profits and thus were more than willing to act in ways that weren't as profitable as other options. It's less about being 'nice' and probably more about realizing that long term income is better than short term profits and ruining their franchises.
The thought that this was done for financial reasons really REALLY makes me even more afraid of these changes. Especially if they come with nerfs soon afterwards (buff the cards, get people to buy packs and use up dust, then nerf the decks to ruin the whole thing).
But again, I have my crow ready in case you guys are right. I'll happily start eating if this works out.
So let's hope I have to, because otherwise we're in for year that makes 2018 look nice.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
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What took Blizzard so long to figure out that card buffs make way more sense financially than nerfs?
With card nerfs, Blizzard actually loses $$$ because they have to refund the dust value of the nerfed cards to those who have them (while players who don't already have those cards will stop spending dust on them). Card buffs, on the other hand, encourage users to use up their dust/buy more dust to craft and try out new decks with the buffed cards.
It is surely no coincidence that, of the 18 card buffs, 4 of them are Legendary buffs and 5 of them are Epic buffs (i.e. 50% of the buffs are to Legendary and Epic cards even though there are fewer of them compared to Commons and Rares).
Also, establishing that buffs are a possibility creates a stronger disincentive for players to dust any of their seemingly lousy cards (like Dr Morrigan) in the future. This means that players spend more money buying packs to get enough dust to craft the decks they want.
Agreed, which is why I called for Buffs long ago too. I wanted Blizzard to do this because if they make money, they make more cards and more content. So this is a win-win for everyone, even if these newly buffed cards end up never seeing competitive play.
And if someone wants to throw a tin foil hat on and call it a conspiracy, sure. But who cares. The cards were sitting in collections never getting played or dusted because of how bad they are.
Now, they can get a little bolder in design and if a card is too weak, that's ok. They can always tweak the costs or stats later to see if that is what kept it back from being a playable card.
So Bravo to money incentive. It gives the players something too.
A certain number of players have asked for buffs for years, there are tons of almost useless and underpowered old cards it's ridiculous (Illidan I'm looking at you) and I've always seen people get down-voted whenever a thread was made suggesting buffs. Every other digital card game I've played outside of Hearthstone has done buffs quite regularly, and the results are always great. As always, the HS team is slower than a turtle whenever they try to actually listen to fans. Most times it's way after the fact of mattering. Hearthstone is still declining big time, this could be Blizzard recognizing it just isn't working anymore with their past way of doing things. Even though these buffs aren't classic cards, If this is a sign of things to come maybe the game will improve for the better.
They should put a team together that focuses on the game, not just the cards. Hopefully you are right and they will start making fewer, more meaningful cards.
Nerfs feels worse too, they have often nerfed a common card which drag several legendaries into the dumpster. Buffs are a different beast in that regard!
Their main argument against buffs has been to make more room for upcoming expansions. The reason they seem to give up on it is that the players get tired of the metagame too quickly, and the expansions don't come often enough.
Another solution could be to do mini expansions, like how they released Nax 1 wing at a time, creating very short metagames.
We'll see how this works out! In some ways, nerfs and buffs for the sole purpose of change could be a good idea!
Editor of the Heartpwn Legendary Crafting Guide:
https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/card-discussion/205920-legendary-tier-list-crafting-guide
I'm still skeptical about the efficiency of blind buffs. There are a lot of useless cards in the game, and you just have to blindly grope through the collection to find suitable buff candidates. OP cards are a lot fewer, and easier to target. Bringing one down usually shakes up the meta one way or another. In other games, buffs usually only manage to make filler cards less awful, but they sometimes pull off decent surprises.
Still, while we're getting both of them, who's complaining? It could be that I am wrong and that buffs end up shaking the meta a lot more than I am giving them credit for.
Start of Year: Provoke the failure of 3 expansions, force nerfs on otherwise balanced cards, bring deckbuilding to an all-time low and get rotated one year earlier for being such a threat to the game's health.
- Genn and Baku's historical entry on the White Book of Shit Design, shortly before retiring unpunished
I hope i'm wrong, but buffing or nerfing cards for the sake of having the power creep change from one selection of cards to another shouldn't be their goal. It already seems some of the cards were buffed more than they should've which makes me feel like they are changing for the sake of doing it. And balance will be the first thing thrown out the door...
I hope i'm wrong...
I've been telling people for years not to dust their cards. Now maybe they will actually listen.
"Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick." -- Lady Saba Holland
Kinda funny from the guy called FortyDust
Blizzard has always in the past didn't put the focus on high profits and thus were more than willing to act in ways that weren't as profitable as other options. It's less about being 'nice' and probably more about realizing that long term income is better than short term profits and ruining their franchises.
The thought that this was done for financial reasons really REALLY makes me even more afraid of these changes. Especially if they come with nerfs soon afterwards (buff the cards, get people to buy packs and use up dust, then nerf the decks to ruin the whole thing).
But again, I have my crow ready in case you guys are right. I'll happily start eating if this works out.
So let's hope I have to, because otherwise we're in for year that makes 2018 look nice.
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.