Since the game is very expensive and super hard for new players to create cool decks and be part of the community,
I think Blizzard can try the following:
Non ranked is Free to play: Full collection available to all players.
Ranks 10 and below the Game is "Free", (like non ranked)
Ranks 5-9 the Game is Free (full collection) in certain period - maybe in the the last season/ month of each expansion (since it's the most "boring" time and players not investing in packs on that period)
The game needs some dramatic change regarding Economy and card collection in order to sustain the players base.
I think that the popularity of battlegrounds is mainly because it's free. as a result many streamers moved to battlegrounds.
Hearthstone is a free to play game, and the only way they can make money off of it is by giving players reasons to buy packs with real money. If you give out packs too easily players will not spend any money on the game anymore and it will die off very quickly because it's not profitable. If you give players all cards for a certain period of time then people just won't play until that last period where they have every card, it's the same thing.
The popularity of battlegrounds is also definitely not because it's free. Streamers that prefer to play it really don't care about the cost of the game, they have so much dust and gold piled up they can get every card from every set fairly consistently anyway. The reason they play it is because it's different and fun without them actually having to switch games and thus losing a large part of their audience.
I think the devs have already done a very fair amount of things to make hearthstone more affordable: Better preorder deals, bundles where you can get a lot of packs for cheap, the first 10 packs legendary rule, more events that hand out rewards and of course more login rewards (all five galakronds for free for EVERYONE for example). I don't see the need for any change in economy.
It just makes no sense.. people would want to stay in the no rank.. people would go to rank and would not be able to play their decks.. veteran players would feel bad for having less cards than newbies.. people that spent lots of money would feel bad for having less cards than free to play players.. blizzard would make less money.. new players would not have the “prod” feeling of having to build their collection.. new players would not develop skills of having to use sub optimal cards due to having less cards.. new players would leave the game more once they rank up as they lose their collection..
just to name a few reasons why this makes no sense.. remember that blizzard is a company, not a charity institution..
Hearthstone ranked (or core mode) is in a long decline, it's a fact and highly reflected in Streamers viewership.
Something major needs to be done.
I think that game Economy / card collection is the main barrier that prevents game popularity.
If Blizzard will not change the Economy model the game will keep it's decline and eventually become non relevant and we will all lose as a community (and Blizzard as a company).
My assumption is that battlegrounds popularity is mainly since it's free. this mode is mediocre and quiet boring.
According to this post below Battlegrounds is more popular than ladder:
This would kill the game. You realise they need to make money right? They have wages to pay, this isn't all made for free.
What do you do for a living out of interest? I've an idea, why don't you build a game and offer a model similar to what you're suggesting? See how you enjoy doing that and running a game charity.
Hearthstone ranked (or core mode) is in a long decline, it's a fact and highly reflected in Streamers viewership.
Something major needs to be done.
I think that game Economy / card collection is the main barrier that prevents game popularity.
If Blizzard will not change the Economy model the game will keep it's decline and eventually become non relevant and we will all lose as a community (and Blizzard as a company).
My assumption is that battlegrounds popularity is mainly since it's free. this mode is mediocre and quiet boring.
According to this post below Battlegrounds is more popular than ladder:
Since the game is very expensive and super hard for new players to create cool decks and be part of the community,
Expensive where? If you buy the $50 bundles, they sum $150 per year, which when divided by 12 (months), you get $12.5 per month.
And that's not counting the free packs given every expansion + the gold you get by playing and quests.
Don't have work? Do chores and get paid, or get a job. Stop going to Starbucks, McDrugs or BK so much and use that money for HS. $12.5 is what, 3 coffees?
One easy step on how to kill a game; give players every card for free!!
Don't see why a change needs to be made. New players join and play. More than enough players out there to keep it going strong as things are right now. New players don't need every card. They just need the cards for whatever deck they want to play for the current meta. They can get free packs and craft whatever else they need. Take advantage of the sales as the cost of cards is cheap that way and given them dust to craft what they need. Everything works fine as it is right now and Blizzard gives away a lot of free packs too.
1) The game is literally a CCG (collectible card game), your idea quite frankly destroys the entire base of a CCG. By giving collections for free you having nothing to feel good about.
2) Giving collections free anywhere would devalue paying customers significantly. Its quite a slap in the face knowing u spent money and now all of a sudden everyone has an entire collection in their arsenal.
3) Popularity alone doesn't mean success, the key to a successful game isn't that its F2P, games like gwent and elder scrolls legend are/were cheaper than HS yet they are largely unsuccessful, and while your suggestion might boost popularity for sometime. Keep in mind that it is short lived and destroys all incentive to spend money.
CCGs are played to build a collection not have a collection from the very start.
Although blizzard has been generous for the past expansions and the bundles are nice, i do agree for newer players the game is unforgiving, however if your a longtime player u will realize that the game isn't very expensive, like eliasfajardo stated $12.5 a month is very cheap. The most i would say is that the adventures recently introduced are not to my liking, they not really good return on investment if u don't care for solo play and i believe they've understood that which is why galakrond awakening will contain set cards instead of 12packs and 1 golden pack.
Surprised at how strongly people are defending blizzard's right to charge like a wounded bull.
Sure, the OP's suggestions are unfeasible. But hearthstone is definitely not a cheap game (whether you pay in time or money).
Definitely elements around the use of loot boxes with non owned virtual assets that are questionable. This is true for most 'free to play' games however.
I have nice collection, I spend about 100-150$ a year on the game.
I speak on behalf of friends that unable to play HS, they cant craft expensive decks therfore they have bad experience playing vs OP and fun decks .
I don't have a problem to spend money on the game, I love and enjoy to play HS, I am worry regarding the community and game general decline. It's sad that many leading streamers lost faith in the game, where are Kolento, Dog ?
I would like to hear good productive advice regarding improving game Economy in order to increase popularity and get the streamers back to the game. please don't be such critic regarding my suggestions - I didn't suggest that the game will be fully F2P, just give players on the low ranks the ability to enjoy the good cards - this does not cost Blizzard any money, it will not reduce income. low rank players usually don't buy packs anyway. they might will in the future when they want to advance to the higher ranks/Legend
Since the game is very expensive and super hard for new players to create cool decks and be part of the community,
Expensive where? If you buy the $50 bundles, they sum $150 per year, which when divided by 12 (months), you get $12.5 per month.
And that's not counting the free packs given every expansion + the gold you get by playing and quests.
Don't have work? Do chores and get paid, or get a job. Stop going to Starbucks, McDrugs or BK so much and use that money for HS. $12.5 is what, 3 coffees?
150 are 3 new games. Here you are buying cards in a game. It is very expensive. With 150 now you can buy the Ps4.
Blizzard made an incredible product. So incredible, that millions of people spend their day griping about it. Should they not be allowed to maximize their profits? What right do you think you have to play the game? Can't afford it? Don't play. I have spent a total of under $200 in the 2.5 years I've been playing, I can usually craft any deck I would like to play for every expansion, and I'm extremely happy with the time this game kills vs the fun O've had playing it. I'm averaging $0.22 per hour, and that's amazing as far as I'm concerned. If I could pay 22 cents an hour 24 hours a day for nonstop enjoyment doing anything, I'd be quite a happy person.
Blizzard doesn't owe anyone anything. It's a free market. Talented people, hard working people, and people willing to invest/risk lots of money deserve more return. If we lived in absolute communism as you seem to want, no one would bother making games to the calibre of Hearthstone.
People with this sense of entitlement are gross. If you don't like it. Make your own game for free.
And yes, the shareholders want their money. They invested the millions of dollars for this game to be created and maintained, for a chance to gain profits. Otherwise, they would have found something else to do with their money, and there would be no Hearthstone.
I’ve never really considered it to be an expensive game. I buy the bundle with every expansion and have pretty much all the cards I need to make whatever decks I want. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable amount to pay. People are saying that 150 can buy three games but no standalone game has ever held my interest like Hearthstone has. I’ve put thousands of hours into this game and for every £50 or whatever it is I spend I get months of playtime in return. More than any AAA release in the last five years for certain.
Obviously the original posters ideas are beyond ridiculous, but if I were to change anything, the thing I’d change is to make certain cards only obtainable by completing certain quests (like captains parrot and ol murk eye were... or like the adventures. Really glad that a new one is coming out).
I feel that it gives players a reason to do certain things to receive awards.
great idea so i guess u'll be paying for servers when everyone shifts? did u also sign up to pay the wages of team 5 and also create financials for the 1/4 earnings call to share holders? i mean if u wanna do that obviously i'm all for it?
I"M NOT DEFENDING BLIZZARD LUL they can charge people .25 USD for each pack and charge us .05 per random CARD will they THEY WON"T why cuz they can cuz it's at that price point clowns will support and i'm a leecher i have 91000 gold and 163000 DUST i need people to buy packs to support the servers and my game if not they will close BUT i ain't gonna do it LUL ps if u're a leecher don't complain that's just stupid if u put money into it great thanks for supporting the servers while i leech very important u keep going thank you
LEARN HOW SOCIETY WORKS BRO and get your head OUT OF THE SAND
Since the game is very expensive and super hard for new players to create cool decks and be part of the community,
I think Blizzard can try the following:
Non ranked is Free to play: Full collection available to all players.
Ranks 10 and below the Game is "Free", (like non ranked)
Ranks 5-9 the Game is Free (full collection) in certain period - maybe in the the last season/ month of each expansion (since it's the most "boring" time and players not investing in packs on that period)
The game needs some dramatic change regarding Economy and card collection in order to sustain the players base.
I think that the popularity of battlegrounds is mainly because it's free. as a result many streamers moved to battlegrounds.
Whats your opinion ?
Hearthstone is a free to play game, and the only way they can make money off of it is by giving players reasons to buy packs with real money. If you give out packs too easily players will not spend any money on the game anymore and it will die off very quickly because it's not profitable. If you give players all cards for a certain period of time then people just won't play until that last period where they have every card, it's the same thing.
The popularity of battlegrounds is also definitely not because it's free. Streamers that prefer to play it really don't care about the cost of the game, they have so much dust and gold piled up they can get every card from every set fairly consistently anyway. The reason they play it is because it's different and fun without them actually having to switch games and thus losing a large part of their audience.
I think the devs have already done a very fair amount of things to make hearthstone more affordable: Better preorder deals, bundles where you can get a lot of packs for cheap, the first 10 packs legendary rule, more events that hand out rewards and of course more login rewards (all five galakronds for free for EVERYONE for example). I don't see the need for any change in economy.
That's Incredible!
nice idea...
to destroy the game lol
It just makes no sense.. people would want to stay in the no rank.. people would go to rank and would not be able to play their decks.. veteran players would feel bad for having less cards than newbies.. people that spent lots of money would feel bad for having less cards than free to play players.. blizzard would make less money.. new players would not have the “prod” feeling of having to build their collection.. new players would not develop skills of having to use sub optimal cards due to having less cards.. new players would leave the game more once they rank up as they lose their collection..
just to name a few reasons why this makes no sense.. remember that blizzard is a company, not a charity institution..
Yeah, a toast!
Hearthstone ranked (or core mode) is in a long decline, it's a fact and highly reflected in Streamers viewership.
Something major needs to be done.
I think that game Economy / card collection is the main barrier that prevents game popularity.
If Blizzard will not change the Economy model the game will keep it's decline and eventually become non relevant and we will all lose as a community (and Blizzard as a company).
My assumption is that battlegrounds popularity is mainly since it's free. this mode is mediocre and quiet boring.
According to this post below Battlegrounds is more popular than ladder:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/e0jwk6/battlegrounds_has_become_the_most_popular_mode_in/
This would kill the game. You realise they need to make money right? They have wages to pay, this isn't all made for free.
What do you do for a living out of interest? I've an idea, why don't you build a game and offer a model similar to what you're suggesting? See how you enjoy doing that and running a game charity.
You lot are incredible, you really are.
except iksar said that millions are playing ranked and millions have returned since DoD
Expensive where? If you buy the $50 bundles, they sum $150 per year, which when divided by 12 (months), you get $12.5 per month.
And that's not counting the free packs given every expansion + the gold you get by playing and quests.
Don't have work? Do chores and get paid, or get a job.
Stop going to Starbucks, McDrugs or BK so much and use that money for HS.
$12.5 is what, 3 coffees?
One easy step on how to kill a game; give players every card for free!!
Don't see why a change needs to be made. New players join and play. More than enough players out there to keep it going strong as things are right now.
New players don't need every card. They just need the cards for whatever deck they want to play for the current meta. They can get free packs and craft whatever else they need. Take advantage of the sales as the cost of cards is cheap that way and given them dust to craft what they need.
Everything works fine as it is right now and Blizzard gives away a lot of free packs too.
'they need to make money'
not really... for whom? shareholders, that's the only reason
not sure if you've heard that the company is worth about 30-40 billion $
they don't need to make money for centuries and'll still be fine
Absolutely horrible idea,
1) The game is literally a CCG (collectible card game), your idea quite frankly destroys the entire base of a CCG. By giving collections for free you having nothing to feel good about.
2) Giving collections free anywhere would devalue paying customers significantly. Its quite a slap in the face knowing u spent money and now all of a sudden everyone has an entire collection in their arsenal.
3) Popularity alone doesn't mean success, the key to a successful game isn't that its F2P, games like gwent and elder scrolls legend are/were cheaper than HS yet they are largely unsuccessful, and while your suggestion might boost popularity for sometime. Keep in mind that it is short lived and destroys all incentive to spend money.
CCGs are played to build a collection not have a collection from the very start.
Although blizzard has been generous for the past expansions and the bundles are nice, i do agree for newer players the game is unforgiving, however if your a longtime player u will realize that the game isn't very expensive, like eliasfajardo stated $12.5 a month is very cheap. The most i would say is that the adventures recently introduced are not to my liking, they not really good return on investment if u don't care for solo play and i believe they've understood that which is why galakrond awakening will contain set cards instead of 12packs and 1 golden pack.
You've gotta be trolling.
I haven't spent a single dime on this game except some of the solo content and I'm doing just fine.
Your ideas would destroy the game entirely.
Surprised at how strongly people are defending blizzard's right to charge like a wounded bull.
Sure, the OP's suggestions are unfeasible. But hearthstone is definitely not a cheap game (whether you pay in time or money).
Definitely elements around the use of loot boxes with non owned virtual assets that are questionable. This is true for most 'free to play' games however.
I have nice collection, I spend about 100-150$ a year on the game.
I speak on behalf of friends that unable to play HS, they cant craft expensive decks therfore they have bad experience playing vs OP and fun decks .
I don't have a problem to spend money on the game, I love and enjoy to play HS, I am worry regarding the community and game general decline. It's sad that many leading streamers lost faith in the game, where are Kolento, Dog ?
I would like to hear good productive advice regarding improving game Economy in order to increase popularity and get the streamers back to the game. please don't be such critic regarding my suggestions - I didn't suggest that the game will be fully F2P, just give players on the low ranks the ability to enjoy the good cards - this does not cost Blizzard any money, it will not reduce income. low rank players usually don't buy packs anyway. they might will in the future when they want to advance to the higher ranks/Legend
Standard is in decline because it's boring as fuck to face the same over-tuned decks over and over. Not even Twitch chat wants to watch that.
i would like no limit tawern brawls where you can build any deck on start of every expansion.
150 are 3 new games. Here you are buying cards in a game. It is very expensive. With 150 now you can buy the Ps4.
Blizzard made an incredible product. So incredible, that millions of people spend their day griping about it. Should they not be allowed to maximize their profits? What right do you think you have to play the game? Can't afford it? Don't play. I have spent a total of under $200 in the 2.5 years I've been playing, I can usually craft any deck I would like to play for every expansion, and I'm extremely happy with the time this game kills vs the fun O've had playing it. I'm averaging $0.22 per hour, and that's amazing as far as I'm concerned. If I could pay 22 cents an hour 24 hours a day for nonstop enjoyment doing anything, I'd be quite a happy person.
Blizzard doesn't owe anyone anything. It's a free market. Talented people, hard working people, and people willing to invest/risk lots of money deserve more return. If we lived in absolute communism as you seem to want, no one would bother making games to the calibre of Hearthstone.
People with this sense of entitlement are gross. If you don't like it. Make your own game for free.
And yes, the shareholders want their money. They invested the millions of dollars for this game to be created and maintained, for a chance to gain profits. Otherwise, they would have found something else to do with their money, and there would be no Hearthstone.
I’ve never really considered it to be an expensive game. I buy the bundle with every expansion and have pretty much all the cards I need to make whatever decks I want. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable amount to pay. People are saying that 150 can buy three games but no standalone game has ever held my interest like Hearthstone has. I’ve put thousands of hours into this game and for every £50 or whatever it is I spend I get months of playtime in return. More than any AAA release in the last five years for certain.
Obviously the original posters ideas are beyond ridiculous, but if I were to change anything, the thing I’d change is to make certain cards only obtainable by completing certain quests (like captains parrot and ol murk eye were... or like the adventures. Really glad that a new one is coming out).
I feel that it gives players a reason to do certain things to receive awards.
great idea so i guess u'll be paying for servers when everyone shifts? did u also sign up to pay the wages of team 5 and also create financials for the 1/4 earnings call to share holders? i mean if u wanna do that obviously i'm all for it?
I"M NOT DEFENDING BLIZZARD LUL they can charge people .25 USD for each pack and charge us .05 per random CARD will they THEY WON"T why cuz they can cuz it's at that price point clowns will support and i'm a leecher i have 91000 gold and 163000 DUST i need people to buy packs to support the servers and my game if not they will close BUT i ain't gonna do it LUL ps if u're a leecher don't complain that's just stupid if u put money into it great thanks for supporting the servers while i leech very important u keep going thank you
LEARN HOW SOCIETY WORKS BRO and get your head OUT OF THE SAND