Hearthpwn

Quote from Hatoup »

I see the F2P players as either stingy people, or just broke. But if you're that broke that you can't afford $1.99 on a game you shouldn't be playing any games to begin with. You should be re-accessing your priorities in life.

I think people have different priorities. For me, it would be much less fun finetuning a deck with all cards available than collecting the cards I can. I could easily buy all cards of the game (or packs to make enough dust to craft them) but this is simply not my focus. So, my life priorities are well assessed :-)

However, I think it is not a fair point to bash people who like to play the game and actually cannot afford to pay for it ($1.99 will not get you very far after all, we all know how TCGs or CCGs costs tend to explode). The game would be much less diverse w/o F2P players as there would not be very many different cards in play if everybody had them all. It is exactly what the top bananas are complaining about. I do have fun  and diversity at rank 10.

I think it is faster to go to work, earn money and buy packs than simply grind arena for all the cards (and also less fun). I'm also sure that many people could pay for packs, but decided not to and will earn it ingame. The pace of this will be based on skill and time. There will be people who will have no problem collecting all cards for free and there will be people who cannot collect the whole set before the new content comes next.

What I think is that if someone plays a lot and understands the game can keep up with the game even F2P. I also think that those who play casually and do not spend money on the game will fall behind even more. So the difference between the best players and "worst" players will increase. Everyone can assess what is their priority, possibility and where does one want to end up. You need to consider time, money and result and decide how to move forward. There is nothing wrong with any of the choices I believe as long as you understand what did you pick.

yes you can, this is the only TCG with a model as lenient as it can get, the other one with a similar model is MTg where players that are oficially registered get a "salary" where once every month they get shipped of 2 or 3 packs by wizards themselves as long as you have been participating in events like friday night and present your registry card, ofc that depends on the blasted local where i used to play was frequently visited by players that stole the  wizard of the coast ids from others so that thy could have more packs i received a decent amount of packs before my id was stolen i must say but  would've never been able to receive as many packs as i've gotten in HS in a similar amount of time.

• Do I personally pay for this game? No.
• Should someone who pays and supports this game get some kind of compensation in the form of small advantages? Of course, why shouldn't they?

My point is, you don't need to support Blizzard if you don't want to, but don't whine when those that do are getting a little something for their patronage.

Yes if you have the time. Really the only thing you short-circuit with paying for cards is time required to acquire them under the F2P model. Admittedly the amount of time required will go up as new card sets are released but this should be offset to some degree as the players skill level increases from beginner through to expert.

Also something that reduces the amount of time to get competitive decks is the ability to create the cards you need for a specific deck purpose by destroying surplus cards. Now I see several posts in this thread from people who seem to be trying to collect a complete set. Now that is very different from being a competitive player in the F2P model. And if you are not willing to spend then I think trying to be a completist will be very, very challenging. In fact "that way lies madness"!

I have only ever bought 4 packs and think I am quite competitive in general play and tournaments. Would I like a complete set? Yes of course. But not at the expense of either my cash or my sanity.

Still thanks Blizz for an excellent game :)

Of course you can.

Quote from szabozalan »

I think it is faster to go to work, earn money and buy packs than simply grind arena for all the cards (and also less fun). I'm also sure that many people could pay for packs, but decided not to and will earn it ingame. The pace of this will be based on skill and time. There will be people who will have no problem collecting all cards for free and there will be people who cannot collect the whole set before the new content comes next.

What I think is that if someone plays a lot and understands the game can keep up with the game even F2P. I also think that those who play casually and do not spend money on the game will fall behind even more. So the difference between the best players and "worst" players will increase. Everyone can assess what is their priority, possibility and where does one want to end up. You need to consider time, money and result and decide how to move forward. There is nothing wrong with any of the choices I believe as long as you understand what did you pick.

I totally agree there is a personal calculus involved for each player in deciding whether or not to buy packs. The decision wasn't easy, but in the end I loved Hearthstone enough and the value I placed on my time outweighed the value of the money I would need to spend. I know there are people out there who can stay sane while grinding away at those character-collecting and town-building F2P games on the App Store, but color me impatient. I am not one of those people. I'd go nuts first. [laughs]

That said, Hearthstone is a lot more reasonable (not to mention dynamic and fun) than those glorified clickfest freemium titles with multiple currencies. I'm not comparing content so much as progression rates. Hearthstone only seems infinitely daunting to me when I consider the time I would need to spend to earn all I have without spending money on packs.

I have not spent any money on this game and that said there is a limit to how competitive I can be on the ladder.  I use to get frustrated until I had a better understanding of the win rates around legend and how good you are compared to the population at rank 10.  The bottom line is I am missing some key cards that make it very difficult for me around rank 10, but I can get to rank 10 and I did it with my variation of a handlock deck missing both mountain giants.  I also did playing pretty casually say 5 games a day.  I am happy with what I accomplished.

Now that said I am a capitalist and as Frosty Flamer and others have mentioned he wants to support the game.  The people who make this thing want to get paid and since I spend a good amount of time on this game I should probably pay them because that is how our system works! I will probably end up buying packs at some point in the new year as a means of support not because I feel the need to own more cards.

I really don't understand that mindset.  "I love this hobby and have been practicing it daily for over a year, but I won't spend any money on it."

I can think of no other hobbies that don't require some investment in equipment/materials/training/fees/etc.

Also, if you're F2P by choice, that's one thing.  If it's a budget necessity, you should be spending your free time increasing your value in the job market, not playing Hearthstone.  Life certainly isn't F2P.

Gotta love all the people instantly attacking the OP for a simple question. All he wanted to know is whether F2P players would be able to keep up with expansions. Instead we get a bunch of losers automatically making assumptions about his moral character and financial situation. Do you have such low self-esteem that you feel the need to prove that spending money on a video game is morally superior?

The answer is not a clear yes or no. Hearthstone is a relatively new card game and at the moment does not offer as much variety or ability for home brewing as others. There's a reason 90% of ladder is made of net decks. Over time however I predict home brewing will become a lot more effective with increased card diversity. What does this mean for F2P players? It means there will be greater opportunity to innovate new decks. And if more new decks are being played then I sub-par purely F2P deck has a better chance.

Now do I believe Hearthstone will allow F2P players to keep up? Certainly. Arena, as most people will tell you,is an extremely effective way of gaining gold and dust which also eliminates any P2W advantages. I myself do not have a full collection but it's mostly because I stopped playing for a very long time.

Quote from mahonisaya »

I have been playing free since beta, and i have been able to keep up relatively well. With the new expansion coming out however, i still have yet to complete the basic set. So my question is, can you not pay and stay competitive? Chances are if you play free you haven't finished the set yet but is that okay or do you need to have every option available to keep competitive?  

Yes and No, if your style of play is ram face then yes, Zoo and Hunter will serve you well, otherwise not really. 

Several things have changed since the beta:

• Netdecking is rampant rank 12 and upwards.
• People are watching streamers, and learning effective plays and combos.
• Naxrammas; in the Hearthstone World Championship, there wasn't a deck without Nax.  People are spending their dust and money wisely to replicate these decks.   Most F2P decks lack powerful plays early on.

A strong deck is more important than ever.

I would advise you to follow what I am doing, farm Arena, and don't play ranked until the last week of the season.  

Eventually you will get so good at arena you will average 7-9 wins and always be in profit.

Quote from Kahgro »

Gotta love all the people instantly attacking the OP for a simple question.

I do not think anyone attacked the OP and he also got the answer. I do not really understand your point.

Quote from Kahgro »

Gotta love all the people instantly attacking the OP for a simple question. All he wanted to know is whether F2P players would be able to keep up with expansions. Instead we get a bunch of losers automatically making assumptions about his moral character and financial situation. Do you have such low self-esteem that you feel the need to prove that spending money on a video game is morally superior?

The answer is not a clear yes or no. Hearthstone is a relatively new card game and at the moment does not offer as much variety or ability for home brewing as others. There's a reason 90% of ladder is made of net decks. Over time however I predict home brewing will become a lot more effective with increased card diversity. What does this mean for F2P players? It means there will be greater opportunity to innovate new decks. And if more new decks are being played then I sub-par purely F2P deck has a better chance.

Now do I believe Hearthstone will allow F2P players to keep up? Certainly. Arena, as most people will tell you,is an extremely effective way of gaining gold and dust which also eliminates any P2W advantages. I myself do not have a full collection but it's mostly because I stopped playing for a very long time.

I thought this thread was pretty respectful for the most part.  I think most people are just trying to give a perspective on the game is all.  I agree with you that there is no clear yes or no.  In my post I am explaining that if you are F2P then you need to temper your expectations.  You are not going to get to legend, but you can still have fun and be competitive within the F2P people.  Rank 10 puts you in the top 25% of all players and if you can hit that with F2P then you should be pretty happy.

Quote from Kahgro »

Gotta love all the people instantly attacking the OP for a simple question. All he wanted to know is whether F2P players would be able to keep up with expansions. Instead we get a bunch of losers automatically making assumptions about his moral character and financial situation. 

You've got to show me all of these posts attacking the OP, because I certainly don't see them in this thread. 

I should add that I am hoping I am slightly better at building decks than other people and before people amass all the perfect cards to make a fine tuned deck I can put together a great desk with the hodge podge of cards I will get with my 1700 gold allowing me to be slightly better on the ladder during the Month of December.

Quote from Snow_King »

Quote from Kahgro »

Gotta love all the people instantly attacking the OP for a simple question. All he wanted to know is whether F2P players would be able to keep up with expansions. Instead we get a bunch of losers automatically making assumptions about his moral character and financial situation. 

You've got to show me all of these posts attacking the OP, because I certainly don't see them in this thread. 

Quote from Hatoup »

I see the F2P players as either stingy people, or just broke. But if you're that broke that you can't afford $1.99 on a game you shouldn't be playing any games to begin with. You should be re-accessing your priorities in life.

Quote from Bollspottarn »

Stop being a bum. Get a job.

Quote from Tahladnas »

It's called "free to play", not "free to play as competitively as others who have better cards than you".

you get to play, as in get 30 cards, build a deck, and hit the play button. That's all it promises you.

"free to play", not "free to play with awesome legendary cards whenever you want to".

There are quite a couple. I'm sorry if you believed my comment was directed at you since you have a very informative post, it was directed at all those to whom it may apply.

Quote from JesterEU »

Quote from tearin4242 »

Quote from Kahgro »

Gotta love all the people instantly attacking the OP for a simple question. All he wanted to know is whether F2P players would be able to keep up with expansions. Instead we get a bunch of losers automatically making assumptions about his moral character and financial situation. Do you have such low self-esteem that you feel the need to prove that spending money on a video game is morally superior?

The answer is not a clear yes or no. Hearthstone is a relatively new card game and at the moment does not offer as much variety or ability for home brewing as others. There's a reason 90% of ladder is made of net decks. Over time however I predict home brewing will become a lot more effective with increased card diversity. What does this mean for F2P players? It means there will be greater opportunity to innovate new decks. And if more new decks are being played then I sub-par purely F2P deck has a better chance.

Now do I believe Hearthstone will allow F2P players to keep up? Certainly. Arena, as most people will tell you,is an extremely effective way of gaining gold and dust which also eliminates any P2W advantages. I myself do not have a full collection but it's mostly because I stopped playing for a very long time.

I thought this thread was pretty respectful for the most part.  I think most people are just trying to give a perspective on the game is all.  I agree with you that there is no clear yes or no.  In my post I am explaining that if you are F2P then you need to temper your expectations.  You are not going to get to legend, but you can still have fun and be competitive within the F2P people.  Rank 10 puts you in the top 25% of all players and if you can hit that with F2P then you should be pretty happy.

I didn't realise rank 10 put you in top 25%. That makes me feel a lot better about not playing too much F2P and not having the cards to compete at a legend level with anything but a hunter or lock!

Yeah I was seriously about to throw my machine against the wall until I realized I wasn't doing too bad.  Also, the top players around legend rank only have a win rate slightly above 50% which means they lose ALOT.  What is funny is there is a large percentage of people that cant make it past rank 20...I sleep my way to rank 20

Yes, you can play Free competitively easy, it just will take time to do so: In Hearthstone, paying money is essentially a time shortcut. I've been playing essentially F2P since late beta (I spent a very small amount of birthday money on Arenas to get a Golden Gelbin). I've got almost every single Classic card, despite crafting inefficiently (I did not focus on one class and I went for Legendaries first, plus I later crafted Goldens over new cards once I had a large collection. And I made an ETC.), and I've got around 7k dust saved for GvG. I can make a large range of decks from Control Warrior to Face Hunter.

It takes a lot of time is all and you simply won't be able to get every card in the game, though GvG should actually make that easier (Smaller set = more crafting dust quicker). But you can make most decks competitively and some even easy (Hunter/Zoo). And there's a difference between collecting everything and playing competitive.

Also, HS has an insanely nice model for free players compared to basically any other card game. Makes me happy since I am so poor. :)

I've been f2p-ing since the last beta season, and so long as you're a decent player, doing dailies and arena should have you your collection by now. (Unless you tried to build control warrior and like 8 other decks)