I wanted to open this thread to see people's opinion about the way blizzard is putting Hero Portraits for sale, even expansion pre-orders ( Mecha Jarraxus ). Personally I love it, I'm a cosmetic collector myself and I think this would be a better way to monetize the game instead of charging so much for card packs. I really hope if this works out that blizz will make this the primary monitization for the game and make the game more accessible to new players.
I saw a lot of people rant about how they don't want the EXCLUSIVE skins to be for sale, but IMHO it shows no game accomplishment what so ever, except that you spent $ on the game a long time ago. So i'm interested in peoples oppinion about this, and any comments on how blizz could make the core game ( Cards, Battlegroud perks and so on ) cheaper. I personally hope for a mechanic that allows to trade Legendaries 1:1 instead of having to dust 4 of them to craft 1 that you need.
I can promise you that's not going to happen. A sizable majority of their revenue comes from card packs, not skins and other cosmetics. The demand for these cosmetics is tiny compared to card packs, battle passes, etc. Not only that, I can doubly promise you that, if card pack prices go down, there is no way in hell the dust ratio is going to improve. You're essentially asking Blizzard to take a massive financial hit, for no compelling reason. HS is, in my view, a pretty reasonably priced game if you're willing to play regularly.
Speaking personally, I find the whole skins market funny. I would never even consider spending a nickle on that stuff, in part because none of these characters mean anything to me. I've never played WoW and don't know the first thing about any of these people. (Nor do I care.) I'm just interested in the game. I genuinely don't even notice the skin of my opponent.
I’m a shaman fanatic and during Rastakhan Rumble i was unemployed So I couldn’t afford King Rastakhan hero portrait that came with the bundle...
Now i have a job and I’m excited about the possibility of him making it again into the shop! Would prefer if they sell them in gold tho, but ultimately i would pay money if necessary
Introducing more options is a positive in my book. It feels like they are testing the water when it comes to cosmetics, what the demand is etc and if it is popular, it might not directly lead to cheaper packs etc but it does enable them more flexibility with things like the battle pass. If they are able to up the gold given in that a bit because the cosmetic side is successful, then it leads to more people playing more of the game and that's the key thing, the more someone plays, the more invested they become and the more likely they are to then buy a skin or some packs.
I don't buy into the idea that they are just purely greedy, obviously they need to make money and they will have to look to increase this, that'd what businesses do. I do believe that they want as many people playing the game as possible and spending money in a manner they are happy with. If they are able to increase revenue and balance this with making the game a little more affordable then I feel they will do so. They have shown they will do so. When I started playing, there were very, very limited options. Over time I feel its become more reasonable to buy into the game without having to commit hundreds of £. I know this for a fact because I don't spend anywhere near that amount and I have a large collection, can make any deck I want in standard, have a ton of dust and gold in reserve and have started branching out into wild. In my personal experience, the game is more affordable than it was 2 years ago.
Blizzard has a history of doing this. In WoW they would nerf difficult and respected achievements to become trivial. Players would call on Blizzard "I want X mount/title/transmog set".
Until everyone had them and then nobody wanted used them anymore.
It's human nature to want what they cannot have, and when they have them, they don't want them.
You see this behavior often in children, or less-developed adults.
I suppose in Hearthstone's case, purchasing a pre-order or winning 5 games during a season is hardly an achievement, but it was an incentive to do these things.
Personally IDGAF about the skins I got from preorders to be purchasable.
It is Blizzard's property, they can do whatever they want. I was SOOOOO happy I could buy Explorer's Map cardback - I started play 3 seasons after this one was ranked reward. The only skin I "need" is male Rogue one.
From this year I try to be F2P, I play wild so I have "enough" cards and aside from Rogue I have ENOUGH hero skins.
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EU 11/2015+ , f2p 03/2021+: DK 63/ DH 205 /Dr 277 / Hu 733 / Ma 6666 / Pa 1072 / Pr 1165 / Ro 1791 / Sh 1303 / Wl 707 / Wr 664
I think it's incredibly naive to believe that they won't re-sell hero skins that took comparatively high effort to make (from animations to new voice lines & actors).
Those hero portraits are simply too valuable to be locked behind pre-orders forever, and it's not like they ever advertised it as pre-order exclusive. They didn't promise us anything.
So the question is not if they will make them available again, because they will. It's about whether they will allow them to be purchased through Gold or Cash only. If it's the latter then those who pre-ordered still made a fine deal, at least value-wise (got it way earlier + cheaper packs).
I believe they will be testing the waters next with the first pre-order hero, Mecha Jaraxxus. Which was released two YEARS ago! Having access to that skin for two YEARS earlier than anyone else seems like an argument they could get away with.
I couldn’t care less about skins, but (in an ideal world) if the money from them is keeping the game healthy I’m not against paid cosmetics. I’m surprised blizz haven’t leant more into charging for cosmetics like in overwatch and WoW to be honest. There’s so much they could do with board ‘toys’, emotes, colour schemes, music etc.
Nobody has published it (at least in the hearthstone webs I usually visit), but Mecha-Jaraxxus (and its card back) is in the in-game store for 15 bucks... however there is no option to buy it with gold, why?
Nobody has published it (at least in the hearthstone webs I usually visit), but Mecha-Jaraxxus (and its card back) is in the in-game store for 15 bucks... however there is no option to buy it with gold, why?
Mecha Jaraxxus was part of a expansion pre-order, the other skins were sold individually.
But who knows, maybe they will add the pre-order skins to the gold options at some point (you can buy all other skins with gold now when you select them on the portrait menu - no more waiting for them to hit the shop).
Did Blizzard actually ever say certain skins, card backs, etc. wouldn't be available again? If not, what's there to be upset about?
Yeah they didn't, but I guess they're also not completely innocent when it comes to fueling people's expectations. In all of their games the pre-order / limited edition cosmetics weren't sold at a later date, at least as far as I can remember (2 decades now). So I guess people considered it a "common law" that pre order stuff is sacred?
Well at least now they know it isn't. I don't care either way since I don't buy cosmetics with cash due to silly region locks (I play on EU and NA).
I personally don't really care. I like skins and cosmetics just fine although I won't go over the top to get one unless I really like it and right now, the only cosmetic I see myself spending gold on is the preorder to WOTG, IIRC, that card back is just so lovely. Wouldn't have imagined even 3 months ago spending 600 gold on a card back of all things, but I never imagined I'd be sitting on so much gold to begin with. I can see people being pissed with super old cardbacks being available for gold but in all honesty, who on ladder would even recognise those cardbacks anyway?
I think it's fine re-releasing pre-order bonuses later on down the line to give people another shot at owning them. But Blizzard will want people to keep buying the mega bundles so I wouldn't be surprised if the timeframe from original release to re-release (which in the case of Mecha-Jaraxxus is almost 3 years), is roughly the same for each pre-prelease hero.
3 years does feel along time to wait though, I think they could reduce it by atleast a year and I don't think there would be too much grumbling from people about it
Am I missing skmethingy? Playing on phone and I go to the hero portraits section of collection and don't see any option to buy any (for gold or money). Same with the shop, don't see a hero portrait section. Just the standard stuff for sale (currently only Mecha jaraxus)
Where are the other portraits that are supposed to be available to buy/how do I access on mobile?
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Hi,
I wanted to open this thread to see people's opinion about the way blizzard is putting Hero Portraits for sale, even expansion pre-orders ( Mecha Jarraxus ). Personally I love it, I'm a cosmetic collector myself and I think this would be a better way to monetize the game instead of charging so much for card packs. I really hope if this works out that blizz will make this the primary monitization for the game and make the game more accessible to new players.
I saw a lot of people rant about how they don't want the EXCLUSIVE skins to be for sale, but IMHO it shows no game accomplishment what so ever, except that you spent $ on the game a long time ago. So i'm interested in peoples oppinion about this, and any comments on how blizz could make the core game ( Cards, Battlegroud perks and so on ) cheaper. I personally hope for a mechanic that allows to trade Legendaries 1:1 instead of having to dust 4 of them to craft 1 that you need.
I can promise you that's not going to happen. A sizable majority of their revenue comes from card packs, not skins and other cosmetics. The demand for these cosmetics is tiny compared to card packs, battle passes, etc. Not only that, I can doubly promise you that, if card pack prices go down, there is no way in hell the dust ratio is going to improve. You're essentially asking Blizzard to take a massive financial hit, for no compelling reason. HS is, in my view, a pretty reasonably priced game if you're willing to play regularly.
Speaking personally, I find the whole skins market funny. I would never even consider spending a nickle on that stuff, in part because none of these characters mean anything to me. I've never played WoW and don't know the first thing about any of these people. (Nor do I care.) I'm just interested in the game. I genuinely don't even notice the skin of my opponent.
It's just whatever at this point. It's not exclusive anymore if they put it on sale.
I’m a shaman fanatic and during Rastakhan Rumble i was unemployed So I couldn’t afford King Rastakhan hero portrait that came with the bundle...
Now i have a job and I’m excited about the possibility of him making it again into the shop! Would prefer if they sell them in gold tho, but ultimately i would pay money if necessary
Introducing more options is a positive in my book. It feels like they are testing the water when it comes to cosmetics, what the demand is etc and if it is popular, it might not directly lead to cheaper packs etc but it does enable them more flexibility with things like the battle pass. If they are able to up the gold given in that a bit because the cosmetic side is successful, then it leads to more people playing more of the game and that's the key thing, the more someone plays, the more invested they become and the more likely they are to then buy a skin or some packs.
I don't buy into the idea that they are just purely greedy, obviously they need to make money and they will have to look to increase this, that'd what businesses do. I do believe that they want as many people playing the game as possible and spending money in a manner they are happy with. If they are able to increase revenue and balance this with making the game a little more affordable then I feel they will do so. They have shown they will do so. When I started playing, there were very, very limited options. Over time I feel its become more reasonable to buy into the game without having to commit hundreds of £. I know this for a fact because I don't spend anywhere near that amount and I have a large collection, can make any deck I want in standard, have a ton of dust and gold in reserve and have started branching out into wild. In my personal experience, the game is more affordable than it was 2 years ago.
Blizzard has a history of doing this. In WoW they would nerf difficult and respected achievements to become trivial. Players would call on Blizzard "I want X mount/title/transmog set".
Until everyone had them and then nobody wanted used them anymore.
It's human nature to want what they cannot have, and when they have them, they don't want them.
You see this behavior often in children, or less-developed adults.
I suppose in Hearthstone's case, purchasing a pre-order or winning 5 games during a season is hardly an achievement, but it was an incentive to do these things.
Personally IDGAF about the skins I got from preorders to be purchasable.
It is Blizzard's property, they can do whatever they want. I was SOOOOO happy I could buy Explorer's Map cardback - I started play 3 seasons after this one was ranked reward. The only skin I "need" is male Rogue one.
From this year I try to be F2P, I play wild so I have "enough" cards and aside from Rogue I have ENOUGH hero skins.
EU 11/2015+ , f2p 03/2021+: DK 63 / DH 205 /Dr 277 / Hu 733 / Ma 6666 / Pa 1072 / Pr 1165 / Ro 1791 / Sh 1303 / Wl 707 / Wr 664
I think it's incredibly naive to believe that they won't re-sell hero skins that took comparatively high effort to make (from animations to new voice lines & actors).
Those hero portraits are simply too valuable to be locked behind pre-orders forever, and it's not like they ever advertised it as pre-order exclusive. They didn't promise us anything.
So the question is not if they will make them available again, because they will. It's about whether they will allow them to be purchased through Gold or Cash only. If it's the latter then those who pre-ordered still made a fine deal, at least value-wise (got it way earlier + cheaper packs).
I believe they will be testing the waters next with the first pre-order hero, Mecha Jaraxxus. Which was released two YEARS ago! Having access to that skin for two YEARS earlier than anyone else seems like an argument they could get away with.
99,9 % of H00mans in a Nutshell
You have to be a special kind of loser if you get pissed over other people being able to buy skins in a children card game.
Gladly, fixed that one for you.
I couldn’t care less about skins, but (in an ideal world) if the money from them is keeping the game healthy I’m not against paid cosmetics. I’m surprised blizz haven’t leant more into charging for cosmetics like in overwatch and WoW to be honest. There’s so much they could do with board ‘toys’, emotes, colour schemes, music etc.
Nobody has published it (at least in the hearthstone webs I usually visit), but Mecha-Jaraxxus (and its card back) is in the in-game store for 15 bucks... however there is no option to buy it with gold, why?
Mecha Jaraxxus was part of a expansion pre-order, the other skins were sold individually.
But who knows, maybe they will add the pre-order skins to the gold options at some point (you can buy all other skins with gold now when you select them on the portrait menu - no more waiting for them to hit the shop).
Children's game? I'd guess the median player's age is somewhere in the late 20s. Older for whales.
Did Blizzard actually ever say certain skins, card backs, etc. wouldn't be available again? If not, what's there to be upset about?
Yeah they didn't, but I guess they're also not completely innocent when it comes to fueling people's expectations. In all of their games the pre-order / limited edition cosmetics weren't sold at a later date, at least as far as I can remember (2 decades now). So I guess people considered it a "common law" that pre order stuff is sacred?
Well at least now they know it isn't. I don't care either way since I don't buy cosmetics with cash due to silly region locks (I play on EU and NA).
I personally don't really care. I like skins and cosmetics just fine although I won't go over the top to get one unless I really like it and right now, the only cosmetic I see myself spending gold on is the preorder to WOTG, IIRC, that card back is just so lovely. Wouldn't have imagined even 3 months ago spending 600 gold on a card back of all things, but I never imagined I'd be sitting on so much gold to begin with. I can see people being pissed with super old cardbacks being available for gold but in all honesty, who on ladder would even recognise those cardbacks anyway?
I think it's fine re-releasing pre-order bonuses later on down the line to give people another shot at owning them. But Blizzard will want people to keep buying the mega bundles so I wouldn't be surprised if the timeframe from original release to re-release (which in the case of Mecha-Jaraxxus is almost 3 years), is roughly the same for each pre-prelease hero.
3 years does feel along time to wait though, I think they could reduce it by atleast a year and I don't think there would be too much grumbling from people about it
Am I missing skmethingy? Playing on phone and I go to the hero portraits section of collection and don't see any option to buy any (for gold or money). Same with the shop, don't see a hero portrait section. Just the standard stuff for sale (currently only Mecha jaraxus)
Where are the other portraits that are supposed to be available to buy/how do I access on mobile?