Playing MTG over the years, one saving grace when one of your friends either wasn't into MTG enough to make their own deck or really didn't understand the game or have enough cards, those of us who've accumulated a large quantity of cards would lend our decks to one another to play matches against.
I know ladder is important and gold gain needs to be monitored, but as playing against a friend cannot gain rank nor gain gold I'd love to see the option where when you are playing against a friend they can allow you to choose one of their decks. In addition to helping friends practice a deck they are thinking of buying maybe some of my friends that really don't play much at all from the grind would log on just to play a game or two against me without using all basic cards.
Yeah, this idea is great. I can remember a friend who started playing the game, but was really frustrated after a short time since he wasn't able to try out all the stuff and just had one or two decks.
Great idea, which could also allow Blizzard to earn some Extra $$ as mentioned before :D
I think it is a fun idea, but I don't think it will be implemented. Blizz wants people to desire cards / packs. It would also make it possible to make tournaments without most participants having invested anything in the game.
I play a fair bit of friendly matches and mini-"tournaments", and remember that you can always make house rules for deck construction.
I always make it a point to either use a pointlessly gimmicky deck when I play new people, but even then, my decks are rarely easy to beat. That just leaves me playing the default decks (which I always forget are even a thing). I like this idea much better.
There is one fundamental flaw: people would abuse the hell out of it, and that includes new AND old players.
Sites like Hearthpwn would open a sub-forum where people can friend each other in order to test a certain deck - without having to spend any dust. A thread could look like this:
Look for: Control Warrior Offer: Combo Druid, Freeze Mage or Dragon Priest
And even if they can't get a single goldcoin out of it, the ability to check if they like a certain deck or not without having to spend gold or money is worth more than any ladder reward. Just think about it, I have seen so many people realise that playing Handlock is actually challenging, regretting that they have spent so much dust for a deck that - surprise surprise - doesn't just auto win against everything. The dust / gold / money is already spent though, Blizzard already won. And this is just one example I gathered from the forums. Personally I had to go through 7 different decks before I finally found the ones I really enjoy.
Anyway this "the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality is what fuels Hearthstone. You get completely crushed by a Control Warrior one time, think to yourself "damn, this is insane" until you've spent your own 13k dust only to realise that hey, why the fuck do I get destroyed by every fucking Druid? This isn't fun babyrage!
There is one fundamental flaw: people would abuse the hell out of it, and that includes new AND old players.
Sites like Hearthpwn would open a sub-forum where people can friend each other in order to test a certain deck - without having to spend any dust. A thread could look like this:
Look for: Control Warrior Offer: Combo Druid, Freeze Mage or Dragon Priest
And even if they can't get a single goldcoin out of it, the ability to check if they like a certain deck or not without having to spend gold or money is worth more than any ladder reward. Just think about it, I have seen so many people realise that playing Handlock is actually challenging, regretting that they have spent so much dust for a deck that - surprise surprise - doesn't just auto win against everything. The dust / gold / money is already spent though, Blizzard already won. And this is just one example. Personally I had to go through 7 different decks before I finally found the ones I really enjoy.
Anyway this "the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality is what fuels Hearthstone. You get completely crushed by a Control Warrior one time, think to yourself "damn, this is insane" until you spent your own 13k dust only to realise that hey, why the fuck do I get destroyed by every fucking Druid? This isn't fun babyrage!
OP means that when you play friend vs friend he can play with one of your decks. Not use your deck on ladder.. lol
I think it's a good idea, this is supposed to be a casual game and I shouldn't have to use a less fun (basic) deck against my friends just because they haven't devoted any time or money to the game (as casual players), and I'm already using all my deck slots for competitive decks that would crush them, so I get stuck with either the boringly bad starter decks or immensely powerful laddering decks that their semi-basic decks can't compete with. Plus one friend is really into Murloc decks because they're hilarious but doesn't have many of them and is always asking to use my phone so he can play using my cards despite him owning the game already, and this would solve that, even if he only got to use them against me.
Also, more deck slots pls. I want room for all my murloc decks.
There is one fundamental flaw: people would abuse the hell out of it, and that includes new AND old players.
Sites like Hearthpwn would open a sub-forum where people can friend each other in order to test a certain deck - without having to spend any dust. A thread could look like this:
Look for: Control Warrior Offer: Combo Druid, Freeze Mage or Dragon Priest
And even if they can't get a single goldcoin out of it, the ability to check if they like a certain deck or not without having to spend gold or money is worth more than any ladder reward. Just think about it, I have seen so many people realise that playing Handlock is actually challenging, regretting that they have spent so much dust for a deck that - surprise surprise - doesn't just auto win against everything. The dust / gold / money is already spent though, Blizzard already won. And this is just one example. Personally I had to go through 7 different decks before I finally found the ones I really enjoy.
Anyway this "the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality is what fuels Hearthstone. You get completely crushed by a Control Warrior one time, think to yourself "damn, this is insane" until you spent your own 13k dust only to realise that hey, why the fuck do I get destroyed by every fucking Druid? This isn't fun babyrage!
OP means that when you play friend vs friend he can play with one of your decks. Not use your deck on ladder.. lol
Read my post again.
I'm talking about the fact that your friend will be able to experience the deck. And that experience alone is worth more than gaining any reward from ranked play. One could practically test all available decks one after another, and then decide what he/she likes the best.
So, does this sound profitable for Blizzard? People not making mistakes? People not spending gold/cash for decks that they end up hating?
There is one fundamental flaw: people would abuse the hell out of it, and that includes new AND old players.
Sites like Hearthpwn would open a sub-forum where people can friend each other in order to test a certain deck - without having to spend any dust. A thread could look like this:
Look for: Control Warrior Offer: Combo Druid, Freeze Mage or Dragon Priest
And even if they can't get a single goldcoin out of it, the ability to check if they like a certain deck or not without having to spend gold or money is worth more than any ladder reward. Just think about it, I have seen so many people realise that playing Handlock is actually challenging, regretting that they have spent so much dust for a deck that - surprise surprise - doesn't just auto win against everything. The dust / gold / money is already spent though, Blizzard already won. And this is just one example. Personally I had to go through 7 different decks before I finally found the ones I really enjoy.
Anyway this "the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality is what fuels Hearthstone. You get completely crushed by a Control Warrior one time, think to yourself "damn, this is insane" until you spent your own 13k dust only to realise that hey, why the fuck do I get destroyed by every fucking Druid? This isn't fun babyrage!
OP means that when you play friend vs friend he can play with one of your decks. Not use your deck on ladder.. lol
Read my post again.
I'm talking about the fact that your friend will be able to experience the deck. And that experience alone is worth more than gaining any reward from ranked play. One could practically test all available decks one after another, and then decide what he/she likes the best.
So, does this sound profitable for Blizzard? People not making mistakes? People not spending gold/cash for decks that they end up hating?
Given that it requires a person to know enough to go to a forum, which elminates 80%+ of the population, and havn't already purchased packs, which isn't how most big spenders operate.
And chances are, when they do play the deck they want, they'll go INSANE wanting to play it RIGHT NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. Thus packs WILL be purchased. More than that, satisfaction after a purchase is a key way to keep a long time player. I'm guessing blizzard gets FAR more money from satisfied customers who stay long enough for the next expansion than folks who buy some cards, regret it, then think that most cards, including expansions, suck.
Tricking customers give short term success. Loyal customers bring long term. Blizzard seems just wiling enough to make loyal addicts, but aren't willing to use tricks just for a quick buck.
There is one fundamental flaw: people would abuse the hell out of it, and that includes new AND old players.
Sites like Hearthpwn would open a sub-forum where people can friend each other in order to test a certain deck - without having to spend any dust. A thread could look like this:
Look for: Control Warrior Offer: Combo Druid, Freeze Mage or Dragon Priest
And even if they can't get a single goldcoin out of it, the ability to check if they like a certain deck or not without having to spend gold or money is worth more than any ladder reward. Just think about it, I have seen so many people realise that playing Handlock is actually challenging, regretting that they have spent so much dust for a deck that - surprise surprise - doesn't just auto win against everything. The dust / gold / money is already spent though, Blizzard already won. And this is just one example. Personally I had to go through 7 different decks before I finally found the ones I really enjoy.
Anyway this "the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality is what fuels Hearthstone. You get completely crushed by a Control Warrior one time, think to yourself "damn, this is insane" until you spent your own 13k dust only to realise that hey, why the fuck do I get destroyed by every fucking Druid? This isn't fun babyrage!
OP means that when you play friend vs friend he can play with one of your decks. Not use your deck on ladder.. lol
Read my post again.
I'm talking about the fact that your friend will be able to experience the deck. And that experience alone is worth more than gaining any reward from ranked play. One could practically test all available decks one after another, and then decide what he/she likes the best.
So, does this sound profitable for Blizzard? People not making mistakes? People not spending gold/cash for decks that they end up hating?
Given that it requires a person to know enough to go to a forum, which elminates 80%+ of the population, and havn't already purchased packs, which isn't how most big spenders operate.
And chances are, when they do play the deck they want, they'll go INSANE wanting to play it RIGHT NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. Thus packs WILL be purchased. More than that, satisfaction after a purchase is a key way to keep a long time player. I'm guessing blizzard gets FAR more money from satisfied customers who stay long enough for the next expansion than folks who buy some cards, regret it, then think that most cards, including expansions, suck.
Tricking customers give short term success. Loyal customers bring long term. Blizzard seems just wiling enough to make loyal addicts, but aren't willing to use tricks just for a quick buck.
First I think we should stop underestimating people, this isn't 10 years ago. People know where to find information, especially the young generation. On top of that if such a system would be viable, Blizzard would promote it in some manner - maybe even on their own forums / Blizzard launcher (which you can't ignore in Hearthstone, even if you want to)
Second, how do you become a longtime player, or a "loyal addict" if you can more or less freely test any deck you want on the spot, play 2 or 3 weeks to assemble the chosen deck (assuming it's not Wallet Warrior) and be done after? Where is the carrot on the stick? This doesn't make any sense whatsoever if you want to keep people busy for a year+. With the described system they see and eat the whole cake within weeks, compared to slowly trudging from deck to deck in the span of months.
And the big spenders? The whales? They don't even care about testing anything. If a friend recommends them the game they just buy themselves to the necessary levels without blinking.
You're being overly pessimistic about this whole idea. If you can only play with a deck you want against a friend who actually has that deck, you are not going to be satisfied. Even if there will be an online thread on forums (there's a thread for everything) for others trying out your deck, you'll get to play max 2-3 games or so before one of the two players need to switch. And also, it's going to get really, really boring playing the same person over and over again playing the same deck (if this is a mutual agreement to try specific decks). I think the restriction that it has to be against a friend with the deck you want to play does a fine job of keeping it as a trial.
First I think we should stop underestimating people, this isn't 10 years ago. People know where to find information, especially the young generation. On top of that if such a system would be viable, Blizzard would promote it in some manner - maybe even on their own forums / Blizzard launcher (which you can't ignore in Hearthstone, even if you want to)
They haven't done that with any feature they eventually added in. There was no promotion about observer mode until it was just about to be added, nor Brawl. The only reason why we know Tournament mode is coming is due to an interview where they commented it while discussing Brawl and I'm sure that was a hidden ad for a feature they are about to add in.
Blizzard has gotten much better in communication than they used to, but they are still..well.. not #1 in it. So the idea of them not promoting the concept even if they think it's viable is very much a possibility. If they think it's not viable, they'll flat out say so like they have new classes or, for some time, new deck slots.
As far as people go, it's not insulting to folks to say they don't dig through forums and guides. We're the 'try hards' of the community. Most play much more casually. They'd rather spend more time on other hobbies, or RL matters, or other games or the other 10000 things you could do instead of reading these forums every day.
Second, how do you become a longtime player, or a "loyal addict" if you can more or less freely test any deck you want on the spot, play 2 or 3 weeks to assemble the chosen deck (assuming it's not Wallet Warrior) and be done after? Where is the carrot on the stick? This doesn't make any sense whatsoever if you want to keep people busy for a year+. With the described system they see and eat the whole cake within weeks, compared to slowly trudging from deck to deck in the span of months.
Other than spending $2 in the beta, I've fully F2Ped this game. I can make nearly every deck, including Wallet Warrior and I'm not that far from the few decks I can't quite make. But I remember the path it took for me to get here.
When I had no deck to speak of, it took MONTHS to craft any top shelf deck that wasn't a face deck. The first 1st tier deck I went for was Miracle rogue which just took Leeroy and Preparations and that thing took nearly half a YEAR to make, and that's with skipping Bloodmage. Second I made that, I went to next deck, then the next, over the course of my entire time playing HS.
I nearly gave up on the game when I was making BS decks that didn't work. It was NOT doing that and sticking to viable decks I KNEW worked due to figuring out who to watch that kept me going. It was making Miracle, then seeing all of the OTHER top decks that I could make like handlock or healadin (it was good at the time :P). You can only play one deck for so long. You WILL move on and make more decks.
Being able to PLAY a deck in full bloom, but ONLY with that one person and only if they aren't busy isn't going to be enough for anyone. you don't want to play Handlock with ONLY Friend #1. You want to play Handlock to pwn ladder, or every OTHER friend out there, or in a Tournament or a Brawl. You'll play that deck with your friend, then want that deck for yourself.
And the big spenders? The whales? They don't even care about testing anything. If a friend recommends them the game they just buy themselves to the necessary levels without blinking
Thus it won't hurt Blizzard's bottom line. It's a feature that adds to the community without hurting their wallet.
If there's one big issue, it's whether this feature is hard to make on blizzard's side. If it's complicated, then nevermind. If it's not ahrd, though, there's not much reason to not add it.
Besides, whether it benefits blizzard's bottom line is really THEIR job to figure out. We should be wondering if it's going to be useful, cause problems to the community, and how high a priority it should be. Myself I don't see much of an issue if it's kept 'friend to friend that loaned to you'
They haven't done that with any feature they eventually added in. There was no promotion about observer mode until it was just about to be added, nor Brawl.
Not sure if I can follow you here. Once it was implemented there was promotion, heavily. The hell man, the quest "Watch and learn" or "Win 5 Brawls" is the best kind of promotion they could have come up with, even if we ignore the usual channels like the launcher or the forums/twitter and whatnot.
So how about a quest called "Taught to play - win 3 games using a loaned deck"? Because either they want to make heavy use of the feature or forget about it to begin with.
As far as people go, it's not insulting to folks to say they don't dig through forums and guides. We're the 'try hards' of the community. Most play much more casually. They'd rather spend more time on other hobbies, or RL matters, or other games or the other 10000 things you could do instead of reading these forums every day.
There is no need to dig through anything though. This might be a platform for tryhards, but it is also filled to the brim with people who come solely for advice on what their first legendary should be. Again, these are different times - people are 30 seconds away from learning whatever they need to, especially Hearthstone's very young target audience.
Being able to PLAY a deck in full bloom, but ONLY with that one person and only if they aren't busy isn't going to be enough for anyone. you don't want to play Handlock with ONLY Friend #1. You want to play Handlock to pwn ladder, or every OTHER friend out there, or in a Tournament or a Brawl. You'll play that deck with your friend, then want that deck for yourself.
Will it be enough to satisfy everyone? Probably not. But what it will certainly do is sate people to a degree. Allow them to try things out before they invest cash or gold, which is both good and bad. Maybe the impatience gets the best of them and they really spend money RIGHT NOW BECAUSE NOW NOW. Or they play through every possible deck and are sated after.
That would be the two options for new players. The old players will just auto-abuse the system as a means to try out a certain legendary before they craft it.
Thus it won't hurt Blizzard's bottom line. It's a feature that adds to the community without hurting their wallet.
I don't have the numbers, no one has, but I do believe that the majority of Blizzards income comes from the many, many people buying small amounts of content every now and then. An adventure here, an arena entry there. Some packs when you are very close to crafting a legendary.
Whales might shoulder the lion's share in other games like HOTS, where the benefit of spending money is solely cosmetical, but Hearthstone is different in that aspect. That's why there is a constant discussion wether this game is free to play, or pay to have fun, or pay to win, or pay to whatever you want to call it.
Besides, whether it benefits blizzard's bottom line is really THEIR job to figure out. We should be wondering if it's going to be useful, cause problems to the community, and how high a priority it should be. Myself I don't see much of an issue if it's kept 'friend to friend that loaned to you'
Well if this topic is about what I think is useful, sure by any means. If I had anything to say I would go even further and turn this game into a free to play game as people know it from other franchises: I would hand out EVERYTHING for free that isn't purely cosmetic. The whole card collection, all the adventures, the full expansions as they are released. Except for golden cards, golden hero portraits and of course the alternative heroes.
But that won't happen, just like trading cards between players won't happen. I mean the idea is nice, I myself also failed to sell the game to friends because it's daunting as hell if you start now, but there is just no way that Blizzard will introduce a feature that allows people to eat the cake before they "earned" it, be it by time investment or cash. It just doesn't make any sense to me, that's all.
Playing MTG over the years, one saving grace when one of your friends either wasn't into MTG enough to make their own deck or really didn't understand the game or have enough cards, those of us who've accumulated a large quantity of cards would lend our decks to one another to play matches against.
I know ladder is important and gold gain needs to be monitored, but as playing against a friend cannot gain rank nor gain gold I'd love to see the option where when you are playing against a friend they can allow you to choose one of their decks. In addition to helping friends practice a deck they are thinking of buying maybe some of my friends that really don't play much at all from the grind would log on just to play a game or two against me without using all basic cards.
VS
This is actually a really good idea for friendly matches. I approve.
Building Quirky Decks Every Week, Loving Life at Rank 15!
and if they like it they might buy packs and give blizzard $$$, this is a great idea but send it to blizzard also
Yeah, this idea is great. I can remember a friend who started playing the game, but was really frustrated after a short time since he wasn't able to try out all the stuff and just had one or two decks.
Great idea, which could also allow Blizzard to earn some Extra $$ as mentioned before :D
I think it is a fun idea, but I don't think it will be implemented. Blizz wants people to desire cards / packs. It would also make it possible to make tournaments without most participants having invested anything in the game.
I play a fair bit of friendly matches and mini-"tournaments", and remember that you can always make house rules for deck construction.
+1
+1 - I like this idea, quite a bit.
I always make it a point to either use a pointlessly gimmicky deck when I play new people, but even then, my decks are rarely easy to beat. That just leaves me playing the default decks (which I always forget are even a thing). I like this idea much better.
There is one fundamental flaw: people would abuse the hell out of it, and that includes new AND old players.
Sites like Hearthpwn would open a sub-forum where people can friend each other in order to test a certain deck - without having to spend any dust. A thread could look like this:
Look for: Control Warrior Offer: Combo Druid, Freeze Mage or Dragon Priest
And even if they can't get a single goldcoin out of it, the ability to check if they like a certain deck or not without having to spend gold or money is worth more than any ladder reward. Just think about it, I have seen so many people realise that playing Handlock is actually challenging, regretting that they have spent so much dust for a deck that - surprise surprise - doesn't just auto win against everything. The dust / gold / money is already spent though, Blizzard already won. And this is just one example I gathered from the forums. Personally I had to go through 7 different decks before I finally found the ones I really enjoy.
Anyway this "the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality is what fuels Hearthstone. You get completely crushed by a Control Warrior one time, think to yourself "damn, this is insane" until you've spent your own 13k dust only to realise that hey, why the fuck do I get destroyed by every fucking Druid? This isn't fun babyrage!
OP means that when you play friend vs friend he can play with one of your decks. Not use your deck on ladder.. lol
I think it's a good idea, this is supposed to be a casual game and I shouldn't have to use a less fun (basic) deck against my friends just because they haven't devoted any time or money to the game (as casual players), and I'm already using all my deck slots for competitive decks that would crush them, so I get stuck with either the boringly bad starter decks or immensely powerful laddering decks that their semi-basic decks can't compete with. Plus one friend is really into Murloc decks because they're hilarious but doesn't have many of them and is always asking to use my phone so he can play using my cards despite him owning the game already, and this would solve that, even if he only got to use them against me.
Also, more deck slots pls. I want room for all my murloc decks.
Read my post again.
I'm talking about the fact that your friend will be able to experience the deck. And that experience alone is worth more than gaining any reward from ranked play. One could practically test all available decks one after another, and then decide what he/she likes the best.
So, does this sound profitable for Blizzard? People not making mistakes? People not spending gold/cash for decks that they end up hating?
Given that it requires a person to know enough to go to a forum, which elminates 80%+ of the population, and havn't already purchased packs, which isn't how most big spenders operate.
And chances are, when they do play the deck they want, they'll go INSANE wanting to play it RIGHT NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. Thus packs WILL be purchased. More than that, satisfaction after a purchase is a key way to keep a long time player. I'm guessing blizzard gets FAR more money from satisfied customers who stay long enough for the next expansion than folks who buy some cards, regret it, then think that most cards, including expansions, suck.
Tricking customers give short term success. Loyal customers bring long term. Blizzard seems just wiling enough to make loyal addicts, but aren't willing to use tricks just for a quick buck.
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
I always thought a play and pass mode would be good for teaching new players the ropes without the pressure of online play or spending a ton of money.
+1 idea
First I think we should stop underestimating people, this isn't 10 years ago. People know where to find information, especially the young generation. On top of that if such a system would be viable, Blizzard would promote it in some manner - maybe even on their own forums / Blizzard launcher (which you can't ignore in Hearthstone, even if you want to)
Second, how do you become a longtime player, or a "loyal addict" if you can more or less freely test any deck you want on the spot, play 2 or 3 weeks to assemble the chosen deck (assuming it's not Wallet Warrior) and be done after? Where is the carrot on the stick? This doesn't make any sense whatsoever if you want to keep people busy for a year+. With the described system they see and eat the whole cake within weeks, compared to slowly trudging from deck to deck in the span of months.
And the big spenders? The whales? They don't even care about testing anything. If a friend recommends them the game they just buy themselves to the necessary levels without blinking.
@MechBearCat
You're being overly pessimistic about this whole idea. If you can only play with a deck you want against a friend who actually has that deck, you are not going to be satisfied. Even if there will be an online thread on forums (there's a thread for everything) for others trying out your deck, you'll get to play max 2-3 games or so before one of the two players need to switch. And also, it's going to get really, really boring playing the same person over and over again playing the same deck (if this is a mutual agreement to try specific decks). I think the restriction that it has to be against a friend with the deck you want to play does a fine job of keeping it as a trial.
They haven't done that with any feature they eventually added in. There was no promotion about observer mode until it was just about to be added, nor Brawl. The only reason why we know Tournament mode is coming is due to an interview where they commented it while discussing Brawl and I'm sure that was a hidden ad for a feature they are about to add in.
Blizzard has gotten much better in communication than they used to, but they are still..well.. not #1 in it. So the idea of them not promoting the concept even if they think it's viable is very much a possibility. If they think it's not viable, they'll flat out say so like they have new classes or, for some time, new deck slots.
As far as people go, it's not insulting to folks to say they don't dig through forums and guides. We're the 'try hards' of the community. Most play much more casually. They'd rather spend more time on other hobbies, or RL matters, or other games or the other 10000 things you could do instead of reading these forums every day.
Other than spending $2 in the beta, I've fully F2Ped this game. I can make nearly every deck, including Wallet Warrior and I'm not that far from the few decks I can't quite make. But I remember the path it took for me to get here.
When I had no deck to speak of, it took MONTHS to craft any top shelf deck that wasn't a face deck. The first 1st tier deck I went for was Miracle rogue which just took Leeroy and Preparations and that thing took nearly half a YEAR to make, and that's with skipping Bloodmage. Second I made that, I went to next deck, then the next, over the course of my entire time playing HS.
I nearly gave up on the game when I was making BS decks that didn't work. It was NOT doing that and sticking to viable decks I KNEW worked due to figuring out who to watch that kept me going. It was making Miracle, then seeing all of the OTHER top decks that I could make like handlock or healadin (it was good at the time :P). You can only play one deck for so long. You WILL move on and make more decks.
Being able to PLAY a deck in full bloom, but ONLY with that one person and only if they aren't busy isn't going to be enough for anyone. you don't want to play Handlock with ONLY Friend #1. You want to play Handlock to pwn ladder, or every OTHER friend out there, or in a Tournament or a Brawl. You'll play that deck with your friend, then want that deck for yourself.
Thus it won't hurt Blizzard's bottom line. It's a feature that adds to the community without hurting their wallet.
If there's one big issue, it's whether this feature is hard to make on blizzard's side. If it's complicated, then nevermind. If it's not ahrd, though, there's not much reason to not add it.
Besides, whether it benefits blizzard's bottom line is really THEIR job to figure out. We should be wondering if it's going to be useful, cause problems to the community, and how high a priority it should be. Myself I don't see much of an issue if it's kept 'friend to friend that loaned to you'
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
Not sure if I can follow you here. Once it was implemented there was promotion, heavily. The hell man, the quest "Watch and learn" or "Win 5 Brawls" is the best kind of promotion they could have come up with, even if we ignore the usual channels like the launcher or the forums/twitter and whatnot.
So how about a quest called "Taught to play - win 3 games using a loaned deck"? Because either they want to make heavy use of the feature or forget about it to begin with.
There is no need to dig through anything though. This might be a platform for tryhards, but it is also filled to the brim with people who come solely for advice on what their first legendary should be. Again, these are different times - people are 30 seconds away from learning whatever they need to, especially Hearthstone's very young target audience.
Will it be enough to satisfy everyone? Probably not. But what it will certainly do is sate people to a degree. Allow them to try things out before they invest cash or gold, which is both good and bad. Maybe the impatience gets the best of them and they really spend money RIGHT NOW BECAUSE NOW NOW. Or they play through every possible deck and are sated after.
That would be the two options for new players. The old players will just auto-abuse the system as a means to try out a certain legendary before they craft it.
I don't have the numbers, no one has, but I do believe that the majority of Blizzards income comes from the many, many people buying small amounts of content every now and then. An adventure here, an arena entry there. Some packs when you are very close to crafting a legendary.
Whales might shoulder the lion's share in other games like HOTS, where the benefit of spending money is solely cosmetical, but Hearthstone is different in that aspect. That's why there is a constant discussion wether this game is free to play, or pay to have fun, or pay to win, or pay to whatever you want to call it.
Well if this topic is about what I think is useful, sure by any means. If I had anything to say I would go even further and turn this game into a free to play game as people know it from other franchises: I would hand out EVERYTHING for free that isn't purely cosmetic. The whole card collection, all the adventures, the full expansions as they are released. Except for golden cards, golden hero portraits and of course the alternative heroes.
But that won't happen, just like trading cards between players won't happen. I mean the idea is nice, I myself also failed to sell the game to friends because it's daunting as hell if you start now, but there is just no way that Blizzard will introduce a feature that allows people to eat the cake before they "earned" it, be it by time investment or cash. It just doesn't make any sense to me, that's all.
Would be great especially for friends who don't buy packs