Well, I played wild until I reached Platinum rank and from there forward all I see are 3 decks, Secret Mage, Zoo Self-Damage Warlock and Resurrect Big Priest.
All the cards in the world made available and people just netdeck and play 3 decks. Why people buy packs with real money for if they end up using a very small limited pool of them?
I realize that am probably exaggerating things but playing Wild just proved to be the same as Standard. People netdecking with no promise of experimenting and making their own homebrewed decks. I am curious what happens with the physical TCG, if they too experience netdecking
Rant over.
Well, people suck the fun out of games because the vast vajority of them play only to win.
Let me give you an equivalent: Back when we were kids, my friends and I used to play an amazing (for its time) soccer game on the SNES, Kick Off 3. It had an amazing depth of play, really complicated combinations, a cool dribbling system and challenging AI...
Until we found a glitch. You could press the high cross button from a specific area around the center of the field and it would fly straight to the goal, 100% score chance without fail. The game soon devolved to who can get to the center in the right location and abuse this more times within the match limit. I tried to impose a no-glitch rule but the other kids lost their interest in the game and eventually gravitated to other ones. Why? Because without it they had no chance of beating my best friend and me who played more hours and thus could play better.
It's the same reason why 90% of soccer fans are with the top teams. People don't like to lose even when they don't play themselves.
Physical TCG used to be way better than this, (bar magic, which was more "serious" and people had the same shitty philosophy). The reason was they were ridiculously expensive, especially when you were <18 years old. You could not collect everything nor predict the way the meta would evolve (and there were not a lot of balance changes because it was difficult to do), so you usually picked a hero/faction/class or whatever the game had and you mained it. Everyone played different shit/what they liked, and it wasn't always competitive. In Hearthstone terms, everyone knew the others by deck, and few people had more than 3-4 real decks. You were the "Galvadon dude" or the "Barnabus main". In tournaments people from other areas would come and you could see in hearthstone terms matchups like Murlock Warlock VS spell damage Hunter. And guess what: It was awesome.
Nowadays, you only have 1 way out: To have a good amount of RL firends or internet friends decent enough to have an understanding amongst you and play a game the way you want to. Otherwise, all games devolve into maximum-efficiency play to win crap, no fun allowed, no experimentation, nothing. See what happened to Overwatch. That's why Blizzard try to make it into a PvE experience so that people can actually pick their playstyle and hero and still win.
This is a wonderful explanation. You're absolutely right, this is the genuine problem with Hearthstone. You're no longer playing to have fun, you're playing to win. You stick with whatever's best each season because you want to hit higher ranks, not because you like the deck.
Players want to get rewards from having fun, not from winning. It's interesting to notice how the most popular games ever - things like CounterStrike, Fortnite, Fall Guys, Among Us, Smash Bros, Minecraft, and MtG - ALL of them follow this principle. The question is, could Hearthstone ever somehow lose this mentality? Because if it could, unfun-but-powerful decks would just die out because no one would want to play them. Ranked mode, the mode that pushes players to run those most-powerful decks, would need to change into something similar to above-mentioned MtG tournaments - not rewarding you for winning, but for interest, curiosity, and experimentation. The hearthstone meta would completely disappear. I think its possible. And necessary.
Just give everyone the monthly ranked rewards for playing 5 games each month and see what happens. Rankings would only matter in high-level Legend rank and you would only play ranked for maximum xp gain (which is time-based, and would be changed to not be win-based, so you don't need to play aggro nor care too much for your winrate). And that's it. But then, many people would lose motivation to play the mode, so that's a double-edged sword. And for the record, MtG tournaments are usually also an unfun top-tier show-off; that's always the case when rewards are involved. It really only is casual modes that are different.
I don't have high hopes for ladder to ever change into what you describe, but I would be happy to see this or more variety in general. My only reason to switch to non-tier decks is to finish achievements (so that's at least a tiny step in the right direction) or to play something completely weird for fun (Academic Espionage is still my favorite care in the game, drawing 1 mana DK Jaina is just too stupid), but I am no different in that I like winning.
I don't have anything productive to add to this discussion, so I would like to share with you my legendary-only decklist that won me a game at D5 against quest shaman yesterday and leave a big fat LOL. New meta incoming, Feugen is really good against the current top tier lists.
# Class: Priest # Format: Wild # # 1x (1) Sir Finley Mrrgglton # 1x (2) Zephrys the Great # 1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos # 1x (3) Zola the Gorgon # 1x (3) Tinkmaster Overspark # 1x (3) SN1P-SN4P # 1x (3) Brann Bronzebeard # 1x (3) Auctionmaster Beardo # 1x (4) Kazakus # 1x (4) Archmage Vargoth # 1x (5) Stalagg # 1x (5) Raza the Chained # 1x (5) Loatheb # 1x (5) High Abbess Alura # 1x (5) Harrison Jones # 1x (5) Feugen # 1x (5) Elise the Trailblazer # 1x (6) The Black Knight # 1x (6) Sylvanas Windrunner # 1x (6) Reno Jackson # 1x (6) Kronx Dragonhoof # 1x (6) Emperor Thaurissan # 1x (7) Soul Mirror # 1x (7) Galakrond, the Unspeakable # 1x (7) Dr. Boom # 1x (7) Baron Geddon # 1x (8) The Lich King # 1x (8) Shadowreaper Anduin # 1x (8) Ragnaros the Firelord # 1x (9) Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
Of course, everyone is playing the highest winrate/fastest decks to climb in a system that rewards fast climbing. But you can't really do anything about that with the current rewards system. I stop climbing at D5 because idgaf about the last pack.
Btw, nerf secret mage ffs.
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Just give everyone the monthly ranked rewards for playing 5 games each month and see what happens. Rankings would only matter in high-level Legend rank and you would only play ranked for maximum xp gain (which is time-based, and would be changed to not be win-based, so you don't need to play aggro nor care too much for your winrate). And that's it. But then, many people would lose motivation to play the mode, so that's a double-edged sword. And for the record, MtG tournaments are usually also an unfun top-tier show-off; that's always the case when rewards are involved. It really only is casual modes that are different.
I don't have high hopes for ladder to ever change into what you describe, but I would be happy to see this or more variety in general. My only reason to switch to non-tier decks is to finish achievements (so that's at least a tiny step in the right direction) or to play something completely weird for fun (Academic Espionage is still my favorite care in the game, drawing 1 mana DK Jaina is just too stupid), but I am no different in that I like winning.
I don't have anything productive to add to this discussion, so I would like to share with you my legendary-only decklist that won me a game at D5 against quest shaman yesterday and leave a big fat LOL. New meta incoming, Feugen is really good against the current top tier lists.
# Class: Priest
# Format: Wild
#
# 1x (1) Sir Finley Mrrgglton
# 1x (2) Zephrys the Great
# 1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos
# 1x (3) Zola the Gorgon
# 1x (3) Tinkmaster Overspark
# 1x (3) SN1P-SN4P
# 1x (3) Brann Bronzebeard
# 1x (3) Auctionmaster Beardo
# 1x (4) Kazakus
# 1x (4) Archmage Vargoth
# 1x (5) Stalagg
# 1x (5) Raza the Chained
# 1x (5) Loatheb
# 1x (5) High Abbess Alura
# 1x (5) Harrison Jones
# 1x (5) Feugen
# 1x (5) Elise the Trailblazer
# 1x (6) The Black Knight
# 1x (6) Sylvanas Windrunner
# 1x (6) Reno Jackson
# 1x (6) Kronx Dragonhoof
# 1x (6) Emperor Thaurissan
# 1x (7) Soul Mirror
# 1x (7) Galakrond, the Unspeakable
# 1x (7) Dr. Boom
# 1x (7) Baron Geddon
# 1x (8) The Lich King
# 1x (8) Shadowreaper Anduin
# 1x (8) Ragnaros the Firelord
# 1x (9) Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
Of course, everyone is playing the highest winrate/fastest decks to climb in a system that rewards fast climbing. But you can't really do anything about that with the current rewards system. I stop climbing at D5 because idgaf about the last pack.
Btw, nerf secret mage ffs.