Hearthpwn

For me, a comparison of HS to other CGs is moot, because I don't enjoy the others like I do Hearthstone.  I would never argue that HS is cheap, but compared to what other video games [of varying genre and type] offer, Hearthstone is worth considering.

And, as was mentioned by a couple others, AAA titles are finite, so I have to consider not only their initial cost but also the quantity of them I would need to fill the same timeslot as HS.  That brings the overall price of HS more in line with what I already have been spending on other games and entertainment.

Quote from futhead_HarassedGiraffe >>

I have no idea why you're comparing hearth to other genres. Compare it to other tcgs, Hearthstone is extremely expensive...

TLDR:  At what I call the "moderately high end" of Hearthstone, it still only costs $1 per day for essentially unlimited playtime.  I spend more than that on Mountain Dew and coffee.

While explaining economics to my son and why I'm willing to buy for him premium currency and items in some games but not others, I managed to change my mind a lot on how expensive Hearthstone is.

I'll start quickly with a little perspective, since I reached my new conclusion by comparison with other games.

In games like Castle Crush or Clash of Clans, unlocking things with premium currency doesn't ultimately help with the reward system -- they just allow the player to more quickly get to the next paywall.  The game is literally pay to play ... you'll either continually pay with $IRL or with a LOT of time (typically in the form of waiting while unable to even play the game).

In titles like Forza, Fallout, Witcher, Civilization, Mass Effect, DragonAge, etc, purchasing the game allows you to play as much or as little as you want.  There is no paywall.  Granted, there's typically a point where you beat, finish, or just lose interest in the game, but you can still pay once and play ad nauseam.

I don't spend money on games with persistent unavoidable paywalls.

So onto Hearthstone now ...

Prior to each expansion, Blizzard offers a 50-pack pre-order for $50 USD.  During the ~120 days between expansions, players can easily earn 7200g [at 60g per day for wins + daily quests] -- or 72 more packs.  So for $50 every ~3 months, a player can open 122 packs per expansion.  (This is generally enough cards to amass a decent, competitive collection.)

To really feel like you're getting the most out of Hearthstone, I think 180 packs per expansion is a great goal.  That means another $70 USD for 60 more packs.  At a grand total of $120 per ~120, that comes out to $1 per day.  I spend more than that on Mountain Dew and coffee.

Unlike many popular mobile games, Hearthstone has no hard paywall.  The more you win at the game, the more you earn, which makes it easier still to win more games, which makes it easier to -- you get the picture.  If anything, Hearthstone's paywall is very soft, because the alternative to $IRL is to play the game more -- not wait for some arbitrary timer to count down.

Like for-purchase titles, Hearthstone also permits unlimited play.  For me, most of these titles are played out after about 2 months.  At $60 a pop for a AAA title every ~2 months, that comes out to $1 per day -- the same as Hearthstone near its high end.

It's worth noting, I think, that if your entire gaming budget is $1 per day, Hearthstone can monopolize that budget -- whereas spending the budget on for-purchase titles means an entirely new game/experience every couple months.  But if your budget is more than that, Hearthstone may not hurt as much as it initially seems.

I have two accounts (regions).  Each one alternates/staggers which expansion it "mains".  So for this expansion, the one account had almost 15k to burn.  That gives plenty of current cards and enough dust to craft the last expansion's cards still in the meta.  Next expansion, the other region will do the same and become my main for a while.

My biggest issue against Hearthstone is the "bad RNG".  There are too many random cards whose variance is too great.

Firelands Portal might summon a Bomb Squad and lose you the game or a Doomguard/Earth Elemental and win you the game.

Primordial Glyph is another example.  Since it can literally create any Mage spell, it's nearly impossible to play around its result -- especially since [for no apparent reason except because Mage] the new card is also discounted.

As Kripp has pointed out many times, you can play Hearthstone for hours without ever making a meaningful decision due to bad RNG.

I like the idea of synergy picks; I just disagree with what cards they thought were synergistic (they put all the activated cards despite the activators being the important ones).

I'd like to see them bring it back with one list of activators and another of activated ... and then offer once from each list but also at random times.

For me, the real issue is duplicates.

When you open 100 packs (valued $120 USD) and are still missing a dozen rares and most of the epics, despite having a substantial number of duplicates, it really feelsbadman.

Either one of two things would be better, IMO:  (A) we can't open duplicate Rares or Legendaries or (B) duplicates starting at the 3rd d/e for more dust.

Your class is the opponent's class.  Functioning as designed.

EDIT:  For clarity, if you play the DK Hunter card, you become a DK Hunter, thus you are a Hunter -- your opponent's class.

There is only one thing good about this Brawl:  It is Turn 1 OTK all the way, so farming 30 wins for 100g goes by super quick, and you can do whatever the hell else you want, since there is not skill involved.

This is the deck from last week's Brawl.

The whole point of rotating Sylvanas out is so that there is no go to 6-drop.

Stuff like a combo deck killing you from 30 on turn 15 being not okay, but a aggro deck that runs you over on turn 5 is okay. 

What's made worse is how he said removal was bad as it limited plays. So not only does Pirates only lose [card]Sir Finley Mrrgglton[/card] during the rotation thus keeping its turn 4-5 kills with a small STB nerf, but this statement means we are unlikely to get removal to combat aggro decks. 

I don't understand this part of their design philosophy.  Aggro is by far the most frustrating thing to fight against.  Combo is how skilled players win.

If they're so paranoid about combos being "unfun" to the recipient once the combo gets set up, ADD MORE CARDS that allow the other player to preemptively break the combo.  Dirty rat is a great example of a great card you made that can screw over combo decks.  Loetheb is another perfect example, when a well timed use can completely disrupt an opponent's plan.

Make more of these cards!  A card that makes an opponent discard or return cards to their deck.  A card that inhibits the ability to summon.  A card that negates battlecries.  An evil Thaurassian that increases the mana cost of cards in the opponent's hand.  More stuff like that.  Because nothing is more frustrating to a combo player than when they spend the whole game setting up their combo only for it to fall apart.

Stop driving the meta towards dumb aggro decks because your design team hates combos.  It has run the game into the dirt.

"Currently, experimentation is underway with more expensive minions that are harder to use in combos"

Like giant dinosaurs? 

Customizable tournament creator tool:

one of the cool aspects of tcgs is banlists and sealed formats, some players like firebat make some tournaments where they ban all random cards, while other players complain about legendaries so they could make their pauper or dust limited tournaments,

Options

 options would range from limiting the minimum and maximum dust needed for a deck to flatout banning cards,  or limiting the amount of particular cards per deck ie: limiting fiery war axe to 1 per deck, this could be used to really creative extents, like a tournament where decks can't have humanoids or cutthroat highlander; highlander only decks with Reno banned.

 Expansion/adventure Sealed would also be an option: Maybe someone wants a tournament  Mixing, Classic, Naxx, TGT, and MSG but doesn't want to allow cards from other expansions, or maybe someone is super nostalgic and makes a tournament with only the basic and the classic sets.

And adding some other custom and for fun optional rules like  decks being autorefill or being able to use the brawl rules of the week, or No neutral cards allowed, every type of player would get their fair share of stuff, competitive players could make tournaments without random stuff and more casual players could ban cards they consider irksome or make tavern brawl tournaments with Flamewaker banned or limited to 1 per deck.

Format:

Players would also be choose if their tournament was wild or standard format, maybe someone would like to see how the 4 drops in the wild competitive scene would be with Piloted Shredder banned.

 Mode: 

well to make things easy and smooth,  the tournaments should follow elimination rules, like the last Hearthstone world tournament,

but players would also be able to choose, between single duel elimination,  Conquest match   or Last man standing type of tournament, the later two, with 3 to 5 different classes.

and of course the class ban pick featured in hearthstone tournaments would be an optional rule as well

Custom Saveable templates:

to avoid having to set-up all the things when creating your tournament, players could create their own tournament template which they could quickly access in the  tournament creator tool.

Pre-made templates:

The tournament tool would also have some pre-made templates readily avaliable for players wanting to set-up a quick tournament:

Cutthroat Highlander: highlander only decks with Reno banned.

Pauper: Only basics, commons and rares allowed.

Hearthstone 3k: Decks can't surpass the 3000 dust cost

Couch Potato: No adventure cards allowed.

Treasure Trove: Only Rares, Epics and Legendaries allowed.

Twin blades: All cards in the deck must be duplicates.

Tricadecaphobia: you make a deck of 17 cards and the last 13 will be auto-refill based in your collection and the tournament rules.

 Modifiable  entry Fee:

the player creating a tournament would also have the possibility to add a gold fee to enter his tournament and the gold invested by players would go to a prize pool that would be earned by the first three places,however leaving the option to not set a fee in case he just wants to play a casual tournament with friends after all a 0 entry fee would mean a 0 gold earning,

Security: 

As for security players would be able to make tournaments public avaliable(anyone can enter), invitation only (only players he invited to the tournament may join and he'd be able to give  the tournament participants permission to invite other players, players can only invite players who have been in their friend lists for at least 3 weeks to avoid rookie abusing), or Password restricted.

Abuse avoiding:

To avoid possible abuses, players who want to join a tournament or are invited to one would be able to see a tooltip of the tournament with all the rules stabilished by that particular tournament plus the entry fee and would get to decide between joining the tournament or politely declining the invitation.

In addition Players who entered a tournament with an entry fee higher than 20 gold would not be able to be spectated during any match of that particular tournament.

Extra options: In the hearthstone's options menu you can toggle the option to not be able to be challenged by friends, there would also be a toggle option that either auto-decline tournament invitations or flat out didn't let other players invite you to tournaments , 

The tournament invitation blocking tool could also have adjustable range: ie: auto-decline invitations to tournaments with entry fees that are higher/lower than X gold.

after all some players may just be looking for a quick game during a work break or may not like tournaments.