Blizzard quickly responded to the community outrage on social media by issuing an official statement, indicating that they will reduce the requirements for "most" quests while maintaining the XP gained. They plan to release the first hotfix this Friday, although it's unlikely to include changes to these quests. Is this a good step in the right direction?
Quote from BlizzardYesterday, Patch 29.2 went live with some changes to Weekly Quests, making them harder to complete but grant more XP. We had seen that many players routinely completed their Weekly Quests through their regular play, without even really engaging with the Weekly Quest system. Our aim with the adjustments was to give all our players goals to play towards, and to reward our most engaged players (who would likely still complete the Weekly Quests without too much difficulty) for their commitment to the game.
But we’ve heard your feedback and it's clear that we pushed too far.
We want to reward players for their additional efforts, not make those rewards outside of their reach. That’s why we’re putting together an unscheduled hotfix patch scaling most of the Weekly Quest requirements back down to a number between what they were before and what they are now. We’ll keep the additional XP where it is. We’ll have more information on the timing of this unscheduled hotfix soon, but it will be in addition to our first scheduled hotfix that is already planned for this Friday.
There might be some weird effects of this scaling down of Quest requirements. When you login, for instance, you might see a Weekly Quest over 100% completion. If that happens, it should get cleared up after you play a game and progress that particular Quest once more.
Thanks for your feedback on this update. We look forward to hearing how the changes feel after these adjustments.
Can't help to think that this was the intended change all along they just brought it up even higher just to push it back and make it sound like a positive thing while its still being a pretty hefty nerf in the time it takes to complete the weekly quests compared to prior to these changes.
Because lets face it they would get alot of complaints if they did it like this in the first place aswell.
Well well well they did something bad for the game and fixed pretty fast.
let's see what the fix is.
For +20% XP, it should be Win 6 ranked games.
I bet it will be 10.
Well, this pretty much goes to show what kind of game Hearthstone is. Or at least how a lot if not most people play it.
I personally always just go for random fun stuff and if there's something I like I wouldn't hesitate to spend money on the game. After all a lot of people did amazing work for all the audio and visual effects and so much more.
But most people don't seem to care. Or rather they only care about how much stuff they can get for free* because that seems to be the only thing they care about.
This F2P model is something I really dislike about Hearthstone. It could be such an amazing game but... for example every now and then I go up against someone that like only plays Rush minions or only weapons... "They're not even really playing the game!" Except of course they do. Just not how I would like it to be. But seriously; I obviously just concede. What am I supposed to do with that? Games like that are no fun. And all just because there are "quests" that reward in-game resources which people just rush to get instead of playing the actual game.
I really wonder why those people are even playing the game. Is grinding this game something like a day job for them or so? I don't quite get it. You probably need to grind for like a month and then you might be able to play one type of cool deck for like a day or two and then it's back to grinding. Or rather you kind of have to do it all the time anyways; "juggling your quests around" and whatnot. When do you even have the time to play with what you actually want to play? Once in a blue moon or what? I can't even imagine how someone can have fun like that.
And this is what so many people care so much about? This is how a lot of people play this game? Where trying to get the most free* stuff is the most important thing in this game? What is this? Like "Bli$$ard is so greedy!" and "We must capitalize and take advantage of every little free thing they give to us because otherwise greedy Bli$$ard will become even greedier!" ... Seriously; how about you play or buy less if you don't like how they handle things. Instead it seems to be all about "How can I 'scam' them the most with the stuff they 'foolishly' hand out for free*" or something like that. Why is that so important? I don't even know anymore.
This is exactly why I wish there would be more social options. I'm pretty sure there are many like me out there but instead I'm here and I feel like about everyone is just super spiteful and want to like "have revenge" on Blizzard because they're like "so greedy". It's almost like people want to hate on Blizzard. I just would like to have fun and... yeah, I guess I really shouldn't come here. I actually even recently posted here on the new friends thread but of course nothing happened. I also rarely look there to be honest. It seems like this place is not so much about that. But what other place? Official Blizzard forums? Reddit? ... I really wish there would be good social options in-game. Instead there you can also just try to add random strangers. Where can you actually find people to play with? Probably nowhere.
Because I think this once again is yet another proof that indeed Hearthstone is not a game to socialize and have fun with people/friends. It could be. It really could be. But instead we have this. More free* stuff or in this case I suppose it's not as much free* stuff "taken away" from us. Oh wow, yeah, exactly what I wanted. Thank you. Thank you very much, Hearthstone community. (If it can even be called that.) [I guess I'm happy for those people that do care and they seem to be a lot. But for someone like me seeing such an outrage about something so seemingly irrelevant is just very disheartening.]
Feel free to preface every sentence in this post with "I think..." :)
Whilst I don't think you're entirely wrong, I think the issue is a bit more than "Reward X costs more than it used to".
If the people -here- are feeling disenfranchised, think about those players for whom the gold rewards are essential for building a collection. They're not being petty or entitled, they're now going to find it -much- harder to play competitively. So why bother? Why not play Slay the Spire instead?
We used to have a good relationship with Blizzard. Sure, they'd make mistakes but there was always the feeling that they -were- mistakes and that Blizzard wanted us to enjoy the game. We grew used to that symbiotic relationship, especially as (to us) it seemed to be working. The release an expansion, we buy it, gripe about balance, they tweak the balance, they release a new expansion ... and round and round we go.
It just feels like things have got less sympathetic very, very quickly. It's as if a new boss has come in and started turning the screw on us (endless overpriced content in the store, shuttering of Duels, inconsistency of Twist, reduction of rewards) and we're looking around, going "Huh? Where did the nice people go? I don't understand."
In my opinion, the rate of change has been too quick and too consistently antagonistic to the players.
Interesting you specifically mentioned Slay the Spire. Over the years I also asked myself that question a few times where I indeed was then mostly playing Slay the Spire for quite some time. Especially since there's a mod now that allows you to make your own custom cards without needing to know how to mod the game yourself. I made hundred of custom HS-themed cards. What I like most about Slay the Spire is how you can quickly adjust your deck and how much variety it can offer. In particular it's also how it uses a draw and discard pile and that you redraw your entire hand each turn. This makes everything so much more interesting. Even some otherwise maybe rather dull strategies become much more interesting this way. I remember a Tavern Brawl like this once. They even repeated it a few times. But not in like over 5 years or so. What is it this week? Blood magic where everyone just tries to OTK the other? Yeah, that sounds more like modern Hearthstone! lol
I mean yeah, it's basically about this:
Well, for me personally it's not about playing "competitively" and that's the biggest difference to the average player I suppose. Why bother? Because it's still fun to just play (like without needing to win)? Like literally Discovering new ways and strategies to play the game? And on top it looks and feels awesome (great audio and visuals).
I mean just think of a traditional game like MTG. You don't get anything for free* in that game. Maybe I'm thinking too much about it this way, but I mean it's true. If Hearthstone had more and better options to socialize and find friends to have fun with in friendly games then... but yeah, it is not like that and also they seem to be going pretty much the opposite direction. And this is the reason I don't seeing this at all. I would rather like more social options than free* stuff I don't really care about whatsoever.
But yes, I recognize that indeed the vast majority of players are just that "competitive" and with that the outrage is justified and it's great for them it had an effect. It's just that... yeah, I wish there would be more people that just play for fun like me. That's basically what I wanted to say I think.
Because when I log into Hearthstone I want to play the decks I've built and that I think are fun. I don't want to play a deck with only miniaturize minions because a weekly quest requires me to, that is not fun and it interferes with my goal to get legend every month, which already can take the better part of that month.
100% this
I want to play the way -I- want to play, not the way you want me to.
The daily quests should be those "Play X number of cards", that way if you don't like it you can just reroll it and if you can't it's not a hard quest to complete. Having it for weekly quests just funnels you into playing something you don't want to do that's much harder to complete than dailies.
This Blizzard comment is very "eat your cake and have it" and I think it is very misleading ... why?
Well, Weekly Quests inherently DO NOT require active engagement with the Quest system to complete them ... consider the following Weekly Quests:
Do 400 damage to enemy heroes
or ... Spend 750 mana
or ... win 5 (now 10) games
You do not have to engage with the quest system ... you just have to actually play the game ... what does Blizzard want? Want me to play WITHOUT spending mana or NOT damaging the opponent or NOT winning (i.e. conceding asap because the opponent might concede faster)? You cannot inherently ask for active engagement when the quests require you to do standard things.
Now, DAILY quests DO have active engagement, e.g.
Add Nozdormu to your deck on the 15th of each month
Play a specific class ... etc.
Don't like 'em ... reroll 'em ... that is active engagement.
Granted ... each expansion there is ONE Weekly Quest that is related to the expansion itself, in this case play Miniaturize (I don't count the play Battlecry cards, there are soooo many of those, any deck is bound to have a couple ... even all spell decks because you generate minions in hand that could have Battlecries) ... just how "fun" this expansion-specific quest is depends on how "good" the expansion specific cards are ... i.e., it was super easy to play titans or infuse cards or tradeable cards etc. because there were good options for all classes to add those to their decks.
The one interactive element is to reroll that specific Weekly Quest if you don't like it ...
I hate this twisted reasoning that Blizzard has used to change Weekly Quests ... that they change it, I'm okay with ... just don't spout stupid bullSh*t.
Is there a term when someone makes you a ridiculously lowball offer, so that their next bad offer doesn't seem so bad in comparison?
It's called "anchoring."
Thanks, sounds like what's going on.
It's a sales tactic as well: name an initial price that's way too high/unrealistic and then the subsequent lower price seems more reasonable. My salesman father called this "getting your foot in the door".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique
They basically increased the requirements and then put it "on sale". I logged in yesterday and saw I needed to WIN 15 ranked games in order to get that xp. I'm either theory crafting decks that on average don't perform as well as others or Whizbang. Like they said above, we're getting punished for playing the game the way we want.
I really don't understand it. Why don't create chained quests, like in events? For example, "win X ranked games" quest would be split into 3 parts:
"Win 3 ranked games" – 1200xp. Upon completion next quest pops up: "Win 3 ranked games" – 1000xp. Upon completion last step pops up: "win 3 ranked games" – 800xp.
Well, you can toy with numbers obv, but this change will eliminate frustration to those players, who are struggling even now – with this system they can guarantee to earn at least something, and not stuck at 8/10 on saturday, realizing that on sunday they will not be able to play, thus not receiving anything at all.
Was thinking something like this too. I can barely handle the 5 wins a week, 15 is overkill. I understand rewarding commited players, but killed the rewards for the casual ones in the process.
An alternative to chained quests could be a button to "hard modeify"/"turn epic"/"level up" a quest, that triples the requirements and doubles the reward. No way to "level down" of course and no way to reroll it once transformed. This way you can choose which quests to go hard and which ones to go chill. Ex: if you are a standard boi, you can level up the 5 classic matches one to 15, and leave bgs one on 5, etc.
I predicted this announcement in a comment yesterday. Good to see movement in the right direction. I have to say though, I am always a little confused by comments on how Blizz is just making a money grab or is greedy. Of course they are making money grabs - they’re a business. Hearthstone exists to make money. The real issue I think is 1) communication and 2) how dramatic some of these profit-driven changes are. It would be like if McDonalds’s sales were slumping, so they decided to change the price of a burger from $5 to $20 overnight. No one would want to buy a burger because they don’t feel like that new price is the “value”. If Blizz wanted to really up the quest requirements, doing so incrementally over time would FEEL less egregious (though the ultimate impact would be the same). I’m surprised they don’t have a PR or Communications team that is flagging some of these changes as poor community relations.
It’s nice to see that the community can have an impact though if we all come to a consensus on something.
I always thought the outrage about blizzard was exaggerated. Now I understand it's holistically justifiable, this company constantly screws over it's customers without any morals or emotions holding them back. The top will make the entire company squeeze it's playerbase dry while in the process evaporating any residue of respect or trust that is left. Shameless. Just the fact that they even did this should be enough to make most of us quit, however most can't because we are addicted and have spent way too much already..