Ben Brode Asks: What Does the Community Desire to Hear From Developers
Today on Twitter, Hearthstone's Lead Designer, Ben Brode, asked the community what we wanted to hear from the developers with regard to game-stuff in the pipeline which has not been finalized.
So, do you want to see the team talking about stuff that might not make it live?
Bonus question: What other topics would you like to see the devs talk about that they aren't already pursuing?
Quote from Ben BrodeMr. Brode you have been a bit too quiet for a while. You gotta go on reddit and respond to some posts there ^^ (Source)
I did a bunch of posting last week, but it's been especially busy recently. Hoping to chat a lot next week!It's interesting. When I post "been thinking about doing A. Also, we are not considering B", people say 'you said nothing'. (Source)
I wonder if folks would rather we wait until we decide whether or not to do A, and just announce when we are doing it. (Source)
When we haven't decided a course of action yet, what type of communication do folks want to hear? (Source)
Community Feedback
Members of the Hearthstone community conversed on Twitter with Ben to discuss the issue.
Quote from Ben BrodeI think the problem isn't what you say, it's the timing. Feels like you're mainly responding when complaints are at critical mass (Source)
Things can sometimes reach critical mass quickly. Purify was revealed on Friday night and we responded on Monday, for example.
I think that's more of a symptom of the problem though. We are told "wait for the answer, it's gonna be sweet" then bam purify
But community will sometimes be wrong/unreasonable. Much of the purify outrage was how everyone joined in. a bonding experience :p
The fact that this video came out only 2 days after Purify was revealed was pretty awesome :).'thinking' and 'operating' are the operative words here. I think people want something more concrete and substantial. (Source)
I agree - does that mean we shouldn't be discussing our thoughts about things until we actually make a change?
Absolutely not. I personally enjoy the more speculative and suggestive interviews for what is to come. Keep up the good work :)I guess people would just be happy with a future insight of whats going to happen to hearthstone so they could hype about it (Source)
What if we don't know for sure what's coming until it's very close? For example, tavern brawls changed a ton during development
Dip your toe in, give it a shot with something you are considering as a team right now and see how it fairs.
We do that and it hasn't been going perfect. "it's on our radar" is basically a meme at this point.
Use words that affirm intentions and inspire faith in your community.
It's okay to admit to making a mistake, it's okay to balance cards... just tell us, and be decisive about it.Hey ben, just wondering if having a ptr was ever considered for HS? could get a lot of good feedback on cards before they go live (Source)
I think launching a "solved" environment on day 1 is a pretty big downside of that
By that do you mean that you can't fully test the effects of cards in the test environment?
I mean that if people are testing on the ptr, then the new set loses a lot of excitement of exploration on day 1
Shouldn't necessarily be new sets, I think those balance changes when Standard came out could use PTR testing
Testing the nerfs in isolation without the new set wouldn't have given valuable info, I'm afraid.Announcing a time line is highly appreciated. Nothing feels longer than waiting for update A, maybe to happen, within unknown time. (Source)
Yeah one of the problems with timelines is we often don't know until QA and our platform partners give a thumbs up to release
I didn't downvote now I did after you asked you are welcome :)
What's funny is that Team 5 seem to know less about card design than the average Hearthpwner. I mean, compare the Karazhan cards to those in the Hearthpwn card design competitions. Which ones would you rather play with? The latter, hands down. More creative, more tactical, more balanced, more flavourful.
Oh well, I can't play with the card design competition cards, but there's always Elder Scrolls Legends...
Yea sure a lot of the cards seem nice and flavorful to you in theory, but you have a very poor view of how things would pan out in reality. You don't know how the actual balance of the cards will turn out, furthermore you don't know if an increasingly complicated card pool will thin the population by becoming to difficult for new players to learn, and a shrinking population is certainly not what the game needs. The point is, a lot more goes into the decisions and direction of the game than the silly little comparison you made, and you should try to understand that
I want to see the announcement of a core set for standard 2017 instead of the evergreen classic basic. Or at least for Ben to offer his thoughts on the idea.
LoE ;_; ;_; ;_;
Ben must become a politician!He has mastered the art of saying absolutely thing with a lot of words!
What does the community desire? Make tunnel trogg a 1/2 that gains 1 attack every time an overload card is played, Totem Golem a 3/3, Tuskar Totemic only summon random basic totems and 4mana 7/7 a 4 mana 5/5. Also make Cotw a 10 mana card. So maybe then 50% of the meta won't be shaman and hunters getting carried by retarded op cards.
Tunnel Trogg should gain +1 attack everytime an overload card is played, but no changes to it's stat line.
4 mana 7/7 ok, but with 3 overload. CoTW should cost at least 9 mana (10 is too much)
call of the wild cant be changed to 9 mana because thats 3 turns for hunter where he has no strong plays and no board =no win
That way if shaman would want to play this card he is forced into playing lava shock or the new 2 drop.. it's ok I think..
but the 4 mana 7/7 isn't the reason why shaman is that strong..
another nerf would be to reintroduce BGH.. at 4 mana I would play it.
I don't like shaman, but you don't come close to speaking for the community
Yeah I'm sure you love that 50% shaman/hunter meta....
Totem Golem is not fine, there are no 2-drop that trades with it. There are no spell that cost 2 in any class that kills it, except for warrior. It goes 2for1 with every 2drop and spell in the game, heck there are barely any 3-drop that can kill it aswell. That's the definition of broken. But judging by all the downvote I got all the people that never played shaman before all this crap and that play it now to get their sweet little T6 victory are not ready to see this atrocity nerf and a sane meta emerge.
Shadow Word: Pain
Haha please...
Faster reaction to problems.. if a specific card/bunch of cards are problematic for a long time you need to act faster.. I think yogg should be excluded from standard ASAP that card can't be a competitive card! random is sometimes strategy but yogg random is absurd how random it is.. you build a strategy, a board only for it to be dismantled by rng? it's stupid..
Same for tuskarr it's an EASY fix "summon only basic totems" that way you can control his value easily and the card is still balanced and it's more skilled since if you want a specific totem you use it before hero power and then you have higher chance of say.. SD totem.
The issue with totemic granting only basic totems is that then you chop off the high end results that make it a 3 mana card, with no control of which totem you get, that makes it possible to get a totem that is conpletely worthless to the situation. On the 3 high rolls, you get a spider tank, a free draw, or a minon booster that will eat an attack. If i can't get any of those playing totemic, then totemic should cost 2, because shaman hero power is the least reliable one in the game. Sure it has okay totems, but you have no control over which one you get.
You have my respect!
"I think yogg should be excluded from standard ASAP that card can't be a competitive card! random is sometimes strategy but yogg random is absurd how random it is.. you build a strategy, a board only for it to be dismantled by rng? it's stupid.."
Thats what everyone that knows a bit how2play wants! Instead of retarded RNG