Blizzard Rethinking Wild Pack Purchases
Ben Brode was out on reddit this evening and stated the Hearthstone team has been thinking about allowing pack purchases for Wild content due to their additional focus on the gamemode this year. Unfortunately, they aren't ready to say anything else right now.
The thread, "Why can't we buy Wild packs?" has been a question since Standard became a thing back in 2016. Unfortunately, nothing has been said about Adventure content but we can only hope that they too returns should packs for Goblins vs Gnomes and The Grand Tournament make a comeback to the shop.
Quote from Ben BrodeWe've been rethinking our stance on this with our additional focus on Wild this year. Will update you as we have more concrete information.
You're not too wrong, but it's always nice to have the option, and if you actually have 100% of all standard decks but only 80% of GvG and TGT, it's still better to go directly for those if you are lucky.
Options are good, removing the packs (and worse, ADVENTURES) from the store was a mistake in the first place, better late than never.
I think it's a good idea.
With physical card games, sets which cycle out go out of print, but with digital you can keep having them listed if need be.
Just make sure to stick a big ol disclaimer next to them so people don't buy them and start whining.
It would be good
Here's my question: If they bring back Wild packs for a set such as GVG, should they cost less than current (standard) packs?
My belief is that they should cost less, to make it easier for newer players to get into Wild. If a current pack is 100 gold, a Wild Pack could be sold for 75 gold, giving you three packs for the cost of two. If they're generous and serious about Wild, they should make them half price - 50 gold. Buying them for real money should scale the same way as buying for gold, 25-50% off. While this might frustrate some players who spent a lot of resources on those packs, it would also mean cheaper dust for veteran players, and the chance to finish older sets. And since you're only getting to use them in "half the constructed formats," half price seems fair.
Personally I'd buy the big pack bundle of GvG at those prices, even though I have much of the set, just for Golden cards, missing Legends, and the dust to craft Un'Goro cards!
Cheers!
I personally think that having half price packs wold be reasonable only if the dust from the cards in those packs was worth less. Obviously it would be great to get half price dust but theres no way Blizzard would make it easier to stockpile dust for new expansions.
So you want wild to die out?
I don't own the first 2 expansions because they cycled out when I started and I definitely wont buy for increased price the packs are over priced atm. I want to play wild but I don't because its impossible to obtain all the cards. This is a digital card game not physical the value of your collection will not increase with time. All games lower in cost with time not increase.
Here's a counter-point: if Wild Packs are cheaper, paying more for Standard almost becomes "early access," and the people who want to try the new cards first will gravitate towards Standard. Casual and Budget players might feel more welcome in Wild where the cost is lower, but this isn't a bad thing: a lot of people are frustrated about not being able to keep up with the high cost of Standard, so they'd have the option of waiting. Keep in mind that the time from a set releases until it rotates into Wild is roughly 18 months, so it isn't like people who play actively could just wait a few weeks and then buy the cards for half price. A wait of nearly two years is significant.
I'll certainly grant that the idea of having cheaper packs in Wild has pros and cons, but I think it largely benefits newer players who are interested in older sets but don't get "full use" out of those cards, and thus wouldn't be willing to pay full price.
That happens with toys and collectibles because they're no longer being made. This doesn't hold true for HS, since it is a digital product. Once a set of Magic Cards has been out of print for a few years, pack prices go up because they become scarce. It is lack of availability, not age, that drives the cost up. As a digital card game, if Hearthstone sells ten thousand packs, they don't have to take any action or incur any additional costs before selling ten thousand more.
Cheers!
I agree with the third paragraph, to have easy to get into Standard decks and be competitive.
I think there needs to be more opportunities to gain dust, as well as to obtain gold. Training new players myself, the biggest barrier is obtaining cards, especially from Classic and the new sets
This is a digital game, so no need to "create collectibles" unless they "Gold Packs" - all gold cards. Other than hurting Blizzard's bottom line, packs at lower cost with the same dust conversion is great. What this should do more of is challenge Blizzard to create more ways to engage players, outside of Ladder and one daily quest, and a weekly tavern brawl.
Offtopic: I'd love for a robust mentoring program, such as a daily per week with your Mentee/mentor, and earning quests with them. That'd be nice
Why? Everything is completly ok...
Whats wrong with the login rewards and crafting costs. Hearthstone actually gives a ton of valuable log in rewards for a big company game and the crafting costs are pretty important to make sure people can't just play the entire game for free right off the bat. Hearthstone is free to play, not free. I do however totally hate legendary quests. I got to craft two fun decks with 50 packs and I'm a long time player.
Wild packs should be available at a reduced price.
They'd have to reduce the amount of dust the packs gave, or create something like "wild dust". Otherwise, players looking to accumulate more dust would always just buy the reduced cost wild packs over the full price packs, which I doubt Blizzard wants.
NAXXRAMAS !!!!
Why not put all the Wild cards in one pack? That way new players don't have to go through hundreds of TGT packs just to get the few good cards from that expansion.
Side note. Make casual game mode so that all players can play with all the cards regardless if they own them, so they can test out and see if they wanted to craft the cards.
Don't think Blizzard would ever do this. They would make so much less money as a lot of people would just play this mode and never buy packs.
^^^
Blizzard would be forced to closed the hearthstone servers eventually.