Update 8:58 PM EDT: Added some strings.
Buying Arcane Dust? Blizzard Gets Around Loot Box Regulations in China
This evening a new patch hit the Hearthstone CDN for the Chinese servers. Included in this patch are some minor text adjustments and an interesting couple of new images which change the store over to a "purchase Arcane Dust" mode.
This is very likely only to ever be China only change.
- It has been confirmed that players in China now purchase Dust from the in-game shop.
- Upon purchase of Arcane Dust, players receive a gift from Blizzard with Card Packs equal to the amount of Arcane Dust Purchased.
- This is to get around the new gambling laws (see speculation section below) surrounding loot boxes in games.
Thanks to nobravery for the image provided via iyingdi.com.
Datamined Images
A new file for the StoreSwitchButtons was added which contains a CN suffix. This is usually an indicator that this image is only going to be used on clients which connect to the Chinese server. This file has an Arcane Dust Jar button in the usual spot for the button for card packs (see difference below).
In addition to this image, a StoreFrontIcon was also added for Dust to match the button above.
New Strings
There's some great new strings available.
Quote from HearthPwn
- GLUE_CHINA_STORE_BOOSTER_GIFT - Gift:\n{0} Packs
- GLUE_CHINA_STORE_WELCOME_BUNDLE_GIFT_1 - Gift:\n\n10 Packs
- GLUE_CHINA_STORE_WELCOME_BUNDLE_GIFT_2 - 1 Legendary Card
- GLUE_STORE_PRODUCT_DETAILS_HEADLINE_DUST - Dust Bundles:
- GLUE_STORE_PRODUCT_NAME_DUST
- {0} |4(Dust,Dust) with {1} {2} Gift |4(Pack,Packs)
- 0=quantity of dust, 1=quantity of packs, 2=pack type
- GLUE_STORE_PRODUCT_DETAILS_FIRST_PURCHASE_BUNDLE_DUST
- 10 Dust which also includes: 10 Classic packs and 1 random Classic class-specific legendary minion
- Each pack has 5 cards, with at least 1 Rare or better
- Dust can be used to craft cards in the Collection Manager
- GLUE_STORE_PRODUCT_DETAILS_DUST
- Your Dust comes with a set of packs
- Each pack contains 5 {0} Hearthstone Cards and at least 1 card will be Rare or better
- Dust can be used to craft cards in the Collection Manager
Speculation
Update: This isn't speculation anymore since it's now live. Leaving this information because its important.
Out of pure speculation, my guess would be that this could be a backup plan in case Chinese regulatory agencies aren't happy with the way Blizzard presented the drop rates of cards thanks to the Loot Box regulations law. Should China ultimately want more information on the card packs, forcing people to buy dust instead of card packs would be a good way around giving up their secret sauce. It's even possible that you buy some arcane dust and as a reward, Blizzard gives you "free" card packs along with that purchase as a "bonus". Time will certainly tell!
What Do You Think?
Expand upon your response in the comments below!
Doubt it is going to happen for non-Chinese servers, at least in the foreseeable future. It doesn't make much sense for Blizzard to try to put less rng in packs (with the 'no duplicates' legendary change & the guaranteed legendary in the first 10 packs) if they would just turn around and allow you to essentially buy specific cards via dust purchasing.
Blizzard please, nerf China.
Technically I did that today with the Un'Goro sale. A legendary I already own and a few golds, Craptastic.
So how much would a legendary (1,600 dust) cost? Worst luck, purchasing 40 packs and getting a rare and four commons on each would make one.
i would rather buy individual cards but i guess this is second best
Buying arcane dust erm...does that mean you get like 100-1000-10000 dust you can buy? Depending on how much dust you get, I guess it's time to use a proxy to abuse this system :D
Just put in a card trading system.
That would be too abusable, even amongst a friends list. There would probably end up being a megathread where each member can talk to each other and give you Legendaries they don't need that you do for Legendaries you don't and they do, and you can essentially play and swap out with almost any Legendary in the game, for absolutely no price.
They could put values on the cards or something, so that you can't trade a say Tirion for Millhouse. I don't know, they could figure something out. Put like a trade limit for each day/week/month or something.