Ben Brode Interview - Insight into Casual Hearthstone, Meta, Just for Fun, Card Bans
GamesBeat's Jack Wilson had the opportunity to sit down with Ben Brode and talk about Hearthstone. The two discussed casual mode and how there are different views of how it should work. See our recap of the interview below or go on and read the full interview transcript.
Casual Mode
- Ideally, casual mode is low stakes Hearthstone. It isn't hardcore competition where you need to be 100% focused and available.
- Casual, like ranked, still has an MMR system but it's internal - you don't see it.
- The goal is to keep you at a 50% winrate in Casual, just like in ranked.
- The better you're doing in casual, the more likely you'll see better decks [usually meta decks].
Ranked Play
- Pirate Warrior and Secret Mage are currently 14% of the meta at Legend rank.
- Those archetypes at Rank 20 are only 5% of the meta.
- Most active Hearthstone players are between ranks 20 and 18.
Just for Fun Mode
- Ben knows there isn't a great opportunity right now to just play fun decks and not having to worry about meta.
- Adding in a mode for players to have "Fun Only" isn't really possible - you can't force players to play "bad" decks.
- The mode would evolve into players playing meta decks anyway since they win.
- Ben doesn't think it's crazy to pursue the idea, but it's not immediately obvious what the best direction would be.
Game Customization
- Being able to support a feature in which players could ban certain cards for tournament play is "very compelling", especially for Fireside Gatherings.
Supporting Different Types of Players
Quote from Ben BrodeI saw a tournament in Kansas City where they had a spinner. You spun the spinner, took out your camera, shot a QR code, and that was the deck you played in the tournament. That’s fun. It focuses on the pure fun and joy of playing Hearthstone, not on competition. Some people are competitive and that’s great. We want to support that too.
But also, it’s good to try and find ways for different people who have different goals and different things they get fun out of from Hearthstone—we should be looking at ways to support that as well.
Yes I agree and I do think that it would make some classes like mage harder to play, but if you only get two sideboard cards like wildcatterry suggested than you would have to sacrifice half of your side board for a mage counter, only leaving one card left to counter all eight other classes. So if each player tries to counter two classes than it can even out. But we will never know if it would work because knowing blizzard they would never add a sideboard, but I do like the idea and think it would do something to help the meta.
Some classes may be easier to target than others, but if both players get to sideboard that'll even it out a lot. So, if a Mage that runs a ton of secrets think they'll be countered with a Eater of Secrets, then they can use a Dirty Rat to side in for those games.
Guys I dont know if you can read what is written but:
So are they telling us that if I want to have fun in casual I have to play the most meme decks to actually not face jade druids, razakus priests and so on?
Ive built by myself thrall, elemental jade shaman and rattleadin paladin. I had a lot of success (i think even too much) so yee i did start to encounter only meta decks. Then I decided to move with them to ranked and wasnt surprised to reach rank 10 with an ease as an experienced player.
If theyre not willing to implement game mode with card bans then whats the least they could actually do is writing some kind of algorithm for casual game mode, like "your deck contains x% of meta cards; you face sth similar" "youre starting to have with that deck success; you face another non meta deck with similar WR".
Guys ive been programming for 9 years now. It all started as a hobby. Trust me. Implementing sth like this should be easy as a pie for "small indie company"...
The main reason for players to get triggered, if you ask me, is not that deck youve faced is so strong. Its because it is so strong and everyone plays it. I dont mind playing against some hidden tier 1 deck that nobody knows about. As long as I dont have to face it hundreds of times each day, having force myself not to puke, its really fine.
Actually you can create an alternate mode just for fun. If you change the goal of a game. If the goal is not simply to win a match, but to win a match with cards that are not so popular in the meta.
For example if you win with the most popular meta deck it will only yield one point. But if win with a really original deck you could get a 100.
Of course getting those numbers right and figuring out the system is still hard if possible. But changing the goal from simply winning the game to winning with the least used cards can help.
Well, thats not very nice :P
That's what MMR ranking does. If you win a game, your score goes up. If you lose, it goes down. You're matched to others with a score close to yours. The better you are, the faster that ranking rises, but eventually you'll plateau finding yourself matched against players of similar skill. For some that plateau might be rank 500, for others 5000. Alas, in casual this ranking is not displayed.
But anyway, that's why they have a goal of "50% winrate" in casual. It means they are doing their best to match you with someone of similar skill. Theoretically at least.
Please do a blitz mode! I would love to play a fast game, like having a permanent Nozdormu effect on board!
auto squelch in 2018 please before I smash my monitor from another jade druid rising against me
Yes because that is the most annoying thing ever right ?
If you don't want your opponents to give you the occasional well played as politeness or the occasional threat in anger for playing a broken high-roll deck or the current cancer of the month, then nature WILL rise against you, you filthy anti-social troll.
Blizz has emotes just about right as they are and a blanket silence would be flat out chilling to the fun.
Remove 10g reward from Casual. /fixed
You're welcome, Ben.
Seriously though, that won't stop people from playing meta decks altogether, but it would significantly cut down on the farming. That should be for ranked only imo.
Another solution would be to add rank floors for every rank. That way, people are more likely to play off-meta decks no matter their rank; the most they can lose is 3-5 stars. This would encourage a much more diverse meta, and make it less of a "math problem" for try-hards. Have fun! Don't worry about losing rank! Go nuts! Well, you might say people will play the meta decks regardless because they like to win. That's ok too! As long as we're not dropping 3 ranks to a string of face decks, you can beat us all you like! The feeling of a hard fought win against an interactive deck outweighs the PW&co losses. You would still be able to be paired with people of lower/higher ranks, but your own rank would never diminish. Rankings only mean shit once you get to Legend anyway, so I don't see an issue.
Alas...
Removing 10 old reward is actually not a bad idea. Maybe not for casua,l but for another mode similar to it intended only for fun play.
Having rank floors at every rank would take out any semblance of rank from the ranked system. Not only would you be having people playing junk decks at all ranks giving out free wins because they can't lose rank, but ranked would become a complete joke where skill no longer mattered at all because just about anyone can get lucky enough to rank up every now and again, and that wouldn't be counterbalanced by having bad luck drop you down a rank later. If you want to play bad decks and not lose rank then don't play them in ranked mode.