Could Hearthstone Players on iOS Soon be Buying Dust Instead of Card Packs?
Note: Blizzard has not yet made an official statement on the change.
Back in June, Hearthstone players in China were no longer able to buy card packs but instead were purchasing a small amount of Arcane Dust with their money. As a bonus for their purchase, card packs were thrown into the mix as a "gift" for their dust purchase.
Why did Blizzard make this change? This is because of a change to laws in China regarding loot boxes in video games where it was required for video games to publish the odds of their drop rates.
The shop interface for Hearthstone in China.
So then, why on Azeroth are iOS players potentially buying dust soon? That's thanks to a policy change in Apple's App Store.
The Apple App Store Update on Loot Boxes
In the Apple App Store guidelines, a document which details the rules app devs must follow to get through the app approval process, there is now a section which states apps need to make note of the odds of receiving each type of item to customers.
- Apps offering “loot boxes” or other mechanisms that provide randomized virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item to customers prior to purchase.
With this addition, it looks like Hearthstone will need to go the same way as it did in China to prevent disclosure of the drop rates which would be accomplished through giving players another object and tack on card packs as a gift. The alternative would be to cut the crap and officially state card drop rates which have been well known for years at this point. On the plus side if they do try to get around it by using arcane dust and not disclosing the odds, it's a little bit more dust in everyone's pockets which will help craft the powerhouses we need for our decks.
Rarity Distribution in Card Packs Today
Card rarity distribution hasn't changed since Hearthstone launched, though players will see slightly more Legendaries now thanks to a guaranteed Legendary in your first 10 packs for each set. The following rarity distribution is from our TGT community card pack opening and is still inline with other documented, more recent pack openings.
Rarity | Normal | Golden | Total | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Legendary | 696 | 0.94% | 56 | 0.08% | 752 | 1.01% |
Epic | 3029 | 4.09% | 143 | 0.19% | 3172 | 4.28% |
Rare | 16017 | 21.61% | 934 | 1.26% | 16951 | 22.87% |
Common | 52153 | 70.36% | 1097 | 1.48% | 53250 | 71.84% |
Total | 71895 | 96.99% | 2230 | 3.01% | 74125 | 100.00% |
We've also got some totally new information from Blizzard China from in May which was posted with loot box regulations in mind.
- You'll get at least 1 rare, or better, in each pack.
- An epic will be received, on average, in 1 of every 5 packs.
- Legendaries, on average, will be received in 1 of every 20 packs.
- As players open more packs, the actual probability of opening cards with higher quality increases.
It's possible we could see the above being enough for the Apple App Store and it wouldn't require Blizzard to provide the actual drop rates which means they won't need to move forward with giving users dust for their money instead.
Quote from BlizzardAccording to the relevant national laws and regulations, "slag legend" is now the probability of taking cards to publish, as follows:
Note: "slag legend" card package a total of five cards, including four different quality.
Rare cards
Each slag card package, at least to get a rare or higher quality card.
Epic card
An average of 5 slag card card package, you can get an epic quality card.
Legend card
An average of 20 slag card card package, you can get a legendary quality card.
In addition, it should be noted that: with the number of cards to increase the number of packages, players actually get high-quality card card probability will also increase.
Loot Boxes: How Do You Feel?
It's been a very popular topic in gaming communities over the past few weeks thanks to EA and their garbage with Star Wars: Battlefront II having absurd lengths of time being required for character unlocks unless you buy loot boxes and I'd like to know how everyone else feels about loot boxes both specifically with Hearthstone and then with other titles.
And before you comment, remember that developers in large companies usually aren't the people deciding how much stuff sells for and the drop rates for these; There's a whole different team of people to thank for this. Don't be a dick to game developers and call them out personally. Attacking developers, especially when they aren't even to blame for the fiasco, pushes them away from interacting with the community and then everyone gets upset no one comes out to talk with us anymore.
My problem is RANDOM = UNFAIR by default
Why can't they have a system like this:
Common cards: FREE for everyone .
Rare cards: 50 gold
Epic card: 200 gold
Legendary card: 800 gold
These are exactly the same prices on avrage (actually a little more expensive) but anyone would get to play exactly what they desire .
But blizzard knows this slot machine system brings more money because regardless of having good or bad luck you are tempted to try again , where's if you can just get what you want you are more likely to be happy with it for a while .
Cause people want to open stuff and get exited when they open a legendary, or golden one. This would completely eradicate all this excitement.
With physical games, you can sell your collection later on. And some stuff actually go up in value. While all we have in Hearthstone is a fixed exchange rate to dust. Having that second hand market is a big part of physical card games. You know, the T in the TCG stands for "trading". The RNG is still there but you have ways to make most out of it. If you want a specific card, you can just buy it. but if I need a specific card in Hearthstone I have to buy a bunch of packs and dust those cards to craft what I want. And the disenchant rates are not good enough to make that worth it for the majority of people.
With physical stuff on the other hand, even if you don't sell your collection, it's at least physical and you can keep it. With digital goods you don't actually own anything, you just have the license to use them. If wizards of the coast shuts down, they won't come and take your magic cards. But if Hearthstone shuts down (not anytime soon, but still), you lose all that investment. It's all arcane dust on some old server. And with games being patched on a regular basis, anything can change at anytime. That uncertanty is the scary part with digital goods.
The house is always favored to win when gambling. That doesn't make it a scam. I don't gamble, but it's not a literal scam, generally.
In Europe they are making a lawsuit against loot boxes and other purchases that resemble to gambling. If it goes through hearthstone will probably go to dust only.
I hope it doesn't honestly, at least not a blanket "ban". Companies should definitely be shamed by the public for the horrible shit they put everyone through with loot boxes, but if card games end up being put into that same field, it's kinda bullshit.
Traditionally, card games have always been a booster based economy. Sure, it is definitely different with Hearthstone being digital only but what does it mean for a game like Magic online which I assume has the same rates as the standard paper version of the game? Is Pokemon exempt because players can buy physical packs of cards to get additional codes for online?
It's a very interesting subject when you get specifically into card games. Any game could change their system of loot boxes to be more card-game-like to fit whatever the laws are if card games end up exempted somehow. Then we come to an interesting topic of how does one define a card game.
I agree that for card games it feels different because it's a big part of the feeling of the game to open packs of randomized cards and make decks out of what you get.... I certainly have that feeling that that makes it different somehow. But I cant think of a way that it actually makes it different then any other system of semi-gambling that people are (rightfully in my opinion) hating on these days. And although that feeling of random cards is a big part of card game, I don't think it's actually required for card games, and I can't really think of a solid reason that if this type of gambling catches a ban collectible card games shouldn't go along with it and be replaced by living card games.
I don't know if that's what should happen, I'm conflicted. But I kinda do think it'd be a reasonable outcome.
Yeah. Ideally They'd have to come up with some sort of compromise. Either allowing one to buy cards on a card by card basis, or splitting up expansions into packages of series of cards together (Grimy goons set, Jade set, Cabal set) or releasing more but much smaller expansions. Like, an adventure sized expansion a month for 20 bucks or something. At least, those are the three ideas I came up with off the top of my head, I'm sure there's lots of ways, probably ones better then those. I think it's possible, although I don't know if there's anything that would reach the same massive profitability of hearthstone as it currently stands. Which is of course why I wouldn't expect such a change without a lot of legislation forcing it.
Have you heard of Android Netrunner? It gives you all the cards in an expansion for a fixed price. I don't think just because something is done traditionally we should keep doing it that way. Ive met people who have spend disgusting amounts of money in yu gi oh and such, completely ruining their lives. I say tear it all down form the core.
Interesting. If nothing else changes, I’d definitely take the extra dust.