Dean Ayala Asks: What Would Get You Back Into Hearthstone?
Hearthstone's Dean "Iksar" Ayala had a question for those that used to main Hearthstone as a game but no longer do.
What do they need to do to get you back?
We're actually quite interested in knowing too. With many old Hearthstone players still frequenting our site to see what the game is up to or to chat with old friends, there has to be something the Hearthstone team could do to reel you back in?
Quote from Dean AyalaIf Hearthstone used to be your main game but isn't anymore, what would get you back?
Some sense in balance cards will be awesome for this game.
Why they thinking the paladin 2 manas spell need to be nerfed but the absolutely broken, insanely overpower, totally busted, the most undercosted card in this game history, the hunter DK don't needed?
WHY???
in my opinion there is 2 major problem
1- the game is just too expensive u need to pay 50 euro to just get the surface of the expansion and if u get unlucky u get a legendary from class that u hate or some unplayble legendarys so therefore u should just dust it for extremly poor value
2-grinding is impossible in heartstone 10 gold per 3 win is just feel impossible and there is like no other motivation to play when u hit rank 5
blizzard should add more reward for playing
They need to Look at how Eternal Rewards their players. Also maybe try something different. Not the same shit every expansion. INNOVATE!
I just think that warrior themes are kinda limited, it is mostly armor armor armor, which leads to.....CW(which basically means sitting down in a big chunky armor and gettign repeatedly punch until late game where u start summoning legendaries which barely resembles any warriors)or enrage strategies which lead to Grim Patron....which get nerfed to ground...badly...with no one to take up his mantle , the current Rush are semi-viable but that is about it, Dragons dont fit thematically well enough for warriors. Meanwhile other classes get so many fun stuffs to work with, Warlocks for example, have Discard synergy and Treachery, now those are some interesting things we can do with it, in fact I think warrior having discard synergy make sense, since it is like "throwing axes". Treachery is a fun way to make meme decks. Priest have cards like Topsy Turvy , I think that switching stats suit warrior well because it is like offensive and defensive stance.
Give the chance to newer players to buy the rotated adventures with in-game gold. It's unfair for them to buy them with real money, since they are wild-exclusive and and have no impact on standard. Maybe do that with rotated expansion packs too at some point, if it deems fit.
I would love to get an end of season reward that combines how well I did in Standard and Wild.
2 problems are:
1) You don't get enough for your money. Pay 50$, (price of a full game) for an extension and get only 15% of what you would like to play. I get that it is a collectible kind of model but by paying 50$ should get you around 50% of the expansion content or 70% of what you want in that content (if there was a way to choose said content).
2) You don't get enough for the time you invest. Unless you are jobless it's almost impossible to say "ok this expansion I will spend 50$ and then grind all the other cards through playing, and by then I'll have all the cards I want". This requires unreasonnable amount of time for someone with other responsabilities/games to play. Even playing 2h every day during 3 months will probably not get you there, which is ridiculous.
The result of this is: frustration. If I play one hour a day I'll get frustrated becauseI know I'll still have to make choices on which cards I'll craft. And I won't be able to experience other decks I want before the next expansion --> very frustrating model !!
Even If I spend 100$ to make it easier I still might not be able to play all the decks I would like to...
That's the main reason I decided to stop playing until something changes.
I agree – grinding is almost pointless, from a gold generation point of view. I don't think you're not awarded enough for putting in the time. They're using a system where the daily quests give you a fair amount, but 10g for 3 wins (~10 gold every 6 games) is just ridiculous.
This works out well considering hearthstone's main playerbase, ftp players who log in every 3 days, complete 3 quests and head out.
Make a game as good as Magic: The Gathering
You mean the game where you can get resource starved early on if you get bad luck, or the game that can't decide if they want to preserve rare cards like Black Lotus for individual collector value vs reprinting for the average playerbase (thus reducing collector profit for special snowflakes).
Magic has plenty of pros but certainly has its own flaws. I'll stick to HS.
you do realize that magic: arena exists right?
I'm 100% genuine here:
I don't know if I want the announcement to be a total disaster or not. I think the worst case would be something inbetween a 'good' or 'bad' announcement.
I'm a whale (spent more than 1,5k Euro at this point), got all golden classes, reached legend and have a full collection. I am/was addicted to hearthstone.
Since the last year was so incredible bad, I finally managed to play less and spent less. Basically I only bought the pre-orders and nothing more (that might sound bad/funny to some of you but for me spending only 50€ instead of 200+€ on an expansion is a HUGE deal). I still never miss a quest, but some days I only log in to re-roll 50s and do all quests on the 3rd day. So I finally managed to get control over my play habits.
To get me re-interested in the game Blizzard would need to do one or more of these things:
4 expansions a year, so the meta doesn't get stale so fast. The last 1-2 month of an expansion cycle feel so bad that I genuinely hate playing the game in that period. Or release more cards in a set. Why does nobody question the number of cards we get in a set? Back with GvG and TgT they had a fraction of people working on a set and they still release the same number of cards today, that doesn't make sense. Also I'd wish that they changed their design strategy when it comes to expansion cards. At the moment it feels like they design around 20% of the set to be playable in standard, of which 10-15% actually see play. 50% of the cards are made with meme and/or arena in mind. And 30% of the cards are meant to drive you mad when you open them in packs and to keep random-card-generating-effects in check. The way to make the meta feel fresher and especially healthy longer would be to switch these 3 numbers around. Design 30-40% with the clear intent of constructed play, maybe then the meta doesn't get solves in 2-3 Weeks. I'd also be fine with a mini-mid expansion after 2 Month, maybe with 2 neutral legendaries, 1 class legendary, 1 class epic (and maybe class rares/commons) that clearly are aimed to push a certain archetype more. Maybe release it for a set price of ~20€. That would help fight staleness as well.
Create a final solution to the classic and basic set. Facing these same cards for YEARS gets worse every day. I'm an advocate for a rotating core set. It wont happen because they keep on nerfing classic cards (which they wouldn't need to if they planned to rotate them, right?) but maybe they have some other solution up their sleeve. If they don't want to do that, nuke the basic/classic set completely. Change every card that sees common play to +1 mana, I don't care.
Announce 1-2 COMPLETELY new Modes to freshen up the game. Something like Sealed would be nice to me, building decks from packs, somehow create that sealed experience of passing packs around. I'd also love a mode of rotating sets as we have seen it with the tavern brawl. Basically anything that gives new deck building possibilities. A 2 vs 2 mode maybe? Something like 3-4 expansions (even from wild sets) that rotate monthly. Make old Tavern Brawls accessible, a pauper and or peasent format. Fix the Casual format. There is no clear purpose of it right now.
Finally get a grip on wild mode. Everybody who plays it a lot knows that wild is a complete mess right now. Of course its playable, that's not the point. What I'm talking about is a VISION of what they want wild to be and then act accordingly. I'd also love a 'true' wild - legacy mode where cards are unnerfed and a mode like the current wild with balance changes. The way its now is horrible, something unclear in between. Some broken stuff gets nerfed, some others like Big priest roam free. I want a clear answer on what they want to do and how they are going to do it. All the nerfs to classic and basic cards hit the wild mode so hard, it makes me really angry. I get that a 2 mana equality for EVER in standard can not be handled. No questions asked. But why is the solution they take to make the card unplayable and delete every wild control paladin deck in the process? That's what I'm talking about.
Do something about the social situation with this game. Hearthstone has always been trying to sell this 'tavern' fantasy. However I've never felt more lonely in hearthstone than in any other game. The friend request system is HORRIBLE. If I want to add someone out of genuine interest, they don't accept it out of fear of harassment. If I accept one in around 80% of the time I get told to watch my family burn to death in a car crash. And even if it miraculously happens and 2 like minded people meet - (at least in my case) - after 1-2 weeks they just turn into Number #57 on the list, I have no idea why I added them in the first place, nobody dares to write the other person first. Silence. What do I want: a complete overhaul of this system. Add GUILDS. Some form of Chat lobbies like in Warcraft 3, moderate them! Anything to improve this loneliness would help.
Finally, do something for the long term, committed player base. I get that new player acquisition is the most important thing for Blizzard. Fine. I think they really nailed it right now with ranks 50-25 and giving out free stuff. However its time to give 'us' something. Us players that spent a lot of money, that genuinely care, that went with Blizzard through thick and thin and stayed loyal. Give me some sort of progression system outside of ranked that makes me interested in playing the game again. The one thing I'd love the most would be a WoW-esque achievement system. I'm talking HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS of Achievements. Tie cosmetic rewards with them or simple in-game currency. The thing is - if they focus more on new player stuff or fixing their competitive environment - only a fraction of players can theoretically gain anything from that. Achievements - even if they are clearly aimed at the more invested and long term player - can improve the game experience for everybody in theory.
Add more cosmetic rewards. One thing I've been telling myself for YEARS now is that I've never seen a game with so much potential as hearthstone. But for some reason they never act on it. In terms of (sell-able or acquirable through play) cosmetics there is so. much. stuff. they could so. New boarders like the golden one, titles, custom emotes, custom game boards, let us upgrade normal cards to golden cards, .... There is so much that can be done here.
Improve ranked game play. Don't allow me to face the same player twice. Counter-queuing feels horrible. Even in Wild at non legend ranks it happens all the time, even if its the same decks. It really feels bad to me at least. Just prevent that from happening, please. Also personally I don't see any motivation to play ranked to higher than rank 5. I've hit legend and got the card back - there is no real reason for me to repeat that. I hit rank 5 just by doing quests after around 3-10 days. For the other ~25 days I only feel empty and not motivated to play ladder at all. (please don't tell me to enjoy the game just by playing it - blizzard would need to implement one or all of the points above first so I could enjoy it again).
Get a better collection manager online. The current one is not bad at all. Don't get me wrong. but after 5 years the game basically looks the same as when it came out. Like an old car - it did its job and you genuinely like/d the car, but now its time to move on to something new and better. Let us drag/organic decks, let us store decks and deck codes in-game, show us the cards that get generated by other cards (Lich king/Ysera cards for example) In the collection manager.
I think I could go on for a bit but the message is clear. I need some general changes / overhaul to the base game in a way I outlined above to get me back. Otherwise I will quit, I've managed to play and pay less hearthstone and for the first time in 4 years it feels like I have the chance to get away without feeling bad. So again, I don't know if I want the announcement to be a blast or a catastrophe, lets see. =)
stop adding exclusive timed stuff to the game like hero skins/cardbacks, make them avaiable any time.
Mr. Dean Ayala, are 500 Comments enough, to improve the game and make HS great again?
1. sell complete expansions for 25-30 € all cards included. ( just think of a different system on how to obtain golden cards)
2 give us more than 18 deck slots, more like 18 per class. just let us select a class and than show decks instead of how it is now, rly isn't a problem on implementing and everyone who is familiar with programming knows that its ez af and u just take us for fools.
3. If u intend to sell cards packs, adjust ur leg per pack ratio to 1 in 10 packs, ur packs are far too expensive.. u are just selling digital cards, if u want to apease ppl u should start getting off ur high horse.
if U dont change quick ur game and blizzard can die, its not blizzard anymore anyway, u sold out and everyone knows, blizzard quality has declined drastically over the past 3 years and it just shows, its a shame but thats just how things go, I personally dont think blizz can recover to the glory of its past self, but hope always dies last, but I couldn't care less anymore at this point, the signs were obvious over the past years and u just ignored them pretending everything was fine and thats what u get.
I've been playing Hearthstone for 3 years now, and still currently do. I just thought I'd add my 2cents here:
There should be a ladder mode for only free to play players, so that those who dont want to invest a lot of money dont feel outgunned from the get go AND can reach legend a lot easier.
Secondly, the most successful expansion in my opinion was the one in which every single player was given C'thun, and most of the Cthun package was very easy to craft, this.allowed the majority of players to instantly interact with the new machanic.
I'd also like to add that the recent spate of nerfs are hugely appreciated, especially how much quicker they appear compared to.past expansions. Hearthstone is starting to feel a lot like its balanced and regularly checked up on. keep in up on the nerf space!
first of all, how would the f2p ladder work? i like the idea (as i am f2p), but I have also spent $75. so technically I am not f2p, but I basically am. over 2 years, only spending money on 2 special occasions does not qualify me as a "p2w" player. but would I still be allowed on the f2p ladder?
also the problem with old gods, was that there were so many cards dedicated to c'thun, that there were not to many other decks around. just about everyone could make a c'thun deck, and it had more support than most other decks. and that is why the "one free legendary on expansion release" is good. my only problem is that you often get a legendary from a class you hate. so I wish you were allowed to say which class you got it from, or which class you did not get it from.
You know if you didn't mass disenchant your cards after this leave rotation (which is horrible when it comes to long term dust efficiency) you would have every powerful card for wild that you had previously obtained through packs & crafting. Which means you wouldn't need to blow much money to be a whale.
*Thinking face*
What's the point of a ranked system then if you never ranking after losing a game?
you do still rank. But if you reach 19 you don't fall to 20 in the month etc....all the way to legendary if anyone had the time or a life. Meaning you wouldn't have to net deck. you could play what you want at each level. This idea is to get more people involved and have fun. Otherwise this game will die in the abyss of games too soon. If your a die hard legendary you don't have to worry about this subject as your not down here anyway. why not check out twitch prime game rankings and see how far this game has already fallen. I like the game and don't want to see it die