About two weeks ago Blizzard announced new content for their games Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm and, of course, Hearthstone. While it’s great to see new cards and a new adventure for the latter, I was quite disappointed about the things they could and should have announced as well.
I was missing news about several topics that are close to the community’s heart in Blizzard’s presentation, like further improvements to the spectator mode or finally being able to choose your Arena packs. Those are just two of the topics, but why don’t we just jump right into it?
No update on spectator mode
Spectator mode was one of the most wanted features by the community. Not only is it an useful and inviting feature for playing with your friends, but it is also supposed to make the production of tournaments easier.
In an interview with Ben Brode I did a while ago he told me that we should see the current spectator mode as a 1.0 version and that improvements will be coming. Some did come shortly after its initial release: We can now stay in spectator mode and continue spectating games without having to rejoin, which is great, but cards are still upside down and flipping around, which makes spectating more than one player considerably less enjoyable.
I didn’t expect Blizzard to roll out a perfectly made spectator mode at PAX East, but they didn’t even talk about it or release further informations after PAX ended, which I personally find a bit disappointing.
No update on choosing your Arena packs reward
Cards are still upside down and flipping around, which makes spectating more than one player considerably less enjoyable.
This is one of the things the community really seems to hate and I can totally understand that. While acceptable in the beginning of Goblins vs Gnomes as a way to promote the new expansion, the fact that you still don’t have any control about what packs you get out of your Arena run is a sad sight. Playing Arena, after all, is pretty much the best way to fill up your collection.
I also can’t imagine that this is very difficult to handle: Players can just be given a token and then spend it on whatever packs they desire. Personally I think this is the easiest route to go, as this concept is quite simple and flexible as well, no matter how many future expansion may come.
No update on expanded friend list
After talking to a lot of players this seems to be a problem for fans who enjoy several Blizzard games, as well as the top level Hearthstone competitors, the latter of which tend to add a lot of people to test decks, strategies and simply practice.
In games like Hearthstone, Starcraft or the new Heroes of the Storm, you want to have lots of players around your skill level in your friendlist, because that is how you improve your game most easily. That’s why top level players have a lot of space in their friendlist reserved for other top level players, ending in the fact that they simply can’t add any more people because they have to keep a few slots vacant in case of tournaments.
Players can just be given a token and then spend it on whatever packs they desire.
This is probably not a problem that concerns a huge portion of the playerbase, but given how quickly Hearthstone is growing, this will soon start to affect people outside the competitive community as well, as players will forge more and more new friendships. Blizzard games in general tend to be quite the social games in a way, so it’s no surprise to see friendlists reaching their limit sooner rather than later.
I personally don’t have this problem yet, but for those who have it would be a blessing to get another 100 slots or so for their friendlist. Blizzard’s usual talk about confusing new players and the likes simply don’t apply in this case and I strongly doubt that any player would hate Blizzard if they had to scroll down two seconds longer than usual to find the friends they were looking for.
No update on improving the BlizzCon points structure
This is something a lot of people, including high profile players like MrYagut, Firebat, Kitkatz and others, were and probably still are concerned about.
Right now the player ending a ladder season on Rank 1 legend will be rewarded with 50 World Championship Points (WCP), which sounds pretty fair if you consider the time you need to invest and the fierce competition you have to face. On the other hand, a tournament with a $10k+ prize pool awards the same amount of WCP for a first place finish.
Pro players simply can’t add any more people because they have to keep a few slots vacant in case of tournaments.
There doesn’t seem to be a great balance between the two instances, especially if you consider that aforementioned $10K tournaments only require 50 % of the Top 16 players to be able to qualify from open qualifiers. As we all know, the remaining half is more than likely to be filled by popular invites, as those are the ones bringing in the viewers.
That means that the invited players are way more likely to earn points, since they can take the easy route. This is not an outcry against invitationals, but the amount of WCP given out for those tournaments seems hardly appropriate if 50 % of the players were invited. It only gets worse with the point rewards for $25k+ tournaments, where the winner takes home 100 WCP, twice the amount you would earn for a rank 1 placement in ladder.
I could understand this kind of point rewarding and invites in other esports, but in Hearthstone, a game that’s partly a game of chance this doesn’t seem like the right way. It could be argued that winning a tournament is way harder than reaching high on legend, but in my opinion this applies only to the quality aspect, as opponents in tournaments often times are of a higher caliber than the ones you meet in ladder. Looking at the quantity aspect though, ladder requires a lot more time investment, especially in the last few days of the monthly seasons, where everyone tries their best to reach the top spots.
In the end I still believe that tournaments give out too many points in relation to what the ladder top positions offer. It might be too late to revisit the system now that we’re two months into the 2015 campaign, but it’s definitely something worth exploring come next year.
No changes to ladder
I want to keep my last point, which is on the whole ladder system, rather short, as I already wrote a lengthy article on the ladder topic.
If you compare Hearthstone to games like Starcraft 2 or Warcraft 3 you’ll see just how many features Hearthstone ladder is missing, starting by player profiles with match history and statistics, a real time ladder page, a competitive ladder structure and matchmaking etc.
This is not an outcry against invitationals, but the amount of WCP given out for those tournaments seems hardly appropriate if 50 % of the players were invited.
The last point might sound a bit strange, but for me ladder is the strongest reminder of the fact that Hearthstone wasn’t planned as a competitive game, but rather a casual one for fans of the Warcraft universe. Hearthstone’s success surely surprised a lot of people and I understand that a shift from casual to competitive is not an easy one to do, but I feel like that’s a step Blizzard should’ve already done, when in reality they haven’t.
Players of other card games will probably agree with me that the release of new cards in a game is always an exciting and fun period, but the underlying problems of the competitive side should be addressed and communicated openly with equal fervor to improve the game even further.
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