Discussion About HS Expansion Themes and Your Preferances

I want to start a discussion about how the themes of Hearthstone Expansions and how you like or dislike it.

Firstly, I want to say that, I have been always a fan of card games. I've started to play with Pokemon TCG, then I discovered MTG. Adored MTG when I first met but it started to make me salty because of Land system. I was also a huge fan of Warcraft RTS series (I-II-III), played WoW less than a casual player but always followed its lore.

When I first saw the announcement of Hearthstone, you can't imagine how it excites me. At first glance, Even I don't like some decisions of the first team of hearthstone -like making Anduin the Priest hero- when Blizzard shaped those lores also in the core game (WoW) I liked where it goes -like again, how Anduin's lore grew in time even though we don't know so much about him when Hearthstone first came-

We firstly saw the Naxxramas Adventure as an expansion to the game. I've thought like "Nice that we are seeing dungeons of WoW in the game" and I've thought that they have that idea in long term.

After I saw GvG, I firstly think like "So this is the new path we're going, I really liked how they shaped the expansion to expand some races base in the game" and one of the first thoughts in my mind is how they handled "Professions" of WoW in Hearthstone with Mechs and Spare Parts around and also thought that this is another way that we will see in the game's path but also it felt a bit of random and some cards are thrown to set from out of nowhere (Mal'Ganis for example, what was the point of him being in GvG set ? I mean, I can understand some cards like it should have been in the game for supporting some archetypes but that has been done with some of theme-related stuff instead of throwing high-lore content randomly to the expansion)

So, I felt like Adventures would expand lore-related stuff in game with expansions are expanding some of mechanics of RPG game style also bunch of lore-base like how goblins and gnomes are using same profession with different ways.

And then, we saw BRM which continues with same path, Dungeon-Style Adventure which fits what we saw in Hearthstone before and also fits with WoW well enough. I was quite happy with what I have seen so far in the game.

Then TGT came. I want to speak more than others here because it is one of the best themes for Hearthstone at being first at its style. (Not speaking for game techs, balance or how it doesn't impact metagame here btw, so don't speak about balance stuff in this topic, just themes.) It was completely related with lore while being a minor part of WoW which is great for Hearthstone to draw its own path in my opinion. With its Arena-Style theme which really fits Hearthstone, It was a great canditate that how an expansion should tell the story of it to players unlike GvG. Why is it unlike GVG ? Because GvG has tons of cards that doesn't fit its theme (see Neptulon). That was how you can handle with a seperated games of the same universe. It was drawing its own path while expands the lore of its core game (which we will see it in different expansions as well and also -unfortunately- the vice versa of it). Unfortunately, It was a great failure that this wonderful theme couldn't shine enough thanks to its bad designs. That's a different topic tho.

And then LoE has been released, which I felt like GvG at first glance. Why GvG ? Because of its Discover mechanic being the reflection of how Archeology profession of should be handled in Hearthstone just like Mechs and Spare parts being the reflection of Engineering Profession. It was also like Naxxramas with its theme-shapes, a dungeon of a RPG. It was also a great canditate just like TGT. It helps Hearthstone to draw its own path more than TGT and created iconic Warcraft characters without making people think it is a parallel universe (unlike Year of the Dragon). Some characters (like Brann Bronzebeard) were from the core game while others are just new characters which also fits the core game.

Another good canditate came; WotOG. It really expanded more and more. Told the story about Old Gods and how they corrupted the world with supporting this lore with some cards being corrupted (see Loot Hoarder/Polluted Hoarder, Amani Berserker/Aberrant Berserker etc.). This expansion of the best canditate that tells the story about Warcraft Universe in a Hearthstone-y way. Madame Lazul was a great concept as a fortune-teller which is a shame that she doesn't have a card in her own expansion but also was a good choice that she is only the teller of the story.

Here comes the first corruption comes to Hearthstone; Karazhan. It is the first weird expansion of Hearthstone. I can understand the theme around party and stuff but it was a dumb move to shape that party without considering allegiances, enemies etc. All kind of characters, minions were in this expansion. There is only just the theme "the party", designer team doesn't even care about real lore and just made a silly theme for supporting the idea that "Hearthstone should have its own lore.". I can agree that for some degree but this kind of breaking the existing lore is one of the most silly thing you can do to your game in my opinion. If you want that Hearthstone has seperated lore from WoW, you can always do it like MSoG for example, without breaking the core lore. Karazhan has the one of the biggest failure theme in the Hearthstone in my opinion and things started to corrupt here.

I can't say same for MSoG tho. Even though it is not so related with WoW Lore, it had a succesful theme in my opinion. This expansion's theme is one of the good examples of how you shape your game's lore if you want to spare it from the universe (Warcraft) which Hearthstone has been based without breaking the core lore. But well, something weird happened with this expansion which is the exact opposite of what happened in TGT. Broken designs haunted the game even though the Lore isn't good enough.

After Karazhan and MSoG's theme mistakes, Designers realize that (at least i thought it like that at that times) breaking the core lore of the universe won't help. Drawing its own path of Hearthstone is a good idea "only" when you don't shape the theme in extreme edges. So they thought (for my impressions -again-) LoE-like own path and characters would be good which is mirrored in the community as well. Un'goro is a good way to handle in my opinion until KotFT came...

KotFT was a missed opportunity in my opinion. It shares same content with WotOG which was thematically perfect with its bad handling. Corrupting the existing characters is good "only" if you don't break the core dynamics. It felt funny at first glance that Death Knight versions of Iconic Characters but after realizing that it breaks all of the rules of core lore, it felt stupid only (for me again). I always think that KotFT shouldn't be the stuff that you did to your own lore. Some might think that the idea is fun but its theme was a great failure for me which I've ended up leaving the game at the first time of my Hearthstone life.

With the reval of new expansion; K&C, I had returned to the game. With its Adventure and Dungeon related content, I felt like it could give the old Hearthstone experience that I like to feel Warcraft-Related content and I really like the theme. The theme was also a success like how WotOG's theme was. It was not the greatest one but was not like KotFT-degree disappointing.

Here comes Year of the Raven and Witchwood which was also a good canditate that has its own expanded lore which WoW doesn't have. A witch haunts the woods and Gilneans fight with her. A good concept that doesn't spare from Warcraft universe exteremely which I would say almost same about The Boomsday Project too.

Even There are some kind of weird stuff in TBP (gnome druids !?) it was also a good concept which is a minor thing in WoW. It has its own characters and some existing Warcraft characters which is appreciated for both. Nothing to say more.

Rastakhan's Rumble is one of the most exciting expansion for me because the reveals felt like TGT and GVG times at the first time. It was like TGT because of its Arena-Style theme, it was like GvG because it would tell the story of a race's origins ( I mean, it was shaped around Zandalari Trolls, just like how GvG was shaped around Gnomes and Goblins) without GvG's unrelated contents (Vol'jin, Demonheart, Ogre Ninja !?). All cards are related with theme and i really enjoyed enough with this expansions' theme after those years. I'm not talking mechnanically here again. Metagame is a thing which I really don't care.

And here is the last year, Year of the Dragon, which is the total failure of Hearthstone's themes in my opinion. Year of the Total Corruption. Again, it feels like funny at first impressions that all of the old friends of ours who are the most iconic characters of hearthstone are coming back with this year, just like how it feels funny at KotFT at first glance. Some might think that this is funny how they play around lore and "Steal Dalaran !?" and stuff but it was not funny for me. We got finally some of the most iconic warcraft characters, such as Khadgar, Kalecgos, Alleria Windrunner etc. but for what ? Protecting Dalaran from most childish evil thing ever.

It was like a cartoon that evil characters are "evil" just because they are "evil". That being said there is a master plan for whole year which ends up summoning Galakrond for what !? For Rafaam proves that he is the only strong-enough person in Warcraft Universe that can save world from Galakrond !? Is his masterplan just summoning it to kill it again ? I can understand that Togwaggle is one of Rafaam's servant already and doing it just because Rafaam wants and Dr. Boom is doing that for his experiments (It doesn't feel ok enough already, but can be ignored) but what Hagatha and Lazul exaclty gain from this ? Why Old Gods just helped a maniacal and cartoonish Villain Rafaam ?

The whole year felt like it was a parallel universe that is completely disconnected from Warcraft. It is the most frustrating year for me to bare personally. So I quit the game after first month of DoD. I came back with Reveal of AoO and played the adventures of Galakrond's awakening and I'm shocked to see that really and opened this thread. The only good thing I can think of about Year of the Dragon is that; They finally showed that Reno Jackson is a Dragon.

AoO in the other hand, I feel like designer team thinks that people is bored to see this kind of disconnections (I really desperately hope). It seems like thematically great and I really wonder what is waiting for us to discover in future. I hope there won't be expansions which are far more disconnected from Warcraft Universe. I feel like designer team also thinks like me here (I really desperately hope, again) with AoO reveals. Most iconic Warcraft characters are coming back which are iconic for both Warcraft III and WoW at the same time. That feels so classic and i really hope it is the decided path of future of Hearthstone.

So, In my opinion and for my personal experiences, Hearthstone's expansions should be connected with Warcraft's Lore. I mean, They might be like LoE which is also related with Warcraft lore and expands the minor stuff or like Witchwood, but shouldn't be like Year of the Dragon. "Some unrelated characters bands up to do weirdest things." I personally think that it is Karazhan-level failure for theme-shaping. I really hated the theme of Year of the Dragon which excited me most with its name but ended up a disappointment for me. Ok, I might have been playing with so much dragon stuff at the end of year, I might be filled with all of dragon synergies but the theme really disappointed me so I quit the game after first month of the DoD. Some might not care about theme but it is an important factor for me to decide to play the game.

So I wrote almost all stuff that I feel about Hearthstone's themes. What do you think ? What do you prefer ?

I hope you can come to discuss because i really want to learn what people feels about themes etc. and please don't speak about mechanics, game balance etc. These are different topics which I don't want to discuss in this thread.

I agree with you on a lot of your points about themes. For year of the dragon I think they went too far along the cartoony route. I couldn’t get invested in the story because none of the character’s motivations made sense. Also, having so many repeats of the same few characters and constant additions of lackey cards made the expansions feel a little too similar.