I had hoped that with the acquisition completed, they would be under less pressure to monetize, but things have only gotten worse since then.
The more I think about it, the more it becomes clear that quitting the game is the right choice for me. For the last two years or so, I've spent 40 euros per expansion: the Tavern Pass plus a bundle with 20 packs and 2 legendaries. I don't play the game enough to make it feel worth putting more money in and I don't want to play more because I'd just get fed up with the meta sooner then.
I could probably continue as F2P for one more expansion cycle, disenchanting my duplicates and cashing in my tavern tickets, but in the long run it would become too expensive to keep playing the way I want to. Maybe I could afford one competitive deck as F2P, but I'd be bored in no time if I could play only one deck. Deck building is my favorite part of the game and that requires a pretty wide collection. So F2P is not a long term option for me.
I'm not sure I even want to finish the current Tavern Pass. I haven't played since Wednesday, when I logged in to do the Tavern Brawl and the daily quests that had piled up since Sunday, only to see the new weekly quests. Once I realized those were not a bug, I logged out without playing a game. Knowing that there is no future for me in this game has killed a lot of my motivation to log in and play.
I remember the 10th anniversary of WOW - all players that had an active subscription thru all the years got a parcel with a free orc statue by mail. The 10th anniversary of Hearthstone: all loyal players that bought every expansion pack - get a weekly quest rip off...
Single-Player land has massive upgrade on latest years. There are a lot of good stuff that you can play. Online games are already decreasing in value for me for their community and how all games are shaping around some "META" 's and even though you don't like, people force you to play like that or you are all alone even in an mmo, so yes why do i keep myself triggerred while there are a lot of single player games which i can do whatever i want while monetization of online games are going wild at the same time.
I had the same decision after my Lost Ark adventure and how it became a job instead of an enjoyement instrument. I instantly uninstalled it and downloaded Crusader Kings III and ANNO 1800 and Stellaris. That feeling in a city builder game after doing dailies everyday in an mmo etc was so soothing. I recommend all here the same thing.
It is just a fomo that you miss your dailies/weeklies in hearthstone and company gets the benefit of it. I don't care i miss a daily or weekly, i just play whenever i want now. Believe me, you will have cards to play even you miss them. If you are a player like me who doesn't disenchant all wild cards and playing from beta you might have plenty of fun stuff on wild too (basing on they won't cut wild like duels, lol). You don't have to hit plat/dia all months and such. Just play whenever you want. Go play single player games. There are thousands of great games really. Old or new doesn't matter, I am playing a lot of games and there are still a lot of older good games i didn't play. And if you are desperate to play card games, give Legends of Runeterra a go, not for its ranked but for its pve. It is so chill and relaxing. Give it a chance. You can enjoy it like hearthstone.
Go play them instead of online fomo garbage ! Let online companies suffer really instead of whining on web and keep playing, so they will consider their monetization again.
Speaking as someone who has gone on "Hearthstone hiatus" several times, and as someone who understands that nothing happens overnight at Blizzard, I'm willing to hang on for a few more weeks until the mini-set, which I will purchase with gold (assuming that's still an option). Blizzard's actions in the meantime will determine how I proceed after that. They know they are on thin ice, and their actions in the near future will determine the fate of the game. If they aren't willing to make some very big changes, they will never be able to find enough whales to keep them afloat.
(For reference, I'm a dolphin -- I spend enough to collect every card, but I stopped buying their overpriced cosmetic garbage long ago.)
The one key change I'm looking at is the reversal of the quest changes. Anything short of full reversal will constitute actual fraud in my eyes, to the extent that I think they will have opened themselves up to a class action lawsuit. People who purchased the Battle Pass did so with certain expectations of what it would take to complete the track and the amount of extra gold they could expect to accumulate from the XP bonus. Changing the rules without warning a couple of weeks after accepting money for the pass is a clear-cut case of bait-and-switch.
Quitting the game right now won't change anything since there's no money changing hands until the next expansion comes out. I can bide my time. However, if and when I do quit the game again, it will be the very last time. After the over-the-top Montgomery Burns-level antics they've been getting away with lately (itemized quite thoroughly and accurately in this article), I'm fully resolved to put the game behind me forever if Blizzard doesn't change their tune. (And let's face it -- we all know they won't.)
On that note, are there any new card games worth playing? I loved the bones of Magic Spellslingers, but it receieved no support and died. I hate Magic: the Gathering and its ridiculously outdated mana system. I've tried and bounced off of Runeterra, Gwent, Shadowverse, Faeria, Eternal, and Elder Scrolls Legends -- either for being too gimmicky or for chronic balance problems (or both). And I will absolutely NEVER play a game based on NFTs. Have I eliminated everythiing?
While all of the monetary player gouging is certainly concerning, it's really the dire state of the actual card game that is making me consider quitting, as someone who has been playing since the last wave of closed beta. Hearthstone actually did a pretty good job for a number of years of avoiding too much power creep. Naturally, cards improved over what they were at launch, but the core of the game remained intact. The board state is almost irrelevant in recent metas. Game ending cards are now at 6-mana, because having them at 8 or 9 would likely see many not included in decks for being too slow. Cards regularly generate three other cards, so value isn't a thing you have to consider, you almost never run out of resources before the game is decided.
I'd like to see a return to form for the game, but it seems clear to me that while Blizzard are asking for more time/money, less money is being invested into the game itself. I sadly think its best days are behind it.
Good writeup, I didn't even know about most of these exhibits. I always had trust that HS makes changes that are good for its playerbase. Maybe my memory is bad but I think that for the most part - all the previous controversies were made good in the end. This past week I found myself very active in protest against the new weeklies. I'm usually a quiet observer but this time it felt like an unprecedented event. I could see the game being dismantled in front of our eyes.
Blizzard's (lack of) presentation of the change has been a disaster, and the response from yesterday has done nothing to reassure us that their intentions are good for us.
I am currently in a place where I'm reevaluating my dedication level for the game. I will stop spending money on it, that's for sure. And I won't be doing the 10 ranked wins quest because it's simply too much.
I loved playing HS the last 10 years, and continued playing on a daily basis depsite my friends all gradually abandoning it over the years. Maybe the time for me to bow out is coming soon as well, and hopefully one day I'll have the courage to hit that Uninstall button...
I have another job, one that usually leaves me tired at the end of the day. I'm not alone in this regard, either: many of us are volunteering our time when able to do so. I know that means sometimes we can't keep up, or things fall through the cracks, but I had every intention of addressing the Hearthstone drama. Believe me, I wasn't letting this one go.
Even though i agree almost all of the statements about quests and pass bonus, i don't blame blizzard for that.
I'm blaming who keeps buying its products even though they periodically increases the game's monatization more aggresively in years. Sorry but forum posts and reddit are not place to show your response and reaction. That reaction should be shown as not buying its products when they do their bad act.
It's simple real life thing. Noone stops benefiting from something if the situation keeps hapenning.
I mean, it is not first time they are doing it and people kept buying even though they don't agree. Companies only understands your reactions when they saw sale amounts, your forum posts and reddit posts are nothing.
As you can see, they are toying with you as they actually plan to increase it by 2x but increasing it for 3x so when people react they can decrease it. Mass of people will be glad with this change (or their act like decreasing) or just don't care and keep buying believe me.
I'm glad i stopped buying from blizzard for Heartstone since rastakhan's rumble. I still enjoy playing this game but it can't take a single dim from me anymore. You should do the same or just stop playing at all.
The thing i am actually sad about is BG Duos. It is just shadowed by all the drama and it is most fun stuff in years for hearthstone in my opinion. They just shot a bullet on their own leg...
... I'm seriously contemplating asking for a refund on the season pass - changing the terms and rate of exp mid way throught a month/season is leaving me with a bitter taste in mouth ...
I guess OutOf has given up on reporting actual Hearthstone news. The quest drama is the biggest Hearthstone story so far this year, but all we see is the trickle of uninteresting non-news spoonfed to the site by Blizzard.
It all feels planned: first triple the requirements for +20% XP, then bring it down to double (*) but still only give +20% XP. Make it sound like they caved in to community backlash while still significantly worsening the economy for many players.
In itself this wouldn't be enough to make me quit, but it's part of an overall trend to monetize ever more aggressively. Back when it was only cosmetic, I would roll my eyes and move on, but now it's starting to affect how much money it costs to build a decent collection. I'm not interested in playing more and I don't want to pay more for the amount of time that I am playing the game. It seems they're on a course to make the game too expensive for me and if I'll be forced to quit anyway in the not too distant future, I might as well quit now and save myself some frustration.
(*) They haven't announced the new requirements, just said that they will be between the old and the current amounts. I have a gut feeling it will be right in the middle, but that is just a guess at this point. Edit: The new numbers differ per quest, but on average they indeed roughly doubled compared to the old situation, for example 5 wins -> 15 wins -> 10 wins.
Well, the expected response has been announced. Everything is still going according to their plans. The XP part remains capped as is apparently, so let us see how 'much' they will dial down the requirements part. I bet my left shoe it will still be quite disproportional, but how far apart they will be after the update is now the question.
Blizzard is literally saying: "We want you all to work much longer, but overall you are going to be paid less (XP) for it."
Now imagine your boss would say something to you like this, what would your response to such insanity be? 🤔
Obviously, they want players to spend more time in the game. Adding incremental tiers on top of the quests would have done the trick, really. They clearly have the technology available, just copy and paste it from the existing achievements system. Everything would be the same for the casuals and more engaged players would have something extra to work towards and thus play more. Instead they chose the bad option to lump everyone together and make things much worse for most people and also mess with the XP versus requirements ratio.
Ultimately, if the updated weekly quests are going to be still too disproportional, then make them infinitely rerollable. Let players mulligan these ridiculous quests over and over, so at the very least we can decide how to suffer through the most appealling ones in order to still get the XP.
There is no way I can complete these in one week. With the old weekly quests I already didn't always manage to complete them before the week ended.
I'm seriously considering whether I should quit the game. I don't like the feeling of being squeezed for money. And there are plenty of other good games to play.
I guess I'll stop playing until they roll it back; ultimately the people responsible for monetization probably care more about seeing the numbers drop than about any other form of protest.
The quest change is absolute insanity and is not the way you increase engagement in the game. I'd love to know what business unit said we need to make quests take longer and provide rewards that are not inline with the time.
I was hyping myself up for some BG games yesterday, but after seeing what happened to the XP quests, I closed the client. If they won't respect my time, I'll just stop playing.
I've wavered between staying and quitting Hearthstone a couple times now - mostly due to the ratio of expense/enjoyment - but now I have to consider that they just don't want people like me. I play a couple times a week when my dailies fill up, instead of multiple games every single day. They're trying to push me to play more, but in reality I would rather just bail and focus my resources elsewhere.
With the amount of outcry on reddit, I'm sure the new weekly quests will get updated to become easier to complete. At the very least they need to cut the requirement in half and keep the same amount of XP. Winning 7/8 games in ranked or playing 30 minis is much more managable. But yes this update is appualing and this change to weekly quests completely ruins all the good changes that were added.
Hearthstone's 10th Anniversary, Negative Player Reception, And Where We Go From Here
There also was a bundle with signature versions of rumble-inspired cards for unreasonable amount of money.
I'm curious, does anyone of site authors still play HS or was Sera the last one?
Hearthstone's 10th Anniversary, Negative Player Reception, And Where We Go From Here
I had hoped that with the acquisition completed, they would be under less pressure to monetize, but things have only gotten worse since then.
The more I think about it, the more it becomes clear that quitting the game is the right choice for me. For the last two years or so, I've spent 40 euros per expansion: the Tavern Pass plus a bundle with 20 packs and 2 legendaries. I don't play the game enough to make it feel worth putting more money in and I don't want to play more because I'd just get fed up with the meta sooner then.
I could probably continue as F2P for one more expansion cycle, disenchanting my duplicates and cashing in my tavern tickets, but in the long run it would become too expensive to keep playing the way I want to. Maybe I could afford one competitive deck as F2P, but I'd be bored in no time if I could play only one deck. Deck building is my favorite part of the game and that requires a pretty wide collection. So F2P is not a long term option for me.
I'm not sure I even want to finish the current Tavern Pass. I haven't played since Wednesday, when I logged in to do the Tavern Brawl and the daily quests that had piled up since Sunday, only to see the new weekly quests. Once I realized those were not a bug, I logged out without playing a game. Knowing that there is no future for me in this game has killed a lot of my motivation to log in and play.
Hearthstone's 10th Anniversary, Negative Player Reception, And Where We Go From Here
That`s exactly what I am thinking.
I remember the 10th anniversary of WOW - all players that had an active subscription thru all the years got a parcel with a free orc statue by mail.
The 10th anniversary of Hearthstone: all loyal players that bought every expansion pack - get a weekly quest rip off...
Time to uninstall this money sink
Hearthstone's 10th Anniversary, Negative Player Reception, And Where We Go From Here
Single-Player land has massive upgrade on latest years. There are a lot of good stuff that you can play. Online games are already decreasing in value for me for their community and how all games are shaping around some "META" 's and even though you don't like, people force you to play like that or you are all alone even in an mmo, so yes why do i keep myself triggerred while there are a lot of single player games which i can do whatever i want while monetization of online games are going wild at the same time.
I had the same decision after my Lost Ark adventure and how it became a job instead of an enjoyement instrument. I instantly uninstalled it and downloaded Crusader Kings III and ANNO 1800 and Stellaris. That feeling in a city builder game after doing dailies everyday in an mmo etc was so soothing. I recommend all here the same thing.
It is just a fomo that you miss your dailies/weeklies in hearthstone and company gets the benefit of it. I don't care i miss a daily or weekly, i just play whenever i want now. Believe me, you will have cards to play even you miss them. If you are a player like me who doesn't disenchant all wild cards and playing from beta you might have plenty of fun stuff on wild too (basing on they won't cut wild like duels, lol). You don't have to hit plat/dia all months and such. Just play whenever you want. Go play single player games. There are thousands of great games really. Old or new doesn't matter, I am playing a lot of games and there are still a lot of older good games i didn't play. And if you are desperate to play card games, give Legends of Runeterra a go, not for its ranked but for its pve. It is so chill and relaxing. Give it a chance. You can enjoy it like hearthstone.
Go play them instead of online fomo garbage ! Let online companies suffer really instead of whining on web and keep playing, so they will consider their monetization again.
Hearthstone's 10th Anniversary, Negative Player Reception, And Where We Go From Here
Speaking as someone who has gone on "Hearthstone hiatus" several times, and as someone who understands that nothing happens overnight at Blizzard, I'm willing to hang on for a few more weeks until the mini-set, which I will purchase with gold (assuming that's still an option). Blizzard's actions in the meantime will determine how I proceed after that. They know they are on thin ice, and their actions in the near future will determine the fate of the game. If they aren't willing to make some very big changes, they will never be able to find enough whales to keep them afloat.
(For reference, I'm a dolphin -- I spend enough to collect every card, but I stopped buying their overpriced cosmetic garbage long ago.)
The one key change I'm looking at is the reversal of the quest changes. Anything short of full reversal will constitute actual fraud in my eyes, to the extent that I think they will have opened themselves up to a class action lawsuit. People who purchased the Battle Pass did so with certain expectations of what it would take to complete the track and the amount of extra gold they could expect to accumulate from the XP bonus. Changing the rules without warning a couple of weeks after accepting money for the pass is a clear-cut case of bait-and-switch.
Quitting the game right now won't change anything since there's no money changing hands until the next expansion comes out. I can bide my time. However, if and when I do quit the game again, it will be the very last time. After the over-the-top Montgomery Burns-level antics they've been getting away with lately (itemized quite thoroughly and accurately in this article), I'm fully resolved to put the game behind me forever if Blizzard doesn't change their tune. (And let's face it -- we all know they won't.)
On that note, are there any new card games worth playing? I loved the bones of Magic Spellslingers, but it receieved no support and died. I hate Magic: the Gathering and its ridiculously outdated mana system. I've tried and bounced off of Runeterra, Gwent, Shadowverse, Faeria, Eternal, and Elder Scrolls Legends -- either for being too gimmicky or for chronic balance problems (or both). And I will absolutely NEVER play a game based on NFTs. Have I eliminated everythiing?
Hearthstone's 10th Anniversary, Negative Player Reception, And Where We Go From Here
While all of the monetary player gouging is certainly concerning, it's really the dire state of the actual card game that is making me consider quitting, as someone who has been playing since the last wave of closed beta. Hearthstone actually did a pretty good job for a number of years of avoiding too much power creep. Naturally, cards improved over what they were at launch, but the core of the game remained intact. The board state is almost irrelevant in recent metas. Game ending cards are now at 6-mana, because having them at 8 or 9 would likely see many not included in decks for being too slow. Cards regularly generate three other cards, so value isn't a thing you have to consider, you almost never run out of resources before the game is decided.
I'd like to see a return to form for the game, but it seems clear to me that while Blizzard are asking for more time/money, less money is being invested into the game itself. I sadly think its best days are behind it.
Hearthstone's 10th Anniversary, Negative Player Reception, And Where We Go From Here
Good writeup, I didn't even know about most of these exhibits.
I always had trust that HS makes changes that are good for its playerbase. Maybe my memory is bad but I think that for the most part - all the previous controversies were made good in the end.
This past week I found myself very active in protest against the new weeklies. I'm usually a quiet observer but this time it felt like an unprecedented event. I could see the game being dismantled in front of our eyes.
Blizzard's (lack of) presentation of the change has been a disaster, and the response from yesterday has done nothing to reassure us that their intentions are good for us.
I am currently in a place where I'm reevaluating my dedication level for the game.
I will stop spending money on it, that's for sure. And I won't be doing the 10 ranked wins quest because it's simply too much.
I loved playing HS the last 10 years, and continued playing on a daily basis depsite my friends all gradually abandoning it over the years.
Maybe the time for me to bow out is coming soon as well, and hopefully one day I'll have the courage to hit that Uninstall button...
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
@FortyDust Don't know if I can alleviate your opinion of us, but we hadn't reported on it in-part because I hadn't finished writing this:
https://outof.games/news/7246-hearthstones-10th-anniversary-negative-player-reception-and-where-we-go-from-here/
I have another job, one that usually leaves me tired at the end of the day. I'm not alone in this regard, either: many of us are volunteering our time when able to do so. I know that means sometimes we can't keep up, or things fall through the cracks, but I had every intention of addressing the Hearthstone drama. Believe me, I wasn't letting this one go.
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
Even though i agree almost all of the statements about quests and pass bonus, i don't blame blizzard for that.
I'm blaming who keeps buying its products even though they periodically increases the game's monatization more aggresively in years. Sorry but forum posts and reddit are not place to show your response and reaction. That reaction should be shown as not buying its products when they do their bad act.
It's simple real life thing. Noone stops benefiting from something if the situation keeps hapenning.
I mean, it is not first time they are doing it and people kept buying even though they don't agree. Companies only understands your reactions when they saw sale amounts, your forum posts and reddit posts are nothing.
As you can see, they are toying with you as they actually plan to increase it by 2x but increasing it for 3x so when people react they can decrease it. Mass of people will be glad with this change (or their act like decreasing) or just don't care and keep buying believe me.
I'm glad i stopped buying from blizzard for Heartstone since rastakhan's rumble. I still enjoy playing this game but it can't take a single dim from me anymore. You should do the same or just stop playing at all.
The thing i am actually sad about is BG Duos. It is just shadowed by all the drama and it is most fun stuff in years for hearthstone in my opinion. They just shot a bullet on their own leg...
Achievement Hunting - Whizbang Edition
Thank you for linking my deck! btw my name is gusty, not gutsy ahahah
Fluffy Ice
ok! Really thought there was an updated version, because after the new core set released, i switched many cards in my decks for the updated versions
Building A Good Eternal Elite Deck
I also often use burst heavy midrange elites. They are useful
Power Word: Replicate
This game is entertaining, I also like the same game quordle
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
... I'm seriously contemplating asking for a refund on the season pass - changing the terms and rate of exp mid way throught a month/season is leaving me with a bitter taste in mouth ...
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
I guess OutOf has given up on reporting actual Hearthstone news. The quest drama is the biggest Hearthstone story so far this year, but all we see is the trickle of uninteresting non-news spoonfed to the site by Blizzard.
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
It all feels planned: first triple the requirements for +20% XP, then bring it down to double (*) but still only give +20% XP. Make it sound like they caved in to community backlash while still significantly worsening the economy for many players.
In itself this wouldn't be enough to make me quit, but it's part of an overall trend to monetize ever more aggressively. Back when it was only cosmetic, I would roll my eyes and move on, but now it's starting to affect how much money it costs to build a decent collection. I'm not interested in playing more and I don't want to pay more for the amount of time that I am playing the game. It seems they're on a course to make the game too expensive for me and if I'll be forced to quit anyway in the not too distant future, I might as well quit now and save myself some frustration.
(*) They haven't announced the new requirements, just said that they will be between the old and the current amounts. I have a gut feeling it will be right in the middle, but that is just a guess at this point. Edit: The new numbers differ per quest, but on average they indeed roughly doubled compared to the old situation, for example 5 wins -> 15 wins -> 10 wins.
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
Well, the expected response has been announced. Everything is still going according to their plans. The XP part remains capped as is apparently, so let us see how 'much' they will dial down the requirements part. I bet my left shoe it will still be quite disproportional, but how far apart they will be after the update is now the question.
Blizzard is literally saying: "We want you all to work much longer, but overall you are going to be paid less (XP) for it."
Now imagine your boss would say something to you like this, what would your response to such insanity be? 🤔
Obviously, they want players to spend more time in the game. Adding incremental tiers on top of the quests would have done the trick, really. They clearly have the technology available, just copy and paste it from the existing achievements system. Everything would be the same for the casuals and more engaged players would have something extra to work towards and thus play more. Instead they chose the bad option to lump everyone together and make things much worse for most people and also mess with the XP versus requirements ratio.
Ultimately, if the updated weekly quests are going to be still too disproportional, then make them infinitely rerollable. Let players mulligan these ridiculous quests over and over, so at the very least we can decide how to suffer through the most appealling ones in order to still get the XP.
homefires
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Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
Community feedback has been heard, they're going to dial some requirements back while keeping the new XP numbers:
https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24087316
Fluffy Ice
There is only one version to link, and it is the version I have in the list.
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
There is no way I can complete these in one week. With the old weekly quests I already didn't always manage to complete them before the week ended.
I'm seriously considering whether I should quit the game. I don't like the feeling of being squeezed for money. And there are plenty of other good games to play.
I guess I'll stop playing until they roll it back; ultimately the people responsible for monetization probably care more about seeing the numbers drop than about any other form of protest.
Fluffy Ice
When the deck link is copied, Defrost is not added to the deck.
Can you switch it for the right version? Thank you
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
The quest change is absolute insanity and is not the way you increase engagement in the game. I'd love to know what business unit said we need to make quests take longer and provide rewards that are not inline with the time.
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
I was hyping myself up for some BG games yesterday, but after seeing what happened to the XP quests, I closed the client. If they won't respect my time, I'll just stop playing.
I've wavered between staying and quitting Hearthstone a couple times now - mostly due to the ratio of expense/enjoyment - but now I have to consider that they just don't want people like me. I play a couple times a week when my dailies fill up, instead of multiple games every single day. They're trying to push me to play more, but in reality I would rather just bail and focus my resources elsewhere.
More time + money for other games, I guess...
Blizzard's Known Issues for Hearthstone's 29.2 Patch
With the amount of outcry on reddit, I'm sure the new weekly quests will get updated to become easier to complete. At the very least they need to cut the requirement in half and keep the same amount of XP. Winning 7/8 games in ranked or playing 30 minis is much more managable. But yes this update is appualing and this change to weekly quests completely ruins all the good changes that were added.