Bluetracker
Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.
Why does blizzard continue to design the game with new players at the forefront of decision making; but not address the increased entry barrier.
Things like 9 deck slots. No alternative card art as rewards. Not dynamically balancing "bad cards" with weekly/monthly updates. Even wording on cards, according to Ben Brode.
It seems like the design team bends over backwards, making every decision with only beginners in mind.
If this is how they want to design the game, fine. But why then is nothing done about the entry barrier to the game? The game becomes less and less attractive and attainable for new players with every expansion. Other than the free pack (which we didn't even get last week, marry fucking christmas) in brawls, they have done jack and shit.
Just about curious/annoyed with the design philospohy. I think it's time Blizzard either addresses this problem and does something radical to make the game not so overwhelming to new players.. or they stop making every decision with new players in mind and start making the game for the people who are already playing it. The people who can comprehend that cards are changing, and figure out how to name decks without getting confused.
EDIT: I am reading a ton of replies of people sarcastically saying things like "Blizzard should pay me to play this game!! Such BS M8" and other similar things.
Please notice that I am not saying anything like that. What I am saying is that blizzard should EITHER make the game more accessible to new players, or start designing the game around the existing players. I am in no way saying that new players should be given all the cards as soon as they start, or any of these other things some people are implying.
Ben Brode
I just wanted to pop in and hopefully clear up a couple things.
We don't focus only on beginners, it's just that we bring them up a lot because many vocal players are already representing the other major group (engaged players). Most of what we do is for engaged players. In fact, just releasing any kind of content is pretty bad for new players. You've identified the fact that we are making the game worse (higher barrier to entry) for new players despite our apparent focus on them. That's because we really are trying to focus on everyone, impossible though it may be.
Also, I agree we do need to do something about the barrier to entry. I'm not sure it's catastrophic right now, but it won't take too many more expansions before it is. I made a video about this recently, you can check it out here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGc6hAr8r6c
We are pretty close to having some actual plans to share with everyone about this. Sorry I can't share more right now - still hammering out some details.
A couple more clairifications:
Deck Slots - we are actively working on this.
No alt art card rewards - this is more to benefit engaged players than new players. The game is somewhat more fun when you don't have to read your opponent's cards, and you just let the art inform the gameplay because you've just memorized it over time.
No Weekly balancing - this also isn't for new players. Made a video about this, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1ioY1KO79A