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Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

Hearthstone AMA #45 1:00PM - 2:00PM PST Ask me a question about Hearthstone! Or Design! (or anime...or elden ring) https://t.co/UOtcE98SRj

Hearthstone AMA #45 1:00PM - 2:00PM PST Ask me a question about Hearthstone! Or Design! (or anime...or elden ring) https://t.co/UOtcE98SRj

  • Iksar
    Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
    Hearthstone AMA #45 1:00PM - 2:00PM PST Ask me a question about Hearthstone! Or Design! (or anime...or elden ring) https://t.co/UOtcE98SRj

    • RarranHS
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS Would you like to be on “Do you know Hearthstone?”

      • Cora
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @RarranHS @IksarHS Can confirm it's pretty fun

    • Iksar
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      ok time to see how many of these I can storm through in an hour...

    • NautThatMeta
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS There's a lot more disruption than we're used to seeing in the upcoming set. Does this indicate a larger shift in design philosophy, or was this purely in reaction to Stormwind?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @NautThatMeta Team is generally more pro-risk than we have been in the past. Accepting of more complexity and more high-emotion cards even if sometimes those emotions are negative. We've learned more in the last year or two of card design that we did in the many years previous as a result.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @NautThatMeta We'll probably skew more towards less complexity but I feel like disruption has been more welcome than I first imagined. Will probably keep printing, maybe just not at an Illucia level of power.

    • HolyKnight077
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS First of all, how you doing? Second of all, in a scale 1-10, how excited are you for next expansion? Third and final, how far ahead are you guys in the planification of sets rn? Best wishes chief!🫡

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @HolyKnight077 The furthest in the future sets we're working on in some capacity are the first two expansions of 2024. No card design work is done but we're exploring what a two set narrative could look like. Talked to the WoW team about possibly doing a canon universe thing, but very early.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @HolyKnight077 This early on, the first thing we think of has a <10% chance of being the thing we actually do. We're just starting on some interesting narrative ideas very early.

          • Iksar
            Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
            @HolyKnight077 Also, I'm great. 10 excited for next expansion! At this point, I'm mostly a manager, future planner, so my excitement is mostly due to being so proud of all the work @Songbird_HS and team have done on the set. They really care and have done such a good job 🥹

    • gtluizmoratelli
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS I've been looking at the definition of discover and it says about adding a card to hand, but that's not always strictly what happens, are there any plans to change the definition in-game/in-site? [img from playhearthstone] https://t.co/vGxd3RNBP2

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @gtluizmoratelli Hearthstone rules have always been more about 'best words to help players understand' vs 'exactly correct in all circumstances'. I think this text gets Discover across even if it doesn't represent the exact definition across all card interactions.

    • BionicDoor
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS What’s it like being Game Director now? What kind of direction do you want to lead Hearthstone in?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @BionicDoor Job is good. Some new things, a lot of the things I was already comfortable with. Generally speaking, I'd like to spend 70-80% of our time refining what we already have and the last 20-30% making new stuff you might not expect.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @BionicDoor We have so much content upkeep in Hearthstone it makes it hard to do new things. Whenever we make a new mode, there is more content upkeep there, which means less time for new stuff.

          • Iksar
            Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
            @BionicDoor While the team has grown, we don't actually have much more bandwidth to make new and exciting features because most of what we make requires us to stick around and continue making it indefinitely.

            • Iksar
              Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
              @BionicDoor So we're taking stock of what players love and want us to improve (or create) and make sure we're spending our time there. There isn't any major revelation here, but looking at things like the monthly card back and asking if that artist time is better spent making something else.

              • Iksar
                Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
                @BionicDoor Delight and surprise was one of the original Hearthstone values. I hope to live up to that.

    • RidiculousHat
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS a concern that’s come up in some circles is the rate of meta churn and change lately, especially with this expansion. between 23.2.2 and .6, there were 36 new cards and 32 changes in 40 days. do you have opinions on this cadence, consider it an issue, and/or have plans to fix?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @RidiculousHat We're definitely in a new world. We used to view card changes as a negative thing we'd only do when the positive was so great it outweighed the negative of change. These days, I'd say the 'negative' of card changes is viewed as a very minor thing.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @RidiculousHat And it causes us to make a variety of small-upside changes. Final design (@Chakki_HS, @AlecoGereco) are certainly aware of this change in mindset. I'd leave it to them on how they think it's going.

    • Kross3d_
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS Is it common to create cards for an expansion late to combat or help a portion of the meta? An example which may fit this category is Skulking Geist for Jade Idol, but were there are other examples or cards created for a similar purpose but not released?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @Kross3d_ Somewhat rare. It's more common for us to make changes to not further power up an existing powerful archetype. Generally speaking, it's better for us to just nerf the powerful thing than point players to 1 thing they need to use to beat it.

    • TimRizzo
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS A mechanic I'm surprised hasn't been explored more is hand revealing. Ex. A 3 mana 4/4 that has the drawback of revealing the left-most card in your hand while in play. What is it about that mechanic that makes it tricky/unexplored design-wise?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @TimRizzo Hand revealing is more interesting as a concept than it is in practice. Having unknowns is good. If you know what your opponent can do, it usually means you have less interesting choices to make.

    • EliteLeafHater
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS any chance of ever having new set arena cards a few days early in arena. It was done in the past a long time ago (dont remember how many times) and would be cool to play with some of the new cards a couple days early

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @EliteLeafHater I think there are some tech probs with this nowadays. Can check with @Celestalon and @themattlondon to see what they think. We have a '.0' day where the patch is live but the cards aren't ready. Then we have a 'content unlock' day that is the expansion launch.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @EliteLeafHater @Celestalon @themattlondon I think the old way we did this was to have the cards from the expansion live in arena after the .0, but before the content unlock day.

    • lil_robitussin1
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS Hey Dean! I’m just wondering if you can provide some background on locations. How/when did the idea for this card type come up in the design stage? Any inspirations? Were some harder to design than others? Are there any other card types in development right now? (Long shot 😅)

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @lil_robitussin1 First iteration of locations happened in alterac valley, but we didn't find anything very fun in design so they were scrapped. Second iteration came in sunken city, but we ran out of UI time to solve some UI issues, so they were scrapped. Final version is finally here!

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @lil_robitussin1 Locations went through an incredible amount of playtesting and were loved and hated then loved a few times over. @Songbird_HS might have some of those stories.

      • Cora
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @lil_robitussin1 @IksarHS The first first iteration was technically Barrens. We tested "Champions" that were minions with activatable effects, but they were too flimsy. Tried again in AV and Sunken City, and ended up with Objectives. Then we finally decided to do a new card type in MaCN officially.

        • Cora
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @lil_robitussin1 @IksarHS For many many months, Locations took up 2 spaces on the board and had a socket that you would put a minion into. Locations were only active when they had a minion in them, and they would lose durability when the minion died. It was cool, but was really difficult to do thing.

          • Cora
            Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
            @lil_robitussin1 @IksarHS Top-decking a Location with no minions in hand just felt awful. They looked pretty cool though. Would love to do something with that tech someday.

    • vitor_lamartine
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS It has being said that there is, usually, 3 expansions being worked on at different stages at the same time. How is the cycle of big updates for battlegrounds? Is it one at a time or do you have a few being worked on at the same time?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @vitor_lamartine One or two at a time still. We've had almost a decade to refine and build playtesting time into expansion making schedules, but we've had to play a great deal of catchup with bg content create. Our plan is to eventually be the same as expansion sets.

    • lamri247
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS How’s progress going for your list? https://t.co/D2tUIoT1Rx

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @lamri247 Pretty good actually.... Only a couple of these are released or close to released, but definitely working on things from this list.....

    • Eggolas_
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS Surprised we didn't get the Undead tribe with the new expansion theme. Do you expect Undead to ever join Hearthstone or is that a tribe that's too vague in it's meaning and would cause a lot of dual-tribe overlap in minions? Similar to how people talk about the Pirate tribe.

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @Eggolas_ Undead aren't really a Revendreth thing. We're definitely for the idea of adding more tribes, just have to get to an expansion theme that warrants it.

    • ben_heathstone
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS Rapid fire! 🔥 🔹How’s your role changed as Game Director? 🔹How do you evaluate the success of each game mode? And related, how do you decide on the amount of resources dedicated to support each game mode? 🔹When’ll we see a new Tavern Brawl? 😅

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @ben_heathstone 1. More future planning stuff (next 1-3 years) and less right now stuff. 2. A lot of that is data. Are players playing this mode? Less or more than they did previously? Do our consumer surveys say players love this mode? Does this mode generate revenue?

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @ben_heathstone Once we understand those questions, we still have to make a decision on how to support. The question usually isn't whether we should support something or not, it's whether the talented people supporting that thing could be better utilized elsewhere or not.

          • Iksar
            Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
            @ben_heathstone 3. I honestly don't know.... Tavern Brawl is a good example of something we pumped the breaks on to use that time elsewhere (things like duels, book of X content, more new stuff in dev). @themattlondon might know!

    • fusrohdaniel
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS What's your opinion on Attack on Titan's most recent season? Do you think the time skip served the story or hurt it?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @fusrohdaniel I feel like it's really hard for entertainment of this quality to stick the landing. I enjoyed the latest season, but it was a bit tainted by the fact I thought it was ending forever only to be tricked into being yet another part season.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @fusrohdaniel I just want more Levi....

          • Iksar
            Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
            @fusrohdaniel To answer your question, though, I thought it was pretty good! 8/10!

    • pelinal1415
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS What impact do you think the success of Elden Ring will have on the next generation of open world rpgs if any?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @pelinal1415 Medium impact. I think people undersell how difficult it is to pull a game like Elden Ring off. You aren't handheld, it just so happens that literally any direction you go in has something interesting.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @pelinal1415 The interesting part of a game world is usually a small % of it. The rest of it just looks pretty and you are escorted along the interesting path. If you remove the escort, now all of a sudden 80-90% of your game world needs to be interesting to support a player doing anything.

          • Iksar
            Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
            @pelinal1415 Elden Ring is a masterpiece, don't get me wrong. They were able to create this massive world and I could explore almost anywhere in it and be delighted by what I found. I have a hard time seeing many studios pull this off.

    • adam_noodelman
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS Would you ever consider doing some sort of card design podcast/workshop with @maro254? It'd be really cool to hear from lead designers of two of the biggest CCGs think about the craft, what you have in common and what you do differently etc.

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @adam_noodelman @maro254 I had thought about copying (and crediting) @maro254 by doing a '10 years, 10 lessons' talk about Hearthstone. He did a '20 years, 20 lessons' talk that I think might be the best design talk I've ever heard.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
          @adam_noodelman @maro254 Probably not, though. Rosewater is an incredible writer, storyteller, and speaker. I'm more into.... clever use of internet memes... stuff like that.

    • OTV98
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS Have you ever played a game of Hearthstone, got tilted by a card and wondered "why did we ever make that?" And if yes what card?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @OTV98 so many times, so many times it's mostly when I misplay a card I didn't understand and blame the team (in my moment of frustration/stupidity)

    • WhyteKnoize
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS What’s been your favorite deck to play in Marvel Snap? Also what’s your collection level?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @WhyteKnoize I think it's 900-something. I like my Odin/WhiteTiger deck. I mostly play some janky deck that has 2 of each mana cost to complete quests, though.

    • PausedReset
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS How do you feel about the current systems in place in onboarding new players and retaining them.

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @PausedReset bad we're currently working on forming a small team to tackle onboarding and winback experiences, what we have isn't good enough

    • GamingPatzer
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS My wife is 5 months pregnant. Any advice for a future father?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @GamingPatzer it'll be hard but you can handle it also support your wife, she's going through what is basically a major surgery, a major life moment, and the baby is going to need her more than you

    • Unconkable
      Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS What is your favorite anime fight scene and why?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Source)
        @Unconkable have to come back to this one.... so many good ones and it's a question about anime so I have to go all out...
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