Hearthstone often called an RNG fiesta, and the prevailing wisdom is that it takes less skill to play than other TCGs/CCGs because of it. I’m not here to argue whether HS, MtG, LoR etc. is the more skilful since as far as I know the concept of ‘skill’ cannot be quantified, so we’d be stuck using opinions and gut feelings which get us nowhere.
No, the purpose of this thread is to make the case that RNG, in HS as well as other (card) games, should not be regarded with the surface-level analysis that it usually receives. Namely: “you have less control of the outcome, therefore that outcome requires less skill”. To escape the ever-present debate of whether RNG in deck order counts, I'll focus more on randomness outside of card games, which helps shed a different light on things.
In principle I agree. I would like to adress one point however. RNG in HS often does not mean having less control of the outcome of a situation, but having no control at all. One (quite extreme) example would be the new Yogg card. Play it and you can instantly win or lose the game. There is absolutely no skill or control involved here, just pure randomness. There are different levels of RNG, some just influence the current game situation to varying degrees and some decide the game outright. The latter pretty much negate any skill.
You are saying that "To comment on the amount of RNG in HS is to comment on the game environment, not the skill it takes to play it well." which is right, but does not take into account that besides the amount of RNG there is also the "quality" of RNG which matters. As described above some RNG just gives you an advantage while other forms completely negate any skill.
Seems terrible right now, unless this get some dedicated support cards (discount, evolve?) it is an early contender for the Magma Rager award. Yeah it is neutral, but at best this card removes three minions (and your opponent can play around it quite easily). For 10 Mana this simply does not cut it.
Not really familiar with WoW lore, but a water-themed expansion would be great. Something with Naga and sea creatures would be nice (something other than Murlocs). I guess that could be interesting, also mechanic wise.
As a wild player I do not find these nerfs to be necessary. Mage as a whole is not that strong and none of these two cards were overpowered from my point of view. I did not realize that they must have been problematic in standard.
Edit: Guess the variance in wild is just much bigger. Getting Evocation from spell generation effects like Wandmaker is far less likely.
Uro was banned, which does not destroy the deck but weakens it quite a bit. What is worse, there is no proper replacement right now. One could run Dryad of the Illisian Grove for some further ramping but obviously that is an inadequate replacement.
Zendikar would have been a great set if they had refrained from printing Omnath. Unfortunately Omnath ruins pretty much the entire game right now. Cannot wait until this complete design failure will be banned and the clown fiesta ends. But I guess we will have to get used to this kind of nonsense every set from now on.
I am probably one of the few persons here on the forum who never played WoW (not even for a short time). I briefly considered starting a trial to obtain her but I guess it is ultimately not worth it for me. Though it is a great hero skin.
You can call me a cynic but I am not buying their explanation. I am convinced that at least part of the reason here was to test if they can get away with this sort of cuts. Without a significant response they would not have backtracked. They had the time to do voicelines for the solo adventure but were not able to throw in some lines for the hero skin in advance? This is either not true or bad organization. Secondly for a company like Blizzard recording some short voicelines in advance should not be a problem at all. Great that they adressed this issue but I am not convinced.
Good for Hunter players, but as a Mage main I feel a little bit screwed. Why Hunter and not Mage? I guess sales of the Scholar Jaina bundle must have been rather lackluster. Would have bought the bundle with a proper skin.
Uro could be annoying, but I really think they should have banned the stupid Lotus Cobra instead. Never should have printed this pile of garbage. Its pretty much either instant removal or concede.
They could have easily half the price, scale down the rewards accordingly and give every one a free ticket. That would have been something similar to an event and much more attractive to many players. But no, its Blizzard after all.
This event has been utterly disappointing so far. Apart from the Book of Heroes (which hopefully will not replace the solo content for this expansion) we pretty much only got a couple of new BG heroes. The rest was promotion of mostly overpriced packages and cosmetics. The Brawliseum is no different, average players will likely not make a profit here. I daresay the free pack would probably be better for most.
I'm ok with this if we will get an actual Scholomance event later, if this has been the main event of this expansion then I'm pissed.
Well you can't as far as I know. Unless they have implemented this recently, which I might not be aware of. Please correct me if I am wrong on this one.
In principle I agree. I would like to adress one point however. RNG in HS often does not mean having less control of the outcome of a situation, but having no control at all. One (quite extreme) example would be the new Yogg card. Play it and you can instantly win or lose the game. There is absolutely no skill or control involved here, just pure randomness. There are different levels of RNG, some just influence the current game situation to varying degrees and some decide the game outright. The latter pretty much negate any skill.
You are saying that "To comment on the amount of RNG in HS is to comment on the game environment, not the skill it takes to play it well." which is right, but does not take into account that besides the amount of RNG there is also the "quality" of RNG which matters. As described above some RNG just gives you an advantage while other forms completely negate any skill.
Seems terrible right now, unless this get some dedicated support cards (discount, evolve?) it is an early contender for the Magma Rager award. Yeah it is neutral, but at best this card removes three minions (and your opponent can play around it quite easily). For 10 Mana this simply does not cut it.
Top contender for the most stupid tavern brawl imo
Not really familiar with WoW lore, but a water-themed expansion would be great. Something with Naga and sea creatures would be nice (something other than Murlocs). I guess that could be interesting, also mechanic wise.
As a wild player I do not find these nerfs to be necessary. Mage as a whole is not that strong and none of these two cards were overpowered from my point of view. I did not realize that they must have been problematic in standard.
Edit: Guess the variance in wild is just much bigger. Getting Evocation from spell generation effects like Wandmaker is far less likely.
Not only a full custom expansion, but an entire year? Blizzard should hire you
Thanks for the information. I did not know this (not paid attention I guess). :)
Uro was banned, which does not destroy the deck but weakens it quite a bit. What is worse, there is no proper replacement right now. One could run Dryad of the Illisian Grove for some further ramping but obviously that is an inadequate replacement.
Zendikar would have been a great set if they had refrained from printing Omnath. Unfortunately Omnath ruins pretty much the entire game right now. Cannot wait until this complete design failure will be banned and the clown fiesta ends. But I guess we will have to get used to this kind of nonsense every set from now on.
I am probably one of the few persons here on the forum who never played WoW (not even for a short time). I briefly considered starting a trial to obtain her but I guess it is ultimately not worth it for me. Though it is a great hero skin.
Looks interesting, I might give it a try. Thanks.
You can call me a cynic but I am not buying their explanation. I am convinced that at least part of the reason here was to test if they can get away with this sort of cuts. Without a significant response they would not have backtracked. They had the time to do voicelines for the solo adventure but were not able to throw in some lines for the hero skin in advance? This is either not true or bad organization. Secondly for a company like Blizzard recording some short voicelines in advance should not be a problem at all. Great that they adressed this issue but I am not convinced.
I hope they put Jaina up for sale again, but I somewhat doubt it. I would have bought the bundle knowing this.
Good for Hunter players, but as a Mage main I feel a little bit screwed. Why Hunter and not Mage? I guess sales of the Scholar Jaina bundle must have been rather lackluster. Would have bought the bundle with a proper skin.
Uro could be annoying, but I really think they should have banned the stupid Lotus Cobra instead. Never should have printed this pile of garbage. Its pretty much either instant removal or concede.
They could have easily half the price, scale down the rewards accordingly and give every one a free ticket. That would have been something similar to an event and much more attractive to many players. But no, its Blizzard after all.
This event has been utterly disappointing so far. Apart from the Book of Heroes (which hopefully will not replace the solo content for this expansion) we pretty much only got a couple of new BG heroes. The rest was promotion of mostly overpriced packages and cosmetics. The Brawliseum is no different, average players will likely not make a profit here. I daresay the free pack would probably be better for most.
I'm ok with this if we will get an actual Scholomance event later, if this has been the main event of this expansion then I'm pissed.
I had to download another small update. Now it works (for now). Hope you can play soon.
Yeah thanks. It now works for me after another update. Others seem to still have problems.
Well you can't as far as I know. Unless they have implemented this recently, which I might not be aware of. Please correct me if I am wrong on this one.