It's fun topic Thursday, which is not a recurring column here, and that means we're going to be going over how insane it is that players of games don't understand the different roles within a game development team. Since the Mercenaries reveal earlier in the week, the Hearthstone community has been a bit of a cesspool when it comes to anger surrounding the mode and its "cash grab[ness]" (lol, no its not) and how other parts of the game suffered because of it (some truth, but not really).
Most importantly though, the developers deserve absolutely zero harassment. If you aren't having fun, find a new game to play! Life is way too short to be angry on the internet.
Misdirected Anger
When you walk into a restaurant and someone messes up your order, why on Earth would you begin yelling at the person cleaning the bathroom? In fact, you shouldn't even be yelling at anyone because that isn't going to accomplish much at all - unless you just want to ruin someone's day for something that was more than likely out of their control (this makes you a dick and your deck slots should be taken away). Add a touch of warmth to your complaint and you'll more than likely end up with better service as a result.
Give developers constructive feedback to let them know why you don't think something is good.
"Nerfing by 1 mana is shit"
vs
"I don't think 1 mana is going to be enough of a nerf, the class being targeted won't be slowed down much at all because..."
Its so depressing when players direct their frustrations toward the community team, stating they are wasting their time writing a funny tweet instead of balancing the game. To think for even a second that that one tweet, even if it did come from someone from the balance team, is responsible for cards not getting nerfed, that's the highest level of wrong that is possible. Or, when someone in there time off work is doing anything else outside of balancing the game. The entitlement is unreal.
Many have stated over the years that community teams are meant to be punching bags and that you should only get in that role if you can deal with it, and in a way, yes, those people are correct, but only because that has been a common thing they must engage with. Imagine how tiring it must feel to see that every single day firsthand when from the outside looking in, it already feels tiring seeing someone else write that in. Damn. Community Managers do not get enough love.
When a new mode is being developed, and folks don't like it for whatever reason and respond by saying "oh the mode looks like shit, this is why balance has been so bad", that enters the exact same territory. We've very clearly seen a reactive balance team from Blizzard during the development of Mercenaries, so why are people being so stupid about their comments? Some of the folks that are doing live balance are also responsible for upcoming constructed expansion content and we certainly haven't seen those slow down either due to Mercenaries... its almost like there are different teams within the Hearthstone team that are responsible for different things. What was that? That is indeed the case? Lightbulb Moment.
Yes, Some Stuff in Hearthstone is Neglected
Tavern Brawl. Oh my sweet summer child.
Mercenaries has unfortunately caused some slowdowns on the side of the live content team; This has previously been confirmed by Dean Ayala in his weekly Q&As where he has stated the mode became the main focus of the team. With Book of Heroes being done, Book of Mercenaries possibly still being worked on (if it isn't finished yet internally), and Mercenaries finally coming out soon, there is renewed hope for those that love to play Tavern Brawls and Duels. These two modes are a part of the live content team that has been hard at work on Mercenaries so yes, sometimes we do end up with rough spots on other modes, but its pretty clear that balance in the main constructed game isn't one of them.
Development is always going to be a list of priorities. I've never expected Tavern Brawl to be very high on that list, especially as Blizzard refines their live content model for the good of the game.
But Mom, Wild is Neglected Too!
You'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
I feel for Wild players, I really do. No one should feel neglected by the developers in a game, but the way that some of the very vocal players in the format are going about demands for changes are doing so the wrong way. The problem I see though is that Blizzard has always had a different vision for Wild from what the players want and we should set our expectations accordingly. They want to keep the format as close to the original printings of cards as possible and that's a completely valid strategy, it is their game at the end of the day and supporting the mode the same as Standard is not something that was intended from the very beginning.
Quote From A New Way to Play Wild Will Be Wild
Wild is our new name for the Hearthstone you already know, because it’ll be the format where anything can happen. While Standard puts a bright spotlight on recently released cards and brings a more balanced experience, when you queue up for Wild, you’ll be cozying up with the crazy fun of Hearthstone you’re already familiar with. Of course, as more and more cards are added over time, the wilder and more unpredictable Wild will be!
This post is from over 5 years ago, and I'm not saying its right to bring it up again because there have been so many things that have changed over the years in Hearthstone that Blizzard never really touched. Do you remember when we didn't receive many balance changes at all because they "want to make as few changes to cards as possible. We do feel really strongly about this."? These past two years make that statement look insane.
People change. Opinions change.
It is so comical when people bring up 10 year old information on somebody and act like they said it yesterday - see much of "cancel culture". There are plenty of really stupid things that I said many, many years ago that I definitely don't believe or did so to get a rise out of folks and I'm certain I'll do it again and reflect upon it in another 5 or 10 years and laugh about how stupid that was; This happens in games too, especially when the development team has changed so much over the past few years like we've seen in Hearthstone. Could the original creators of Hearthstone been a part of that problem? Were they inflexible because what they created was deemed perfection? It can be hard to "undo" the work that you've put into something, but another artist sees a different picture and begins to paint that instead.
With that said, Blizzard still has a similar stance on Wild with Dean recently stating the following.
Quote From Dean Ayala We don't intend for Wild to be Standard 2.0. I don't expect the philosophy around Wild balance to change in any drastic way going forward. We'll make light changes to major power outliers, we'll make major changes to extreme negative feeling gameplay archetypes.
Both of those things are just very subjective. To us, Warlock currently is on the edge power outlier and will probably see some further minor adjustment.
And guess what? Now Alec Dawson is further confirming that the current case [of Warlock] is clearing the bar of an extreme case of imbalance. We do get changes!
"But Flux, these aren't the changes I want. These changes won't do anything!"
Alright, and I think the extreme mana cheating in Hearthstone is absolutely not fun to play, but plenty of other players do like it. Plus, we don't even know what changes are going to happen, how can anyone say they aren't going to be enough?
I'm not saying that folks should find something else to play if they don't like the way Blizzard is handling Wild and their responses, because I know the team is extremely open to feedback despite saying they don't expect the philosophy to change, but damn, could we have some actual constructed conversations that don't involve "you're a shit developer" or "fuck Warlock"? Yeah, its frustrating and its a good idea to find a way to vent it, but this ain't it, champ.
I'm willing to open up the front page here to folks that want to start an actually constructive conversation about Wild. I would love to see Blizzard take a more hands-on approach to the format because there are tons of really cool cards that should get a chance to shine. There are a few different ideas that I've had regarding Wild over the years:
- Keep Wild as Wild - Make a new format that is Standard+Some Wild Sets+Banned Cards, rotate twice a year.
- Balance Wild, create a new format called Eternal with NO CARD CHANGES EVER. Much like Classic mode, unnerf everything.
If you are interested in starting that discussion and want to write intelligent, constructive walls of text, my messages are open.
Mercenaries
I'll take topics hotter than the Firelands for 500, Alex.
I don't think Blizzard did a great job with their Mercenaries stream. They clearly put a lot of work into it and they are very passionate about this new game but cramming everything that they did into a 30 minute stream didn't work out in my opinion. The game is very complicated when compared to base Hearthstone, we were getting information moving at the speed of light, and some visuals were up on screen for such short periods of time, you couldn't read half of it.
Mercenaries is its own game and it should have been treated like that. When Hearthstone was originally announced at PAX East 2013, we had an almost 40 minute presentation which gave a very high-level overview of the game and took us through a bit of slow gameplay. The base of Hearthstone is so much simpler, especially back in that day, so its almost crazy to think that the team wanted to give us a dive into Mercenaries in only 30 minutes. A longer stream with information coming out at a slower pace alongside an actual game within the mode would have made for a much better viewing experience. Instead, several blogs were posted, some with broken links to important pack information, during the show, which added more to the information overload which much of it was more fluffy than real substance.
And I get it.
We're still just over 5 weeks away from Mercenaries launching, which arrives on October 12, so there is still plenty of time to talk about the mode and maybe we'll even get to see a gameplay-focused stream with a couple of Blizzard folks having a back and forth as they talk about the game during play. The event just felt so strange! Hell, they even took some time during it to announce that there was a World of Warcraft promotion coming.
I believe this was a great learning experience for them and I hope they know that going forward they aren't just making a quick presentation to a generic gaming crowd to get them pumped up, but rather, actual Hearthstone players. We're talking folks that know a little bit about Mercenaries from previously released information so they could have taken their time and given us more thorough explanations - we'd have stuck around for another hour if it meant good content.
Also, on the subject of monetization, it was a huge, missed opportunity to better explain why those pack bundles exist. They are not the same as regular card packs and with them currently just sitting in the in-game shop, its intimidating. Why were we not presented with the pity timer information in the presentation? Rightfully so, some folks are concerned or angry about the high monetization of a mode we aren't even going to see for over a month; Blizzard could have done a better job by showcasing what the free-to-play players could expect as far as unlocks go. Can Mercenaries reliably be played F2P?
If Blizzard wanted to do a shorter stream, it is my opinion that we should have started out with gameplay mechanics and then done another stream closer to the mode coming out detailing systems. Moving the pre-orders to this later stream would also feel better from a player point of view because it wouldn't pollute the shop, which might be the most surprising part of all this, and my money wouldn't be tied up for 5 weeks without anything to show for it; It makes sense to pre-order expansions when you get stuff to play with immediately, this, not so much.
Personally, I think the mode looks like a lot of fun and it'll be something easy they can update over time which is awesome because Hearthstone needs more modes that you can add bits and pieces to on a shorter development cycle. Dropping in a few new Mercs or a few new bosses won't be as hard now that all the systems are in place. I can't wait to actually play it and form a proper opinion on it at that point in time.
Players Are Ruining the Game
I truly believe that the more angry folks get about stuff and the worse they handle it, the more Hearthstone, or any game, gets ruined.
Its so disappointing day after day to have to read the same commentary from folks. Many people can distance themselves from it, but those that want to talk about the game or those that are forced to follow conversations taking place everywhere in the community, its exhausting and it creates a really shitty atmosphere. We need more positivity or at least people being constructive when they want to say that something is bad.
There's one main reason I quit League of Legends after playing for many years; The toxic bullshit in-game.
Don't breed this same environment within the few places that discuss Hearthstone.
Thanks
<3
If you take only three things away from this post let it be:
- Developers don't deserve to be harassed.
- There are different teams of people within a game's development team. One working on something doesn't always neglect something else.
- We still need more information on Mercenaries.
A Challenge
Send a message to someone on a game team and tell them why you appreciate them. It could be the way they interact with the community or a feature you thought was really cool that you know they worked on. Do something positive! Hell, make it a weekly thing. Involve content creators because we know they get a ton of bullshit too and its not always just love. Leave a nice YouTube comment the next time you watch a great video, if you learned something in an article leave a comment thanking them,
Gaming sometimes feels like the ultimate thankless job when you consider how many people you encounter every single day.
Also, don't be a dick in-game.
Comments
Its really way too early to say that, game's not even out yet. Blizz did themselves a massive disfavor in not communicating the monetization aspect well (which is likely to be topic no.1 among players anyway) and then did a double fk up by showing not 1, not 2, but 3 different pre-order bundles at a fairly vertical price range.
Theres like a month away from launch and its likely that the heat from this will prompt a few changes. If they hope to avoid being in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, I sincerely hope they will.
After watching the Mercenaries stream, I was confused AF but also moderately hyped for the mode and just wanted more information (OoC being the first place I went for said information). My personal view was optimistic and enthusiastic for the new mode.... till I started reading comments and watching reaction videos...
Yes, the 30 minute stream was information overload and could have been done better as mentioned above, but that doesn't mean people should lambast the developers and the new mode from the get go when we don't have all the information. I felt so disheartened reading all the comments calling it "Hearthstone: Shadow Legends" or a "cash grab" when absolutely nobody (except the devs themselves) have seen much game play at all. Heck, the stream itself spent 15 min going through each of the points in the Mercenary Village than showing actual gameplay (which should have been a separate stream altogether). This is one of the cases where the phrase "Judging a Book by it's cover" applies 100%.
Complain all you want now, but it means absolutely nothing, coz we haven't played the mode yet. Once the mode releases and we've actually played it, THEN you can complain if you don't enjoy it or if it's rubbish.
What are you talking about?? If they can sell USD 50,00 bundles based on the "cover" they've shown, than we definitely get to judge it based on it as well. Yes, when the game mode gets released it might be a completely different scenario, but that doesn't negate the criticisms made on what we were presented now.
And cash grab is just the nature of these gatcha games. HS itself is a cash grab. It's a great game! But it's still incredibly reliant on the randomness of packs and the incentive for you to buy more to have fun. It's gambling. Now, not everyone falls for it, but clearly a lot of people do. And they simply replicated for the new mode. It might be more forgiving? Yes. But it's still based on the same system, so it's not going to stray too much from the model we all know.
Hearthstone itself is not a cash grab, nor do I have any reason to believe at this time that Mercenaries is. Hearthstone is a good product and its worth buying into. Hell, you can be successful as a free to play player too!
Cash Grabs, as Caro said before me, are bad products that are produced to take advantage of the market. Hearthstone built this damn market and the reason it is a powerhouse is because of how good the game itself is. The big card games are not cash grabs.
Every company is out there to make money. Some of them are going to monetize the entire game, some are going to monetize the contents (which has been a thing forever in card games, thats always been the way they work), and others will just monetize cosmetics over the core gameplay loop (see Legends of Runeterra).
This is the definition when you google "cash grab":
"The definition of a Cash Grab is usually when a product has little or zero quality has hastily, lazily, thrown together for the sole reason of making money. The product may also have no “heart” or “soul”, and has no reason to exist other than to make a quick buck."
Therefore, the term "Cash Grab" doesn't apply to HS itself, coz like you say, it's a great game and has tons of heart and soul.
C'mon now. Lol What heart and soul?? I never said that. This isn't a mom an pops store down the street. If you want to discuss semantics, be my guest. It doesn't change the fact that even though HS is a great game, it's still a "cash grab" game.
Sure, a game that you can literally get to first place in the world while paying zero dollars is a "cash grab." You REALLY nailed that take, so smart man.
I think Flux meant his article well, but it didn't work out. Yes, he correctly stated that attacking anyone is wrong. I can side with that.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, he is wrong in many ways.
He ignores that players make their displeasure so very clear because they love the game. Making the players to be spoiled children throwing themselves on the ground is exactly what the article is aiming against. (But Mom, Wild is Neglected Too!)
Loud discontent has already helped change Reward track for the better. I think many agree that the state of the game after the quests were introduced is not the best. Only aggro strategies or quests work, any style of play where it comes down to interaction on the board are impossible. Games end in round 6-9 by killing an oponent out of hand without any interaction. Is this where the developers want to take the game? Maybe. Is that where the players want the game to go? Many don't. What can players do other than make their displeasure known?
And the not-so-good launch of a new mod whose obvious main goal is to make money has only made it worse. We've already seen that Blizzard's main mistake is not communicating. Not communicating the Reward track, not communicating balance, not communicating the real questions on Mercenaries.
Let's not put all the blame on the players.
I think it worked out pretty well, it got a discussion going! Sure, some folks don't agree, others are doing exactly what I'm saying is a problem, but then we also have some that do agree. Its made for a great read so far!
Yeah, some of the little details like headings and flavor are a bit out there and we could have easily gone without them, but I think it adds a bit to the piece and I have no regrets for adding them. There are plenty of folks out there being incredibly childish about Wild. Anyone that isn't should know that they aren't being included in that group.
Games are an incredibly passionate bunch and I'd hate to see it any other way. Everything we do is out of love for the games and communities we hang out in - there are just several people who need to get better at communicating their thoughts and I feel that many of us can do a better job and telling people when they walk over that line.
The rewards track is an interesting one because although there were tons of people that were being really dumb about it, we also had lots of voices that were being very smart and being constructive about it. We had folks doing the deep math, providing their own previous stats to match up with the new one. Blizzard really screwed that one up by not including the full picture when they first talked about the track, which, surprise, is the same problem we have with Mercenaries (as you've said).
Most of the Mercenaries negativity could have been avoided if Blizzard god better at painting the full picture.
Definitely don't intend to blame all the players, I even called out Blizzard's poor management of Mercenaries so far. Players do need to grow up a bit though.
Oh, it's not just Hearthstone. Anyone who's been in a popular fandom knows that there's almost always a salty part of the community who does this all the time. Whenever the creators make a decision they don't like, they make complaints and threats, ruining the creators' days. I know this is a serious issue considering it harms the creators' wellbeing, but I've seen this so frequently that for me it's not even surprising anymore.
I've definitely been posting grumpier Hearthstone rants lately but this is my platform of choice because of the fantastic community Flux and the others have created. I know I can rant here without an endless stream of responses devolving into profanity (I take my downvotes - and occasional upvotes - with grace).
My biggest issue with Mercenaries is that it was advertised as a mode "not utilizing your collection" implying something similar to Battlegrounds, and instead it actually requires an entirely new collection. Cards ARE an amazing way to organize stats, abilities, and information for games, but when I hear "Hearthstone can be a platform for card games" then I expect NEW teams to be assigned to come up with NEW games. It bothers me that Activision/Blizzard is a giant - we're talking about a company with 8 BILLION in revenues - and the same live-content team for Hearthstone is tasked with developing an entirely new game. Mercenaries might be great, but from the visuals (game board specifically) to the marketing, it feels under-developed. Possibly because it is, in fact, underdeveloped, through no fault of the developers themselves, but something like this probably required a lot more investment from the company as a whole. There's a line that can be drawn from some of the workplace harassment and labor violations - a culture of overworking people - and trying to have the company's flagship auto-battler and RPG battler be made on the fly within an existing IP. While I'm sure it was easier to build them in the Hearthstone client than starting from scratch, I don't think this approach is actually giving the community OR THE DEVELOPERS what they want.
I don't agree that the players are ruining the game. Maybe we can share the blame. Players are unhappy because of decisions Blizzard AND developers made, they don't get a pass on responsibility since they said multiple times that they have freedom to make decisions. It's also their job to have a pulse on the community, since we are part of the game. Yes, some people go overboard with the things they say, but there's also a lot of valid criticism, I don't think is fair to only focus on the extremes.
AS for the new mode, I've seen Iksar clearly say multiple times in his AMAs that it was taking up from other areas, so clearly they are sharing responsibilities. Now tell me, why did we need a new mode? They devoted all this time an resources that could have been used in making the games we already have, better. But not only that, we got a new mode that no matter how forgiving it is to f2p, is still monetized like a casino. And yes, every game that implements gatcha systems is a cash grab. And that already being one the most criticized things about traditional HS, they still chose to do exact same thing. No matter how fun the gameplay is, it's still predatory, when easily it didn't have to be. And I think is perfectly valid for the players to point that out.
And honestly the whole speech of "if you're not happy, leave" is such a cop out. Extremely reductive not only for the discussion, but the game itself. If people didn't actually like the game and weren't passionate about it, they wouldn't be playing it. Being positive is not always going to make something better.
The game itself, as a literal, is only ever going to be ruined by Blizzard and they will never get a pass on it if they really mess up.
However, the game when you involve the community, because lets face it, community and the game itself make up the overall game, that's when we start to run into problems. When folks get discouraged because of the people that are being toxic in replies or they drop an N-slur to them via in-game message, that's ruining "the game" too. Its 100% clickbait to say players are ruining the game itself, that was my intention and it clearly worked and got people interested which then blew up a discussion here so I'm happy about it. Perhaps we could have had a slightly different discussion if that overall topic was a bit different.
I can't agree with you that the base of Hearthstone, a card game, is a cash grab. A cash grab is something that is garbage and is created purely to make money. There are many games out there that are like this, like many of the mobile games from Asia where the only way you can realistically play the game at all is to just keep injecting money and hoping you get a good sword, but Hearthstone is a legitimately good product. If Hearthstone's wasn't, this game would have been abandoned a long time ago. We get pretty damn good value in Hearthstone though, more so when you consider its a card game and how card games traditionally work.
Mercenaries could definitely be garbage and if it is, then the pre-order bundles are any other monetization is indeed a cash grab. We can't label it as such though because we still don't have a full picture of the game, which is a mega fail on the part of Blizzard.
Finally, there are plenty of folks who for literal years have been crying about Hearthstone. These are the people that really need to just cut their losses and leave. If you have zero fun in the game, and the only fun you have is complaining, you need to find something else to do with your time. Context is important. Notice how I said beforehand devs don't deserve to be harassed? People that are doing that clearly have had enough and it would be better for everyone if they did leave.
People also said that about Battlegrounds, yet here we are. I personally think the answer to the question is that the game lacked a main pve mode for people who enjoy those. Yes, there were Dungeon runs in the past, but that got kinda boring ones you have gone through all the chapters in every difficulty.
Mercenaries on the other hand seems to have a huge amount of not only mercenaries to level, but also a wide selection of bounty missions with an even bigger ammount of variaty than dungeon runs had. The gameplay showed that the bounties are seperated into regions, with each of them having three bounty missions. While they havn't said an exact number, the size of the slider implied that there are around 8-10 different areas, so roughly 60 different bounties to go through. On top of that there is also the heroic difficulty, as well as post launch legendary one. AND they promised regular updates, which will surely include more areas and gameplay mechanics, just like for the other 2 premier modes "Constructed" and "Battlegrounds".
I get that. But Mercenaries is not only a pve mode. They are clearly incentivizing the pvp aspect with this choice of monetization and from what I've seen in gameplay videos they released, the rewards are bigger in pvp, just like exp in normal HS. Don't get me wrong, it might be great content just like BGs, with lots of f2p resources... but it's still a HS redux in terms of access. And like I said, it didn't need to be. If they think BGs is too cheap, they could've done at least something in the middle of that and normal HS, without delving into the gatcha model.
Given players will be matched according to the power level of their teams, I don't think the Mercs' PvP is nearly as much of a pay to win mode as many people seem to think. By the sounds of it, you can chill and only collect and level your team slowly (i.e. F2P) without ever actually being at a disadvantage because you're not competing with anyone who has stronger teams. In that regard it looks a LOT more F2P friendly than normal HS is.
That doesn't mean there aren't some competitive advantages to a bigger collection of mercs since the characters are never going to be perfectly balanced, but the biggest gain seems to be more for the impatient players who want all the characters to be present and leveled quickly, even if that doesn't actually benefit their PvP win rates much.
That the pvp arena is supposed to be the main mode seems to be the general perception, but I feel like the focus, from a gamedesign perspective, lies on the pve part. The mode was announced as a pve experience with an additional pvp version and the game design also reflects that in multiple ways.
1. The Bounties are in the center of the map, while the pvp arena is closer to the edge. That's just a small thing, but it does impact what you unconsciously prioritize.
2. Quests - This one is obviously very vague since they have barely shown any of them, but the ones we do know about can either be completed in every game "Deal 75 damage with arcane shot" or is pve exclusive like "Complete the Ferocious Quillboar bounty". We have yet to see one that rewards you playing pvp.
3. The pvp rewards are limited to once per day. The bounties on the other hand don't have that limit and, judging by the shown gameplay, the pvp rewards don't seem to be much more than the ones for bounties.
4. Building up on that, the bounties have much more contant than the pvp. As I mentioned in my previous comment, there appears to be tons of different bounties. Not only that, but there are bounty loot exclusive attacks, passive Items and ofcourse enemies. When we look at the pvp section again, you'll find out that it uses the same ladder as BG. And just like BG there don't seem to be seasonal rewards. This in combination with my third point again means that playing pve regularely is the optimal way of gaining progress.
Blaming the players is absolutely never the answer.
If players are being obnoxious and toxic, they're probably upset. If you're trying to sell them something, it's your job to make them happy. They don't owe you a cent.
To pretend that players are entitled rather than devs is hilarious.
Players will always complain, exploit, etc., to push the limits of any system. That's an opportunity for the developers to improve their system.
Hearthstone languished for a long time, and the dev team started making some changes more recently, except now we've got turn 4-5 lethal. They nuked patron warrior from orbit when it was like a turn ~17 combo. To have no content on game modes people like for so long, and then fed another thing that no one asked for, is going to piss a lot of players off.
Like you said, they made a horrible presentation. That alone speaks volumes. If all resources and focus is on this game mode that they enjoy internally so much--why didn't they put in the time to make a great presentation? Why wasn't it self-evident how great the game mode is from their crappy presentation?
It leaves players more than skeptical.
Blizzard did the same thing with HOTS (dead), Diablo Immortal (don't you have phones?) and Overwatch (promise a ton of content, go dark for 2 years, then announce PvE while neglecting PvP). They're on thin ice and it's up to the developers to make their case as to why anyone should care.
Just saw Trumps video on how Mercenaries mode works. In fact just like he says its an entirely new game but within the HS interface.
After seeing his video my hopes that this new game might be good and not as much of a cash grab just went up. I recommend giving it a watch
I agree with this post for the most part. Sadly it is really hard to create a positive community in a competitive game. You cant just expect people to sugarcoat anything when they are playing a frustrating game. Yea it is the game that is frustrating. It is a card game that you have no control over of most things but yet the outcome of the game is decided on wheter you win or lose. That being said Hearthstone has always been salty. Its not 2021 that changed that. However the promises of the game is changing. Instead of a game that I could play lets say in a bus or vacation, the game is getting faster and faster. Mana is getting more obsolete and minion combat is out of discussion. You cannot expect the same people who played yesterday to be happy today. Which Im pretty confident that they weren't that much happy yesterday too. This expansion was kinda like a decent of dragons in terms of feels. Which also had a huge backlash for most standard players. The difference is that instead of nerfing older cards they went directly with the galakronds. Something that they are not doing for some reason today (Im talking about the quests). And also please, you cannot have an entitled community. The game is for the player, the player is not for the game. If the community is raging mad the first place to look for a cause is the game. Not the people.