Hearthstone has been going through...a bit of a tumultuous time as of late. The high points of the 10th Anniversary celebration, plus the release of Whizbang's Workshop and Battlegrounds Duos, have been countered by the lows of the on-going battle over our time and money as consumers, with Blizzard seeking to extract as much of them as they can. The conversation has been...spirited, to say the least, and of course I have my own thoughts on the matter at hand. How this will all play out with the playerbase remains to be seen, but I for one have drawn my line in the sand (spoiler alert). So how did we get to this point? Let us make a thorough examination of the evidence:
The (Recent) Evidence
I'm not going to lay out all the various ways Blizzard has tried to screw with us players over the years - I'm not subjecting you to such a long read, nor myself to such a long writing process. This is focused squarely on the period of time in-and-around the 10th Anniversary and Whizbang's Workshop, up to the release of Battlegrounds Duos and Patch 29.2. I could be forgetting something, in which case feel free to make note of it in the comments below.
Exhibit A: Corridor Sleeper & "Early Access" Cards
Two copies of Corridor Sleeper were provided to those who bought a Preorder Bundle; those who did not pony up money would have to wait a month or so to gain regular access to this minion. To say we dodged a bullet is an understatement: Corridor Sleeper was not very meta-relevant during this Early Access window, and that is thankfully a good thing. But this could just be the start of a major swing toward a "Pay 2 Win" mentality, with Blizzard testing the waters. If the power-level of these Preorder cards grows to where they can have an actual impact on the flow of gameplay, people will be heavily encouraged to buy the Preorder to keep up...which is what they want from us in the first place.
Exhibit B: The Harth to Harth Bundle
Harth Stonebrew was a celebratory card for the 10th Anniversary, given out to anyone who logged in during the window. But the golden version (plus diamond Harth) were offered in an inexplicable real-money bundle, put together despite only being able to use one at a time. The golden version remains uncraftable; it is now, presumably, forever lost to people given that the Harth to Harth bundle is out of the shop.
Exhibit C: Scaling Back of Completion Rewards/Achievements
These both fall under the same umbrella: pulling back on features and the means by-which players can be rewarded for their effort. In a strictly quantifiable sense, less Achievements means less opportunites for bonus XP, but it also means less in general for the most-engaged players to strive for. We wanted Achievements, after a long time we got them, and now they're being shaved back.
Alongside this, we've lost the free diamond Legendary we used to receive for acquiring enough Legendaries from the latest set. Instead, we now get Signatures of a Common and a Rare; they may be decent looking, but they're not equivalent by any means. Blizzard chose to strip out this free diamond card so they could sell them to us instead, via the Diamond King Plush bundle, Diamond Owlonius bundle, and other offerings.
Exhibit D: The Destruction (and Subsequent Removal) of Duels
Duels was a fun mode for those who got a kick out of the higher power-levels and Dungeon Run-esque qualities of the bucket system. But it also wasn't profitable: Arena Tickets were given out as occasional rewards, plus you could just play regular runs without spending a Ticket at all, meaning people weren't buying into the mode. Some conspiracy-minded circles like to believe that Blizzard sabotaged Duels on purpose, messing with the buckets to make the mode less desirable to play while also scaling back any additional updates. The results were obvious and expected: less people played Duels, allowing Blizzard to point at those numbers and justify its out-and-out removal, much to the dismay of its fans.
Exhibit E: Increasing Weekly Quest Requirements
Doubling or tripling of the requirements for Weekly Quests, in exchange for a slight increase in XP gains. "Play 16 Miniaturize or Mini cards" became "Play 60 Miniaturize or Mini cards" (multiplied by 3.75, or almost quadrupled). Blizzard "listened to the feedback", but this was all part of the negotiating plan: they intended to overshoot on the numbers and gauge our reaction. If players didn't complain, great; if they did - as many have - they could partially scale back their decision and use it as an example of them being the good guys for us. The same ending came to pass regardless, that being the increase of required engagement for an unequivalent increase in reward, resulting in less overall XP (and by extension, more work to acquire the same amount of gold from the track).
Player Sentiment
While perhaps small(er) in significance at an individual level, each of the things described above have left a bad taste in the mouths of players. The overall pattern is, in my eyes, pretty clear: Blizzard is researching new ways to sell us their product, and will resort to cutting back on freebies if that's what it takes. The veneer of the 10th Anniversary and all the rewards we were promised was only to cover over what was coming, the toll that would be extracted to keep playing.
An astute reader might notice that I have barely mentioned Hearthstone's current meta. Sentiment about the meta can ebb and flow over time, relying on a wave of opinion that can be hard to track at any given moment. Unfortunately, the overall notion for the Anniversary period has been that people have been getting blown out of the water by uninteractive comboes, defeated by randomness, or having their fun Reno shenanigans pre-countered by Plagues (with the answer, Steamcleaner, having since rotated out of Standard). Wild continues to be a race to win by turn 5 or less, with slower strategies generally pushed aside unless they can amount such a defense that usually results in a nerf.
Of course, I've seen this movie before, and will probably end up seeing it again in the future, which begs the question: why? Why subject ourselves to the same cycle of hype and grief, driven by empty promises for a fun tomorrow and the occasional win that is subsequently taken away from us? What do we get out of it, really? Is it truly worth the cost, both in our time and money? I frankly don't think it does...not anymore.
So...What Now?
The answer is simple enough, for me at least: I'm uninstalling Hearthstone. I've taken my last ride on the rollercoaster of emotional turmoil; I've come to the realization that my relationship with Blizzard has become toxic and abusive, and I need to get out of it. Hearthstone has had its high moments across 10 years, and the game is frankly still fun at the end of the day. That doesn't mean this is a healthy coexistence.
Whether or not the game respects me, my time, or my money has always been a rocky situation at best, but it has become clear - in my own personal experience - that Hearthstone simply doesn't want people like me anymore. As it is I don't play enough to justify my "whale" status, and now the game demands even more of me to stay afloat, while offering less. Rather than risk drowning, I'll just...get out of the water. Money is a precious resource in this world, and you can't get your time back, so I'd rather offer them to someone who doesn't seek to exploit me on the regular.
What the player base at large does is, of course, another matter entirely. Isolated examples such as myself who decide to boycott their spenditures or finally quit outright might not damage Blizzard too much, but hey: every stone thrown in the pond makes waves. We as a community can decide to just keep taking it on the chin, or we can raise our voices until something is done about it. Thankfully enough people spoke out about the Weekly Quest requirements being increased so significantly, but Blizzard's solution was not to backpedal completely...merely to "meet us halfway". They're still going through with this plan to slow XP gains (and as a result, reward-gains); players should not forget this, nor frankly forgive it.
And that is true of all of the negative changes that were recently brought about: companies rely on players having short memories and flash-in-the-pan anger responses so they can get away with their bullshit. This means, ultimately, that the best thing you can do is make your voice heard. Bitch on Reddit until your fingers bleed, make YouTube videos about how bad these policies are for consumers, and of course, withhold your hard-earned money if you think they don't deserve it anymore. Challenge your own complacency with the situation, so-as-to challenge their bottom line. Because how else are they gonna listen?
I, for one, have chosen to leave Hearthstone behind. Marvel Snap, too: I'm putting my money where my mouth is, and pulling the plug on games that I enjoy because I can no longer justify their existence in my life. That may not be the answer for you, at this time or otherwise, and that's okay: I'm no revolutionary seeking to tear down the game, the company, or the industry at large. But if you care about how games like Hearthstone (mis)treat your fellow players, or are questioning your own relationship with the system, then please consider taking steps to bring about necessary change. Don't clutch to blind faith that things will improve - or even stay the course - without at least acknowledging that, sometimes, we as consumers only get to keep our precious shinies if we fight for them. Or taking our ball and going home; whichever works.
So fight on, my brethren: don't ever let them take your candle. This Kobold is taking her candle and walking off into the sunset (or at least, exiling herself back to Single-Player Land).
...I think my metaphors were all over the place, but hopefully you get the idea lol.
What do you think of Hearthstone's 10th Anniversary, and how it has been received by the playerbase? Does this mark the beginning of the end for the game? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
Interesting article! Glad i found it and read it. I can only say that i fully agree having quit HS several years ago for the same reasons, more or less.
The company is not worth it anymore. Only cash grabing gigs without proper direction (look at diablo mobile, sc2, etc).
I'd much rather pay for single player games i can play endlessly than enter a stupidity loop similar to what gambling is.
Here comes We are football 2024, Order of battle, Headquarters ww2, manor lords, against the storm etc!
Fantastic.
What is Out of Games main draw now?
I don't understand the premise of your question. This article is one person's opinion (my own), not a declaration that Out of Games is cutting ties. I don't speak for everyone. The others (and I) will still report on the game, until such a time as it closes shop for good or something happens where we can truly no longer support them.
I may not play the game anymore - and frankly believe other players must take a hard look as to whether or not they should do the same - but I'm still gonna do my job.
Lmao, I spontaneously uninstalled hearthstone about a month ago, because I just didn't like the meta, was burnt out from the grind that didn't give me any reward in playing the game since the rotation left hearthstone feeling pretty much the same and because the balance team felt kinda aimless in their decision making (that has been going on for about a year now, maybe even more). I checked what's new yesterday and was glad to see they are making big balance changes addressing exactly my feelings about the meta. But then I start digging deeper and I find out they just made the game even more grindy. No matter how good the balance changes are, the idea of me going back to the game to grind even more is just absurd. So I don't think I'll be installing again, they're just shooting their own leg at this point.
Since uninstalling I started playing valorant again and I just realized how shit hearthstone's grind and daily playing dependency is. I launched valorant and it didn't even feel like it's been 2 years since I last played, just queue and play. No obsessive quest checking, just play whenever you want for however long you want.
So yeah, goodbye hearthstone, I really don't see this game being any better in future. It has been continuously falling apart for a solid year and I think it won't get better from here
And they would've gotten away with it too if only they'd implemented this change the following way:
- Keep weekly quests exactly as they were.
- Turn them into quest chains, where the new extra requirements (win x additional ranked games) and the 28% bonus XP were relegated to a second quest you unlocked after completing the first.
That way, it really would've felt like a bonus you could work for, but still keep the option to settle for the amount of time investment you're used to.
Exactly, the way they implemented it and the reason they gave for it is so obviously a blatant lie that I do not understand why anyone would defend this insane change. I can understand that less casual players do not feel the change in requirements because it fits easily in their existing weekly playtime schedule (heck, it does not even really affect my own schedule by the way), but everyone has to agree that it is a net devalue of playtime vs XP ratio. Accepting this quest update silently just means widening the door for more similar future detrimental adjustments.
Nobody is trying to convince any other HS player to leave the game, but we have to speak up and let Blizzard know this is a bad decision and implementation.
I fully symphatize with your decision to let go of hearthstone because if I have to be perfectly honest the game has gone stale for quite some time now, and it always seem to me like its hanging on the edges of being let go. All that was needed was a slight nudge, and blizzard duly provided it when they raised the quest requirements for weeklies.
For my own part, Im staying for now. I play enough hearthstone that the increases in quest requirements dont really affect me, and if Im feeling particularly unmotivated to play hearthstone I'll play a few busted decks in wild (being in bronze rank, getting wins there is very nearly automatic) just to get the quests done quickly.
Just a small comment, I find it a bit surprising is how much stick that 'play 32 miniature cards' is getting when in reality playing 75 battlecry cards and 750 mana is far more time consuming than even the 'win 10 games' could ever muster.
But I do worry for hearthstone's future. Its not likely to get any better; the game is not really evolving so much as it is just repeating itself but at a higher power level. The game is getting progressively more expensive to have fun in, and hearthstone being what it is, its fairly time consuming even for aggro players.
In my opinion, hearthstone may need a reset button. Either retiring cards, scaling back the power level substantially, or simply just making hearthstone 2. All of those require great amounts of planning and manpower, and Im not optimitic that it'll ever happen. More likely hearthstone succumbs to a slow death, Im not exactly sure whether I'll be happy to be released or sad that one of my hobbies just go bust.
Shame, I'm sorry to see someone leave but I do believe in the "put your money where your mouth is" thing. So you do you! Me I guess I'm a little different.
Corridor Sleeper being in the pre-order never bothered me. It was only early access for a week (month?). As long as they keep the free legendary at announcement it changes up the meta and gives people something new to mess with until release.
Harth Stonebrew I never realized his golden version was tied to a bundle. Strange but again I have the card I don't car about cosmetics so much.
Diamon Cards as I said I don't care about cosmetics, however, wtf! Why are these $40+? When I look at cosmetics like that I go, nope and just never check the shop again. At least in snap I can hoard gold and buy or two that I enjoy. and if there is one I REALLY want I can spend a couple bucks to get it. Diamonds in HS are just crazy priced. I can't believe anyone is buying them, but then again they must be to keep that price. That's sad. I want games to make money so they can make more content. I'm all for pre-orders and bundles and battle passes. Heck I play Smite as well, another game with a lot of Skins. But I'm not buying anything else but a skin every few months, if that. (you can't judge me for buying the TNMT skins!). I look at that and it cost me about 1 Diamond card to get 5ish skins I think it was (it's been a while). Hell in Hearthstone I bought the 3kingdoms bundle, 4 hero skins, for less than 1 diamond card. I am sure diamonds are more expensive to make but 4 to 1 seems obsurd. Anyway moving on...
Duels never really got into it. Though removing modes is not a good sign. Even if I didn't play/enjoy it I can't frame this in any positive light.
Weeklies I saw something about them changing. I really didn't notice a difference. I usually blast these out in a day or 2 either way.
Players, as you can see i don't fit in with the other players often. I play a lot of games were players do nothing but bash it so I've always been less impacted by player sentiment. Blizzard over all has had a lot of game issues and monitization problems recently. Diablo Immortal being the biggest heap on that pile. It wasn't even a bad game, at least what I played, but that monitization was monsterous. I play a lot of games with cash shops and I've never been that off put by one EVER. Horse armor was better than that crap. It does feel like Hearthstone is heading that way with just Diamond cards alone. However I've seen some positive changes in D4 and Wow Discovery has been doing some fun stuff with the IP.
Maybe my rose colored glasses keep me from seeing Blizzard as the monster it's become. Maybe I'm so used to these preditory cash shops that $40 a skin isn't so insane. Maybe i'm just so desperate for a card game I can play with friends and family from home that I stick around. I don't know. As a former MTG player seeing $70 decks for Fallout or LotR was a shock. Is this really our path?
For those of you that take your wallets and run, I respect that. Truly I do. If this path ever changes it is you dear fallen that I will be greatful. For now though I'll just be shaking my head and trying to enjoy what time I have left in this world gaming. This is my one joy and I am not ready to put it behind me yet.
Edit: Just adding I am MOSTLY F2P in hearthstone and have been since the start. I've bought a few Battlepasses for expansion themes I was really into and I did get the 3Kingdoms skins as I said (damn you Dynasty warriors!!). Otherwise I'ver never pre-orderd or otherwise spent money. 10 years I'd estimate it's about $5-10 per year if I spread it out over my time since Beta. Just last year I crafted my final card for Classic to get my Diamon Rag! Have no other sets even near completion but never felt I was short of cards or dust to play most of what I wanted each set.
linkblade has helped me realize that I've made a pretty selfish argument here. While Blizzard hasn't fucked up hard enough to drive me away from Hearthstone for myself, I need to reconsider if they have fucked up other people's experience enough to make me draw consequences out of sympathy.
I will not be uninstalling this game that I love & play everyday.
Instead, I'll be deleteing this site's bookmark.
noone is forcing you to stop playing or uninstalling.
If you will keep buying from hearthstone after you saw all of the statements on the thread, it is still your decision but know that it will get worse in every move if you keep supporting their acts with your payments and keep that in mind it doesn't affect only you but everyone.
It will end only one way tho, people who knows and sees how these work call you stupid and selfish and The cost you are paying for will be more in time even though you don't care.
This discussion is reminiscent of why I had to quit Overwatch. I really liked Overwatch. I had a lot of fun with it. The only unlocks were cosmetics, and you got those from loot boxes, which you accrued by playing the game. You got small bonuses for your first win in a day, for playing an unpopular role, and for wins (but that was small).
You could also get currency either with money or from the loot boxes to get specific things you wanted.
Overwatch 2 changed all that. Now, you gain experience only on particular tracks with preset rewards. Want something else for a different hero? Open the wallet. And how do you progress on the tracks? By doing daily and weekly quests, tuned so that you have to complete most quests most weeks to finish the rewards track before it expires. You don't even get rewards for playing unpopular roles because they flattened the roles out.
Every part of it, in other words, is engineered to manufacture FOMO. You get fewer and worse rewards, more slowly, with less agency and much more pressure.
Sound familiar?
More and more it seems like this is just what Blizzard is. It's a shame.
I have very similar sentiments to anchorm4n with Hearthstone being my main game since open Beta and for me personally, it'll be very challenging to outright uninstall the game. I will always come back during expansion reveals and especially Standard rotations as I always enjoy that fresh new meta feel with a limited card pool.
The above exhibits have frustrated me with the change to weekly quests being the biggest outlier. I struggled to finish the "Win 10 games in ranked standard" this weekend and it infuriated the hell out of me. I'm not enjoying the current meta which is probably the main cause, but if every week is going to feel like this, like a chore trying to rush in finishing weekly quests every Sunday, my enjoyment in the game will definitely decrease drastically. The current weekly quest implementation is still difficult to complete for the casual HS player and I can guarentee you, the AMU's will decrease substationally and Blizzard is shooting themselves in the foot with this change. I identify as a casual player where I'd only login to complete dailies/weeklies, hitting Diamond 10 every month. I'd say I used to spend ~10-12 hours on the game per week prior to the weekly quest change now I'll need to spend double that to complete these new weeklies. More casual players than me will stop playing as the game no longer respects our time (as many people have pointed out already.)
I've spent ~ $800 (R15 000 in my country's currency) on this game over these 10 years and my dissapointment has only grown with time. Very sad for the game and this site 💔😢
Wow, I've had a busy weekend and am late to the party. I feel a little overwhelmed with the general vibes of this article and the comments. After all, I've joined Hearthstation because I'm a Hearthstone player and this community and the site staff is much cooler than every other site I know of. After reading through all of this, I feel like I'm the last person left on this site who still mains Hearthstone and that makes me sad. Please read the following as the point of view of a highly engaged player that has no intentions of quitting any time soon. Not with the hopes of convincing anyone to do the same, but as a different perspective and hopefully a contribution to the discussion. It's not all black and white in my opinion.
First of all, I share your feelings about the recent changes. While the weekly quest situation would have actually benefitted hyper engaged players like me (even in the form they had inititally been released), I immediately joined the protest because Blizzard was clearly hitting casual players very hard and that's potentially life threatening for the game. Same goes for the Corridor Sleeper situation and the ongoing process of monetising cosmetics. So no, I'm not a fan boy defending them no matter what... But.
Hearthstone is still my main hobby. I spend a lot of time with the game and I'm (still) willing to spend money on it. I want to show support for the game and the devs so they keep providing me with an entertaining experience. That feels like a fair deal for me because my time, as valuable as it is for me as a person, holds no merit for Blizzard in the end (as long as there are no ads in the game). So I went dolphin, spending almost exactly 2.000€ over the last six years. And I feel fine about it because I've enjoyed what I got for it. No sunken cost fallacy here. For that kind of money I could have bought a cool mountain bike which might have been a better choice for my health... but it (probably) wouldn't have been as much fun for me, personally. As long as I have fun playing Hearthstone, I'll keep spending money on it because that's my idea of a fair deal. The amount of €€ they get from me largely depends on how much fun I have, so balance might be the most important point for me.
And boy, have we come a long way here. As a Wild main and an aggro enjoyer, I'm used to absurd stuff happening, but I strongly support people argueing that power creep has gone overboard. Unfortunately, I fear there's no real alternative, as time becomes more and more valuable and people's attention span seems to generally decrease. From what I've heard of Marvel Snap, they're targetting exactly that audience and Hearthstone had to show some kind of reaction. We're headed down a dangerous path if that spiral keeps going though. Non-interactive, hyper consistent solitair games are where I'm drawing the line (if we're talking Wild: Mine Rogue, Quest Mage, Fruit Druid, to a lesser extent Bless Priest and Miracle Rogue). If those become not an outlier but the norm, I'll wave Hearthstone goodbye and get that mountain bike.
In the meantime, Whizbang's Workshop has been a pleasent surprise for me. It's so good that I've played my way to Standard legend for only the third time ever. Wild got some very cool stuff like Singalong Buddy who has revived decks like Uther Paladin and Even Druid.
I've also started dusting all the cards I don't use. The last eight and a half years have taught me what kind of cards and decks I do and don't enjoy playing. With the dust I got I've been able to craft one fully golden deck each for every class I've hit 1.000 wins with so far. They're mainly focused on flavor but I'm not afraid to queue them up in ranked either. Honestly, that might already be the first step to quitting as well, as I know from Swizard's final months playing Hearthstone. Only time will tell.
I'm also not quitting. I just said that people don't need to feel like forced on anything while playing video games. If you don't play whenever you want or you feel forced to play for being able to complete quests etc. just don't play it and go look for single player games.
I'm all with you on wild situation. As long as they don't close wild mod, i have plenty of combinations that i can enjoy like 3-4 years already. So I really don't care if i miss quests anymore, I am playing whenever i feel like and in the meantime playing Single Player games which forces me on anything. My recommendation was always the same since Wild released, Don't ever disenchant ANY cards you have more than you can use on a deck (which means don't disenchant if you have only 2x copy of a card) just because they went wild and you are not interested because you don't know if you will be interested in future or not but most people was doing that to be able to keep up with standard.
Wild is hard to balance and yeah there are some pitiful combinations there but it is fun mostly, Even in lower ranks you see muhc larger stuff, people tries everything, fun combos, silly stuff etc. Standard is more repetitive than wild. Whenever I'm overwhelmed by Standard, I'm going wild and it is always refreshing for its posibilities and synergies.
It is always good for building collection for wild than Standard. Wild packs are a thing for long which i wanted a lot before. For new players, if you start newly, 10x protection with duplicate protection also happens on older packs which means if you start on Whizbang's Workshop for example, you will get legendaries on first 10x packs of every other older expansion which helps building a wild collection so much easier at start.
I'm still in same mindset tho. Online game companies are benefiting from feeling that you re missing something with all of daily/weekly stuff and periodic events. If you want to keep playing Hearthstone or any online game, keep it in mind and don't fell into it. Just play whenever you want, you don't need to complete all daily/weekly stuff. You will get your shinies sooner or later. Standard is completely fomo. Wild is better for that part because you are not missing a meta that happens for 4 months (or 1 month with balance changes etc.).
Probably that's (maining Wild) why you are not affected so much with the changes than other people. Collecting for wild is less overwhelming than collecting for standard because you may use the cards in any time.
Speaking as a "mostly" F2P and Casual player, I agree with this post. I am not at the point of unninstalling but it is true that we have had way too many negatives this last few months. I am someone who buys or at least tries to buy the Tavern Pass as a way to "invest" in the game and let Blizz know I am enjoying it.
I think that part is over now. I personally wont be able to complete the weekly quests and as an individual with studies, a job and a wife that demand some attention, I cant bring myself to play more time and the way I they want me too.
I am that kind of person that crafted Whizbang golden (well, upgraded here) and love long games. I may play 1 2 or 3 a day and my winrates are good in general, but as I tend to make my own stuff and try different interactions (that might be a one of more than something consistent) I can't get myself to win 10 or 15 games each week.
I actually would be able to do so playing Agro of course! In the time I have I should play an agro deck to get lots of wins and then spam minies....
If I am playing (with luck) a maximun of 7 hours a week, I will not put my time in something I do not find fun. And we are not only speaking about winning 15/10 games each week, that is just one of them.
Why should I invest in a tavern pass I won't be able to complete? It is like shooting yourself in the foot!
Before I used to live in Argentina and had really low prices, and I know even now that I live in spain missing 60 euros or a little more each year might not be a big loss for blizz.. But each loss counts and I can't really understand the thought behind this.
ALL OF THIS just came from the last point, and as a F2P player.
With the Hearth to Hearth bundle they just messed with their money spenders as well as with the Diamond Cards situation... There are times I crafted an extra card (making me have less dust for next rotation, just to get that extra diamond card I really do not need. And now they even cutted out that little source of income if I felt I needed some extra packs at the start of an expansion (does not happen that much in my case, but it has happened) and again, that is just a loss for them. It is not like the "Reroll card" would really benefit me as someone tends to craft the most wanted/usefull cards and that extra one can be useless in the end.
Depending on how I fell next expansion with how many resources I get, I might end up leaving hearthstone, and I have not done it since a 7 month break when GvG came out as I was not really diggin the new cards and in that time I was lacking a strong collection just to get stomped by Sylvanas/Rag/Dr.7 and random value cards (Random went wild in that expansion)
In the end, this problems from today do not have to do with the gameplay. I still enjoy the cards and everything the game has but I do not feel well treated as a client here as even if they find it funny, I AM NOT A WORKER here, I do not get payed for playing this I DO HAVE WORK that gets me paid (for more than 9K XP a week) and I can't have 2 of them right now. In the end 9K * 4 * 4 (weeks/months) equals to 144K XP I will stop getting and as soon as my resources start getting low I will not disenchant my old cards from wild. I will just leave.
Bye!
"The answer is simple enough, for me at least: I'm uninstalling Hearthstone."
Whatever... bye!
For my part, I keep playing Hearthstone. I play since Open Beta have all cards I need, have a few k gold and over 100.000 dust. The game became 100% free to play for me since years. Negative changes to quests, real money offers and pre order nonsense don`t bother me.
HS is much more generous than in the early days. Most players seem to have forgotten this or haven't been playing the game long enough.
Of course, not everything is good and that can also be criticized. But it's definitely not so bad that you have to stop playing because of it.
But instead of trying to find a balanced view that also looks at the positive aspects (e.g. that there are many more balance updates than in the past), people just complain about comparatively small things.
"For my part, I keep playing Hearthstone. I play since Open Beta have all cards I need, have a few k gold and over 100.000 dust. The game became 100% free to play for me since years. Negative changes to quests, real money offers and pre order nonsense don`t bother me."
So "I've got mine" means the negatives can be safely ignored? That's a selfish mentality: others such as myself have struggled to keep up, and the situation with the Weekly Quests was likely a last-straw situation given everything I addressed above. I didn't even get into the various other means by-which Blizzard has given with one hand and taken with the other.
I have/had been playing since Vanilla, with a small haitus for personal reasons between Argent Tournament and Un'Goro, and I still don't have a full collection. I just couldn't play enough to reach that state, given my job (two if you count this website, or HearthPwn before it), different games I want to play, and various other challenges that compete for my time. To reach that goal of getting from where I was to where you apparently are required an unreasonable amount of playtime...or money, buying Preorders. The game simply doesn't provide enough to get there without absurd levels of dedication, even with all the additional "generous" means you seem focused on. I played long enough to know it has gotten better in some ways, yes; I will concede as much. But that doesn't mean the game is healthy for our wallets or respects our time properly, nor can we just ignore the attempts to chip away at the positive gains we tirelessly complained for.
Because that's what happened, lest you forget: Blizzard wasn't getting more generous out of the kindness of their hearts. We as players fought for those gains, and it still hasn't been enough in the grand scheme of things. So to see them scaled back is a shock to the system, and people such as myself are coming to the realization that the partnership between player and company is an uneven one. It is a relationship that needs to be reassessed coldly, without the shiny colors or token rewards clouding our judgement anymore. And for some of those players, including the writer of this article, the reality is that we cannot continue subjecting ourselves to this abuse.
Basically, each and every Hearthstone player has their own comfortzone. Some players have bigger or smaller comfortzones than others. Blizzard is implementing these negative changes in increasingly rapid fashion which affect everyone playing this game. People who are leaving or about to leave Hearthstone have smaller comfortzones. If Blizzard continues this downwards trend, eventually more and more players will reach their outer edge and have a tough decision to make. Time is a precious resource which can only be used once. Nothing more, nothing less.