"There's always room for another"
How about, we chill out on that for a moment. 

If you've been in the loop on Hearthstone expansions teasers and leaks, you may have seen our post yesterday that indicates the new expansion launches on April 7. This was thanks to a, since deleted, leak of information on the official Fireside Gatherings website and quite frankly, it is concerning with the current state of the world.


Microsoft, I'm also asking you to reconsider public events at your stores.

Everything about the expansion announcement so far feels wrong. It is my opinion that I believe they should have already made an expansion announcement since time is running out for a card reveal period. Perhaps the current coronavirus panic has caused certain elements in Blizzard's overall plan to be delayed, I don't know and honestly, all we can really do is speculate at this point. With that in mind, it is possible on another timeline, the one without "beerflu" (sorry, not sorry Corona), those Fireside Gatherings posts that went up yesterday were scheduled to go live in a time where the expansion had already been announced. Maybe this entire article is pointless because they don't have any intentions of running Fireside Gatherings for the expansion - but what if they don't.

Blizzard, you're a world leader in games and although I and plenty of players disagree with you on many things over the past few years especially, I still hold you in high regard. If you are still planning on running Fireside Gatherings for the new expansion, I ask that you reconsider. Obviously, I'm only one idiot on the internet and nothing should change because I simply have an opinion to share, but keeping people inside as much as we can help prevent spreading the coronavirus.

I do think it would be incredibly unfortunate to lose such a powerful pre-expansion tool, but I have a solution.

Tavern Brawl to the Rescue

I know this is crazy talk, but what if, you let everyone open their packs early without needing to set up their own Fireside Gathering. It is definitely something you have the technology to do and you can keep the cards themselves locked from constructed play. Although this doesn't provide the same experience as a Fireside Gathering does, it would allow you to then host a public Tavern Brawl, allowing the use of our "2020 Expansion 1" cards, much like would be possible during the Fireside Brawl.


Don't be like these characters, keep a distance from each other.

Understandably this does come with a big issue. Those without a pre-order aren't really going to be able to participate in the brawl. One way around this would be to instead allow people to play with all the sets that are going to be live in the Year of the Phoenix rotation so at least they can earn their weekly card pack. It would be a cool way to highlight the new rotation and get people to start considering new decks.

The big brain play though would be to temporarily enable all the expansion cards for a Tavern Brawl. Just think about how great it would be to let everyone play the new expansion early, even without pre-ordering. You're giving people on the fence about coming back a chance to see the new cards you've created. Granted, maybe your big announcements alone will do that since I don't know what you've got planned.

Or, make it a Whizbang brawl and let us play with the Blizzard-created decks from the upcoming expansion since those will be in the client at that point. It will also give a proper send-off to Whizbang the Wonderful.

Pokemon Go Takes Charge

Pokemon Go, a game that only exists to get everyone to get out into their communities made an announcement and is being responsible. An upcoming event has been cancelled and they are changing core gameplay to encourage not meeting up with other trainers. Considering Hearthstone doesn't need players to leave their house for any reason, it sounds like a good time to continue with that!

Quote From Niantic

The following events have been canceled, postponed, or changed.

  • Abra Community Day: This event has been postponed.

We will also be making the following changes to Pokémon GO which are effective starting now until further notice.

  • A one-time purchase bundle of 30 Incense for 1 PokéCoin. Incense will also last for one hour.
  • 1/2 Hatch Distance when Eggs are placed into Incubators during this time period
  • PokéStops will now drop Gifts more frequently
  • Pokémon habitats will increase and more Pokémon will be appearing in the wild

I really can't reinforce how important it is that you, Blizzard, prevent players from meeting up. Even if it ultimately stops a couple of people from getting sick and mainly serves as a way to indicate the severity of this pandemic, that's really powerful! Give everyone the ability to celebrate the new expansion and new year and you'll get some serious points in my book.

Share your own take in the comments below. I'm interested to know what you think about the situation.

Also, wash your damn hands.