The beauty of running a blog is that you can maintain a particular writing style consistently on a single source.  If I were to run around commenting on 100 posts, then it would be hard to get the subtleties of the message.  We’ve all heard the addage that most communication is non-verbal, so if you don’t get to see a LOT of writing from a person, then it’s hard to get the exact idea.  Wilhelm is one of my favorites for writing style.  If you only ever read one, then you’d miss half the content.

That big paragraph to say that I think that I suffer from the same fate.  Nearly all of my posts are based on a foundation of history of design and I tend to over/under-state quite a few details because the wheels have already turned in my head.  The comments from my Hearthstone impressions are quite evident of that.

So I opted to look for a bit more content from the interwebs and see what other people are saying.

• Azuriel succinctly covers my main gripe with the meta
• Tobold has a more optimistic approach to the same problem
• WoW Insider’s Olivia Grace has an overview of some gaps (some that have been fixed since)
• HearthPwn is the Curse-hosted gaming resource.  I think the top 100 ladder information speaks volumes about the game but that’s a separate post.
• And the official forums are very positive (which is a first for a Blizzard game methinks)

This isn’t an exclusive list but simply some of the larger resources for taking a look at the state of the game.

My overall point with this is, and has been, that designing a well-balanced CCG is hard work.  It’s much more than the individual cards.  MTG has been doing it for 20 years.  The actual physical Blizzard CCG did it for about 5 before closing the doors, with varying levels of success.  One of my problems is that the system is not closed and balancing an open system is next to impossible.  Blizzard, as a company, strives to take complex ideas to the common masses.  Easy to learn, hard to master and all that.  They did it with StarCraft 2.  They missed the boat on Diablo 3.  The jury is still out on Hearthstone but once it hits open beta (next month), the game for all intents and purposes is considered launched.

So, this is going to be my last post on Hearthstone.  I’ve uninstalled the game, which REALLY says something about it when I still have Rift on my desktop and I haven’t played that in 6 months.

Raptr says I have 10 hours put in.  I’ve completed games in less time and normally I have a solid feel after 2.  I had rather high expectations from this game and the previous 2 posts sort of alluded to that.  I won’t lie to you, the game isn’t so much a disappointment as much as my expectations.

There appears to be two games within Hearthstone.  The first, the free to play version.  Similar to the older facebook games, where you had a limited amount of energy before you had to stop, this game is really only good in small bites.  Once you’ve completed your daily quests, there is absolutely no reason to keep playing.  This game lasts for as long as it takes for you to get your first legendary card (or epic/rares to compete).  This can take a month or more in the F2P game or….

The second game is the one supported by real world cash.  This gets you WELL ahead of the curve and also dictates the class you’re going to play.  These cards are so powerful that they completely shift the rest of the game.  I don’t mean a little bit either.  The difference between a basic set and having just a few rares is the difference between losing in the 3rd round and winning in the 2nd.  In fact, I am of the opinion now that most games are set by the 4th round and the rest is just finishing stuff up, with a few stragglers taking longer.  If you’re still playing at 10 mana, something is likely gone wrong.

Now, this might seems like it’s a bad thing and that’s not really the point. The goal of these posts is to give people some idea of what Hearthstone actually is, and to help set expectations.  I read a fair bit about the game before but I didn’t really grasp the whole card acquisition portion.  Without dumping a significant amount of money, there’s just no game.

The type of F2P game that I enjoy is one where the money buys you fluff or cosmetics.  I typically spend $30-50 dollars on those games (Neverwinter, Marvel Heroes, Rift, etc…) and it makes the game more fun.  Hearthstone has zero fluff.  Every penny you put in has a direct impact on your power.  That is not a business model that I enjoy or one I want to put more time into.

That being said, Zynga made bajillions on this business model and I don’t see why Blizzard can’t do the same.

So I decided to take a second, more in-depth look this time.  I read up on HearthPwn for a few tips on the Mage and Shaman as well.  The downside to this is that after your initial 2-3 quests, you have no money and therefore no new cards.  You get 10 gold for winning 3 matches (which is at best 50/50 when all your cards are crap) and it takes 100 gold to get a new pack of 5 cards.  It’s one of those inverted power curves.

Regardless of the progress mechanics, I figured I’d give it my best shot.  While I think the mage has a ton of strategy, my cards were giving me next to no chance of winning.  There was just not enough synergy to be found.  I decided to try my hand with the Shaman, who oddly enough, is one of my stable of characters in WoW.

The concept of a Shaman in Hearthstone is more or less the Shaman from Burning Crusade.  Your job is to build a team of as many minions as possible, buff them to the gills, then cast Bloodlust.  See, that card gives +3 to all attacks for each card.  Enemy heroes have 30 hit points, and the weakest of your cards has 1 attack (well zero for shaman totems), so you’re looking at a crap-ton of damage if you’re able to get 4 minions out.  And with a Murloc deck, this is someone simple.

Here’s the flow.  Get a deck of summon cards, that are cheap, ideally Murlocs.  There’s one that boosts ALL murlocs by 1 as well, which is part of the fun.  They are super cheap (1-2 mana) and your job is to stall until 5-6 mana with whatever other cards you can get.  Turn 5 comes around, you send out every minion you can and wait til the next turn.  By that time, you should hopefully have enough boost cards (Flametongue, Rockbiter or Windfury) to get some serious damage going.  If by chance you can get your hands on a Bloodlust (always have 2 in the deck), then the enemy is pretty much dead.

I was down 3-30 on a mage tonight, pulled out the above card drop and killed her in 1 round.   I don’t want to know how that feels on the other side.

The disadvantage to this deck and strategy is two-fold.  First, you have a fair amount of weak cards and boosts, which are not useful if the enemy can AE you or tank.  Second, you’re pretty much useless until turn 6.  If an enemy can get 3 minions out by then, you’re pretty much toast.

So it’s either I win in 1-2 rounds, late game, or I get my butt wiped on the floor.  If I can play Bloodlust, it’s a win, if I don’t get the card, there’s a 90% chance I’m dead.  An all-or-nothing approach isn’t super strategic.

The fact remains that I’ve only seen a small portion of all cards and that building a deck right now is extremely limited.   The only way to find more is to gamble on other cards.  I despise gambling.  I hate lockboxes as they are the plague on the game.  I understand that games of chance are important and RNG is important but the entire game is based on a foundation of lottery chances at specific cards that practically guarantee success.  It isn’t directly buy-to-win, but damn if it isn’t close.

Blizzard is going to make a pile of cash.