As a CCG the game is fantastic but the cards themselves are weak

I’m a new player to Hearthsone and it’s safe to say I’m addicted (got a mage to rank 25 in one long binge session). I haven’t purchased any cards yet, but I’m sure I will as I dive into the meta. The gameplay is so much fun - I love the fast pace and the escalation of strategy and backloaded depth.

I stayed away from Hearthsone because of its reputation as a cash grab play to win, but I’m honestly pleased by the balance and the in game methods to expand your collection.

I do have an issue with the cards themselves, at least in contrast with Magic, which I played as a kid. While granted, some nostalgia is at play here, I remember being captivated by the cards themselves. The artwork, the scenarios, and the clever text descriptions/quotes. Part of the fun of magic was the collecting aspect - just looking at my binder of cards and studying them.

Hearthsone is lacking in this, imo. The art is relatively simple, and rarely does it evoke a scene, and nothing is as interesting as the interesting Magic cards. The descriptions are also sort of threadbare or obvious. I guess it’s ties to Warcraft lore might be limiting, and I realize I’m playing with a deck of mostly classic cards which has its assets taken from the Warcraft trading game, so idk if this gets better. You can’t resize your cards when examining them in the UI, and it seems obvious that the purpose of the cards only extends to their function in the game.

The thing is that Hearthsone has a disproportionate amount of backlash compared to other games of its nature. RNG and pay-to-win elements obviously come with CCGs. I think HS’s model would be a lot more palpable to people if the cards had more value as a collectible. If their only value is tied to gameplay, they’ll just be viewed as paywalled gameplay elements (because that’s what they then are).

I realize that HS might seem at a disadvantage as a collectible card game given its digital nature, but I used to play this passive game called MouseHunt that has a small but rabid following, wherein you largely collected digital mice just for the sheer joy of collecting. The artwork was so impressive and the designs were so imaginative. They had that quality wherein the art suggested a deeper narrative that sparked the imagination. You could organize your collection, and people would take pride in rounding out there collections.

I think if Hearthsone were to put more focus into the collectible aspect of the game, they could prolong the phenomenon of its success indefinitely (or be eventually overtaken by a game that clones the gameplay but nails the collectible aspects).

PS while I’m bitching, the tech is too janky for multi billion dollar grossing game. This is sorta par for the course with the gaming industry but thought I’d throw it in.

Submitted January 01, 2019 at 02:57AM by hearthsan-bot http://bit.ly/2ArrSpN