Blizzard is currently introducing new cards for the next expansion of Hearthstone . However, a stream on Twitch proved to be prone to errors and overly lengthy. The mockery and criticism came quickly and harshly – focusing especially on one player.
What kind of stream was it? Currently, Blizzard is on a big “We are announcing new cards” tour for the next Hearthstone expansion “Rise of Shadows”. It will be released on April 9th.
About 135 cards need to be introduced, over a period of nearly 2 months.
In a live stream on Twitch , a whole series of cards was supposed to be shown. But from the very beginning, the stream was not off to a good start, as reported by inven .
This was criticized first: At the beginning of the stream, two Blizzard employees and a Hearthstone player engaged in small talk without showing new cards:
- Peter Whalen (Senior Game Designer)
- Chris Sierra (Community Manager)
- Cora “Songbird” Georgiou (Hearthstone caster, also plays herself) – the expert from the community
According to Inven, the conversation lasted about 15 minutes and was already met with yawns and annoyed emojis in the Twitch chat.
Many viewers just wanted to see new cards and were not interested in listening to the three presenters chat.
This was the main problem of the Hearthstone stream: Only a few new cards were shown and there was a lot of talking.
Additionally, technical problems plagued the presentation: The Twitch stream was supposed to introduce “Lackeys”. These are smaller creatures for the villains that are summoned by certain cards.
However, no Lackeys appeared at the beginning of the stream – something was broken here, and the card interaction did nothing.
Later, a Blizzard employee manually brought the Lackeys into the game.
This was another problem: Apparently, the expert did not play very well and slowly.
This is a cardinal sin for the Hearthstone community, which traditionally monitors and loudly comments on every move in such a reveal stream.
This was the reaction to the stream: The stream was criticized on social media.
- Players mocked that the stream showed the “small budget” of this title, which could have come from an indie developer
- It was said that the stream was too slow and that the reveal of the cards was dragged out
- In general, one wants to see only new cards in a reveal stream and as little else as possible
This is how the player reacted: The player harshly criticized, Cora “Songbird” Georgiou, directly addressed the negative reactions on Twitter.
She wanted to focus not on the negative but on having done a Hearthstone reveal stream.
eSports need to grow up. It’s bad to be the target [of criticism].
However, a bit later she made a post on Reddit in which she admitted to mistakes:
- She did not play well
- was nervous
- and then justified herself on Twitter.
“I have dedicated the last 3 years of my life to the game”
It seems to be about the “woman” in the stream: The expert says she received messages saying she did not deserve the role and only got it because she was a woman. She found that simply unfair. Many would probably not know her.
Cora Georgiou says she has been a full-time Hearthstone commentator for 3 years and has a degree in communication.
She admits to mistakes, but attributes them to her nervousness and not to the fact that she is supposedly not a gamer.
She has dedicated the last 3 years of her life to Hearthstone and the community.
This is what the community says: The general sentiment in the Hearthstone community on reddit was that it was unnecessary to do a live stream; it could just be recorded.
Many do not blame Cora Georgiou for the situation, but rather Blizzard for putting her in such a difficult position.
The stream was simply bad overall.
This is what’s behind it: Hearthstone seems to be in turmoil since the “face” of the game, Ben Brode, left. He left deep footprints.
Blizzard seems to have misjudged what fans want from a reveal stream for Hearthstone: as many new cards per minute as possible.
If a reveal stream drags on for more than an hour, that is long.
Overall, the mood around Hearthstone has been somewhat muted for a while.
Additionally, the game designer and the expert were new to such a reveal stream – there was apparently a lack of the reliable anchor that Brode always was. He was considered a showman and community favorite.
The fact that the criticism then unloads on one player is unfortunate. Women in gaming are often under special scrutiny and judged more strictly than men – especially the Hearthstone community is known to be merciless when it comes to bad moves. Everyone knows this, and that can add extra pressure.
For someone who is doing such a reveal stream for the first time, this is surely an extremely challenging situation.
Overall, the mood around Hearthstone has been somewhat muted for a while.
