Welcome to the latest edition of Whining Wednesday! What can one really whine about early in the morning with a cup of tea while binge-watching some anime and driving the shoe man with the whip? Ah… my love-hate relationship with Blizzard is always there. But Heroes of the Storm is practically begging for a bit of my attention. So be it!
The Spirits That You Call
A little over a week ago, Blizzard launched the “Recruit A Friend” program for Heroes of the Storm. This had already caused quite a stir, and many players complained that this reward program comes too late because all the veterans have already invited their friends to the game. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if one of the rewards wasn’t the Vulture mount, which long-time StarCraft fans have been looking forward to for a while – because it has been in the game files for many months, it can only now be obtained.
Unfortunately, you can’t retroactively recruit friends (unless they are below level 5 – which practically isn’t the case after 3 matches), so most players have no choice but to create secondary, tertiary, and quaternary accounts to get the rewards. But because playing by yourself is really annoying…
The Great Bot Wave
In the Nether, the last two days in Heroes of the Storm have been terrible. In every single match in the level range of 1-20, there has been one or two bots. No wonder, it’s not necessary to play with the recruited friend to receive the rewards, one only needs to reach level 10 with the secondary accounts. Therefore, it probably doesn’t matter to anyone whether the small accounts are subsequently banned for bot usage.
But the bots are actually only half the problem. Unfortunately, I belong to the other problem, but that does not change the fact that Blizzard has brought this upon themselves. It feels like nearly 80% of the players in the low-level range are currently “smurf accounts,” meaning secondary accounts of significantly more experienced gamers. This surely stifles the fun of newcomers, who are simply rolled over by veterans.
Sure, all MOBAs go through such a phase as soon as there’s a “Recruit A Friend” reward. But somehow I expected Blizzard to handle this smarter. Unfortunately, I was disappointed – for me, this entire action is a bad joke with poor implementation. And a slap in the face for all who have genuinely tried to engage new players in the past.
