Another week has passed and I can’t quite tell what I’ve actually done with the time – probably the same as you all, played way too much and enjoyed the summer way too little. However, a few highlights have stuck in my mind. While PvP in WildStar has calmed down again, this time Hearthstone is taking the brunt of my frustration, so I say “Ring free!” for a new edition of Whining Wednesday.
“Well Played” Emotes and Their Abuse
Please don’t get me wrong, Hearthstone is really fun and can be a great “filler” while waiting for teammates or the next battleground in other games. But the bad behavior of players seems to be increasing. I have nothing against the use of emotes; you can use them to comment on a good move or even my mistakes, I don’t take that as an attack.
What regularly drives me up the wall are people who combine that with a whole range of other bad habits. After the fourth “Well Played” emote (in under a minute), I simply turn them off, but there are other things I can’t avoid: If someone takes a full 90 seconds for every single turn, that is, on one side, of course, their right – but if they obviously can’t play anything anymore, then I can only assume that they hope I get frustrated and leave the game.
Unfortunately, there is something even worse than unfriendly players…
My New Hate Deck: The Botlock
… and that is bots. I never thought it possible that there are bots in a card game, or that someone would actually take the time to program them comprehensively. I am especially surprised about what one aims to achieve with this, as the gold limit is capped at a fixed value per day and is not tradable, nor are the cards – so one would have to sell the whole Battle.net account to make any profit out of it.
Apparently, the business is worthwhile, because throughout the week, I have been repeatedly beaten by warlocks who played so robotically and took the exact same amount of time for each move that it was just too obvious. Every turn follows exactly the same pattern – first the leftmost minion attacks, then the rightmost minion, then the second from the left, and so on.
I don’t mind losing to other players who are better than me. But when bots are better than me, it really eats at my self-esteem and makes me lose interest in the game. So, dear Mr. Blizzard, please take care of this and stop the bots – or make them so good that I no longer recognize them as such.
