In a video, the leading minds behind Blizzard’s free card game Hearthstone discuss the meta-game.
Rock, Paper, Scissors with a few thousand variables
“Meta” is one of the most commonly used terms when following discussions about Hearthstone. However, it is not so easy to understand what the experts actually mean.
By “Meta,” Hearthstone refers to “the decks that are currently most played.” So what’s currently “in.”
The best decks are played, the cards that promise the greatest success. It’s logical. But ultimately, in functioning games, there are no really “best” cards, otherwise the game would be boring and quickly “solved.” Rather, cards are only as strong as the opposing cards allow them to be. This creates an eternal cycle, as the deck that is currently “in” gets replaced by the deck that is particularly effective against that deck.
Example: If scissors dominate the current meta-game in “Rock, Paper, Scissors”, then the next current meta-game is rock and the one after that is paper.
It’s similar, but much more complicated in Blizzard’s card game Hearthstone, where players not only have three options, but myriads of card combinations. Therefore, it’s much harder to figure out what the next meta-game will be than in Rock-Paper-Scissors. Even Blizzard is often surprised by what ultimately prevails.
The History of the Meta-Game in Hearthstone
In a video, Ben Brode, Eric Dodds, and Mike Donais delve into the history of the meta in Hearthstone. They learned a lot as developers, including which game mechanics were so frustrating for opponents that they wanted them removed from the game:
- The Early Beta Rogue had a different hero power than today. It permanently increased the attack of a weapon by one point if he already had a weapon. Additionally, “Poison” did not just give +3 attack points to the weapon as it does today, but doubled the damage of the weapon. An absolutely unfair game mechanic – the meta had to change urgently.
- The Early Freeze Mage, on the other hand, had so many options to remove the opponent’s minions from the game that it was simply annoying to play against him. That had to change too. From that phase, there remains a reluctance toward too many abilities that disable minions.
- The “Release the Hounds” nerf then hit the Hunter. Here even Blizzard was probably surprised by what Hunter could really do with this card, which was changed multiple times – and recently was again the target of at least an indirect nerf.
With Naxxramas, one could now observe how the entire existing meta dissolves and reforms. There are so many crazy deck ideas. This was also an exciting time for them at Blizzard.
Who will find the next Mad-Range Hunter, the Miracle Rogue, or the Zoo?
At Blizzard, they are often just as surprised by developments as the players are. Therefore, Blizzard does not believe that the meta-game in Hearthstone truly belongs to them or that they have influence over it. It belongs to the players and changes completely without any influence from the Hearthstone creators: “Who knows who will find the next Mad-Range Hunter, the next zoo deck, or the Miracle Rogue? It could be you!” they say at the end of the entertaining video.
Update: The video unfortunately no longer exists.
