Blizzard invited important streamers to a secret gathering to discuss the future plans for Hearthstone . The results of the meetings have now been released.
Hearthstone is not just Blizzard’s
As reported by Polygon, there was already a meeting in September 2015 with developers like Mike Morhaime and Ben Brode and some important streamers from the Hearthstone community, including Strifecro, Trump, and Reynad. Blizzard has clearly realized that Hearthstone is more than just a game that belongs to the developers. It equally belongs to the community. After all, the community played a decisive role in the game’s great success. And the community often understands the problems with the current gameplay just as well – if not better – than the developers themselves.
A look into the future
Generally, Blizzard only releases information when development is already at an advanced stage. This is almost an unwritten rule. The game studio usually only lets the public and testers in when they could actually launch the game. However, they broke this dogma last year.
In a meeting in California, developers spoke with major streamers about the plans for the upcoming mode “Standard,” which will soon replace ranked play in Hearthstone. At that time, nothing was set in stone, and it was mainly about engaging in a dialogue with players and fostering a discussion that couldn’t happen in other ways.
Everything that changes the game is good
In general, the developers and streamers agreed on one point: Everything that brings change to Hearthstone is good. Comparisons were made to the collectible card game Magic The Gathering, which is still very popular even after 20 years. The reason is that, like Magic, a “format” was introduced in which only a certain number of card sets are allowed in tournaments. The same goal is pursued with the “Standard” game mode: Only the basic sets and all expansions from the last year are allowed.
Trump, however, wished for a bit more change than will be the case with the introduction of the new format. “In my perfect world, less than a third – a maximum of 10 cards – would be from the perennial sets (i.e., classic and basic).”
Ben Brode shares this opinion: “That would be fantastic. I don’t know if we can achieve that in the first year of the new format, but I think it’s something we should strive for. Another year with Handlock on top, for example, would probably be quite bad for Hearthstone.”
Brode summarizes the fundamental problem as follows: “Hearthstone must always be able to reach new players. If we can’t attract new players, then the game dies.”
Avoiding “Exit Points”
It is especially important for Blizzard to avoid so-called “Exit Points” in their games. An “Exit Point” occurs whenever something prompts a player to stop playing and never return – essentially a “lost customer” for the company. Typical exit points include asking for personal data to create an account or an opaque game system.
The introduction of the “Standard” format will be a significant exit point, that is already certain. Many players will no longer be able to play their beloved decks – unless they participate in the “Wild” game mode, which continues to allow all cards. To keep this new exit point as small as possible, they also do not want to part with the standard and basic cards, so that players who took a 1 or 2 year break will still have something to work with.
Fewer expansions per year
Finally, they even hinted that they want to work on the release strategy. Currently, 4 expansions are released per year, 2 of which are card expansions that simply bring a variety of new cards to the game, and the other 2 are adventures that focus on an exciting solo experience and include few but significant cards.
Now they are considering whether that might be too many expansions per year and are thinking about a new rhythm: 2 card expansions, one at the beginning and one at the end of the year, and then an adventure in the summer. This is not yet finalized and is just one of many considerations to make Hearthstone more exciting and accessible.
In the future, Blizzard also wants to continue this kind of dialogue with important representatives of the community. In conclusion, Brode stated:
“These guys go home and play Hearthstone, and we go home and play Hearthstone. At the end of the day, however, we all want Hearthstone to be great.”
For more news and articles about the game, visit our Hearthstone topic page.
