Polygon: Hearthstone is a gateway drug not a destination

Nadia

full article at link

http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/30/5358096/hearthstone-blizzard-card-games#_=_

You don't need experience in other collectible card games to play Hearthstone, but you may find that Blizzard's game is something of a gateway drug.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a perfect example of what Blizzard does best. It takes an already active and well-developed genre, and boils the mechanics down to their basics before polishing them to a high gloss while continually balancing play to create an experience that rises above the competition. This isn't the first, or even the most innovative, digital card game. But it is one of the best.

That can lead to certain unintended consequences. Just as Warcraft 2 and Starcraft taught me to love real-time strategy games, Hearthstone has taught me to love card games.

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Best of all, almost all of the examples I listed are free-to-play and have a relatively low barrier to entry. And I wouldn't have discovered any of them without Hearthstone as an introductory course. Don't worry about needing an education in other card games to play Hearthstone if you're starting from zero; worry about what a newfound love for this type of game may do to your free time and wallet.

Blizzard isn't trying to take over digital card games, they're helping to broaden the audience for them.

 

related

http://www.reddit.com/r/digitalcards/

Xthos

I always liked Magic the Gathering, but when they came out with it on computer, I couldn't get past them wanting you to pay to get cards on the computer, but you wouldn't have them in RL.  I know it is kind of a double standard, but I still had people over to play every once in a while and I would play tournaments at the time they came out with it.  So I never was big on playing a card game online that you bought/earned virtual cards.  Would be cool if they would make your virtual cards available to be shipped to you (charge for this, that is fine) for RL play.

 

I was reading up on Hearthstone, was a little interested, until everyone was saying it was a simplified/dumbed down game compared to MtG.  I like the complexity/variety of MtG, even though the rule changes on legality/edition/type of play can be a pain sometimes.  Don't know if I could get into a card game without the complexity and variation that MtG has to offer.

azzamasin

Originally posted by Xthos

I always liked Magic the Gathering, but when they came out with it on computer, I couldn't get past them wanting you to pay to get cards on the computer, but you wouldn't have them in RL.  I know it is kind of a double standard, but I still had people over to play every once in a while and I would play tournaments at the time they came out with it.  So I never was big on playing a card game online that you bought/earned virtual cards.  Would be cool if they would make your virtual cards available to be shipped to you (charge for this, that is fine) for RL play.

 

I was reading up on Hearthstone, was a little interested, until everyone was saying it was a simplified/dumbed down game compared to MtG.  I like the complexity/variety of MtG, even though the rule changes on legality/edition/type of play can be a pain sometimes.  Don't know if I could get into a card game without the complexity and variation that MtG has to offer.

As a former MTG pro and highly competitive player I agree.  Although there was this program that allowed you to play across the Internet.  Believe it was called Cockatrice.

 

Hearthstone is really simple but it does have enough complexities to make it competitive.  And while I rarely play any more it's not because it wasn't fun or it was too simple.  It was because I disliked the whole notion of a Minion Based game style.  They flat out stated they would never make "milling", "Resource Denial" or "Graveyard manipulation" a part of their game.  Couple this with their constant nerfs to combo they basically turned the genre into 2 styles of play; Agro and Control.  Neither of which are my preferred style.  Maybe in future expansions they might rethink their design decisions.