Burninating through Blizzcon 2013

Sorry for the delay burninites, life got in the way of blogging last week. I won’t get into details but ever feel like you’ve played 4 GPs in the span of 5 days? That’s pretty much what I was dealing with last week! I hope you enjoyed the Nathan Holt feature interview the week before; it was great to connect with one of the big figures in our game! Community is important in our world of MTG and it’s great to see how accessible some people can be! I have a few new interesting people on deck but I want to space them out a bit so you don’t get tired of one format of blog entry or another (let me know what you think!)

I wrote an article a few weeks ago about a game called Hearthstone that Blizzard entertainment is in the process of Beta testing. I was extremely fortunate to get a beta key and have had a chance to play it. I also spent last weekend virtually-attending Blizzcon 2013, the major Blizzard gaming conference. I have some thoughts.

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First thing, right off the bat this game is a heck of a lot of fun to play. I was up and running instantly (Mac and PC). The tutorials are short and sweet and get the message across. As an MTG player, initially it felt a bit simplified, you get an additional mana every turn (to 10), you can only mulligan once (And you don’t pay a card penalty for it), the turns are fast and so are the games, oh…and no one can play cards on your turn! But you know what? There’s a hidden complexity that is just waiting to be tapped. Oh..and it didn’t cost me a cent. Zip, zero, nadda. (Contrast that with the cost of a playset of the powerful cards in paper MTG, and the cost of Parallels to run windows on my Mac for modo).

At Blizzcon, I got a very interesting perspective from the developers; they wanted the games short and sweet. Not just so it could be tackled by the majority Youtube generation, but because at the end of the day, they want you to enjoy the interaction with your opponents cards, no matter if you win or lose. This is something that I think Blizzard does very well, if I play and get destroyed, I can just play again, it’s another 10 minutes of my time and I get matched against a new player. No biggie. If I win however, I’m rewarded with icons, achievements, more cards, and currency to build my own cards. It’s a didn’t-win/win situation. They want every turn to be a puzzle, and that in of itself is the fun of the game, not just winning.

Perhaps the most pivotal or controversial element for fans of collectable card games is the lack of trading. I can’t and will never be able to trade my cards for your cards. I really, REALLY, like this idea. In my mind this keeps Epic cards epic (Card rarity is actually representative of what you’ll see in the game), and it keeps the cost of the game down. You now have to be out of your mind to drop hundreds of dollars on cards, with low low chances of opening the Epic or Legendary cards you might be after. I have made no secret of my distain for card hoarders who compromise the health of the game for their own interests (Flipping cards on Modo is a bit different but I’m generally referring to paper card availability).  

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Blizzcon was great for several reasons; I got to see Hearthstone played as well as listen to commentary for how the game was designed inside and out. I watched the first ever tournament, which was fast paced and absolutely thrilling and all in all the atmosphere was fantastic. Something that really struck me was the huge emphasis Blizzard put on having every element of the game received in a positive and fun light.

As it stands, MTG has the upper hand in the depth of the game and in my opinion replayability. But Blizzard is roaring onto the battlefield with a product that is flashier, more accessible, and has an enormous 24hr player base right out of the game. I absolutely cannot see WotC not taking notice. I’m excited for the future of both games :D

BTW, if anyone has any extra Beta Keys for hearthstone, I’d really like to give one away to my followers…I’m working on it!!

#FortheAlliance

#BlizzconwasAWESOME

#HearthstoneBurninating

@Ricostravels