Hearthstone is Not Magic, But I Love It All the Same
- Thread starter Encaen
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I have had the beta for Hearthsone for a week now and love it! Got it running on my windows tablet (can be a little laggy with the animations but besides that works quite well) so i can play it on the bus or even a few quick games at work. Really good game, simple but blizzard quality and already there are many different ways to build a deck, wither it be a rush down murloc deck, a weapon oriented pirate deck or a control/spell deck, just awesome. Also, the different classes means things dong get boring.
But this looks pretty cool! I've recently got back into Magic (and have built the better part of 4 edh decks in the past 6 months or so), so I don't really have time for another card game in my life, but my playgroup is gradually splitting up so I might have to find some other way to waste my free time before too long.
Wait, so does Hearthstone really have so many name-drops of Magic cards? That right there might get annoying.
As a guy who is already into Magic Online, I've probably got my fix covered there. I'll very likely try out Hearthstone somewhere down the line, but it seems to fit the WOW TCG model, which...is not my cup of tea.
As a guy who is already into Magic Online, I've probably got my fix covered there. I'll very likely try out Hearthstone somewhere down the line, but it seems to fit the WOW TCG model, which...is not my cup of tea.
You have to understand, these spell names and card names are incredibly common. Just because Blizzard called a spell "Frostbolt" doesn't mean it's doing anything other than telling you that it is a spell that does frost shit. It's not likely that most minion cards between the two games will be the same, for instance, because the franchise and universe isn't anywhere near similar. You can blame the whole of gaming for having names that are common among fantasy spells. "Counterspell" is hardly revolutionary.Mark D. Stroyer said:
OT:
Yay Hearthstone stuff!
Yeahp. I check my email every day to see if I'll get into beta...
Welp. I can't wait for Open Beta to start. Hopefully around blizzcon xP.
Edit: WELP. I got in. You can stop feeling bad for me now.
Welp. I can't wait for Open Beta to start. Hopefully around blizzcon xP.
Edit: WELP. I got in. You can stop feeling bad for me now.
I fucked someone very hard with 'Eye for an Eye'. They literally pulled deathwing (we were both pretty much down to our last cards)out. I had nothing left, the idiot had only 2 cards to attack me with, the other would have saved him/her. But I think they wanted to keep it as it was a taunt card... but still attacking first with deathwing, and it still not having enough attack to drain my remaining health.Smilomaniac said:
It was a sweet sweet victory. The cracking sound of my enemy's demise via my secret was extremely dramatic. Maybe it was my cackling adding to the effect.
But still not many other major victories like this.
I am faithful to my paladin deck but rogues and mages quite handily dismantle my playstyle.
I really enjoy Hearthstones gameplay and crafting concepts. It's extremely simple to learn, but there is room for skill as well.
My main concern is that the rate at which you can acquire cards without spending money is glacially slow. Worse, the game forces you to play classes/decks you otherwise wouldn't to earn Gold from daily quests, which is the currency used to buy packs and play Arena matches (like Magic drafting). In the beta it takes 150 Gold to buy entrance into an Arena match. 150 Gold takes 45 wins to acquire if you're just playing regular matches against players. Daily quests (win 2 games as Priest, for example) award 40 Gold. It really pushes for you to play all the classes, which punishes you if you want to disenchant all of your non-Hunter cards to craft cards.
My main concern is that the rate at which you can acquire cards without spending money is glacially slow. Worse, the game forces you to play classes/decks you otherwise wouldn't to earn Gold from daily quests, which is the currency used to buy packs and play Arena matches (like Magic drafting). In the beta it takes 150 Gold to buy entrance into an Arena match. 150 Gold takes 45 wins to acquire if you're just playing regular matches against players. Daily quests (win 2 games as Priest, for example) award 40 Gold. It really pushes for you to play all the classes, which punishes you if you want to disenchant all of your non-Hunter cards to craft cards.
I do mean actual namedrops. To wit, just from this article: Mirror Entity [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=141818] (as above), Polymorph [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191380]Ferisar said:
There's a difference from a generic, like Frostbolt, and a reference, like Glacial Ray [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370552]. As someone who's familiar, it's...unnerving, that's all.
Pretty much this. Polymorph is a very common Warcraft-universe spell of mages ever since the days of WC3 (nor is the concept of "polymorph" that recent.) and Mirror Entity is... exactly what it sounds like. So I really don't see what you're concerned with. If something like "Super Undertrauhen Growth if the Treestras" or some bullshit name floated up across both games, I'd start rustling. Until then, it's just a hilariously generic fantasy spell name.Loop Stricken said:
EDIT:
You also have to understand the people who make these games are also nerds, so it's very likely that they've been exposed to other games and common lingo among those games. Some bleed-over should be expected.
I will love to play Hearthstone, but I worry about longevity - there aren't a lot of cards. I'm a Magic: The Gathering player. I'm used to thousands to build fun casual decks.
I like the strategic thinking that comes from the relatively simple and smooth rules in Hearthstone, but I think I will always yearn for those crazy, rule-heavy MTG late-game hijinks. Seriously, once everyone is in some way immortal, or can't be attacked, or has some incredible big meanie on the field or gains 50 lifepoints per turn and you have to really think about combining your cards to get through - that's what I love. Hearthstone has that, but isn't quite as crazy.
The cards seem a bit too... vanilla. Pretty much the only really weird cards are legendaries, and most of the really weird legendaries are abysmal in comparison to vanilla drops.
I like the strategic thinking that comes from the relatively simple and smooth rules in Hearthstone, but I think I will always yearn for those crazy, rule-heavy MTG late-game hijinks. Seriously, once everyone is in some way immortal, or can't be attacked, or has some incredible big meanie on the field or gains 50 lifepoints per turn and you have to really think about combining your cards to get through - that's what I love. Hearthstone has that, but isn't quite as crazy.
The cards seem a bit too... vanilla. Pretty much the only really weird cards are legendaries, and most of the really weird legendaries are abysmal in comparison to vanilla drops.
Got into the beta ages ago, can't for the life of me get the blizzard launcher working on my system. I've tried all the recommendations of everyone on the forums, and the tech support staff. No dice.
No other program of similar nature fails on my comp, and I simply don't care enough about the game to spend probably several more hours getting it to work.
So yeah, wasted Beta key I guess. Love MTG and really like the flow of Hearthstone from what I've seen. but still no playing it.
No other program of similar nature fails on my comp, and I simply don't care enough about the game to spend probably several more hours getting it to work.
So yeah, wasted Beta key I guess. Love MTG and really like the flow of Hearthstone from what I've seen. but still no playing it.
"The differences are once again a matter of simplifying the game. Hearthstone doesn't want you to be active during the opponent's turn. It wants you to play your turn, then forfeit control until your next turn. It's simpler that way. It's more accessible to new players, because you don't have to be constantly paying attention to what's going on. You can go grab a snack during your opponent's turn, and have an acceptable understanding of what happened by looking at the game state when you return."
I actually mess with the interactive animations at this time. Launching rocks at my opponent with my catapult. Lighting fires, poking vegetables.. It's pretty fun
I actually mess with the interactive animations at this time. Launching rocks at my opponent with my catapult. Lighting fires, poking vegetables.. It's pretty fun
Considering that Magic hardly has a monopoly on spell names, I don't see your point. Mirror Entity as you put out may be semi-unique, but Polymorph dates back to D&D which predates both Warcraft (which introduced it in WCII) and Magic. Plus the fact that there are literally 10's of 1000's of cards in Magic, any other fantasy-style card game will probably have some overlap. Blizz is also known for subtle homage's to other geek-related culture (NPC named Linken who resembles a certain green tunic tight wearing silent protagonist, a quest chain dedicated to Plants vs. Zombies love and another quest chain that takes the old school Joust arcade game into a 3d realm). Its no wonder there'd be a few minor allusions to M:TG.Mark D. Stroyer said:
That sort of stuff will come with time. MtG is 20 years old now and Hearthstone is still in Beta. Blizzard will keep adding more cards because after all they like Wizards of the Coast really want you buying expansion packs.Mersadeon said:
Polymorph probably isn't a reference, I seem to recall mages having that spell in the previous Warcraft games, turned troops into sheep I think. Also polymorph is a word that means what the card says it does (at least in Magic), it's not just a name like Emrakul or Progenitus.Mark D. Stroyer said:
I have to admit though, considering the size of their cardpool Mirror Entity and Glacial Ray are oddly specific names. How many names down the {cold + projection} schema do you have to go before you hit 'glacial ray'? I mean you have ice bolt, frost bolt, frost blast, frost strike...