Heroes of The Storm's Pricing Structure is Unacceptable. Here's How to Fix it

[Vivi22]

You want to know what games are a complete and utter joke? Games that sell gameplay affecting features to you and try to pretend they're a competitive game.

You know what would still be bad? Charging people $120 for all of the heroes. Anyone that willingly rolls over and spends double the going rate for a new game has lost their fucking mind. If Blizzard wants to make extra cash in the future to support continuing updates then sell skins to the dipshits willing to blow all of their money on cosmetic items (note that I'm not talking about individuals occasionally buying a skin here and there over the life of the game, but the small percentage of people with no impulse control that these games not only feed on, but deliberately target and make a concerted effort to separate from as much of their money as possible).

 

[animeprime]

Why do people think you have to have all the heroes? I've been playing the free rotations and concluded there are several like Reghar, Uther and Jaina that I'd never want to play and I'll never buy. So assuming you have four or five heroes you find you really like and switch between, even if they are the expensive ones you've still only paid $50 for the game. Which is what a full price game is to start with. The price for skins is kind of ridiculous though.

 

[The Madman]

I still can't figure out how the pricing is figured out with in-game currency. Some heroes cost as little as 2k gold, which is semi-easily achieved, but others cost as much as 10k and the newest ones cost 15k to unlock. But what's the difference between that 2k and that 10k hero? Why is Uther 7k while Muradin is 2k? For what reason is one more than twice as expensive as the other? It's not their release time since Uther has been in the game since launch, so what makes him so much more expensive? Utility? Skill level?

It's a stupidly arbitrary and needlessly grindy and over-expensive system that seems to have gotten its numbers made up at random for reasons unknown.

Still the pricing is pretty much by biggest complaint with the game, in terms of presentation and gameplay everything is top-notch. Don't think Hots will ever because a big e-sports success story with competition as strong as lol and dota 2 due to its more simplified nature, but even so it's pretty damned fun to play and will almost certainly be a success otherwise once properly released. Just hopefully Blizz will have adjusted and fixed up their pricing system a bit by then.

 

[viranimus]

Do people really not get the junkie/dealer dynamic?

Know why the price is too high? Because we have come to tolerate the JvsD microtrans model for so long that it has become socially accepted. (I mean if its been lampooned on southpark, thats indication that it has to be pretty pervasive)

So Now that all the good little junkies are hooked, then it moves to stage two and thus.. Profit!

Dont like it? Should have listened to people when they complained about it. Instead people clucked their tongues in disdain claiming things like "thats a slippery slope argument. What difference does it make if I want to pay a dollar for a vanity microtransaction that enhances my enjoyment of the game?"

So now that they know they can get you to give them a dollar for functionally nothing, why shouldnt they try to see if they can get you to give them 10? Assureadly someone will and in fact already has.

Actually this is a case where personally I have to applaud blizzard for doing their capitalistic duty of exploiting and gouging their customers. The fault does not lie with them doing what they are supposed to do. The fault lies with those who have financially allowed them to push the envelope to this level.

 

[VanQ]

The extra PvE objectives on the map make for an incredibly refreshing escape from the usual MOBA style of sticking to your lane or jungling for 30mins while your carry gets strong enough to carry the rest of the team to victory.

If that's all you're doing in Dota then of course it's gonna be boring, but early game aggression, roaming for kills, and tower pushing are really important. It's not just about who can farm their hard carry faster.

All stuff that is in HotS too. I'm saying the additional objectives on the map on top of the already typically MOBA stuff is refreshing. Just because I didn't specifically list pushing towers or harrassing the other team (which I consider a normal part of laning) specifically, doesn't mean I don't do that.

 

[Lunar Templar]

How do they expect to break though the MOBA market when they're up against 2 vastly more popular games that are also cheaper to play?

'Because they are Blizzard'

would be my guess. they are backing on getting popular by 'divine right' because of WoW.

cept WoW, at the time of release, was a marked improvement to MMOs.

*Poster had to pause writing this post to rinse mount out with gasoline and fire for giving WoW praise*

HotS? not so much, there's as you said, others doing better MOBAs better, cheap and with more interesting character concepts else where.

I mean we got a choice between being The Litch King or being Odin The All Father.

"Be a King? Think not, why be a King, when you can be a God" - Eminem; end of Rap God

 

[whitewing]

Yes, it is slow to unlock characters and grinding games for in-game gold takes a long time... for people playing dozens of games a day, I'm sure it would be extremely frustrating. I think Blizzard is targeting the less hardcore player, the one who just completes their daily quest or quests, then stops playing, to come back the next day for the next quest.

I know personal experiences aren't proof, but I'm enjoying the game a lot, and I think that stems mostly from the fact that I didn't go in expecting it to be League or DOTA. It's a different game, and it plays differently, you need to adapt to an alternate style of play, one where sacrificing personal glory for the sake of the team is the road to victory.

This is just a MOBA noob talking here, so take my words with a grain of salt, but I have been playing a lot of Heroes over the last month, and I've been unlocking characters constantly without difficulty.

 

[Nurb]

The microtransaction system as predicted has gotten worse and more greedy over the last 10+ years as predicted, just as DLC has. It's disgusting sight to see after experiencing the golden age of gaming.

 

[Steven Bogos]

I still can't figure out how the pricing is figured out with in-game currency. Some heroes cost as little as 2k gold, which is semi-easily achieved, but others cost as much as 10k and the newest ones cost 15k to unlock. But what's the difference between that 2k and that 10k hero? Why is Uther 7k while Muradin is 2k? For what reason is one more than twice as expensive as the other? It's not their release time since Uther has been in the game since launch, so what makes him so much more expensive? Utility? Skill level?

It's a stupidly arbitrary and needlessly grindy and over-expensive system that seems to have gotten its numbers made up at random for reasons unknown.

Still the pricing is pretty much by biggest complaint with the game, in terms of presentation and gameplay everything is top-notch. Don't think Hots will ever because a big e-sports success story with competition as strong as lol and dota 2 due to its more simplified nature, but even so it's pretty damned fun to play and will almost certainly be a success otherwise once properly released. Just hopefully Blizz will have adjusted and fixed up their pricing system a bit by then.

I believe that easier-to-use heroes are cheaper. It means that new players can pick up some easy heroes fairly cheaply.

 

[The Madman]

I believe that easier-to-use heroes are cheaper. It means that new players can pick up some easy heroes fairly cheaply.

I thought that too, but Uther is 7k (And has been in the game since the start) and rated as Easy while E.T.C (Also since start) is 2k and rated Normal. Tassadar and Illidan are rated Very Hard and are only 4k, while Azmodan is rated easy and is the full 10k while the Normal difficulty category is all over the place in pricing. It goes on and on. Zeratul meanwhile is another character who's been in the game from the start and yet is the full 10k price, same with Nova, so release date doesn't seem to make much difference on pricing once the initial 15k hurdle has expired.

It makes no sense! I swear blizz just have a dart board somewhere in their offices to decide pricing. It's not determined by release date nor by difficulty, so it's gotta be just blind luck of the dart as far as I can figure.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

Alternatively, play the heroes in the rotation and stop giving a crap about skins. Hey presto, free game!

 

[Grumman]

Alternatively, play the heroes in the rotation...

That is a terrible suggestion. I don't play HotS but I do play LoL, and champions get easier to play once you've had time to practice their last hitting, their builds and their combos and skillshots. Starting over every week is going to make the game harder than if you can find half a dozen champions you like and stick with them.

 

[Zato-1]

In LoL, players earn "Influence Points" through normal play. Aside from a "first win of the day" bonus, the rate of IP gain is fairly consistent, with an average of around 110 IP per hour of play. In HoTS, you earn just 20-30 gold per match, with "daily quests" netting you an additional 200-800 gold per day. When you crunch the numbers, you're looking at around 250 gold per hour (although that number does drop off considerably once you've finished your daily quest).

Additionally, heroes in HoTS are still considerably more expensive than their LoL counterparts in their respective free currencies. They range from 2,000-15,000 gold, whereas LoL champions will set you back somewhere between 450-7,800 IP. If we average the champion/hero costs, we can estimate that it will take a whopping 26 hours to unlock a new hero in HoTS through pure playtime, compared to just 17 in LoL.

Um. Sorry to say this Steven, but you really should've checked your math. At your stated 110 IP/hour gain, it would take 57 hours of LoL playtime to earn the 6300 IP required to buy champions in the "highest" cost bracket (7800 IP is only for 1 champion at any given time).

Earning your stated 250 gold per hour, it would take 60 hours of HoTS playtime to get the 15k gold required to buy a character of the highest cost bracket.

So how, exactly, is it true that "heroes in HoTS are still considerably more expensive than their LoL counterparts in their respective free currencies"? It feels to me like you're singling HoTS out here, when their business model is pretty much copy-pasted from LoL.

 

[Steven Bogos]

In LoL, players earn "Influence Points" through normal play. Aside from a "first win of the day" bonus, the rate of IP gain is fairly consistent, with an average of around 110 IP per hour of play. In HoTS, you earn just 20-30 gold per match, with "daily quests" netting you an additional 200-800 gold per day. When you crunch the numbers, you're looking at around 250 gold per hour (although that number does drop off considerably once you've finished your daily quest).

Additionally, heroes in HoTS are still considerably more expensive than their LoL counterparts in their respective free currencies. They range from 2,000-15,000 gold, whereas LoL champions will set you back somewhere between 450-7,800 IP. If we average the champion/hero costs, we can estimate that it will take a whopping 26 hours to unlock a new hero in HoTS through pure playtime, compared to just 17 in LoL.

Um. Sorry to say this Steven, but you really should've checked your math. At your stated 110 IP/hour gain, it would take 57 hours of LoL playtime to earn the 6300 IP required to buy champions in the "highest" cost bracket (7800 IP is only for 1 champion at any given time).

Earning your stated 250 gold per hour, it would take 60 hours of HoTS playtime to get the 15k gold required to buy a character of the highest cost bracket.

So how, exactly, is it true that "heroes in HoTS are still considerably more expensive than their LoL counterparts in their respective free currencies"? It feels to me like you're singling HoTS out here, when their business model is pretty much copy-pasted from LoL.

I never said "highest" cost bracket, I very clearly said "average" IE: if you added all the champions together and averaged out their costs.

 

[Zato-1]

I never said "highest" cost bracket, I very clearly said "average" IE: if you added all the champions together and averaged out their costs.

A'ight then, let's do it by average cost. There's 34 HoTS heroes, which cost a combined total of 229,000 gold; this averages out to 6,735 gold per hero, or 27 hours per hero of average cost for HoTS.

It would take 7800 + 6300*32 + 4800*34 + 3150*24 + 1350*21 + 450*12 = 481,950 IP to buy every LoL champion; 481,950 / 124 = 3886 IP to buy a LoL champion of average cost, which at 110 IP an hour, would take 35 hours. HoTS heroes actually take less time to buy, on average.

 

[theNater]

Earning your stated 250 gold per hour, it would take 60 hours of HoTS playtime to get the 15k gold required to buy a character of the highest cost bracket.

Note that the 15k isn't a cost bracket; new characters are briefly 15k before dropping down to 10k(which is, I assume, how the 7800 IP characters work in LoL).

I never said "highest" cost bracket, I very clearly said "average" IE: if you added all the champions together and averaged out their costs.

Why would you do that, though? As Grumman suggests, for actual play purposes you'd want to put together a stable of half a dozen or so characters. If you're doing that, then your worst-case scenario is 240 hours for six 10k heroes vs. 340 hours for six 6300 IP champions.

If we assume a 10k hero is the equivalent of a 6300 IP champion, we get a conversion rate of approximately 1.5 gold per 1 IP. This conversion rate holds up fairly well climbing down the price brackets. At that rate, 250 gold per hour is way better than 110 IP for hour. LoL comes out ahead in the end because they have an additional bottom bracket; the 450 IP champions would be roughly equivalent to a 750 gold hero.

 

[Zato-1]

Earning your stated 250 gold per hour, it would take 60 hours of HoTS playtime to get the 15k gold required to buy a character of the highest cost bracket.

Note that the 15k isn't a cost bracket; new characters are briefly 15k before dropping down to 10k(which is, I assume, how the 7800 IP characters work in LoL).

Yeah, I realized this while looking at all of the hero costs for HoTS when making my second post. 10k gold is the "highest" cost bracket for HoTS, in the same way that 6300 IP is the "highest" cost bracket for LoL. Whether by average cost or for the highest cost tier, HoTS heroes take less time to buy with in-game currency than LoL champions do. Though as you mentioned, LoL does have one tier of ultra-cheap champions which HoTS does not.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

Alternatively, play the heroes in the rotation...

That is a terrible suggestion. I don't play HotS but I do play LoL, and champions get easier to play once you've had time to practice their last hitting, their builds and their combos and skillshots. Starting over every week is going to make the game harder than if you can find half a dozen champions you like and stick with them.

I play HotS, haven't paid a dime and it's a good and accessible game. Builds and combo's and skillshots are a lot less obtuse than they are in LoL. You could "master" a hero in an afternoon, easily.

Also, you do get some gold at the start (it's even referenced in the OP: 6k very early on), buy one of the cheaper champions and "learn" that one, if you're so inclined. I think I'm up to 10k gold now, which is almost enough to buy any hero I want but thus far, I haven't really cared enough about any specific hero to invest in them.

The only thing I can think of where it'd be annoying, is if you play with a team of friends and you want to try very specific team builds. You'd be holding your friends back by not having heroes available, and I'm not knowledgeable enough about the meta to tell you how much of an impact that'd have in HotS. It *feels* like heroes are mostly interchangeable though, assassin heroes benefit from support, and it doesn't really matter which support hero that is.

 

[Atmos Duality]

And no matter how many rationalizations of "It's totally possible to pay nothing", fact of the matter remains that at the end of the day, I can still play DotA2 and every single hero is right there waiting for me.

 

[SecondPrize]

Why do people think you have to have all the heroes? I've been playing the free rotations and concluded there are several like Reghar, Uther and Jaina that I'd never want to play and I'll never buy. So assuming you have four or five heroes you find you really like and switch between, even if they are the expensive ones you've still only paid $50 for the game. Which is what a full price game is to start with. The price for skins is kind of ridiculous though.

It's blizzard doing the balancing, friend. You'll never know from patch to patch whether the hero you've just grinded a week and a half for will still be playable or whether the heroes you previously laughed at will be godly.

Do people really not get the junkie/dealer dynamic?

Know why the price is too high? Because we have come to tolerate the JvsD microtrans model for so long that it has become socially accepted. (I mean if its been lampooned on southpark, thats indication that it has to be pretty pervasive)

So Now that all the good little junkies are hooked, then it moves to stage two and thus.. Profit!

Dont like it? Should have listened to people when they complained about it. Instead people clucked their tongues in disdain claiming things like "thats a slippery slope argument. What difference does it make if I want to pay a dollar for a vanity microtransaction that enhances my enjoyment of the game?"

So now that they know they can get you to give them a dollar for functionally nothing, why shouldnt they try to see if they can get you to give them 10? Assureadly someone will and in fact already has.

Actually this is a case where personally I have to applaud blizzard for doing their capitalistic duty of exploiting and gouging their customers. The fault does not lie with them doing what they are supposed to do. The fault lies with those who have financially allowed them to push the envelope to this level.

Bear in mind that the cost per each unit generally decreases in these games when you buy more lots of currency up front, much like it does with your comparison.

Waht I'd like to know is what they've been doing so far as far as wipes go. Did they wipe progress after alpha ended? Did they accept payment in alpha? Are they accepting payment in Beta? Have they stated anything about their plans for wiping at release?