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blizzard f2p trading card game

polycounter lvl 7
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joeriv polycounter lvl 7
So Blizzard said they would anounce something at PAX.
This turns out to be a free to play trading card game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vF_PdZybRJE#!
http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/

I thought it was interesting enough to share.

It almost seems like a indie studio within blizzard, and I'm really curious to see if this is successfull (altough it is pc only for now, and later ipad, it does seem like it's a expiriment for smaller games on mobile devices).
if they will expand this, or maybe even other studios doing something similar, or maybe I'm just letting my thoughts run to far :p

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  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    I saw it earlier. I initially considered possibly giving it a go, but the longer video they have makes it look largely like a watered-down MTG. I'm not too keen on how the F2P mechanics may work either, I don't like the idea of being partnered up with a player whose spent hundreds of bucks to give themselves a ridiculous advantage.
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    The vast majority of Blizz's audience is on the PC. Makes perfect sense for that to be the lead platform.

    Apparently the game is watered down even from a WoWTCG perspective, but I guess we'll see.
  • rawkstar
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    rawkstar polycounter lvl 19
    Omg its sooooo awesome!!!!!!!!
  • Blaizer
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    Blaizer polycounter
    Omg awesome game, and with the world of wurcraft universe lads!

    i'm happy to see they waste the money on these kind of projects, very poetic!

    seriously... this is a SHIT. And sorry if i sound harsh but it's what i feel. Too much hype for this... way to waste the money in such pathetic f2p game. I was expecting a game with the level of tera, a new ip... "something new" eh? meh.

    Blizzard should fix Diablo 3 asap and stop bitching so much with their users. The card game has enraged the people on the majority of forums.
  • Cybroxide
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    Cybroxide polycounter lvl 17
    Blaizer wrote: »
    Omg awesome game, and with the world of wurcraft universe lads!

    i'm happy to see they waste the money on these kind of projects, very poetic!

    seriously... this is a SHIT. And sorry if i sound harsh but it's what i feel. Too much hype for this... way to waste the money in such pathetic f2p game. I was expecting a game with the level of tera, a new ip... "something new" eh? meh.

    Blizzard should fix Diablo 3 asap and stop bitching so much with their users. The card game has enraged the people on the majority of forums.

    I don't think this is Titan... just a guess but they will probably announce that at blizzcon. I think this is just a cool side project.
  • Jakob Gavelli
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    Jakob Gavelli interpolator
    It's really smart, really fucking sneaky tactics.

    I'm a huge fan of pretty much everything Blizzard has done and Magic : The Gathering is something I still spend the odd hour playing with my friends.

    They have managed to make something as casual as a card game look really fun and sparkly. And adopting the whole microtransaction thing is really smart aswell.

    I'm totally looking forward to it! The amount they've spent on seemingly redundant features such at " Opening your packs " speaks volumes. I want to open a pack now, damn it!

    The kind of people who say this sucks and that D3 sucked are just jumping on the "Blizzard is really successful so they suck "-bandwagon. There's a separate team developing it, it's not like we're missing out on a huge AAA game just because they work on this CCG on the side...

    Looks cool! I'm happy they have a team moving into the kinda indie market. Fun Stuffs!
  • Jeff Parrott
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    Jeff Parrott polycounter lvl 19
    Looks like fun. Sign me up.
  • Blaizer
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    Blaizer polycounter
    You may think is a cool side project, but i don't think so, i'm quite disappointed. Titan or not, in Blizzard there are too many people working like to have something per year and better than this. where do they throw the money?.

    I don't see a nice future with this.

    I hope wild star will be f2p...
  • slipsius
    Its definitely not titan. They confirmed that when they first sent out the invites to the press.

    I like blaiser is going a little overboard on the rage though. Its a team of 15 devs that is their own seperate team, which means it doesnt affect diablo 3, or starcraft, or warcraft, or titan. It's their own division. Diablos team is still working on fixing diablo. Travis Day, the new game director, has been way more open and vocal about it all than ever before. Lots of answers. Lots of info on whats coming in the near future. A huge itemization patch.

    As for this card game... Im personally not a fan. Any time I see a card game within a game, I just skip it. But, Blizzard has its own physical card game, and there or tournements and everything, so clearly there is an audience for it.

    What gets me excited about this project though, isnt the game itself, but the idea that blizzard is starting to create smaller games with smaller teams. Same blizzard quality (for a card game, this looks ot have amazing quality. You cant compare it to other genres). So, what's next from their small team division? More casual games? I`d love to see more casual stuff from Blizzard. Hell, give me a rock and roll racing on my phone, or even a remake on pc.
  • Ace-Angel
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    Ace-Angel polycounter lvl 12
    As usual, the artwork is top notch, nothing to say about it.

    I would still like to hear how they're going to manage the F2P element, because MTG'esque games always have that small catch, where no matter how fair you try and make it with CS, it only remains fair for the first couple of months before it snowballs to a point where no new players can join in and enjoy the experience, due to ingame economy and levels.
  • praetus
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    praetus interpolator
    looks neat. I used to play MtG growing up so this could be nostalgic in a way. At the very least it's free, so if I don't like it nothing lost, right? I am excited about it coming to iPad and being able to have quick games as I sit on the couch or otherwise.
  • venain
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    venain polycounter lvl 12
    Looks fun. People dump insane amounts of time and money into MTG online and it has the worst UI ever. This will be an extremely profitable game for blizzard (assuming it has micro transactions) and will require a very small team. Pretty smart on them.
  • BoBo_the_seal
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    BoBo_the_seal polycounter lvl 18
    Looks like a lot of fun! I want to see more small projects from top tier developers.

    - BoBo
  • gsokol
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    gsokol polycounter lvl 14
    Looks like a lot of fun! I want to see more small projects from top tier developers.

    - BoBo

    Pretty much this.

    I personally have little interest in the game...I'm not big on card games...but I think its pretty cool that they just let a small team go wild and do something a little different.

    @Blaizer...calm your tits. Its totally ok to not like it, but that isn't really a reason to be so hateful. Not to mention disrespectful considering you posted it directly after a blizzard employee.
  • Alphavader
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    Alphavader polycounter lvl 11
    Looks funny - cant wait to try this out.
    Nice idea to put a small team together
    Please dont do auction house on this one ;)
  • Orb
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    Orb polycounter lvl 13
    This game is actually a lot of fun, and the team who made it is pretty small. I'm glad they finally announced it :)
  • Jessica Dinh
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    Jessica Dinh polycounter lvl 10
    Can't wait to play this, looks really fun! ^_^
  • Selaznog
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    Selaznog polycounter lvl 8
    I think this'll be fun! I was crazy addicted to the game Shadow Era (cool mobile card game).

    I'm the kind of person that doesn't really have a bunch of MTG friends. I have thousands of cards that were given to me, but nobody to play it with. Also after reading the rules I was turned off by it a bit.

    This seems like it could be a fun 20 minute game here and there.

    If they have the same pricing model as Shadow Era, then yes you could spend hundreds of dollars on digital packs to try and get the perfect cards, but you could already do that in the real world...Don't really see a problem here. Hopefully the game mechanics will work in a way that you could still win with a starter deck if you're strategic enough.
  • Target_Renegade
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    Target_Renegade polycounter lvl 11
    Looks like a good idea for a tablet/phone game - could be fun. Being really opinionated about Blizzard here, so will likely cause some offence.

    Most of what they've done is a rehash of other IP, like when they tried to buy the rights to the Games Workshop lore ages ago - I think it was for Warcraft. Yet games like Dune II and maybe Command & Conquer were also the foundations to the Warcraft series. Don't get me wrong, I think the games are probably fun - never played WoW, more of a Guild Wars fan - but somewhere I think they are realising that their subscription fees and general progress over the last 8 years have been counterproductive. Diablo is great fun but I'm not sure what they are trying to achieve with this, it looks like fun but Magic already has a game. So the guy is actually in some way admitting he wants to rip that off also.
  • wasker
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    wasker polycounter lvl 7
    Looks fun but totally not what I expected haha. I was betting on a Diablo 3 expanison!
  • moof
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    moof polycounter lvl 7
    It's pretty damn fun.

    I'm pretty sure people who play this instead of rant about it will end up loving it.
  • Renaud Galand
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    Renaud Galand polycounter lvl 19
    What Orb and V said. I usually don't comment on Blizzard related thread, but this game is a LOT of fun. It's definitely "Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master" which makes it really interesting and addicting at the same time :D It was also really inspiring to witness the development process.
  • Zack Fowler
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    Zack Fowler polycounter lvl 11
    I can understand some skepticism, since for videogames "card game" and "free to play" have often been associated with some really crappy releases. This game is awesome though. Really fun and actually has quite a bit of depth.

    Since it's free to play though, you don't have to take my word for it...

    reading-rainbow-300x262.jpg
  • Gyrz
    I want something like Yu gi OH but to be 3D
  • tottot
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    tottot polycounter lvl 10
    Im pleasantly surprised by this, a small team put together and kept small from within a giant studio, this is something I never thought I'd see happen. Im all for it, even just for the art! (though hearing its alot of fun is a plus too!)
  • binopittan
    wooo i love TGC!! this is like best new evaarr,
  • moose
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    moose polycount sponsor
    Neat! Those FX and Animations look really freakin slick! Great presentation and art.

    Never been into card games, this would definitely get me to try them. Interested to see how it will be monetized.
  • Flurrih
    Looks cool but I fear p2w.
  • Renaud Galand
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    Renaud Galand polycounter lvl 19
    Gameplay preview (it gets sometimes way crazier than this) :)

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200333498394211
  • binopittan
    kinda underwhelmed its 99.9% like magic the gathering.

    on the bright side i can almost guarantte that it wont be P2W, since in MtG mechanic card strength are always equal to the mana cost, unlike say.. yugioh and urban rivals
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    binopittan wrote: »
    on the bright side i can almost guarantte that it wont be P2W, since in MtG mechanic card strength are always equal to the mana cost, unlike say.. yugioh and urban rivals

    Game designer, you are clearly not ;) (I don't mean that maliciously, by the way).

    The value of MTG cards is not in their mana cost, it is in their rarity. That's where the money is. Powerful cards may or may not have high mana cost, but those with particularly potent effects tend to be the rarest cards, and as such they get traded for high prices. As it happens, the lower mana cost cards tend to be the better ones, because they are easier to play. Some MTG cards in a current set (i.e you can still buy packs in large numbers at retail) will sell for $60 or more because of their implied gameplay value.


    This is how Blizzard will monetize the game. Packs of X cards you can win or purchase with real money, with an artificially small chance to find the rarest card. Win 1 pack per game, or buy ten packs for five dollars.
  • Alphavader
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    Alphavader polycounter lvl 11
    Gameplay preview (it gets sometimes way crazier than this) :)

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200333498394211

    This looks really funny - Do you think there will be enough draft - like mtg with only one "mana" fraction ?
  • binopittan
    ambershee :

    you're missing my point entirely . do you even know what P2W means?

    i played MTG long enough to know that rare shit wont make you win the game.
    rarity value are on prestige, not on competitive manner, not on usefullness. theres lot of common cards that makes you win the game more than the rarest.

    P2W means play2win btw just in case you really dont know lol. im refferring to "competitive" game like Blood Brothers when players with more $$$ are guaranteed to kicks player with less $$$ while free player will only serve as punching bags.
  • fmnoor
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    fmnoor polycounter lvl 17
    yea I'm super interested in this game now that I see how it works. Way better than the dumb "card games" on iOS right now.
  • joeriv
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    joeriv polycounter lvl 7
    binopittan wrote: »
    ambershee :
    i played MTG long enough to know that rare shit wont make you win the game.
    rarity value are on prestige, not on competitive manner, not on usefullness. theres lot of common cards that makes you win the game more than the rarest.

    Yes you can play all sorts of fun formats, but if you talk about "competitive standard", then money does matter.

    Every single top standard deck runs in the 100-300 dollars, and yes you can compete with like a 10-50 dollar deck, it's not autowin, but the fact is the other person will always be at an advantage.

    It's actually those rare cards that makes the decks as good as they are.

    It's probably why at all those competitions you see those decks winning and not some rogue/budget decks.


    Just go here and quickly calculate the price of those competitive decks.
    http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/forumdisplay.php?f=714
  • Flurrih
    I have read on some website, that 5 cards gonna cost 1$. But every card will be able to get for free just a bit longer, so we dont have to pay for anything.
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    Well yes, that is how free to play usually works. You pay to avoid the massive time sink of the grind.
    ambershee wrote: »
    This is how Blizzard will monetize the game. Packs of X cards you can win or purchase with real money, with an artificially small chance to find the rarest card. Win 1 pack per game, or buy ten packs for five dollars.

    In this case, if your numbers are right though, it's five packs for five dollars..
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