For the past few days, Blizzard’s been teasing the reveal of “something big” at PAX East. Well, the secret’s finally out, and whether or not the announcement qualifies as such comes down to personal preference.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a digital-only collectible card game developed by a 15-man team over at Blizzard. The game will be free-to-play, with an initial 300 cards to collect, deck build and battle with. New cards can be unlocked by earning 5-card booster packs, available both by leveling up through normal play or purchasing for $1 each. Cards possess the typical rarity tiers of Common to Legendary.
Though many assets seem to be being reused from the physical version of the World of Warcraft trading card game, it seems that Hearthstone will use its own original cards and set of rules. Each deck is based around a central hero from one of nine Warcraft character classes. Players can play either against the computer or other online players. The game will utilize a matchmaking system similar to the one used in Starcraft II.
As part of an emerging market of digital-only card games, Hearthstone is free of the limitations of a physical game and uses this freedom in a number of interesting ways. Duplicate cards can be disenchanted into arcane dust, which can then be used in crafting new cards. The PAX demo showed a player breaking down several copies of more common cards to craft a very powerful Deathwing card.
Hearthstone is planned to release “soon” this year. A Blizzard rep jokingly clarified during the presentation that this means “IRL soon, not ‘Blizzard soon’”. It will be playable on PC and Mac initially, with an iPad version to follow shortly after. The game is currently playable on the PAX East show floor. The beta begins this summer and can be signed up for right now.
As if activision doesn’t have enough money.
Christ almighty could you make a good game again blizzard?
Please?
No fuck this I’m done
I am so done
Geez. WoW have allready it collectible card game and now they are making some online crapy version? Bleh…
Blizzard, stop hanging out with Activision. He’s a bad influence on you.
…told to broken cynical convict sitting behind bars for murder.
Actually that idea that you can destroy commons and get a more rare card is a pretty cool idea. I sure as hell wish I could preform a seance with my multitudes of magic commons and come out with like Shocklands or Birthing Pod etc.!
I am totally stoked for digital card games. I kickstarted that SolForge TCG Richard Garfield is working on. All the fun of collecting and deck building without the clutter and with very little chance of someone screwing the rules up or forgetting to use some recurring ability consistently.
Junking unwanted cards to work toward getting a specific one you want without having to pay for a random chance of getting it is a fantastic idea. Everything I’m seeing about Hearthstone (except for the Warcraft flavor) appeals to me so far. Wizards of the Coast, step your game up already. Why can’t Magic the Gathering Online be more like this?
Yeah that would really compel me to play Magic Online a lot more. They’re very much more entrenched in the physical product side of things so I guess it’s to be expected that they are a little slow on the uptake. I would like to point out that they started implementing redeemable codes so that you can get a digital version of a physical product (like a fat pack, booster box etc.) for free, which is a very, VERY, good idea, and seeing as Wizards shut down Cockatrice I have ran out of a place on the internet to play magic on.
“I am totally stoked for digital card games.”
Bro, why didn’t you fund my kickstarter then?!?!?!?!?!
So, no social interaction then?
Wow, it’s fucking nothing.
I would have said something about Warcraft 4 still not being announced, but at this point Blizzard has done so much damage to the lore that I won’t even bother.
Wow, it’s f*cking nothing.
“Each deck is based around a central hero from one of Warcraft’s nine character classes.”
There’s 11 classes in WoW now. Is this what Blizzard said, or was it a mistake?
I typo’d the hell out of that. There ARE eleven classes in WoW, but it looks like only nine of them will be represented in Hearthstone at launch. Hello DLC!
I like how the automatic assumption in the video game industry whenever something seems to be missing from a game announcement or base game is to say that it was purposely left out to become DLC later.
I hate how it’s almost always a correct assumption.
Titan? Who needs that? WE F2P CARD GAME NOW
G-g-get hyped, r-right guys?
Many people like to play collectible card games or CCGs. These games are popular among both teenagers and adults. A CCG is also known as trading or customizable card game. Masters of CCGs call it a strategy game as in this, a person needs to try several possible tricks to make a solid deck, which helps him beat other competitors. Here players collect the playing cards and an individual, who stocks the strongest cards of the game, wins.*
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A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules, but most are folk games whose rules vary by region, culture, and person…
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