Hey, I'm back! PvE content in more games?

Greetings friends! Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. The holidays, along with a fluctuating work schedule and lack of real news have caused me to fall way behind on my self-imposed writing duties. But now I'm back and ready to get back in the swing of things.

This week I want to talk about something that I've been thinking about on and off for a long time. As much as I enjoy Hearthstone for it's ladder experience, I have the most fun when a new adventure is released. League of Explorers continued a trend of interesting twists on WoW boss fights with a fun narrative and just enough of a challenge if you go for Heroic mode. This got me wondering if there is an opportunity for a similar mode in some of Blizzard's other games. World of Warcraft has always been primarily a PvE game. Starcraft has a strong campaign (despite what you may think of how Legacy of the Void ended), and the Allied Commanders mode has added an awesome co-op mode as well. Diablo 3 only ever teased a PvP component that never saw the light of day. That leaves Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch as the only games without any sort of PvE content and that has got me thinking.

Overwatch has barely scratched the surface of the world they are creating, so it's more difficult to speculate on a PvE mode. However, we do have continued references to the Doomfist character. Starting in the opening cinematic where Widowmaker and Reaper are looking to steal Doomfist's gauntlet from the museum, and continuing on the Numbani map where you are escorting the same gauntlet for an exhibit on the mysterious character.

These posters are found on the Numbani map and point to an interesting progression of the character. In an interview with PC Gamer, Chris Metzen talked about how Doomfist could be a title and role passed down from generation to generation as needed.  The first Doomfist was the savior aiding in the Omnic crisis. The second maybe had something to do with Talon or maybe the downfall of Overwatch. And with the silhouette of the successor blacked out perhaps we are still waiting for the next Doomfist to emerge and Widowmaker is after the gauntlet to ensure that Talon controls who he or she might be. This could be where our PvE game mode comes in. Doomfist becomes the big bad of the Overwatch universe and the character is too strong to be a playable character. Instead we get a mode where a team of 6 players goes up against an AI or 5 players go up against a 6th player controlling Doomfist. This could work similar to how Evolve plays, but we could forego the need to lock people into specific roles. Give Doomfist a crazy high health pool and a few really strong abilities and we could end up with a really cool game mode with a pretty good replay value. I know it's not a necessarily a PvE only mode but the possibility is there. 

Heroes of the Storm has the possibility for something similar. When I log in to heroes I generally have to decide if I am in the mood for Hero League. Sometimes I just don't want to go try hard. After that I look to see who is online on my friends list for quick match games, and if that's not an option I will jump into AI games to get quests done in stress free mode and to mess around with heroes I don't usually play. I would love a mode like what I proposed for Overwatch. A team of 5 players travels to Auir in an attempt to destroy the Overmind. A new map unique to the mode where the enemy creeps and towers are progressively stronger Zerg units and structures. Timed assaults put your structures in danger causing your team to have to pull back to defend. The Overmind can periodically infest mercenary camps and bosses. Tie it into a Starcraft themed event with a new competitive map and a few new Starcraft heroes and I think you've got something that would be very well received. As long as the AI is tuned appropriately it would serve as a fun change of pace. And because Heroes takes from all the Blizzard universes there are dozens of possibilities to revise the mode. If Blizzard decides against adding Deathwing as a playable hero they could instead add a Blackrock Mountain map where waves of fire shut down different lanes periodically. I think there are plenty of possibilities that could present a nice change of pace and explore some unique map mechanics without forcing them into a competitive scenario. 

I'm sure there are plenty of possibilities for some really cool PvE content for both of these games. I honestly don't think we will see it in Overwatch, but Heroes of the Storm is built in the Starcraft 2 engine and lends itself well to that sort of thing. I'm curious what the community thinks of the idea. Let me know!

Thanks as always for reading and sorry for the delay in content. Until next time,

Chris

The Rest of Blizzcon. And a Realization

Welcome back friends!

I'm sorry for the delay in writing this post, but I realized a few things last week when I tried to sit down to write a true "Part 2". I was really struggling to find motivation to go through all of the Heroes and Hearthstone news bit by bit. There are plenty of places where you can get that information in a far better format than I can give you. And if I'm struggling to write it then chances are it's not an enjoyable experience for the people trying to read it. With those things in mind, what I want to do going forward is focus on giving my opinions and talk about the things I found most interesting. With that in mind, lets jump into the Heroes and Hearthstone stuff that got me excited.

Heroes of the Storm got the kind of news you would expect from a game with frequent updates. Lunara and Genn Greymane were announce for future release, and Cho'gall and the Towers of Doom map have, as of now, been released to the masses. I've only had a chance to play a few games on Towers of Doom and so far the map feels really strange. I like that the ultimate goal is different than that of any of the other maps since you don't push for the core in that way, but I still haven't figured it out. You're meant to fight over towers to make your altars fire more shots, but it's VERY easy for the other team to quickly retake a tower. My concern is that the struggle to take the towers isn't worth the effort most of the time, and teams will be better off focusing solely on team fighting over alters. I'm sure there will be situations where you can win a team fight at an alter and then hold off on capping while you take an extra tower or two, but time will tell. I'm really interested in what the competitive scene does with Towers of Doom and what heroes end up shining on it.

Now for one of my favorite parts of Blizzcon! Cho'gall was one of the heroes I predicted we would have announced at the con, but I don't think anyone had any idea that this would be what we ended up with. 2 players on 1 hero is something no other MOBA has done before and continues Blizzard's trend of trying to break the mold of heroes in interesting ways. Abathur is one of my favorite heroes to see in the hands of strong players. Other than the familiarity of the characters, the removal of items and last hitting as mechanics were the things that really drew me into heroes. In my opinion it's the things that Blizzard is doing differently with Heroes of the Storm that are the best parts of the game. Cho'gall follows that trend in a magnificent fashion. I don't remember the last time I laughed out loud this much in a multiplayer game. I had gotten to the point where I would check out the new heroes that came out and if they clicked with me I would get a bunch of games in, but if they didn't I would find myself getting easily distracted by Hearthstone or WoW. Cho'gall has made me want to play Heroes almost exclusively every time I open Battle.net. He's not the most competitive hero in the game but he is absolutely one of the most fun. I have had multiple moments of greatness where both heads were in sync and we managed to kill 3-4 enemy heroes almost single handedly. On top of all that, he was free. I got him because I ordered the Blizzcon Virtual Ticket (which I would have done anyway), but I can also give him to anyone who doesn't have him simply by playing 2 games together. So not only is he an absolute blast to play, he's free to anyone who wants him basically. Both Lunara and Greymane look interesting and I'm sure I'll have more to say about them once they release.

Hearthstone in a way had the exact opposite effect at Blizzcon. People predicted Ulduar, Icecrown, and Karazhan. Every single person was wrong. League of Explorers took everyone by surprise and continued to give Hearthstone an identity independent from Warcraft. We are getting brand new characters like Reno Jackson, Elise Starseeker, and Sir Finley Mrrgglton in addition to a more narrative experience throughout the Adventure. I think Blizzard does a great job when it comes to designing the encounters. League of Explorers is no exception with the Temple Escape and Mine Cart encounters. They are by no means difficult to complete but the flavor make them a fun change of pace. Originally I thought the cards were a little underwhelming. However, cards like Reno Jackson and Tunnel Trogg are having a big impact on the ladder. I'm not sure if I like what Reno Jackson decks are doing to aggressive decks and deck building going forward, but I can't argue with the strength of the card considering I have yet to lose a game at rank 7+ with Reno Warlock. Time will tell how much of a long term impact League of Explorers will have on competitive Hearthstone. What we have so far seems promising.

There are a couple other things I want to touch on quickly. First, I am a bit concerned that Overwatch is losing a lot of steam that it gained with the initial beta launch. Outside of a couple dedicated streamers the viewership numbers have plummeted and even an expanded beta weekend seemed to do little to keep the hype train fueled. With Blizzard unsure as to whether or not there will even be more heroes to announce eventually, I'm not sure what will help besides the release of the game and that is still a way off. Secondly, a ton of Legion information is being data mined from the alpha game files. Tons of item models and quest line information are coming out as a result. Be careful where you click if you are looking to avoid major spoilers. We are also getting hints at the Artifact weapon acquisition scenarios as well as every model and color for each weapon. These scenarios are very exciting and as a result I feel like I want to have each class leveled to 100 for the Legion launch for no other reason than to experience each one of these scenarios and story lines first hand. Each one looks like its very own version of the Warlock green fire quest and if that is the case players should be really excited.

Well that will do it for this week. Let me know what you think of a possible format change for the blog and if there is anything specific you want me to talk about.

Thanks as always for reading! Until next time,
Chris

Blizzcon in review part 1

Welcome back friends!

The most magical time of the Blizzard year has come and gone. The hand sanitizer bottles have been emptied, the food trucks have dispersed, and nerds from across the planet have returned to their homes. And what I thought would be an underwhelming Blizzcon, ended up really hyping me up for the next year. It would be silly of me to try and cram two days worth of reveals and information into a single blog post, and if I tried you guys would end up with less information and opinion than this kind of event deserves. So instead I'm going to break it up into two posts over the next few weeks. This week I want to dive into the World of Warcraft: Legion info as well as the Overwatch reveals. Next week I'll do a quick review of the League of Explorers Hearthstone adventure (which caught literally everyone who doesn't work for Blizzard off guard), and the new heroes and battleground in Heroes of the Storm. After that I'll do an early review of patch 2.4 in Diablo once the PTR, which launched last night, has helped get a more complete picture of how those features will work. With so little Diablo coverage at Blizzcon it will be easier to analyze the changes once players have had a chance to see how they work in-game. Alright, with this week's disclaimer out of the way, lets dive into Legion.

In order of appearance, the first thing we got regarding Legion was the opening cinematic at the Blizzcon opening ceremony. We shouldn't be surprised at this point. Every time Blizzard releases a cinematic they set a new standard. This time around we got some story beats mixed in with the usual action scenes similar to Warlords of Draenor. However, for Warlords we knew that Grom was going to turn down Gul'dan's offer of power so that wasn't anything new. This time we are finding out that Varian has come to strive for peace as Anduin does. And while the cinematics team had us thinking Varian might not make it through it alive, there are also some questions that we will hopefully find answers for in the pre-launch event. What made Sylvanas and Varian suddenly cool with working together. The "sup bro" head nod in there didn't have the feel of working together despite our factional disputes. Instead it just feels like a quarterback looking at his receiver before the play. They both know what they have to do and they are almost going to enjoy doing it. In addition to that, when we last left Jaina she was advocating destroying the Horde entirely at the end of Siege of Orgrimmar. If Varian has opted to work with the Horde toward peace, then where does that leave Jaina. The emo white streak of hair is growing by the second I imagine.

The first panel up was the World and Content Overview panel. Here we got a deeper look at the zones of the Broken Isles as well as the first two raids of the expansion. The zones are absolutely gorgeous. I think the environmental design in World of Warcraft has been outstanding since Cataclysm and sometimes it seems like it goes unnoticed. Legion has a ton of zone variety and that goes a long way when we are going to be in these zones for 18 months or more.

Outside of the visuals, we also learned that the leveling experience in Legion will be non-linear. You can start in any zone you want other than Suramar and the content in that zone will scale to your level. This is a nice touch in effort to preserve the freshness of the leveling experience throughout the expansion, but I worry that we won't be able to take advantage of it as much given the Artifact system and how it may push people away from playing alts. I'll get into that a little more later.  Team 2 took a page out of Diablo 3's playbook and the new CMs look a lot like Greater Rifts. Rather than scaling the player down to a certain item level and using a time limit to set the difficulty, they have decided to scale the difficulty of the dungeon up. Where the Diablo comparison comes in is there is a keystone used to begin a Challenge Mode dungeon and the you complete that level of dungeon you are rewarded not only with a loot chest as a reward, but also a higher rank keystone. As you climb in ranks within a dungeon the health, damage, and in some cases number of trash mobs will increase in order to make things for difficult and require new levels of coordination and skill. If that wasn't enough of a challenge, there are also different effects active each week that add a unique variable that will require different answers week by week. 

Giving all enemies an enrage or giving the entire dungeon a passive damage aura add a nice twist that allows for different classes, specs, and talents to shine in different weeks. At the end of the week the team with the highest rank clear will be given additional rewards. I can see these new CMs being a very interesting secondary end game with teams battling for the top spot every week. This also keeps dungeons relevant throughout the expansion since new tiers of raid gear and higher item levels will allow players to clear higher ranks. 

Then we have the first pair of raids! The Emerald Nightmare will serve as this expansions Highmaul. Personally, I'm not a fan of the lower item level introductory raid, but it seems to be a system Blizzard is comfortable with since they have gone back to it every expansion since Mists of Pandaria.  In the Emerald Nightmare we will climb a corrupted World Tree to enter the Emerald Dream in order to cleanse it from it's corruption. The zone looks beautiful since the Dream mirrors our Azeroth and we see corrupted versions of Mulgore and Felwood. We will work our way through the Nightmare in order to stop Xavius, who helped orchestrate the corruption of the Emerald Dream, and to rescue or defeat a corrupted Cenaruis who was tainted by his ties to the Dream. Hopefully the interesting story aspects of the Emerald Nightmare will make up for the fact that it quickly be dismissed once Suramar Palace is released and we have a true tier raid. Suramar Palace is our tier 19 raid and for a reason yet to be explained is Gul'dan's new base of operations. As we venture into the home of the Nightborne elves we will take on 10 bosses of the Demon and Night Elf varieties before we finally take down Gul'dan the green skinned hunchback of Draenor. The only visual depiction we have or the Palace is concept art, but if Legion follows in the footsteps of Draenor raiding I will not be disappointed. 

On Saturday the developers got on stage to tackle the true meat of the expansion and talked about the game systems. Garrisons were very much at the core of Warlords of Draenor and had their hand in a majority of the game systems. Unfortunately this came at the detriment of the expansion and the content suffered as a result. I think the opposite will be true for Legion. Artifact weapons and Class Order Halls seemed to be tied into a majority of the expansion in what seem to be all the best ways. Blizzard has a great page on the WoW site with the story behind each spec's Artifact. Players will get their Artifact weapon through a unique experience for each spec and it will be the only weapon they'll have for the entire expansion. Once they have it they will be able to level it up with Artifact Power earned through questing, dungeons, rare spawns, raids, world bosses, battlegrounds, and arenas......so......everything! As you level up the weapon you unlock new levels of your Artifact's skill tree. 

The weapon tree starts with an active ability fitting thematically with the weapon then expands into a series of choices like ability buffs or passives. Eventually, if you want to, you will be able to get enough artifact power to completely fill out the tree, but they have said it will take months to do so. This is where my comment from earlier comes in. If an Artifact takes that much time and effort to fill out and maintain then it makes alts a lot of work to keep up to par. It's obviously not necessary to fully level a weapon for a second or third character, but it may be enough of a turn off despite Blizzard's efforts to keep the leveling experience fresh. It's a mild concern but I don't want to take away from how awesome Artifact weapons are. In addition to Artifact Power, players will be able to add Relics to their weapon. 

Relics will be acquired in the same ways as artifact power, but rather than unlocking damage buffs or new abilities they increase the item level of your weapon and allow additional ranks of certain weapon ranks. This allows you to specifically target certain traits that you want more of an effect from and eventually add ranks to traits that don't have them at launch. This adds an additional sense of progression throughout the expansion. Subsequent raids can drop Relics that have higher item level increases and stronger effects. Each weapon has two Relic slots with different elemental types associated with them. In the case of the Affliction Warlock weapon above, they have a Shadow slot and a Fel slot. This creates competition between different specs and classes when it comes to looting Relics in a dungeon or raid scenario. For example Destruction Warlocks will also want Fel Relics as well as Fire Relics, and Demon Hunters will likely want Shadow Relics and Fel Relics for one of their specs. More competition for drops increases the shelf time of raid tiers and that can't hurt especially later in the expansion. Artifact Weapons along with Demon Hunters seem to be the major features of this expansion and the weapons are really impressive from what I've seen so far. I can't wait to spend hours of my life leveling different alts just to experience the Artifact quests.

Class Order Halls seem poised to take the place of Garrisons as a directory of sorts guiding players to what they should be doing in Legion. The idea is to have a strong class themed location where all the best heroes of that class can go to team up against the Legion. We'll get class quests, a place to upgrade our Artifacts, and special perks that fit the theme of the class. There are plenty of ways for Blizzard to lead players in gameplay but I think the Order Halls also help to reinforce the thematic class changes that have been touted since Gamescom. Judging by the class previews this week, there is a huge amount of detail put into the class reworks and I expect the Class Halls to showcase that. It's hard to get a real opinion about them without seeing them, but I'm optimistic they have learned from Garrisons how much is too much of a good thing.

Overwatch also had some news! Blizzard announced a simultaneous release on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 in Spring 2016. The pricing breakdown is this; PC version for $40 which includes all 21 heroes and a Widowmaker skin for preorder, Origins Edition on all 3 platforms for $60 which adds 5 hero skins referencing their past along with the usual goodies for other Blizzard games, then there is the Collectors Edition for a whopping $130 which adds a Soldier 76 statue and the other things we've grown to expect from a CE like the soundtrack and art book. I think this pricing model hits the mark with the exception of the Collector's Edition that seems like a ton of money to add a statue. I love that Overwatch will no be free to play and I don't have to worry about grinding out heroes in a game that asks me to be open to swapping between them. The 5 skins and bonuses for other games are enough for me to warrant a $60 price tag on a game with only one game mode, but I would understand if people felt differently. I've also seen a lot of complaining across the internet that we don't have any information on how we will unlock future heroes. It seems ridiculous to complain about pricing for heroes you don't actually know are even going to come. If we get DLC a month after the game releases that asks for $20 or more for additional characters and maps then I'll be right there complaining with you, but for know it feels like people are crying over milk they might spill in a year.

Three new heroes were announced along with a new map. Mei and D.Va we're both teased in the weeks leading up to Blizzcon, and Genji has been on our minds since the game was announced. I've added links to their character pages to save from spelling out every ability. Mei seems like a remarkably strong character in the right hands. The ability to freeze enemy characters is unlike we've seen in Overwatch outside of Zarya's ultimate, and her Ice Wall will make for some very interesting plays and new vantage points. D.Va is the hardest to judge for me at this point. Her auto attacks while in her mech deal a ton of damage and her ultimate creates a sort of mini-game of timing your Self-Destructs and trying to quickly recharge your mech. The problem for me is that both her Boosters and Defense Matrix seem really underwhelming but that may be because I haven't had a chance to use them myself. And Genji marks the long waited arrival of green robot ninja guy! The developers made an interesting comment during one of the panels in regards to how difficult it was to balance a melee character. They ended up reworking his entire kit to make it more ranged focused with his ultimate causing him to draw his sword and go stab crazy for a few seconds. His mobility is better than most and I think he will truly shine in the hands of really skilled players. I would love to dive into these heroes a bit further but it doesn't make much sense since I haven't had the chance to play the game yet. 

Metzen also announced a few things during the World of Overwatch panel on Saturday. He reiterated on the graphic novel they announced at San Diego Comic Con that details the beginnings of Overwatch. We also saw a preview of a series of cinematic shorts, each independent of each other, that give some insight into the characters and the world. These are so exciting! People have been asking for Blizzard's cinematics department to expand and create more free standing content. I believe this is their first steps and eventually we will see longer and more in depths pieces coming out of that department. However they choose to deliver the story of this world I will be there eating it up. 

Well...

This has by far been my longest post ever,

and it's only covering 2 of the now 6! games in Blizzard's stable.

I'm sure there is more I could say but I don't think anyone wants to read anymore rambling this week. Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by! We've got a bunch more Blizzcon to talk about next week!

Until next time,

Chris

PSA

Hello team!!

With Blizzcon starting tomorrow it seems silly to write a full post now when all the news and excitement is slated to take place over the next two days. I look forward to breaking down all the news here over the next week or two. There are a couple of things I didn't mention in last week's post;

As the rest of the internet is speculating, I think Overwatch will be announced as a Xbox One exclusive given Microsoft's presence at Blizzcon this year and the controller support already built into the early beta builds of the game.

Deckard Cain will be announced as one of the new heroes in HotS. This would follow the trend set last year with Lost Vikings. Blizzard said they felt like they had to get TLV out because of the number of requests they got at Blizzcon 2013. Everyone's favorite deceased Horadrim has been one of the most requested heroes since last years event. I'm sure some of those requests were in jest, but I don't think that will stop Blizzard.

That's all I can think of for now. Enjoy Blizzcon! I'll be watching right along with you.

Until next time,
Chris

CORRECTION: stupid ass GameStop let the cat out of the bag early and opened preorders for Overwatch on Xbox One, PS4, and PC for $59.99. Good news for all console players. I for one am happy to see a price tag as opposed to a free-to-play model. I get nickeled and dimed enough with Hearthstone and HotS. I expect some kind of season pass model eventually unlocking maps and heroes, but I hope they can manage to do it better than Evolve did. GG!

eSports and the future of Blizzcon

Welcome back team!

Can you feel it? The leaves are changing color, there is the chill in the air, and all across the world a collection of the world greatest heroes and villains are doing battle! That's right friends, Overwatch is finally here. Yesterday over 200 streams and 200,000 viewers took to Twitch to show off one of the most anticipated games of the year. While I want to take this time to complain that I am an outsider watching what seems to be the rest of the internet enjoying Overwatch, I instead want to talk about what this game's release could mean for future Blizzcon's going forward.

We have come a long way from the days when Blizzcon featured only the Starcraft and World of Warcraft championships. ESports had taken a back seat to game and expansion announcements despite MLG being front and center. World of Warcraft was in it's prime and Starcraft 2 was the new shiny, but by the end of the event it still kind of felt like an afterthought.

Fast forward to 2015 and the landscape has changed drastically. Hearthstone has exceeded Blizzards wildest expectations and become a esports standard. There is a league or tournament running nearly every weekend. People like Reynad and Amaz have turned the game into a lucrative business resulting in professional teams that have expanded from Hearthstone and into other games as well. Heroes of the Storm went from a extremely rough Blizzcon preview, through not one but two name changes, and is close to finding it's place among the two other two other big name MOBAs. I say close because there is still work to be done. The ranking and matchmaking system needs work in order to allow players to use ranked play as a means to prepare for tournament play. Part of the issue is the player base isn't big enough to find even matches for all players quickly and Blizzard's response to that was to implement a system that will match you with anyone once enough time has passed. This doesn't work for professional players because there is a diminishing return on skill gained playing games well below the tournament level. If Blizzard takes care of things on their end then the players will come, and that will solve the other issues. Once that happens I believe Heroes of the Storm will find itself competing with League of Legends and DOTA 2. Then there is Overwatch. If it finds the success that many people are predicting it will as a competitive esport, we will live in a world where there are 4 (or 5 if you think WoW arena still counts) major esports under the Blizzard umbrella.

Last week Activision Blizzard announced an esports division that will serve as the third leg of the company. They are putting their money where their mouth is by hiring former CEO of ESPN Steve Bernstein and former MLG President Mike Sepso. If this doesn't prove that Blizzard is marching forward full speed into esports I don't know what does. This is exciting because the more support for Blizzard esports the more pressure on them to balance their games and provide changes like the one to matchmaking in Heroes. Players will strive to be in the now bigger spotlight, and the casters and production crews will be held to a higher standard as well. In that sense everyone comes out a winner. However, with that kind of power and presence behind the competitive gaming side of things gives it it's own spotlight and that is why I think we will see changes coming to Blizzcon in the future.

Last year following Blizzcon, ticket holders were sent a survey regarding the esports portion of the event and whether or not they would purchase a ticket solely for the esports side of things or one only for the show floor. They also asked whether or not any of the competitions took away from your capability to see any panels. My initial thought while filling out this survey was that they were considering selling tickets separately or in a combo pack of sorts so that more people could see the parts that interested them. Every year Blizzcon tickets sell out almost immediately then there is a mad shuffle to try and get tickets assigned to everyone in your group. One has to assume that some number of ticket holders are going strictly for panels while others are going strictly for esports events.  If that is the case it seems likely that if they two were sold separately then some number of people would have access to panel tickets that in the past would have gone to people only going to watch Starcraft 2.

There are a few ways Blizzard could split the two sides of Blizzcon and honestly I'm not sure which would work best. They could simply run things as they do now and split admission into two halves, and attendees who want both tickets would have to manage their time as they always have. But Blizzard could also extend Blizzcon to a 3 or 4 day event. ESports semi-finals and finals could take place on Thursday and Friday then the announcements and panels would be held on Saturday and Sunday. People who want the entire experience would have a packed 4 days and people who only want one or the other have the usual 2 day experience we have now. I understand there are a lot of issues with this way, and I don't think this is the way they should go, but I think it's worth a discussion. This would mean two more nights away from work and family and two more nights of travel expenses. In addition to that, I think the demo areas during the panel section would see a huge increase in wait times. Right now the people in the Starcraft or Hearthstone arena are not in line waiting to play Overwatch or Legion, but in this version of Blizzcon those arenas are closed and all those people are now slowing things down in demo lines and taking seats in panels. These are huge problems that would need addressing but it's still an option.

Another more risky option would be to separate the two halves entirely. The esports championships could be one half of the year and Blizzcon proper could be another. This would make the competitions have the feel of the DOTA 2 International or the fighting game championships at EVO where all eyes are on that event while it's going on. I'm torn on this idea because as someone who hasn't been able to make it to Blizzcon yet I would hate to think I wouldn't be able to see the Hearthstone World Championship decided while I was there. But at the same time, I like the idea of Blizzcon proper being Blizzard's forum to say "here's what were up to in the games and worlds you love." while the esports event is their chance to say "here are all the awesome things you guys are doing with our games.". Again, I don't think this is something they will do, but I think the writing is on the wall that something is going to be changing eventually.

Let me know what you think Blizzard might do with this new esports sister company, and let me know what effect, if any, you think it will have on Blizzcon.

Thanks as always for reading! Until next time,
Chris

Predictions based on the Blizzcon schedule

Welcome back friends!

Before I get started on the topic at hand, I just wanted to say thank you to all the readers who checked out last weeks post. It was by far my most read post and I got a lot of great feedback on Reddit and Twitter. It really got me excited about writing and keeping things going so once again, thank you!

It's just over two weeks until Blizzcon at the time I'm writing this. The official schedule is out so it's time to diligently analyze every aspect for any secrets it may hold! I will be referring to the official Blizzcon site version. Feel free to pull that up and compare so I can save time listing individual times and stages.


Hearthstone:
There are only two Hearthstone panels this year and it seems a majority of the focus will on the World Championships just like last year. This falls in line with what we should expect so closely following a true expansion release. I do expect to see a new Adventure announced at the opening ceremony, and detailed at the Friday panel. Very clever by the way Blizzard "come warm yourself by the fire and hear a tale of adventures yet to come". I see what you did there. If I were a betting man I would put my money on Karazhan being our next Adventure. Some people have used The Grand Tournament as evidence of Icecrown Citadel being next, but when they announced TGT they framed it as what the denizens of Northrend were doing after the events of WotLK. Team 5 has been very lenient with the time frames and pacing of content releases so I don't think on expansion points to the next. However, the Blizzcon 2015 card back does have a very "Sindragosa's Fall" look to it if you ask me. I think the eventual addition of Death Knights, however distant it may be, is the biggest argument for them holding off on ICC. I could be wrong though.

Heroes of the Storm:

Heroes is a tough game to really hype up at a single event. Sure, we will get a video at the opening ceremony detailing the next few heroes and/or battlegrounds, but because the game is based around constant smaller updates there isn't much they can do to knock peoples socks off. They could announce an unranked draft mode or a new in-game event, but they have on record in saying that those things won't be coming this year. The only feature I can think of that they would announce is a true in game draft mode with bans. The tournament scene, including Blizzard run events, has used a two ban system and it is absurd that people need to use an outside client to run the draft for these events. Blizzard knows this and I think they are doing everything they can to bring a true draft system into the game. We should also find out when Season 1 will finally start. We have been in "preseason" for far too long. Grandmaster League as well as some kind of reward system should accompany the start of any official season because people need to know what they are striving for besides a higher rank. As far as new heroes go, we don't have much to go on. There is a Hero Deep Dive panel on Friday that promises a closer look at all the new heroes coming our way. If I had to throw out some guesses I would say Zul'jin, Cho'gall, and Zamuro the Blademaster based solely on work in progress stuff from forever ago. They are developing heroes so far in advance at this point that we have no way to know if another hero just happened to become release ready before the ones we have already seen screenshots of. Finally, there is a Battlegrounds panel on Saturday afternoon. I'm interested to see if Blizzard will return to more neutral maps like the first 7 or continue to branch out into their traditional universes. I don't know which I would prefer since I don't really like Battlefield of Eternity or Infernal Shrines very much. The idea of an Alterac Valley style map does peak my interests, but I really like the original maps and their takes on traditional fantasy. Either way I am excited to see what Heroes has coming.

Starcraft:

With Legacy of the Void set to release immediately following Blizzcon, I don't expect many surprises. Story bits will be kept secret, WCS is going on during the event, and the new units won't be changed this close to release. I think this years Starcraft coverage will have two sides. First, they will take the opportunity to give the trilogy the celebration it deserves heading into its final chapter. Then they will assure people that they will continue to balance and support the game for years to come. It should be common knowledge at this point that Blizzard values the most diehard of their fans. There are still periodic updates to Diablo 2 people should not be worried about losing support for Starcraft 2. I am very curious what the future of the Starcraft universe will bring. Real-time strategy games are pretty much nonexistent outside of SC2, and a SC3 would be years away at this point. I have some tin-foil hat theories about a potential new game in the Koprulu Sector but I will save that for another post. Either way I am excited for the story of this series to come full circle despite my RTS ineptitude.

Overwatch:

We already know that the Overwatch Beta will begin on October 27th. There was some worry that Blizzard would have it start immediately following Blizzcon, but I think that would have taken too much of the attention away from Legacy of the Void. Overwatch will still steal a good amount of the Thunder however as everyone and their brother heads to Twitch to see the lucky few fight for some payloads. The Blizzcon slate for Overwatch is a slightly more sparse than I thought it would be. Friday's "What's New" panel will no doubt feature new maps and heroes (presumably Green Robot Ninja will make his debut finally), but that doesn't offer anything more than what we got at PAX East months ago. I am very excited for the World of Overwatch panel on Saturday. Lore isn't something everyone cares about but I can't wait to dive into another Blizzard world. The stream from Blizzard HQ last week looked really polished and seemed to have a good baseline version of the game in place. While I don't like how limited the initial beta phase is going to be, I love that it will be launching with in-game voice chat as well as a spectator mode. Despite how little there seems to be on the schedule, the good news is pretty much everything we learn about Overwatch at this point is exciting new information.

World of Warcraft:
This year there is a 90 minute panel on the world of Legion immediately following the opening ceremony. This, along with the lack of a mysterious open slot in the schedule, rules out any big unknown release and cements Legion as the big ticket item for this year. Friday we will get a deeper look at the zones of the Broken Isles and the dungeons and raids therein. Metzen will likely be there as well giving information on the various story threads teased at Gamescom. After that there is a cinematics panel. This is a nice secondary panel considering how awesome the in-game cinematics were throughout Warlords. If we don't get the Legion opening cinematic at the opening ceremony then I would expect to see it here. Saturday we have the usual panel detailing the changes to in-game systems and the new features of the expansion. I think this panel will be when we find out more about  the changes in store for talent specs as well as more insight into Artifact weapons for other classes. Follow that up with the good ole Q&A and that's a wrap on the World of Warcraft coverage. This year seems as though it will be very similar to last year. We'll get a lot of information but nothing that isn't already a known quantity.

Diablo:
Finally we get to the biggest disappointment on the schedule. I have gone on record more than once predicting a Diablo 3 expansion first at Gamescom, and then again at Blizzcon after Legion stole the show in Germany. Unfortunately, here we are on the eve of Blizzcon and we find a single panel on the entire schedule. Rather than discuss a newly revealed Act 6 and new playable class, it will instead feature "New Content and Features for Reaper of Souls". Don't get me wrong, I love the work the Diablo team has put into Reaper of Souls. It is in a fantastic place compared to where it began and they continue to release quality updates at no new cost to players. But that doesn't take away from the disappointment of no second expansion. New legendary and set items can only do so much to keep the game fresh. I love the newness of a season rollover but I find myself wearing out as things progress and the time to gear ratio continues to grow. Maybe Diablo is to a point where they are happy to cater to the more hardcore crown who grind 500+ paragon every season and who enjoy a season long grind. I find myself just on the outside of that group. I get to Paragon 400 or so but then lose interest once I have seen what the new items have to offer. I enjoy that part of the game but I want more from Diablo than that. New lore, a new class, new areas and tile sets to keep things interesting. I want to know what threat the Nephalem ultimately pose to the Sanctuary. I want to know where Itherael went. I want to know what happens when Diablo is eventually resurrected in the Burning Hells. I want to know what's going on in other parts of the world. And apparently some people want to know what happened to Leah's soul, but I honestly never grew attached to her character. I could go on forever about what a new expansion could mean for Diablo, but for now all we can do is see what new things Blizzard is working on for Reaper and hold on to some hope for Gamescom next year.


I think Blizzcon should be a blast as always, but I think this year will be a bit on the tame side.
TL;DR for predictions:

Hearthstone Adventure. Guessing Karazhan but could be Icecrown based on the card back.

Zul'jin, Cho'gall, and Zamuro (WC3 Blademaster) and a map or two for Heroes.

Story bits and hype builders for Legacy of the Void.

Green Robot Ninja, one other Hero, and a new map or two for Overwatch. More Story!

Legion details across the board. Opening cinematic?

Diablo disappointment. jk jk

Thanks as always for reading and welcome back to those checking back in after last weeks post. I hope to keep you coming back. Until next time,

Chris

Hearthstone's Catch-up Mechanic

Greetings Travelers!

Today I want to talk about something that has been in the back of my mind since the announcement of The Grand Tournament. How long is it until Hearthstone becomes inaccessible to new players? I talked a bit about the issue when discussing power creep and Blizzard's possible solutions, but I didn't go into the other side of the discussion. No matter how strong cards are in terms of power creep, the sheer number of cards can be a daunting barrier to entry. On one hand, making newer cards more powerful invalidates the money or time players spent earning the older cards that may become obsolete. But on top of that the number of cards in total can make it feel impossible for new players or players looking to step into more competitive play to acquire the cards necessary to do so. The question on how does Team 5 handle this issue has come up on The Angry Chicken, The Instance, Well Met, Reddit, Blizzard's official forums, and countless other places. The more I think about possible solutions the more I come back to a single idea I really like, but I'll get to that.

People have often suggested a rotating format similar to how Magic the Gathering handles new sets. The most popular and most played format includes only the last 2 years of sets, and the older cards are playable only in casual modes and secondary formats. I hate this idea for a number of reasons. First, Hearthstone's is a game with no secondary market. In Magic you have the option to sell off cards before they rotate out of playability in order to recoup the money spent getting them to play with in the first place. In Hearthstone our only option is to disenchant cards in exchange for a percentage of the dust required to craft a new card of the same rarity. This emphasizes the feeling that the cards you spent time or money to add to your collection have become worthless in comparison to what you don't have. In addition to that, rotating formats have a tendency to push some players away as decks that they have grown to love and play well are taken away from them. Imagine spending 2 years playing Midrange Druid or Handlock. You refine your play for months, learn your mulligans, learn how to tweak the deck for different match ups, and that is YOUR deck. Then suddenly you find out that next month Force of Nature or Molten Giant will no longer be allowed in Ranked Play. Pro players or players repeatedly making pushes to Legend have no trouble changing decks in order to optimally climb the ladder, but a majority of players don't have the skill required to do so or the willingness to commit the amount of money needed to do so.

Rotation comes up not only because it gives new players fewer sets of cards to focus on when buying in. And on top of that it helps some of the new cards see play that are competing with older cards that are strictly more powerful. I think this is the wrong way to look at it. We don't want TGT to release and have 75+ cards instantly slotted into new and existing decks. If that happens then that means power creep has become a real issue. I prefer to think of it in terms of cards like Mysterious Challenger. Say what you will about Secret Pally, but Mysterious Challenger alone made cards that previously saw little to no play and brought them to the forefront. Redemption and Repentance we're virtually never player while cards like Avenge and Blessing of Kings had only recently found a home in an Aggro Pally that was kind of a flavor of the month deck. Cards that make players take a second look at cards they had previously passed over are truly influential and those are the cards we should be looking for rather than cards that simply slot into a deck over an existing card. Feign Death looks mediocre now but every time a new minion with Deathrattle is printed it may be worth taking a look at. All it takes is that one Pirate card to create a viable Rogue deck to take advantage of it. A couple of cards that give you an advantage for having Overload all of a sudden makes everyone look at Shaman decks with new eyes. The goal of new sets shouldn't only be to introduce new cards and themes, but to also effect existing cards in new and interesting ways.

In my opinion the issue isn't giving new players fewer sets to buy in to. The issue is how difficult it can be to get one viable deck you are happy with. Whenever new players email into a podcast asking how to get started, the answer is almost always play area to earn gold and dust. The arena grind can be so tedious and frustrating and I have talked to multiple players who have been turned off of the game for that reason. I think Hearthstone needs an affordable and quick way to get players into playing on the ladder without feeling like they can't compete. I think there is a way to accomplish this while also giving players access to a good base of competitive cards to start a collection without dumping $100+ into packs. I think Hearthstone needs to offer pre-constructed decks, and I have a couple of them made up as an example.

I believe both of these decks accomplish multiple goals for new and existing players. They offer a viable starting off point for players looking to begin climbing the ladder. Both have the exact same breakdown of rarities; 7 basic cards to fill out the core of the deck, 14 commons, 5 rares, 3 epics, and 1 legendary. And they both have the same breakdown of expansions; 15 classic cards, 4 GvG cards, and 4 TGT cards. This gives players more cards from the largest set that still contains the core of most decks, while also adding a few useful cards from other sets. I purposely left out cards from the Adventures because I think those cards are easily singled out and purchasable if players decide they they want Loatheb or Emperor Thaurissan as opposed to buying enough packs to craft a particular legendary. Both decks come with a core of class cards like Savannah Highmane and Ancient of Lore and a neutral Legendary that can go into other decks they may hope to build later. I think if Blizzard were to roll out a couple of reconstructed decks at $15-$20 as an east access route to semi-competitive play, people would jump at the option. The incentive to buy more still exists as well. If a player has a few big wins with Force of Nature they will look to get enough dust to craft the second one. Or they may decide that Mad Scientist would be great in their Hunter deck after looking through the Crafting mode and decide to purchase that wing of Naxxramas.

Blizzard is clearly making a ridiculous amount of money off of Hearthstone so they may not need to do this, but I think it would be a tremendous show of good faith on their part to let current and potential players know that accessibility is important to them. Hearthstone doesn't have the advantage of Heroes of the Storm and it's free to play hero rotation. Also, people don't mind paying for a game that they know they will get enjoyment out of but I worry that if people can't find the fun quickly enough to be enticed to spend money because they are repeatedly getting crushed by paid players then they may be pushed away prematurely. It is important that players be given a means to be successful to a degree while they learn the game and invest themselves in it and build their own collections. As a result Blizzard wins because they have more players enjoying the experience from early on, and we the players win because the community continues to grow and more players are innovating.

Let me know what you think about the idea. Do the decks need to change? Is there another avenue Blizzard could take? I'd love to hear feedback on this.

Thanks as always for reading. Until next time,
Chris