[nirvAnA]

Sheathe your sword, draw your deck, and get ready for Hearthstone - the fast paced strategy card game that's easy to learn and massively fun. Start a free game on Battle.net and play your cards to sling spells, summon creatures, and command the heroes of Warcraft in duels of epic strategy.

With powerful prebuilt decks, and hundreds of additional cards to win, craft or purchase - your collection never stops evolving.

Challenge players of all skill levels on Battle.net or hone your skills in practice matches against some of the greatest strategists of Azeroth - Thrall, Uther, Gul'dan, and more!



Visit hearthstone now!

[Cyanide]

So this will be Blizzard's way of breaking into the tablet (smart phone maybe?) market.
Money most likely coming through the 'gacha' system
http://www.serkantoto.com/2012/02/21...-social-games/

A little bit underwhelmed, but it's f2p, so no complains...i guess...

[LennX]

More likely a freeium model to me. f2p until you decide to buy more cards via booster packs.

Quick Comments

	Bash:	or unlock cards through playing.
	mGGDaedalus:	otherwise known as free to play
	MezjE:	The cards unlocked through playing will no doubt be unplayable at a high level.

[Bash]

I'm whelmed, wasnt expecting anything big until blizzcon.
+ blizzard, so i can fanboy.

[pXFizonFiRE]

Thanks for the quick post nirvAnA.

This definitely looks like an effort to push into the mobile market, and the UI looks very touchscreen friendly. Free to play or not, I don't see myself going near this. I don't immediately feel that it is bad - I just never enjoyed games like Magic, and this looks like more of the same.

I can see, however, how it would appeal to some audiences, though I feel that it's rather juvenile appearance might not cross well with the demographic for a game like this. That said, I could be miles off.

Quick Comments

Cyanide:

NiRvana

[Dox]

Never really played a CCG before (outside of FF8 lol) and never understood MTG, but I'll probably check this out. The genre is popular for a reason, and Blizzard has a habit of bringing every genre to the next level!

[iMSystem]

Being an avid MTG fan, this one is top priority for me! Can't wait!

[MezjE]

Originally Posted by iMSystem

Being an avid MTG fan, this one is top priority for me! Can't wait!

It appears to me that is almost a carbon copy of MtG apart from instead of land your mana goes up each turn. So effectively it is MtG when you draw a land AND a spell every turn.

The constant comparisons to MtG was weird too...

I also feel as though it is a money grab aimed at WoW players as every single one of my WoW friends was messaging me because they know I like TCG saying "It is going to be the best TCG etc", and rattling off the constant WoW references to me.

These are all just my opinions though and sorry for being a neggy nelly but I have played so many TCGs in my time and this one is certainly nothing to call home about.

[Ben]

I am looking forward to trying this out. I'm a big fan of TCG's so hopefully they can deliver.

[Dox]

Originally Posted by qmX.MezjE

I also feel as though it is a money grab aimed at WoW players

I don't think this is aimed at WoW players at all. As Pardo said during the announcement, this is a genre/market they've left untouched, and feels they could easily achieve typical Blizzard dominance over it. Honestly, it's primarily aimed at the CCG players, just like how StarCraft is aimed at RTS players. But by wrapping it in the WarCraft franchise, it makes it tremendously accessible to newcomers. They'll attract a large portion of the Blizzard fanbase in general, not just WoW players. You have to keep in mind, WarCraft came long before StarCraft & WoW. If you're a fan of any Blizzard game, there's a good chance it originated with WarCraft.

Quick Comments

syfChadMann:

WarCraft 4 lyfe

[DeekZ]

I'm pretty happy about this, I don't think anyone was expecting a big game and they've been looking to push into the mobile market for a while.
I'm glad it's a card game, I just hope it's good and gameplay is not completely reliant on micro-transactions to have fun, although they will surely be a factor.

[iMSystem]

Originally Posted by qmX.MezjE

It appears to me that is almost a carbon copy of MtG apart from instead of land your mana goes up each turn. So effectively it is MtG when you draw a land AND a spell every turn.

True, I have WoW TCG games and play a bit, the WoW TCG is unique in a way that I kinda hope this will be (Your hero is the main life total and you can equip him / her with items and have allies etc.)

But we'll see.

Either way, it's F2P so itt's worth a shot!

[Another]

well that was a whole lot of hype for nothing =/

EDIT: actually i dont care what blizz makes unless its wc4

Quick Comments

Dox:

i dont think they hyped it at all :P

[mGGDaedalus]

I know card games can be hell expensive to get good decks. I'm kinda curious about this but I'll probably only play if I can get a somewhat competitive deck through grinding and not having to pay TOO much.

[Cyanide]

It's gonna be a simple and casual friendly game. Most likely won't have much depth to it. I won't expect "competitive" play coming out of it too.

The way I see it, this game is solely for the purpose of breaking into the mobile gaming market. No doubt about it getting the Top Downloaded App within a day.

[Bash]

Some "notable" excerpts.

everything in the game can be unlocked through play without spending a penny

Dodds said the game kicks off by having players unlock about 100 basic cards by playing through each of the game's nine classes. Cards can be earned, or created by disenchanting unwanted cards and then combining the remnants to form new cards.

There currently are no plans to support player-to-player trading through Battle.Net, which is how players will be matched up for play.

"If people are excited about e-sports, it's totally something we would look into," Chayes said, " and eventually support with more features in the game."

Source - Polygon

& From Blizzplanet , < this one has quite a large FAQ.

I don’t live in the US; can I still participate in the beta test?

We hope to launch a beta test in other game regions after the initial beta-test launch in North America, but we don’t have any specifics to announce at this time. Stay tuned for updates

[Dox]

WoWInsider review:

Originally Posted by WoW Insider

When starting up my first game, I expected to find Hearthstone confusing because I've never played Magic: The Gathering or any other strategy card game (e.g. Pokémon TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh!) before. I am vaguely familiar with some of the terminology of MTG, having spent most of my life around hardcore players, but I don't really know the rules or how the game is played. That unfamiliarity didn't seem to get in the way of Hearthstone, though.

...

Everything in Hearthstone is really obvious, and that's great because it allowed me to focus on my strategy from the very first game I played. It's not like StarCraft 2, where I spent months just trying to understand and control the game; with StarCraft 2, I'd been playing nearly six months before I was able to apply any strategy beyond "build stuff."

...

So, my first impression after playing? Absolutely positive. Seeing how accessible the game is, I'm most excited to share it with other people. I have a lot of friends I like playing console games with, but I can't play games like WoW or StarCraft 2 with them because they take too much time to play with any degree of competency. Hearthstone would allow my friends to play something with me without a huge investment of time or demand for skill. From the other turn of the coin, I'd also love to play this game with my friends who are highly competitive Magic: The Gathering players. To them I'm betting Hearthstone would be to Magic: The Gathering what League of Legends is to Heroes of Newerth or DotA 2.

Full article: http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/23/fi...s-of-warcraft/

[Zanderax]

Love to see Blizz get some new IP. They haven't had anything new in a while. Can't wait!

Quick Comments

mGGDaedalus:

Well it is part of Warcraft IP. Just new game genre

[RicocheT]

My friend is an avid MTG player and he got me into it. And plus a whole bunch of my friends played Yu-Gi-Oh back in the day.
Am super keen to have a look and try it out.

[Annie]

haha sweet