CM Zeriyah has addressed some of the currently controversial issues surrounding Hearthstone. Deck slots have been a big issue lately, and with the upcoming new expansion veteran players are feeling more and more confined by the limited availability of deck slots.
We understand that additional deck slots have been a pretty hot topic in the community, and it’s a sentiment we continue to monitor. A lot of things that may seem like “an easy fix” or “it’s easy to implement” may not be as easy as it seems to the outside (generally veteran player) observer.
One of the keys goals of Hearthstone is to keep the UI intuitive and easy to navigate, for both new players and veteran players. Veteran players have no issues navigating the Collection Manager, as they have become accustomed to its subtleties, but it can be a pretty daunting experience to a new player. The Collection Manager is already a pretty complex experience, and we’re very, very careful about adding additional complexity to it. If an initial experience is too complex, regardless if you’re playing a game or not, people will shy away from it. We don’t want the Collection Manager to be something that new players go, “Wow, ok that’s a lot of stuff. I can’t really follow it, it’s too confusing.” But from a veteran Hearthstone players’ shoes, that may seem absurd – the Collection Manager is second nature to them. But it’s a very valid concern, and one we take very seriously. The Collection Manager and creating a new deck shouldn’t feel daunting, and everything we do or implement to add to that complexity can slowly cause Hearthstone to gravitate away from being intuitive.
One of the most difficult parts of game design is to put yourself in the shoes of someone that has never experienced your game before. As a veteran Hearthstone player, it may be hard to see from that vantage point, but it’s something we always have to keep in mind. Veteran players will always want more features, more things that add to their enjoyment – they have already experienced many of the things Hearthstone has to offer. That’s not a bad thing by any means, but are additional features always necessary? In fact, the majority of Hearthstone players do not actually utilize all of their deck slots, or use all of their deck slots regularly. That’s not the only reason why we’ve been careful about the deck slot discussion, but it is a factor in a multitude of factors.
Additionally, Ben Brode made mention that when Goblins vs. Gnomes is released, Arena pack rewards will be limited to Goblins vs. Gnomes packs. Classic packs will be obtainable with gold or cash.
This is correct – Arena rewards will award the Goblins vs Gnomes packs. There is a bit of a balance here, since you can also get Classic and GVG single cards as a part of your Arena rewards, but Ben is right. When we only have two packs available to acquire, giving players an options seems like another simple fix. In this case, we also have to take into account the long term as well as keep new players in mind.
Down the line we may have more packs available, and when we get to having the option of possibly having three, four, or five different card packs as an option as an Arena reward (if we were to implement optional packs as Arena rewards), we can’t expect our new players to be able to look at a pack and know all of the cards they might get out of that set, then choose that set as their reward. It’s both a potential UI nightmare as well as just a very confusing (and again, potentially very daunting) experience.
Zeriyah confirmed that in Goblins vs. Gnomes there will be a neutral card that helps deal with Secrets.
You’re correct – there will be a new card to help deal with secrets in Goblins vs Gnomes. I can’t go into more detail at this time. – Source
I recommend reading the entire post which is here, she goes into RNG concerns and unobtainable rewards.
