Blizzard, it's times like this that I remember how cool you are. But you are also still a little bit silly, do you not realize that we have plenty of stuff to spend our gold on already?
Yeah. DOTA2 is proof you don't need to sell any gameplay in a F2P MOBA to make money. The International 2014 compendium alone made them $40 million gross (less the $10 million they were forced to spend on marketing their own game. The horror!) for comparatively modest development time. I really wish more people would copy their F2P model rather than LOL's.
I'm sure a lot of developers wish they could as well. Valve is a lot bigger than most companies that try F2P though.
Shit, I actually have the OP for the next thread finished, and now I need a new title to replace "Rehgar Earthfury and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Patch"
Shit, I actually have the OP for the next thread finished, and now I need a new title to replace "Rehgar Earthfury and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Patch"
Aren't we still 2-3 weeks out from them removing artifacts and fixing talent gating? Seems like a legit title still.
Shit, I actually have the OP for the next thread finished, and now I need a new title to replace "Rehgar Earthfury and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Patch"
Aren't we still 2-3 weeks out from them removing artifacts and fixing talent gating? Seems like a legit title still.
As a result, we have decided to remove the artifact system from Heroes of the Storm with a patch scheduled for later today. We will explore different ways to give you fun and compelling options for spending gold, while avoiding the problems that the initial artifact system created. We don't have any updates on what our future systems may be, but we'll be sure to keep you informed and look forward to getting your feedback on alternate systems.
Shit, I actually have the OP for the next thread finished, and now I need a new title to replace "Rehgar Earthfury and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Patch"
I'm glad that they've reversed course on Artifacts, but I'm dreading whatever clever new idea they eventually come up with as a "compelling" way for players to spend gold.
I'm glad that they've reversed course on Artifacts, but I'm dreading whatever clever new idea they eventually come up with as a "compelling" way for players to spend gold.
Why? They've shown if something isn't a good idea they are perfectly willing to fix it, even to the point of doing away with it completely.
Waiting for that one bonus skin to happen that was only ever made available in some Blizzard expo in some Taiwan backwater, but someone on the Western servers still managed to get because he spent a grand on eBay and managed to redeem it before Blizzard disabled redeeming it for everyone else in the West because reasons.
Master skins are a good idea, and I'm in favor of unlocking a unique skin for dedicated play with a specific hero. But then making a person drop 10k after earning the unlock is a bit overboard.
Especially with as horrible as their gold gains are.
I'm glad that they've reversed course on Artifacts, but I'm dreading whatever clever new idea they eventually come up with as a "compelling" way for players to spend gold.
Why? They've shown if something isn't a good idea they are perfectly willing to fix it, even to the point of doing away with it completely.
but they've also shown that their ability to determine what is a good idea is nonexistent
I'm glad that they've reversed course on Artifacts, but I'm dreading whatever clever new idea they eventually come up with as a "compelling" way for players to spend gold.
Why? They've shown if something isn't a good idea they are perfectly willing to fix it, even to the point of doing away with it completely.
but they've also shown that their ability to determine what is a good idea is nonexistent
While I'm glad it's gone, the fact that they still thought such generic stat bonuses were a good idea for the game when every other time they tried to add it to one of their games proved it was not is baffling to me. But then again as I've said, Blizzard is not good at communicating design philosophies across projects so they seem to have a lot of repeating mistakes.
I will say i'm kinda sad for my Nova now though, the ability damage did sort of ease the pain of losing access to overdrive @ 13 and not make you choose between it and crippling shot @ 16.
way too easy to end up with 7 abilities on nova with the current talent structure. qwer and envenom rewind overdrive.
least she doesn't have anything that can change her trait into an active as well.
Yeah. Blizz is running 5 concurrent dev teams right now. WoW, Diablo, "Team 1," Hearthstone, and the team on Titan.
Chris Metzen and Sam Didier are pretty much on every team, as they are the primary lore and art directors. But everything else is very segregated and closed off. There doesn't seem to be much team to team communication.
I'm glad that they've reversed course on Artifacts, but I'm dreading whatever clever new idea they eventually come up with as a "compelling" way for players to spend gold.
Why? They've shown if something isn't a good idea they are perfectly willing to fix it, even to the point of doing away with it completely.
Because the design of the Artifact system in the first place read to me as a really crass attempt at putting a huge gold sink into the game with the primary goal of making it more difficult to afford buying characters with gold. Blizzard admitted in their very carefully worded statement that this design ultimately had degenerate effects on gameplay and balance, but I get the sense that they are still fully committed to finding another way to make heroes more difficult to buy with gold. Any company taking cues from Riot on monetization strategy doesn't have my trust that their monetization strategy is going to be palatable.
Eh, if they counter with a completely optional, non-balance affecting goldsink, then I could care less. Options are options are options. I'm really hoping they saw artifacts as a terrible idea and learned their lesson about these sort of game-altering changes. We'll see.
They need to look at Diablo 3 Loot 2.0 and realize that being generous with your playerbase and giving them a sense of accomplishment and forward progress will do more long term good than stringing them along with an ultra stingy, tight-pursed reward system.
Sure, if they eventually come back with a totally inoffensive way for players to spend gold on cosmetic or prestige based systems that have no impact on actual gameplay, then I will be fine with that.
It's just the fact that they tried to sneak LoL's rune system into the game, a system that not even LoL players can honestly defend, that makes me very skeptical they will keep their hands off game balance with their gold sink mechanism. My fear is that they'll come back in a few months with something that is merely smelly, but not outrageous enough to cause the same kind of backlash the artifact system received.
Blizzard, it's times like this that I remember how cool you are. But you are also still a little bit silly, do you not realize that we have plenty of stuff to spend our gold on already?
Yeah. DOTA2 is proof you don't need to sell any gameplay in a F2P MOBA to make money. The International 2014 compendium alone made them $40 million gross (less the $10 million they were forced to spend on marketing their own game. The horror!) for comparatively modest development time. I really wish more people would copy their F2P model rather than LOL's.
I'm sure a lot of developers wish they could as well. Valve is a lot bigger than most companies that try F2P though.
I think this is the common wisdom, but also incorrect. Path of Exile is GGG's only game, and they have been able to do it. Also worth noting that Blizzard is Blizzard, so they have their millions of zero effort revenue from WOW, as well as their own storefront to sell microtransactions through. And hell, existing success in selling ponies that are made of stars for way too much money.
I'm willing to go in for the inferior monetization model if everything else works, but it's definitely not my preferred solution. They did kick the ridiculous artifacts to the curb in a short amount of time though, so that is a very promising sign.
Obviously what they should do to make up for the Artifacts patch is to send out another wave of alpha invites, this time targeting their longest-signed-up players. <_<
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Obviously what they should do to make up for the Artifacts patch is to send out another wave of alpha invites, this time targeting their longest-signed-up players. <_<
Their invite process must truly be random, possibly swayed a bit by players' computer configurations.
So many people who signed up day one and haven't gotten in, while my wife signed up a few weeks after I got in and then herself got in during the next invite wave (less than a week).
Huh, well. I started with Muradin at level 2 (2nd ult unlocked, only basic talents), and it only took 2 games from there to unlock everything else. I lost those two games, too. Quite happy with how it's working now.
Yeah, it's still an annoyance. But honestly, for the short term, I'm okay with 2-3 games to unlock everything. That's fine, really. Long term I'd still probably like to see talent gating removed, because it doesn't really feel like an accomplishment or even something good when you do actually get them. But at least this way it's as much as a non-hindrance as possible, I think.
Edit: Also, played around with Emerald Winds on Brightwing since Regenerative Rains no longer works with Blink Heal. It's actually quite good, even though I thought it was good before anyway. You can set up some nasty situations in combination with Sprint, too. Sprint through the enemy group, push them into a wall or towards your team with Winds. I like it a lot. Probably wouldn't recommend taking it if you're the sole healer on the team, but we had an Uther with us so I figured why not.
So apparently someone has figured out a creative use of Diablo's fire return talent, in that it can be funneled into a single path as it returns, for full damage per flame.
So apparently someone has figured out a creative use of Diablo's fire return talent, in that it can be funneled into a single path as it returns, for full damage per flame.
I was watching a Heroes stream last night, a Diablo used Fire Stomp right before a Stitches used Gorge on him... then all the fire waves came back and instantly killed Stitches from like 70% health. It was HILARIOUS.
Artifacts are gone, but the 2000 gold I dropped on a slot last night is...not back. That's really annoying, I could get another hero for the amount of gold I was socking into artifacts. I didn't even get an artifact for that slot, just the slot.
edit:
Hey all,
Last week we provided Gold to all players level 5 and over to test the Artifact system. This testing was incredibly helpful to us, and allowed players to provide hands-on feedback pertaining to the system.
As you may have read this afternoon, after careful consideration, we have decided to remove the Artifact system. As such, we will not be reimbursing gold used to purchase Artifacts, because in the vast majority of cases, these purchases were made using the “bonus” gold granted during the previous patch in order to encourage players to test out and utilize the Artifacts system.
For those players who earned gold from quests and matches played and then used it to purchase Artifacts, we appreciate your dedication to testing Artifacts, but will not be refunding that gold at this time. Rest assured that at a later point in time, we plan to perform a wipe that will reset everyone’s gold to 0 so that everyone can be on the same footing for continued testing.
So yeah, no gold back. Annoying because the gold I spent wasn't stimulus gold, it was gold earned from levelling up. But they're wiping it anyway I suppose. I thought there was some sort of "you'll get gold based on what you used in the beta/alpha" thing but I guess not.
Artifacts are gone, but the 2000 gold I dropped on a slot last night is...not back. That's really annoying, I could get another hero for the amount of gold I was socking into artifacts. I didn't even get an artifact for that slot, just the slot.
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I'm sure a lot of developers wish they could as well. Valve is a lot bigger than most companies that try F2P though.
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Not cool bro. Stealing my OP.
Aren't we still 2-3 weeks out from them removing artifacts and fixing talent gating? Seems like a legit title still.
Why? They've shown if something isn't a good idea they are perfectly willing to fix it, even to the point of doing away with it completely.
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Bnet: Pudgestomp#11153
Especially with as horrible as their gold gains are.
but they've also shown that their ability to determine what is a good idea is nonexistent
Nonexistent? Okay.
XBL: InvaderJims
Bnet: Pudgestomp#11153
way too easy to end up with 7 abilities on nova with the current talent structure. qwer and envenom rewind overdrive.
least she doesn't have anything that can change her trait into an active as well.
Chris Metzen and Sam Didier are pretty much on every team, as they are the primary lore and art directors. But everything else is very segregated and closed off. There doesn't seem to be much team to team communication.
Because the design of the Artifact system in the first place read to me as a really crass attempt at putting a huge gold sink into the game with the primary goal of making it more difficult to afford buying characters with gold. Blizzard admitted in their very carefully worded statement that this design ultimately had degenerate effects on gameplay and balance, but I get the sense that they are still fully committed to finding another way to make heroes more difficult to buy with gold. Any company taking cues from Riot on monetization strategy doesn't have my trust that their monetization strategy is going to be palatable.
XBL: InvaderJims
Bnet: Pudgestomp#11153
It's just the fact that they tried to sneak LoL's rune system into the game, a system that not even LoL players can honestly defend, that makes me very skeptical they will keep their hands off game balance with their gold sink mechanism. My fear is that they'll come back in a few months with something that is merely smelly, but not outrageous enough to cause the same kind of backlash the artifact system received.
I think this is the common wisdom, but also incorrect. Path of Exile is GGG's only game, and they have been able to do it. Also worth noting that Blizzard is Blizzard, so they have their millions of zero effort revenue from WOW, as well as their own storefront to sell microtransactions through. And hell, existing success in selling ponies that are made of stars for way too much money.
I'm willing to go in for the inferior monetization model if everything else works, but it's definitely not my preferred solution. They did kick the ridiculous artifacts to the curb in a short amount of time though, so that is a very promising sign.
I think they look silly, but that doesn't mean I don't go "oooo" a little bit when I see one in-game. That's all a lot of players want.
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i won't lie a lot of them are subtle enough that i don't notice all the changes at first and it takes me a bit to go "oh hey"
Unless you're Abathur, then noone will ever know!
:P
No but really, even Abathur often gets seen by the other team if he's being aggressive.
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COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I second
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So many people who signed up day one and haven't gotten in, while my wife signed up a few weeks after I got in and then herself got in during the next invite wave (less than a week).
XBL: InvaderJims
Bnet: Pudgestomp#11153
Yeah, it's still an annoyance. But honestly, for the short term, I'm okay with 2-3 games to unlock everything. That's fine, really. Long term I'd still probably like to see talent gating removed, because it doesn't really feel like an accomplishment or even something good when you do actually get them. But at least this way it's as much as a non-hindrance as possible, I think.
Edit: Also, played around with Emerald Winds on Brightwing since Regenerative Rains no longer works with Blink Heal. It's actually quite good, even though I thought it was good before anyway. You can set up some nasty situations in combination with Sprint, too. Sprint through the enemy group, push them into a wall or towards your team with Winds. I like it a lot. Probably wouldn't recommend taking it if you're the sole healer on the team, but we had an Uther with us so I figured why not.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
I was watching a Heroes stream last night, a Diablo used Fire Stomp right before a Stitches used Gorge on him... then all the fire waves came back and instantly killed Stitches from like 70% health. It was HILARIOUS.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
edit:
So yeah, no gold back. Annoying because the gold I spent wasn't stimulus gold, it was gold earned from levelling up. But they're wiping it anyway I suppose. I thought there was some sort of "you'll get gold based on what you used in the beta/alpha" thing but I guess not.
one last little bit of fun from artifacts friend
XBL: InvaderJims
Bnet: Pudgestomp#11153
XBL: InvaderJims
Bnet: Pudgestomp#11153
Path Talents are still removed. No compensation as of yet.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582