Ben Lee Talks About The Battle Pass And A Progression System
Ben Lee just responded on the highly discussed topic about the Battle Pass and a Progression System, sharing some interesting insights.
- This year, they took big steps towards making the game more affordable and they intend to continue maintaining the game affordable going forward.
- Reward and Progression system is something major that they are working on right now.
- The Battle Pass survey wasn't sent to "state" what's the progression system will be about but rather to gather some information about which way they should shape the Battle Pass.
- One of their goals for this new system is to allow you to play Hearthstone your way, you won't be tied to playing only Standard or Wild in order to obtain the majority of the games’ economic rewards anymore.
- Another goal is to "repack" (not reduce) the current rewards in a way that is easier to understand and track for a player.
- In addition, there will be more cosmetic rewards that players might earn during every expansion cycle.
- The system will be beneficial for every player type, you won't have to worry about missing something if you just don't have a time to play every day.
- More details (new features, improvements, etc) to come at the start of the next expansion's reveal phase.
Quote from Ben LeeThis year we took big steps towards making it easier and more affordable than ever for players to acquire an awesome card collection, including making the game more friendly to our free-to-play-players.
With the launch of Ashes of Outland, we implemented the no duplicates rules, introduced free competitive decks for new and returning players, significantly increased ranked rewards, added 1st time ranked rewards, held multiple events with hefty reward packages, offered rewarding expansion quest chains and we’ve also committed to providing free single-player Adventure content for the foreseeable future.
We chose to do these things because they are good for our players and we believe they are the right thing to do for the game. They weren't reactionary measures to competition or a dwindling player-base. We have many millions of players and are going to be here and strive to remain one of the most popular, relevant, and fun games around for many years to come.
We are grateful to our players for their continued support and as described above have worked hard to try and value their time and financial investments fairly. We have no intention of going back on or undermining the progress we have made on this front.
By the above statement, I very specifically mean to identify and clarify that we absolutely intend to maintain the value that players can earn within the game and keep the flexibility of purchases that current rewards provide.
We are undertaking a major rework of our rewards and progression systems. A survey did go out about this recently with the aim of gathering information to help us refine the design of the systems. This isn't something new, Hearthstone has been sending out surveys for years and often what is discussed in these surveys does not represent what ends up going into the game.
One of our goals for this new system is to allow you to play Hearthstone your way, you won't be tied to playing only Standard or Wild in order to obtain the majority of the games’ economic rewards anymore.
We are also planning on repackaging (not reducing) the current rewards that you can obtain in Hearthstone and put that information in front of you in an easy to view and understand manner. We want you to know how many rewards you've acquired, how many more you can earn and what steps you need to take in order to obtain them. In addition, we're adding a number of exciting cosmetic rewards that players can receive during every expansion.
Finally, we are investigating broadening the benefits of the existing Tavern Pass system to supplement the rewards of the upcoming progression system with exciting new cosmetics.
There’s been some discussion that a huge time investment would be required to complete the levels in the system. We don’t intend this to be the case.
I'll use myself as the example here. I reach Legend every month, during an expansion cycle I typically earn more than 5,000 Gold (I would not expect to earn less under the new system). Outside of Hearthstone, I am a busy father of two children, I have a demanding full-time job, active life and I play a huge amount of other games outside of Hearthstone in my spare time. We want people like me who love Hearthstone but also have other responsibilities and interests to be able to complete the rewards track levels.
We want our players to feel good about participating in this new take on rewards and progression, without feeling that they might miss out if they don't have time or that they'd have to make sacrifices in their lives in order to do so.
We look forward to showing you this and a host of other things we've been working on to bring more exciting content to Hearthstone during our Year of the Phoenix Mid-year check-in at the start of our next expansion's reveal phase.
Ben Lee
Game Director - Hearthstone
Quote from Ben LeeThe 5,000 gold that I reference is my personal experience based on how much I am able to play per expansion. Yours would be different depending on how much time you can put in.
This is categorically not a statement that the system is capped at 5,000 Gold. The section highlighted in bold clearly address this also.
-Ben
When battle pass become a thing?
Ok guys be ready to spend lots of money and time to finish the battle pass. I play lots of online games and all of them starting to get this system reword. If this is coming in the game i will quit for sure. They will lose more players. So let's enjoy the show.
Oh. Wow. I played since very early 2020, and ashes of outland obliterated the balance. I hope that this doesn't break balance further for FTPs like me.
so this 5000 gold cap is monthly or per expansion? as only standart f2p I am barely able to keep up with current system by grinding 10k gold each expansion. if they cap it to 5k it will fall short
"This is categorically not a statement that the system is capped at 5,000 Gold. "
please read.
I play Hearthstone since Closed Beta. My wife and I got married and during our Honeymoon I got the Beta invite. So we spent half a day, staying in the hotel and testing out the game. Since then I ALWAYS preordered new sets. Bought every Hearthstone Adventure (as they were called in the beginning) and spent some more money.
Over time balancing ruined the fun more and more for me. Since I love Paladins – the devs clearly not knowing what to do with the class, that sealed it for me. No Librams in Scholomance? No Librams swapped for some Basic cards? Priest gets discover Dragon? No Secret? No, thank you.
This year, I stepped back and decided to stay f2p. And suddenly, the game is a bit more fun again. Not much, but I don't have that "you spent 80+$, you must have fun with it!" feeling anymore. If the game starts to annoy me, I simply log off.
5 years hearthstone: ~3.500€ paid, ~90% of cards + 80.000 dust
3 months runeterra: 5€ paid, ~70,% of cards + 45.000 shards and 7/13/40/80 wild cards...
It's also worth noting that these are completely different games. Runeterra is fun, it's good, I especially appreciate the changes to Arena and wish HS would follow suit, but Runeterra still doesn't hold my attention like Hearthstone. The sad fact may be it's just because I'm already bought into HS. My wife plays HS, my children play HS, and all my favorite streamers are Hearthstone streamers.
Everyone here acting like they know exactly what's coming, but they don't.
A progression system in itself sounds better than quests, because you can play every mode and earn rewards for it. Even BH (hopefully). All they need to do right now, is to give it good rewards, and not make it too time-consuming. They haven't announced anything specific about these two things, so we can't and shouldn't say bad things about the new feature like everyone here is doing.
That spreadsheet they sent out with the rewards is in no way final. It's ok to say bad things about that sheet, but they are likely to change, so you can't know that what they'll implement in a few months in decreasing f2p experience.
It's funny for me how much hate, instead of criticism I read here xD
I'll just wait, because I want to see how this "Battle pass" might look like.
It's kinda trending "thing" lately - this "Battle Pass", but I never saw an interesting & worth buying in any game: will Blizz do the same, or they will "break the meta" & create Battle Pass, that even I will want to buy? I don't think so. but hey - it's Blizzard, nobody know what's in their mind :P
EDIT: I think i have to correct myself, because in last few years in LoL, at Worlds, they have presented something like "Battle Pass"? Or it was something more like "ticket"? Well - I bought few - one per year - & I think it was OK: I played it a lot, I play it a lot, so some reward for them from me.
In HS I bought 2, or 3 special packs, won 1 megabundle & when I wasn't regular Legend, or rank 5 player I have a lot of cards (but not all), I have a lot of dust (30k ready to use & 20k to disenchant) & I have a lot of fun.
MY problem is, that I was buying these pack mostly, because I saw awesome HS cinematic form Blizz... But lately... i don't know - there are good songs, & shorts, but... ButI wish i would see something epic like Hearthstone Animated Short: Hearth and Home or at least Hearthstone Animated Short: New Pack Day on June 13! ;_;
These greedy basterds.
I have spent around 600$ on this 1 game and I still dont have more than half the cards I want. I have stoped spending money on this game since a year ago.
Spending 100$ to unlock SOME of the cards In the new expansion is really fking stupid.
If they let us keep the quest system AND have the battle pass system. Then I will pay max 12 bucks for it.if not... then i go play other card games.
HS lost me, as it is losing lots of other players. After playing Legends of Runeterra, where I can play literally any decks I wish, I came back to HS for the new expansion: I cannot afford a single meta deck. Blizzard will continue to lose market share until the game economy becomes competitive with the others in the market.
Hearthstone has been 'losing players' for years and still has the same amount of players. How? Because the players leaving are a loud minority, while the vast majority of players keep playing and other new players a joining. Don't worry about their economy, they'll be fine, just like they have been since they started 'losing their playerbase' according to the internet many years ago.
Guess I will have to grind battlepass in Warzone and HS now.
They lost me this expansion. It sucks cause Hearthstone used to be my favorite game.
You shouldn't have to "chose" between two game modes... I had just enough gold for my battle pass or 25 packs this expansion.. And as a matter of fact, they should also add BG rewards cause I usually grind 6k-7k every expansion but couldn't get as much playing BG last expansion
So you want us to buy 85 packs to get all the "good cards" in a expansion, and now you want to charge 9.99 a month? For $10 a month I want all the cards.
Buying 85 packs doesn't even get you close to all the good cards.
In my $80 Mega Bundle, got 4 Legendary and one with Bundle = 5 in total, still 20 Legendary remaining to collect, Can't play half of decks because I don't have the cards !!
You gotta really stop to think about this. You paid $80, which costs more than an entire other video game (often multiple games) and you didn't even get a fraction of all the good cards.
The value proposition for Hearthstone is beyond broken, and I don't understand how people don't see it.
Battle passes in a nutshell: Make your most active and loyal players feel like they're missing out on the stuff they "earned" when they refuse to pay a monthly $9,99 fee.
One of the scummiest and predatory developments in the gaming industry since ever. Absolutely disgusting.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiemadigan/2019/07/06/the-psychology-of-fortnites-battle-pass/#600342ae15e6
Bp is big business now. At this point each game genre have its 10$ battle pass: battle royale, moba, mmo, sport games, fps etc. Its time to extra monetize and milk money out of card games... Even if they contain free content for non paying people, battle pass is meant to replace loot boxes, which many countries is against because of gambling.