Hiyo! Ya, I just define out of scope here as being more detailed required since the features I labeled as such are so dense. By trivial I mean in the fizzbuzz sense; that for an experienced developer the task can be knocked out with minimal effort.
Here's my response to your points:
1 Easy to do - just a few database tweaks here and there, but the main time sink is in establishing what changes need to be made and why. There would likely be a balance team/tribunal with pro player inputs.
Yep, changing values is easy, everything that goes with it would require extreme effort, think we're on the same page here.
2 The game's principle design staff would need to decide how to reward players here, so it's just a time sink, and thus probably deemed a low priority (it doesn't make them money).
Same as number 1. I disagree on the business aspect though, if you are going by the Pareto principle here there are certainly ways to monetize.
3 Yep, easy.
Agreed.
4 This wouldn't be especially difficult, but it would be a lot of work as I imagine this is something not specific to Hearthstone. I don't see this happening.
I imagine Blizzard is not using third-party hosting here, developing their own private cloud seems reasonable since they've been developing WoW since 2006. I expect there is significant technical debt and glue code here that managing connections between regions becomes cubersome for the dev time/profit ratio.
5 Trivial? That's not really a term. I would just argue it's a very low priority as it adds little value to the game, but it would be certainly doable without huge effort.
By trivial I mean it's something I'd give to a junior developer out of school; parlance varies from shop to shop I suppose.
6
Agreed
7
Agreed
8 Nah, not difficult. You would just need to get the go-ahead from the financial controllers that this is something you want to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in to.
See number 4. This has to do with server architecture and load that has existed for a long time. Absolutely no way this will be a profitable endeavor unless its in the vein of absolving technical debt, of which this feature will be a byproduct.
9 Nah it's simple enough, but again adds little value. It's something the 0.001% ask for.
The backend should be easy, as in determining which cards you are able to draft match golden cards in your collection, but the UI can be complex (in a Blizz admitted technical debt scenario) when you must choose after drafting multiples of the same card to e.g. play around Thought Steal. Like you said, no one is going to approve the dev time for this feature when it generates little value.
10 I think they will give it some priority. Bug fixing does need to be categorised, though, and given a priority. I think Blizzard value HS as a spectator sport (though it is still 99% a casual game, let's not forget), so will be looking at it if there are major issues. Otherwise, I don't see it taking precedent over higher-priority defects.
I think this should be priority number 1, and yeah you need to fix bugs that have been introduced. However, organizers have been able to make due since beta, so I think they'll focus on monetization efforts since large productions like BlizzCon and ViaGame (who kinda actually build on the quirks of the game/culture) have been so successful.
Cheers