Time to start banning cards in tournaments?

You know, judging by your response it feels like you didn't even read half the post.

According to what? Plenty of popular games aren't competitive. Farmville and Angry birds are probably the two most successful games of the decade. I bet the vast majority of hearthstone players have never watched any competitions.

Neither of those lasted. There are plenty of successful games that last 2-3 years, they pop up all the time. The difference between those and say, CS or SCBW is that the latter examples stood up to the test of time. They don't count as the most successful games of the decade because they've been dominantly popular for well OVER a decade, they're in a class of their own. I mean, are you really trying to compare angry birds to brood war? Come on, internet argument or not that's just getting silly.

You've jumped to the conclusion that having a healthy competitive scene is essential to the game. But why? Who is to say that's true? The game is a massive success despite it's RNG elements. I'm sure Blizzard did very well from TGT.

It's interesting, because I've given you plenty of reasons why a competitive scene is essential to the game, we're just disagreeing. Even if we don't come to an agreement, I've provided far better reasoning for my stance than you have. Even more than that, aren't you doing the same thing that you're accusing me of? Jumping to the conclusion that the vast majority of hearthstone players have never watched competition?

For reference, quote from my previous post:

Competition isnt just for 'hardcore' enthusiasts, it's both a way to retain casual player interest as well as a fairly accurate gauge of game balance at even higher levels of casual gameplay.

I'll expand on it a little;

Competition in online games serves essentially the same purpose as competition in traditional games, at least in the aspect of retaining casual player interest. Most people that watch soccer or baseball really don't play the game that much, if at all, but what competition does do is let people invest into whichever game emotionally, that's why they keep coming back. It's almost like a game in itself, getting into rooting for your favorite team, or a favorite player, or being part of a team's fan community. Even after interest in playing wears off, they still stick around the community because of that competition, still talk about it, still keep the community alive, and it draws new players in. It's why all the sports you played growing up were the same as the ones that are the most popular competitively, it's why you grew up playing baseball or football rather than lacrosse or cricket. It's why CS was so popular in NA, instead of brood war, and why brood war was the game everyone and their mother had in Korea, rather than CS.

Even more than that, not balancing at all for competition directly affects casual players as well. You gotta realize that it isn't some stupid ass lump of 'casual players' vs 'competitive players'. Game balance is worlds apart between very low beginner levels of play, and been-playing-for-years experienced level of play. You can't have a lot of player retention unless there's still some satisfaction in playing the game for experienced 'casual' players, after the glitter and shine of the first few weeks/months wears off. That's why it's so important to have a way to balance for high level casual/competitive play, since otherwise you end up with a game that gets less rewarding the more you play.

/r/hearthstone Thread Parent