The Queue: It’s been a long week

Despite the week being shorter due to the New Year’s holiday it feels like it’s been twice as long as a normal work week. I’m pretty dang tired — but when Liz asks for a sub, I’ll always find the energy to help!

No ramble in my preamble, let’s just answer questions.

Why would you spin off the only good game mode remaining?

Just kidding. While it may seem like it makes sense to split the two main game modes into separate apps, you’re actually hurting both — as well as the long-term future of the game — by doing so. Keeping everything card-related under the Hearthstone app is beneficial because of the quest system which rewards multiple modes of play (even if I refresh all the ones that can’t be done in Battlegrounds) thus giving incentive to players to try out other and new modes.

You also don’t know what’s going to resonate with players — it could be that Duos is more popular with those who play Constructed instead of those who play Battlegrounds, a situation that would never be discovered if BGs was in a separate app. The same goes for any other new mode; you’re better off exposing a combined playerbase to it.

I think keeping the Battle Pass distinct while launching all modes from one app is the best way to entice and retain players.

Basically anything that has real-time strategic gameplay, whether it’s an RTS like Starcraft or a builder/simulation game. I want to take my time to plan, and having to monitor things and adjust on the fly doesn’t work well with my brain. I vastly prefer turn-based — maybe if turn-based didn’t exist I could adjust to real-time, but having turn-based alternatives means I’ll always gravitate towards those games.

Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean all builder games. If it’s one where you can pause to build things up and only need to start the clock to see the results then that is ok. But once there are workers moving back and forth between resources and buildings and I have to keep tabs on what they’re doing it starts being not fun for me.

For those who don’t know what the Mirror of Erised is, it’s a Harry Potter thing wherein the viewer sees what they most desire — for example, being top of your class or spending time with lost relatives.

The answer for me is pretty straightforward: I’m sitting there surrounded by completed projects. Look, all of my miniatures have been painted. And what’s that? Every story idea I’ve ever had in a bound print edition on my bookshelf! And behold, I’ve 100% every game in my backlog, too!

… the Mirror of Erised is a very, very dangerous artifact.

I used to joke that Chrth was the canonical wielder of the Heart of Azeroth, but I feel he was more on Azerite cleanup duty than fighting Azshara and N’zoth. I do try to weave my characters’ stories through the events of the expansions, but in general they’re not taking part in the big events. My hunters definitely spent time in the Trueshot Lodge, and I like to think my Highmountain Hunter was accompanying his friends to obtain Talonstrike, but when it came time to go to Argus I don’t think any of them went.

That’s ok, though, have you seen Azeroth? There’s a lot of work to be done and not everyone can be big damn heroes.

I know it’s going to sound hokey, but I most love other’s peoples’ enthusiasm for games or books or movies or what have you. People excitingly discussing something new that’s coming out is what makes me interested as well. Granted, I love a good trailer (especially one that’s more like a music video), but nothing tops personal excitement in my book. It’s why I’m always asking people to tell me what book they’re reading or game they’re playing — I want to bask in the joy people are having and maybe I’ll find some for myself in it as well.

Oooh, this is a good one. The initial temptation is to give humans a Vrykul appearance option, but to be honest I’d rather they be their own allied race because they’re so culturally distinct (ditto Wildhammer, although I’m reconciled to the fact that we’ll likely never get them).

While there are a lot of little additions I could see myself proposing, I’m going to go with what I consider a big one: Dracthyr visage form of any race in their faction. Do you want your Dracthyr to look like a Highmountain Tauren when out of combat? Then that would be an option!

I can see the dev team balking at having to add Dracthyr-specific touches to existing race customizations but frankly I think most players would be happy being able to use the default choices. Maybe add a “scaled face” option like the current visages have to be distinct.

Well that’s all the answers I could get to today. If you’re in the path of Winter Storm Ember please stay safe and keep warm. If you’re not in its path, you should probably stay safe and keep warm anyway. Have a restful weekend, and be sure to ask plenty of questions for Cory!