Fireside Chat: Does Hearthstone Need Achievements?
by JR Cook - 10 years ago show comments
Anyone familiar with Blizzard games is certainly accustomed to and with achievements. These toasts that pop up from time to time celebrate a various number of things you can do within the game from dropping chandeliers on 666 enemies in Diablo to fishing up Old Crafty in Ogrimmar for World of Warcraft. Some players completely ignore them; others hunt them passionately and viciously, sometimes even going as far as to create entire communities around like-minded individuals for a combine-and-conquer initiative.
With Diablo recently adding Seasons and Conquests within Seasons, which are akin to “uber” achievements, it got me wondering whether Hearthstone could use an Achievement system. It’s something we’ve discussed on prior podcasts and in other venues, but I want you, the readers, to chime in directly. What would achievements look like in Hearthstone to you? Why would you want them in the game? Do you want more prestige? A profile/armory to display all of the insanity you’ve managed to accrue by completing every achievement? What kind of achievements would you like to see? One I just thought up that would be silly would be “Draw 100 cards with Mana Tide Totem when a friendly Taunt minion is on the board.” Pretty wordy, but how many games would you cue into with Goldshire Footmen, Frostwolf Grunts, and all manner of random, awful Taunts coming out turn after turn before two Mana Tides hit the board? You’d instantly say, “AHA, this guy or girl is clearly after that achievement.” It could make for a memorable moment and you’d also probably feel pretty bad for losing to such a crazy deck. *grin*
So, what do you all think? Hit me with your suggestions and thoughts in the Comment section below or feel free to tweet at us on Twitter – @BlizzPro.
YES! It would benefit Blizzard too, they could make achievements that are not too hard but might make people buy more packs. So the achievement would have to be fun too! And would be awesome to see harder achievements unlock items such as gold/dust/packs.
I’d be all over this if they did.
I’d be down with it too!
definitly would be nice! that is the role that the quest were meant to play but once you’re done with them there is no real fun more than playing the game… but the game alerady has some achievements for example the parrot can only be gained if you have all pirates or old murlock if you have all others, so I think it’s definitly work in progress and we should see more of that in the month to come
NO! Keep achievements out. I just want to play a card game for the sake of playing a card game and not get OCD about requirements like “cast a 5 mana pyroblast” which would require precise use of sorc apprentice and duplicate. I don’t want to waste my game time trying to set up ridiculous boards for achievements that probably do nothing. I like them in other games but I don’t feel like HS needs them to be fun.
I would love achievements. They’re just fun! I think it could also encourage the playing of less popular or interesting cards and classes. It would also create some variety in matches. Maybe you or your opponent (or both) are going for a particular achievement in this match, so you don’t make the “value” plays but instead Polymorph a Silver Hand Recruit. It would add some variety to matches, for sure.
I rotate in a card I want to play every now and then even if it’s not the best card. Right now, I’m just getting the biggest kick out of Crazed Alchemist. More often than not, it doesn’t do anything to help me win, but it’s a lot of fun to play that card. 🙂
I agree with achievements! I can respect Golgo’s comment about not getting OCD and “wasting” time to get them (i usually give up easy if achievements are too hard), but generally, achievements are optional depending on your personality.
If some could just be gained by consistent normal playing (eg. draw with mana tide as mentioned, play 10,000 one-drops, etc.) as well as goofy ones (eg. Have 5 friendly Leeroy’s on the board, steal 5 divine shields at once with Blood Knight) it would provide extra incentive for the normal grind, and also encourage players get creative and have fun with weird decks. Further to RCAMP’s point, I think sometimes people get focused on competitive climbing and forget there are a lot of fun mechanics to mess around with.
Kind of like the heroic bosses in Naxx, it would create puzzles for players to figure out how to create interesting situations on the board. Also, you never know when a seemingly goofy achievement quest could lead you to discover a hidden card combo that can shake up the meta!
I discussed something similar with some friends recently, but instead of achievements it would be ‘specialist dailies’ or something. For example: Summon Thaddius twice in a game – get 100 gold, or have 4 pirates on the field at once – get 75 gold. As Stephen mentioned you could immediately tell if someone was going for one of the dailies.
Yes.