Thoughts on Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

img: battle.net

Looks neat.

I've always been interested in the WoW TCGs, but I've not made the time to get into them. Given I rarely find myself with an abundance of time, I've got to be selective with how I spend it. That, and I don't know any people in my local area who play the WoW TCG, let alone Warcraft. The time and energy it would take to find a group, schedule sessions, travel, etc., just doesn't work for me. Which is why I find Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is so intriguing.

The barrier to entry is the lowest it has ever been for a Blizzard game, and this is for several reasons. The game itself will be free-to-play. Blizzard realizes the F2P model (with purchasable enhancements, of course) is the way things are going, and it's nice to see them adapting to it. Hearthstone will also be playable on the iPad, but there's no word if this will extend to Android tablets, or even the iPhone. Finally, there are beginner tutorials to help new players learn the ropes, and when players have grown accustomed to the game play, they can choose to be randomly matched up to a live opponent using Battle.net's matchmaking system -- think random PvP pet battles.

Granted, I'd check out the game regardless, since it is within the Blizzard universe, but in all honestly it looks appealing enough all on its own. I think I'd give this a second look even if I weren't a huge Blizzard fan. Plus, World of Warcraft's pet battle system took me completely by surprise, and consequently I've spent way too many hours battling and leveling pets. I guess you could say I'm predisposed to liking those games that are both deceptively simple and subtly complex.

How 'bout you?