Hearthstone – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com The best place on earth for nerds. Wed, 24 Jun 2020 12:47:06 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cropped-nerds_head_thumb2-100x100.png Hearthstone – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com 32 32 All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, under one umbrella. We create short run podcasts for nerds, covering D&D, Marvel, Starfinder, and more! You vote for your favorite shows and they just might get a second season. Hearthstone – Nerds on Earth false episodic Hearthstone – Nerds on Earth jason.sansbury@nerdsonearth.com podcast All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, the best place on Earth for nerds. Hearthstone – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/noe-podcast-logo.png https://nerdsonearth.com/blog/ Mobile Gaming: If you Haven’t Tried Hearthstone, You Must https://nerdsonearth.com/2020/06/hearthstone/ Thu, 25 Jun 2020 12:00:00 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=31507

What is Hearthstone? We give you a primer on this Blizzard mobile app that serves as an excellent time filler with lots of engaging play!

The post Mobile Gaming: If you Haven’t Tried Hearthstone, You Must appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>

A whole handful of the Nerds on Earth writing team play Marvel Strike Force, the mobile game that pits 5 Marvel characters against 5 other Marvel characters. A primary reason we love it – although we play independently – is because we commiserate about the game in our Discord channel.

But there is another mobile game I play, and since it has been around for years, new players might pass it by in fear that they’d not know where to begin. So, this article is for folks who may be Hearthstone curious. It’s also for my Nerds on Earth mates, as I’m on a sneaky quest to get them playing as well.

The Basics of Hearthstone

hearthstone main screen
Hearthstone has a wonderful variety of play modes.

Hearthstone is an iOS game from Blizzard, the makers of Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and more. And if you have that type of PC/console pedigree and you make a mobile game, then you can bet it has a polish to it.

Hearthstone is a card game very roughly in the same genre as Magic: The Gathering and KeyForge. Players “build decks” of card, digitally of course. And you pit your deck against a matched-up opponent.

It’s in the World of Warcraft universe, so the classes match those in that game. And the cards pull from those characters as well, meaning you might have Priest, Hunter, Druid, and Warrior, among others.

hearthstone quests
A look at quests and the classes of Hearthstone. I’m a filthy casual, so while I have Hunter, Priest, and Shaman leveled up, I’m nowhere close on most classes.

Newly themed cards come roughly every few months, with the oldest sets rolling out of regular use.

The “meta” game, meaning the accepted strategy about the best cards to use, can be competitive. To be clear, you do not need to “pay to play.” But if you are the type of person who absolutely has to match the most competitive decks, you’ll need to buy packs, which are of course opened digitally.

Our human competitiveness tends to have us over-complicate things to point where we need excel sheets and flowcharts. But Hearthstone is really fun for beginners and it is absolutely rewarding with out dabbling in that nonsense of 24/7 Red Bull fueled streams to hit #1.

Hearthstone’s Modes

There are some major modes of gameplay:

  • Regular (competitive and practice) – In this mode, players choose a class and build a deck of 30 cards. Each card has an attack value, a defense value, and some type of keywords special ability. Hearthstone’s excellent matchmaking system connects you with an opponent.
  • Adventure – There is also a “solo mode” that allows you to participate in storyline adventures. These have the same charm you’d expect from a game set in the World of Warcraft universe.
  • Arena – There are also a few modes where you essentially draft on the fly in order to play around and push your luck with different card combinations. Blizzard keeps the game feeling wonderfully fresh, even after several years on market.
  • Battleground – I’m giving this it’s own article. It’s that good.
hearthstone adventure mode

Hearthstone has the famed Blizzard polish. It’s rock-solid. And they’ve done remarkably clever things like limit communication to a handful of pre-generated responses, meaning you aren’t spammed by some disaffected 20-something who has never matured and thinks his banter is funny.

World of Warcraft is nowhere near the must-play game it was a decade ago, but Hearthstone is evidence of the property’s enduring appeal and that the lore could be fully imagined into a mobile game wholly unlike the multiplayer game that serves as inspiration.

I suspect many of you nerds already have the game on your iPads. For those who don’t? I encourage you to give it a try. It’s an excellent 20 minute time filler that doesn’t require sinking hours into it. It allows an enjoyable experience that also allows you to fully engage with your kids and pick up and put down as you wish.

Get more info on Hearthstone here.

The post Mobile Gaming: If you Haven’t Tried Hearthstone, You Must appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>
An Introduction to the Battleground Mode in Hearthstone https://nerdsonearth.com/2020/06/battleground-hearthstone/ Thu, 25 Jun 2020 12:00:00 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=31510 hearthstone

We break down Hearthstone's brand new Battleground Mode. This older game still has a few tricks up its sleeves and life in its bones!

The post An Introduction to the Battleground Mode in Hearthstone appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>
hearthstone

This is an article on Hearthstone, a mobile game developed by Blizzard and first released in…wait, that can’t be right?…huh…yeah…2014, meaning it’s pretty long in the tooth, particularly for a mobile game.

As I’m writing this up, I’m realizing that absolutely nobody will be interested in an article on an old mobile game, not even immediate members of the Nerds on Earth family, particularly my dad who has always thought I was wasting my life by playing too many video games while I should be playing outside. But I’m not a quitter, dad.

Besides, Hearthstone has a new mode called Battleground and it’s so entertaining and engaging that it is absolutely article worthy. So, here we go.

Hearthstone Battleground Mode

Firstly, if you aren’t playing Hearthstone, give it a download. It’s just about the best 10-minute time filler you can get. More on the game here. But we’re here because of the Battleground mode and the fact that my dad was right, I don’t like playing outside, I’d rather write this up behind a keyboard as an avid indoors man is wont to do.

hearthstone battleground hero select screen
Hero selection screen in Hearthstone Battleground mode.

When you first start Battleground, you’ll be given 4 options for a hero. Since there are 24 (and growing) options, you’ll find plenty of variety from game to game. Each hero provides a special power. If it’s available, I choose Nozdormu because it gives a free minion refresh each round. More on that as we go.

A typical early screen.

There is a lot going on in the above photo. At the top, you see the Bartender. The Bartender provides you options of minions you can purchase if you have gold.

  • To the right of the Bartender is the refresh, but you’ll notice it costs you 1 gold.
  • Each minion you purchase is 3 gold.
  • Selling a minion back to the Bartender earns you 1 gold in return.
  • To the left of the Bartender levels up the minions available to you. It goes to level 6 and it gets one gold cheaper each round.

My first purchase was a “Murloc,” who you can see has an attack of 2 and a defense of 3.

Along the left hand side are the 8 players who are battling it out. You get paired up each round in a round robin style. As players are eliminated, the bracket gets smaller.

The above photo is a couple rounds in. You can see I’ve purchased two more minions, both 2-attack, 1-defense pirates.

Various minion types are available to you and you want to get similar types to capitalize on their synergies with one another. By this point I’m thinking I might go all-in on pirates.

The minion types:

  • Beasts – Many of these minions have the deathrattle keyword, which means they summon more beasts when they die.
  • Mechs – Some mechs have deathrattle but they really shine with the divine shield keyword, which effectively gives them one hit worth of armor.
  • Demons – These minions may eat down your overall health in return for powerful upgrades. It’s a push-pull.
  • Pirates – These are the newest minions types and early gameplay has them cycling through quickly as their means of synergizing.
  • Murlocs – These can become powerful in late game due to the poisonous keyword.
  • Dragons – These minions have some fire breathers and some with the taunt keyword.

I got a few more pirates. But notice that although I was out of coins, I “froze” the Bartender’s minions so they’d be available the next round. I have two of the 2-attack and 1-armor pirates and the Bartender has a third.

If you get 3 of the same type, you earn a “golden.” A golden minion does three things: 1. It doubles base numbers, 2. it keeps all stat upgrades, and 3. it gives you the ability to choose a new minion from one per higher. Collecting Goldens is how you can begin to ramp you warband.

Rats! My neighbor came to the door to borrow a socket set. That meant I lost two whole rounds of purchasing, which put me way behind. Notice I only have 4 health left?
I’m able to just barely eke out victories, even as I hold on at 4 health. But if you look at the left column, there are now 3 other players eliminated. I’m hoping to get top 4, which is considered a victory.
This screencap shows me after just getting a victory. I’ll be doing 18 damage against that player’s 27 remaining health. That’s not enough for me to knock him out of the game!
I’m done for. I’ve been holding on at 4 health, but this player is about to do 11 damage against me (see if you can spot how I calculated that). The good news is I was able to hold on, finishing 3rd. That’s considered a win!
My death screen.
hearthstone battleground victory screen 3rd place
My 3rd place finish.

Battlegrounds is a wonderful mode in Hearthstone, proving that even after 6 years, the developers at Blizzard have some tricks up their sleeve.

Pirates are a brand new faction, so content is staying fresh. Like all Blizzard games, everything runs smooth and has an excellent level of polish.

I whole-heartedly encourage you to give it a go. And if you are a long-time Hearthstone player, make sure you give this new mode a try. Info on getting the game is here.

hearthstone battleground victory screen 1st place
I leave you with this, a screencap from my next game. See what could’ve been done if my neighbor hadn’t needed that socket set?

The post An Introduction to the Battleground Mode in Hearthstone appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>
Collectibles in Video Games: Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em? https://nerdsonearth.com/2015/05/collectibles-in-video-games/ Wed, 27 May 2015 13:20:41 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=2104

As a gamer, I have a love/hate relationship with collectibles in video games.  I think they fall into one of two categories, and I can’t decide whether they are a joy no matter the form they take or if they are nothing more than sadistic ploys by game developers to torture Type A gamers like myself. I […]

The post Collectibles in Video Games: Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em? appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>

As a gamer, I have a love/hate relationship with collectibles in video games.  I think they fall into one of two categories, and I can’t decide whether they are a joy no matter the form they take or if they are nothing more than sadistic ploys by game developers to torture Type A gamers like myself.

I can honestly say that I’ve never bought a game because of advertised collectibles.  I’ve yet to even see a game that uses that as a selling point: “Buy this game and spend 20+ hours collecting hundreds of collectibles with very little in-game relevance!”  It just hasn’t happened yet.  However the number of games that host collectibles as a gameplay feature is extremely high – ranging from treasures in Uncharted 3 to propaganda posters in Far Cry 4 to Riddler trophies in Batman: Arkham City.  That’s three very different games, mind you – a third-person adventure, a first-person shooter, and a third-person combat respectively.

So let me break down the two categories as I see them and I’ll ask you at the end about your opinion on in-game collectibles.

Collectibles in Video Games: Trophies

As pointed out in this Hearthstone post, sometimes collectibles are points of pride.  They’re to be displayed and envied by those who know what it took to earn them.  Perhaps it takes the form of nothing more than an achievement, but can scale all the way to some powerful or uber-rare weapon or armor.

I personally can’t stand when the collectibles are nothing more than the road to another 20 gamerscore…and this from a self-professed achievement hound.  If I’m going to spend hours running around your game finding all of the items you’ve stashed in the environments, it better benefit me significantly in-game somehow.  Otherwise your collectibles feel like nothing more to me than a cheap way of squeezing a few more hours of gameplay into your title.  I mean, I’m going to find them all…but gosh darn it make it less like a chore and more like a rewards system!

I’m a resurrected fan of Destiny; a game that has a trophy-based collectibles system that I think is done about as well as it can be done without it being annoying or feeling like a time-suck.  Scattered throughout both campaign environments and player hubs are dead ghosts – little machines that you “resurrect” upon discovery.  What Destiny got right that I wish others would pick up on:

1) There is exactly one achievement associated with the collectible.  Some of these games go achievement crazy with their collectibles!  Stop it.  One and done.  Is your game about finding these random items, or about the story and the visuals you’re using to tell it?  Because I’ll be honest:  If I’m constantly on the look out for subtle-but-looping flashes of light in your ghostenvironments, I’m not taking in the sights or listening to any dialogue that may be going on at the moment.

2) The collectible is unobtrusive.  You just kind of stumble across them.  They don’t announce themselves somehow and they’re not prolific.  Finding one is a pleasurable experience, but it is appropriately short-lived and forgotten about until the next time you stumble across one.  You’re not constantly looking under boulders or trying to jump to ledges that seem (and very well may be) unreachable on the off chance that you’ll find one up there.  You play the game, they pop up occasionally, and they consume neither valuable time nor valuable effort.

Collectibles in Video Games: Reward Systems

The best collectibles are vehicles for rewards beyond an achievement.  I’ve seen them reward all kinds of goodies like XP, skill points, otherwise inaccessible weapons, and even extra playable missions.  This type of collectible has a much better result upon a quick cost/benefit analysis.  You find yourself better equipped and better leveled earlier.  I’m a huge fan of this!  One of the best executions for this type of collectible: Batman: Arkham City.  Things developer Rocksteady Studios got right:

1) Collecting oftentimes requires more than just showing up.  They were interactive!  Sometimes you had to solve a riddle or puzzle, and other times you found that you needed abilities or tools you had not yet acquired.  The point being that picking up the Riddler trophies was a game in and of itself, not just a fetch quest.  ACRiddlerTrophy

2) Worthwhile rewards.  Experience points for every trophy
meant you beefed up The Bat sooner.  Plus if you collected them all you got the chance to take down the Riddler himself.  And trust me…after you snag the hundreds of trophies, the thing you most want to do is punch the Riddler in the throat.  #justice

3) Rocksteady released a trophy guide app that was beautiful and useful.  This was both genius and a godsend.  Sure, you can find user-generated guides online for free, but for $2.99 you could download an app that a) showed you where each trophy could be found, b) told you what you’d need to do to obtain it (including what skills and tools were required for the job), c) allowed you to easily keep track of which you’ve collected and which you’ve yet to snag, and d) did so with visual flair, leveraging maps straight out of the game and screen caps to make it all dummy-proof.  Some might complain that this totally harshes the vibe of being the World’s Greatest Detective, but I say that Batman himself would have bought and leveraged the app.  He’d be all, “You mean someone has already done all of the detective work, I can have all the answers for $2.99, and spend that much less time wandering around not saving people?  Alfred: Use my Apple ID to purchase the app and sync it through the cloud to my Batphone.”

So what do you think?  Collectibles: Yay or nay?  In your experience, who has done them best?  Worst?

The post Collectibles in Video Games: Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em? appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>
Hearthstone: Where did you get that card?!? https://nerdsonearth.com/2014/05/hearthstone-onyxia-psychology-achievements-social/ Thu, 29 May 2014 01:50:50 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=56

Have you ever wanted to get the rare gaming item and you couldn't rest until you had it? Well, this is for you.

The post Hearthstone: Where did you get that card?!? appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>

I’ve played at least one game of Hearthstone every day since the day I installed it on my iPad Air. I really enjoy it and plan to offer some more thoughts soon, but for now I want to get a touch philosophical if I may.

We’re all living in the Internet Age, although it’s soon to be the Age of Ultron…or Age of Apocalypse…or…nevermind, I’m drifting off topic here.

The point is that today’s games are social in that we can discover one another in a virtual world – we have X-Box Achievements, WoW Guilds, Game Center, Battle.net, and a million others.

Certainly these are social tools and communities, but we’re missing something HUGE if we don’t recognize them as virtual trophy cases as well. Us nerdy humans look for means to compare our feats. We realize that achievement is not just being great at a game, but it’s also about being recognized as being great.

In Hearthstone, I’ll happily be playing a couple casual games of ranked play when you see a player play a…wait…what’s that? I’ve never seen that card…where did he get that cool card? It’s sweeeeet.

MY WORLD WILL NOT BE COMPLETE UNTIL I OWN THAT CARD!

Now what was simply a couple casual games of Hearthstone has become a endless quest of crafting a card.Hearthstone Onyxia

There’s no rule that says, “To win, that need this exact card.” Sure, it might make those next 200 matches go a little smoother (granted you get lucky on the draw), but getting that one card didn’t begin as your primary motivation.

For a nerd, that card now becomes his own personal badge of mastery. It’s not something you own just for yourself, you own it for others to see. 

Most achievements do have an empirical value, of course, but that’s not what makes them important. The point of an achievement is to have someone you know or don’t know look at your Onyxia gold card and say, “Holy crap, do you know what that guy had to do to pull that off?

In a world where we spend a ton of time with people we’ll never meet, achievements are the currency of respect and identity. 

It’s mounting that diploma on the wall. It’s having the rare Star Wars figure. It’s the obscure and clever nerd t-shirt that strangers stop you to ask you where you got it.

It’s also the psychology behind why a free-to-play game like Hearthstone can be so profitable, knowing that our human desire to show off our achievements makes it darned tempting to drop $.99 here and there and there and there and there and there and there again in a quest for digital goods.

I’ll proudly admit that I haven’t dropped a dime on Hearthstone, mediocrely gutting it out around Rank 16, but I gotta admit, I really want that card.

The post Hearthstone: Where did you get that card?!? appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>