“Keep your Hearthstone out of my Warcraft!”
by JR Cook - 11 years ago show comments
It began innocently enough with a conversation about what we wanted to see in future World of Warcraft expansions. We had been discussing the fertile ground for World of Warcraft and Hearthstone crossover opportunities, but it seems the concept isn’t readily embraced by all.
@HearthProShow @WoWInsider keep hearthstone out of WoW
— ittesi259 (@ittesi259) October 17, 2013
With BlizzCon right around the corner, this conversation will only pick up steam. The fact is, we already have some cross-over between Hearthstone and World of Warcraft. The question really is, how much more cross-over should we expect?
Already, we have the Hearthsteed mount data mined, which is categorized as a Feat of Strength. It carries the flavor text: “Owner of the Hearthsteed mount from the Hearthstone promotion.” Players who unlock this mount would earn the Hearthstoned achievement as well. And just for added flavor, we have a model of the Hearthstone game board in World of Warcraft already.
Micro-transactions will be of increasing importance to Blizzard’s revenue stream. For Hearthstone, the model is card and Arena run purchases. The recent launch of the Battle.net store combined with shuttering TCG loot cards shows how committed the company is to this strategy. The more cross-over opportunities, the more these types of transactions are likely to occur. While World of Warcraft still has a staggering number of paying subscribers, the downward trend in recent years cannot be ignored. Free-to-play games are big business, and Blizzard knows it can no longer rely on the old model of direct sales and subscription revenue alone for the long term.
However, this doesn’t mean that all forms of cross-over between Hearthstone and World of Warcraft are going to be based on cash purchases. Free in-game items for simply trying out Hearthstone are going to help Blizzard increase the player base. Potentially adding pack drops to raid bosses could keep Hearthstone players interested in maintaining their WoW subscription.
None of this would diminish the enjoyment of World of Warcraft for any players who simply have no desire to ever try Hearthstone, much like how the purchase of vanity items has no impact on the larger game play experience. So if you hate the idea of finding Hearthstone items in World of Warcraft, don’t worry – they will have little to no impact on your experience in Azeroth.
If you do like the idea of your two favorite games rewarding you for playing both, I suspect you will not be disappointed.
I’d like to see Hearthstone card drops (single cards or packs) from Diablo’s endgame runs and super-unique bosses, only if the Diablo drops remains totally unchanged.
I think that’d be an amazing idea, assuming it had a hard cap of say, once a week. It’d definitely generate interest in Diablo!
Also I’ll be able to do something I’m good at to help with something I want to be good at, without paying dimes.
I’d like to see Hearthstone card drops (single cards or packs) from Diablo’s endgame runs and super-unique bosses, only if the Diablo drops remains totally unchanged.
I think that’d be an amazing idea, assuming it had a hard cap of say, once a week. It’d definitely generate interest in Diablo!
Also I’ll be able to do something I’m good at to help with something I want to be good at, without paying dimes.
I can see why people don’t want to see the regular loot being affected by this.
But what if you could trade / sell the Hearthstone loot like any other non soulbound loot? (Thinking about WoW auction house) That way it would be as useless to a WoW player as normal loot that they don’t need for themselves.
Of course since you can’t trade cards in Hearthstone the drops should probably be reduced to packs and not single cards.
I can see why people don’t want to see the regular loot being affected by this.
But what if you could trade / sell the Hearthstone loot like any other non soulbound loot? (Thinking about WoW auction house) That way it would be as useless to a WoW player as normal loot that they don’t need for themselves.
Of course since you can’t trade cards in Hearthstone the drops should probably be reduced to packs and not single cards.