LOTI 025  – Legend of the Innkeeper – “GvG Hype – Goblins Rule!?!”

Intro:

Welcome to the Legend of the Innkeeper.  I’m Vastidious, I’m Ariannwyn, and I’m Espo.  We’re glad you could join us for our 25th episode.

This week we are talking about…

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Top 3 of the week – GvG Legendaries

Vastidious – Sneed’s Old Shredder, Bolvar Fordragon, Mimiron’s Head

Ariannwyn –  Iron Juggernaut, Mekgineer Thermaplugg, Mogor the Ogre

Espo – Dr Boom, Mal’Ganis, Troggzor the Earthinator

News

1. Article posted today interviewing Ben Brode and Mike Donais: Randomness, Android and Additional Deck Slots – http://www.shacknews.com/article/87474/hearthstone-senior-designers-on-randomness-the-android-port-and-additional-deck-slots

New/Casual Players

“I know that some people who are not into Hearthstone. They’ve tried it out and just gotten stomped, and that can be discouraging. Are you concerned at all about newcomers having a hard time getting into it as the meta gets more calcified?

BB: Yeah, new players is a really important thing for us. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to make their experience better. We have done some things recently with matchmaking for new players that we think will make a big impact. We’ll continue to look at that and see what it is new players are struggling with and how to make their experience better. It’s a very important thing, we’ll continue to monitor and see just how to enhance that experience.”

Deckslots

“Speaking of keeping the interface simple, I know you’ve talked about the deck slots issue that really hardcore players have brought up. Has there been any conceptualizing of how you could keep that simple?

BB: It’s one of the things that players are really passionate about. The funny thing is, if we never got any new players, adding more deck slots would be kind of a no-brainer, I think. Our current players can handle more complexity, that’s not really a concern.

But during our original playtests for Hearthstone we brought in brand new players. What we saw over and over again was that they would look at the Collection Manager, and say “look, I’m not sure this game is for me. It’s much too complicated, I never want to build a deck, this is just too much.” That really scared us, because we had this really great game, and we didn’t want players to throw it all out because the Collection Manager was too complicated. We did a lot of work since then to make the Collection Manager a lot easier to use for new players, so it’s a big concern for us. We want to make sure it’s still accessible for new players.

We know it’s important for players who are playing a lot and want more deck slots. We are talking about ways to potentially explore an elegant solution for both groups, but we don’t have any specifics yet that we’ve landed on, that we’re ready to talk about. We know it’s important, though, and we are discussing the issue.”

I think the concern comes up more when these expansions launch, because people don’t want to trash their current decks to experiment with new ones.

BB: Certainly, and we at the team have the same internal dialogue. It’s definitely something that we talk about a lot.

Android Version

You announced the Android version was coming somewhere near all this. Is that still happening this year?

BB: Yes, the plan is still December. We don’t have that many days left in December, so it should be sometime really soon. I don’t know the exact date.

2. Some players, accidentally purchased Classic packs instead of the new GvG packs! –