With Love, and Also Hate

If you ever flipped over a Candyland board as a child, Hearthstone is not for you. Just kidding, I definitely did that, and I love Hearthstone. It’s more of a love-hate type of relationship, but with just enough good to outdo the bad. Hearthstone is a free-to-play online collectible card game that features characters, items, and lore from the World of Warcraft series. It dropped on Windows and Mac in 2014 but has since rolled out support for iOS and Android devices.

In this game, you’re pitted against another player in real time, with decks of 30 cards, selecting a single hero with unique powers. There are all sorts of side aspects that pull you in and reward you for playing consistently, which is what makes it so appealing. However, it definitely has a frustrating side. It’s mainly because the RNG (random number generation, i.e. randomness) of the game is straight ridiculous.

It requires hundreds of hours of gameplay to master and, even then, you can still go 50-50 in ranked for a few hours, which can leave you tearing your hair out. As it is with anything in life, the higher the chance of failure, the greater the reward. Just ask any problem gambler/lotto ticket purchaser out there and the picture becomes clear. We play the game because we BELIEVE we can win. However, when it comes to games, and life in general, crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s greatly reduces risk and helps maximize victory.

In the next couple articles, I will be going over Ranked, Tavern Brawl, Solo Play (some of the best content around), as well as The Arena. All in the hopes of getting you to recognize a can’t-lose game from a can’t-win one. These will also likely help you to be satisfied, or at least tolerant of the variance that comes along with it.

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