Hearthstone is a beautiful game. It has a wonderful user interface, nice artwork, and great animations. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. In fact, far from it. Even ignoring balancing, Hearthstone could use a little work–at the very least, there are things Blizzard could do to make it better. Here are some of the features I’d love to see added to my favorite game, although I’m not holding out for a miracle.
Wishlist Item #1: Achievements
One of the features Hearthstone sorely lacks are achievements. There are a few hidden achievements that give you gold, but, really, there aren’t very many. I had completed all of them in my first month playing, and rarely thought about them since. All other Blizzard games have a plethora of achievements. Diablo 3 has literally hundreds of achievements to collect. Even if they didn’t give rewards, adding achievements would breathe some new life into the player experience.
Hearthstone very much falls into the trap of offering ‘nothing to work towards, and achievements are an extremely easy way to alleviate this common complaint. Plus, there could be a ton of interesting ones based on various classes or minions. Play 10,000 Murlocs, for example. Interesting decks and something to strive for, what’s not to love?
Wishlist Item #2: Rewards Above 500 Wins
This request goes hand in hand with my first point. Currently, Hearthstone only tracks ranked wins. (I’d like to see that change too, but that’s another issue.) Furthermore, your wins are only tracked until you hit 500, at which point you receive a golden hero portrait for that class. That’s awesome, but there’s a huge downside: once you get a golden portrait, your wins with that class are no longer displayed.
At a bare minimum, Blizzard should continue to show your wins with each class after hit 500 wins. It feels crappy playing a class that’s golden, knowing you are working for literally nothing. I’d love it if they added more ways for players to acknowledge and show off their progress and accomplishments–cooler borders at much higher ranks, or even alternate hero portraits. Honestly, I’d appreciate almost anything that makes the grind worth it.
Wishlist Item #3: Rewards for Losing
While this may be counter-intuitive, it’s one of the biggest features Hearthstone is missing. Currently, unless you have a “play X Murlocs” quest or something similar, losing grants nothing. You might be saying “well duh, you lost,” but it’s not that simple. As someone who has been playing for three years, losing is simply exasperating. Especially when I have a quest to win. But for me, gold matters far more than an individual game’s outcome. And I’ve been playing forever. Imagine how a new player feels, when they struggle to win, and each loss simply eats time.
Let’s get an overhaul of the gold system. Instead of earning 10 gold every three wins, I’d like 5 gold on each win, and 3 gold for losing. Change it so that if you concede before turn five you don’t get your 3 gold to avoid abuse. I’d also like to see all of the “Win X games” quests changed to “Play X games”. You can increase the number if you’d like. I think these would be great quality of life changes for players. Currently playing bad decks just feels sucky, but with these changes you could have fun and earn something. Plus, let’s be honest, the current gold generation in Hearthstone sucks.
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