It's A Bad Game Because I Don' Like It

So here we are on yet another Friday with yet another choice to make for this week's Reader Post. Now normally I like to pick posts which interest me or that I think would get interest from others. Sometimes though I get entries that just deserve to be read because they try to make arguments and points without actually stating what this exactly are. So that brings me to this week's post from Darkzone who thinks "Hearthstone is a Bad Game" why? well because he says so for reasons he doesn't want to fully explain. Enjoy!

I have many personal reasons why I don't like hearthstone, I don't believe significant amounts of RNG belong in a game, and I do think that that's one of the factors that makes it a bad game. Though I can understand the appeal to make it more casual/fun focused (why they embrace competitive play when they have cards purely relying on RNG is beyond me.)

The goal in MOST competitive card games is to make consistent decks that work no matter what you draw, as well as 'deck-fixing' by guaranteeing you get certain things. Cards like "Burnished Hart" from MTG being an example how how a game employs fixing.

You can also employ fixing in your own deck by putting more of a card, or specific type of card in your deck, and thereby reducing the extent to which RNG influences your games. So ultimately, card games are not about the RNG in the sense that we should embrace it, but in the sense that a good deck doesn't care about RNG. (Especially over a set of 3 games.)

My biggest gripe with hearthstone is the fact that the game just doesn't work. Card effects that seem like they should work together don't, and card effects that seem like they shouldn't work together do. The word "draw" means different things on different cards and the order selection of triggered effects may as well be random for how much control you have over it.

I don't really think you can call your game good when it doesn't even interact in ways that make sense based on card text or scenario, a lot of this comes down to thoughtless coding, no doubt, but it's a big deal and doesn't really make any sense to me.

So ya Hearthstone isn't MtG, and I like MtG so that makes Hearthstone a bad game because it isn't MtG. Makes sense eh? Have a good weekend!