Simple Fixes

Friday! Yes how exciting that the weekend is here and we will be off doing what we do on weekend things. Before we get into weekend mode though Bluelightnin has something to have on our minds for the weekend. These would be his opinions on simple improvements which would add a lot to the game.

I love Heroes of the Storm. In fact, I would say it's my favorite game since Warcraft 3... and that's my favorite game of all time. However, there are some glaring issues that everyone talks about which hold this game back from being the force it could be. I mean, it really should be a phenomenon and it isn't. Having thought about the problems, here are the solutions I've finally come up with and hope Blizzard will use to make this game much better.

Rank
In this game, one bad play late in the game by a stranger can cause your rank to go down. And sure, it's not that big of a deal except when you have an unlucky streak of bad teams for like 3, 4, 5 games straight. It happens. The problem is then that your rank is more associated with a grind than with actual skill. The hardest part about changing this problem is that it's nearly impossible to judge your skill via any algorithm that can determine how good you really are. 

I discovered the solution while watching an Overwatch video. At the end of each match, players vote on good plays by all the players on each of the teams. I'm thinking that in Hero League, not Team League, players should be allowed to upvote 3 players and downvote 3 players at the end of the match. If you get a certain percentage of upvotes, you either go up in rank (win) or lose less rank (loss). If you get a certain percentage of downvotes, you either gain less rank (win) or lose more rank (loss). You wouldn't be allowed to vote for yourself, but you could upvote 3 and downvote 3 players from both teams. I think this would make a HUGE difference in preventing the frustration that is having your rank based totally on wins and losses that you have 1/5th control over at most.

Now, before you say this would be manipulated/scammed/cheated/etc, please tell me how. I've thought it through and I just can't see the method for how to cheat this system. Even if you're with a partner, you can only vote for each other once, and that's not enough to do anything. Best of all, that toxic player or two, they're going to de-rank to the bowels of hero league hell. 

Spending Change
Most of the purchases in HotS are big chunks of gold or dollars. Usually the lowest is like $4.00. That leads to a long slog and feels like a slow progression. I suggest that Blizzard add some small purchases so that players can constantly buy new additions so they are always upgrading (think Rocket League). So what could we spend small amounts of money and gold on (think 50 gold or $0.25)???

Music
How about we get access to hundreds of Blizzard game background music files. We can purchase them in the store for small amounts of gold or change, and they're then downloaded to our HotS account so that we can pick to listen to them or listen to all the ones we've downloaded randomly while we're waiting in the loading screen. I want to play the Undercity theme on Tomb of the Spider Queen, and I want to do it in the program.

Kill Candy
How about in addition to mounts and skins, we now also get to pick a Kill Candy for our heroes. You can rename the feature to anything, I don't care. Basically, maybe when I kill someone I want confetti to explode. Or maybe I want fireworks. Or maybe I want a wolf to howl. You could do tons of these very easily and people would happily pay for them. I would love to play as Stitches and every time I kill someone a little RIP gravestone pops up where they died for a few seconds. And since these are not a big money thing, only allow them to be purchaseable for heroes above level 10.

Poses
Tracer's issues aside, people would likely drop a $0.50 to buy poses for their heroes when they're selected in draft and after a win in the game. They're paying ten bucks for skins, so why not buy an inexpensive pose that really shows it off?

Classifications
I get that you want to keep the simple Tank/Assassin/Support/Specialist, but can you at least just put a division for each of those categories so newer players can figure this out? If we could divide them in two, that would help so much in so many ways:

1) Warrior = A) Tank or B) Bruiser
2) Assassin = A) Sustained or B) Burst
3) Support = A) Healer or B) Auxiliary
4) Specialist = A) Siege or B) Utility

Well, before I keep going on and on these are my ideas please feel free to provide constructive criticism.

There it is this week's Reader Post. What do you think? Would these be improvements or just someone reaching to change things that don't need to be changed. Enjoy your weekend

Those Things We Remember

I have been asked many times what has made WoW stand out from all the other MMOs out there. The answer itself to me is not a difficult one. Warcraft's lore and story is what keeps people playing this game. Sure there is side things to do, but those who are interested in those come and go. Think about it for a second you may not read the novels or pay attention to quests, but say when a guildie starts talking and explaining what we are really doing and what you are dealing with you listen.

In WoW there are these things and those times we always remember. It could be a questline that you love doing because of the story. Many have told me that the Thrall and Aggra Elemental Bonds questline is one of those quests. They felt like they contributed to the lore of the game themselves they feel like they are directly part of the story. Other games don't have quests like this where you are developing in the story itself. You are very disconnected you are there are told to go kill these things, collect those things, and then come back to me. Yes WoW still has some of these quests, but even the way they are done is much different than even classic WoW.

This is the point when you are involved you remember. The only way you are going to remember a quest where you are told to go kill something or collect something is if it was so rare it took forever, the quest itself was bugged, or was hard. You aren't going to remember to them because of Dave and his epic quest giving skills. This is Blizzard's theory they want you to remember quests, raids, and everything else because of the story involved in everything. Think about it when you remember you can talk with others about it, and if they haven't done it they will want to. It is marketing at its best word of mouth. Of course, this can backfire in the same way, but Blizzard has seemed to avoid this for the most part.

So if I had any advice for new MMOs or even to Blizzard in WoW it is simple. Make sure that you use the story of what you are involved in to ensure that the player remembers playing it and it was a fun and enjoyable experience.