I still remember when this was first unveiled at Blizzcon 2013; it was something that I initially really wanted to play.
But most everything Blizzard Entertainment related began to sour on me since it became clearer to me that more and more of their designs were having to meet more of the corporate driven agenda to find ways to keep players in each of these franchises longer, and at least with the free 2 play titles, figuring out ways to entice players to spend more cash for virtual goods.
I stopped playing Hearthstone way before Curse of Naxxramas. And even though StarCraft 2 has a ton of free content in the arcade (besides the main game), I’ve barely logged in (I’ve yet to even finish the final objective in the Wings of Liberty campaign because the game has that problem on the Mac client where it occasionally stalls when loading an objective after you had finished playing a previous one; this issue has never been fixed). Heck, I can’t even micro properly anymore (and my APM is terrible now) in multiplayer.
As far as Heroes of the Storm, one of my other accounts ended up being included in the initial technical alpha from the start (I didn’t even bother since I had gotten to the point at that time of not wanting to waste any of my time giving feedback that would ultimately end up being ignored as was the case during the Reaper of Souls closed beta). My main account was flagged for the technical alpha just several weeks before it moved into closed beta (same deal, I never bothered to login and play test because I am beyond the point of providing detailed feedback).
Furthermore, once it went into closed beta, I only logged in once, went through the tutorial, and logged out. The same went for launch week; I didn’t bother logging in to claim the portrait.
Only recently have I been logging in and playing against the A.I. (and yes, I logged in to take advantage of the free Diablo hero). And I finally hit level 6 to unlock the daily quests. I already see the progression trend; play 2 games as a StarCraft character, play 3 games as a support hero, play 8 games. And here’s a token amount of gold that you can eventually spend in the shop for either a hero (cheapest ones start at 2000 gold) or mounts.
The thing is none of this (owning all the heroes, mounts, including the cosmetic skins) appeals to me. I can already see there is a point where I will also stop playing the game (I do know there is a portrait reward for Diablo III once you hit level 12 in HotS; I may not even make it that far).
The only two franchises that even interest me are Diablo and StarCraft. The latter is coming to its final conclusion and I might as well as see it through. I just haven’t pre-ordered since I’ve been in the
Legacy of the Void closed beta since almost near the beginning and I really am not in any rush to play the prequel campaign missions.
And there really isn’t anything more I can say about Diablo (and its design team) than what I’ve continually vomited out here on this blog. Should the next expansion also be its actual trilogy conclusion, I’ve already written before that I will also see it through (but know to set my expectations low). But after that, Blizzard’s game designers for each of these franchises are going to have to make a compelling case beyond the marketing hype.
My point is that there once was a time when I was “sticky” (basically a captive audience) when it came to Blizzard’s games. That is no longer the case though.
