Magic: The Combattening - Hearthstone

[Rendakor]

Is that a quest-earned card or one that comes from boosters? I haven't played this shit in forever but if Blizzard is nerfing cards that people spent real dollars on...

[ezrast]

But they're not destroying real dollar value when they do it, since there's no trade outside of illicit channels like selling your b.net account. It's no different than nerfing a League of Legends champion or MechWarrior Online weapon that people have spent money on.

[Rendakor]

Does that happen? I'm not being sarcastic, I don't play a lot of f2p games so I wasn't sure it was a thing. CZE promising not to nerf cards in Hex was very important to me.

[Lakov_Sanite]

It shows that Blizzard doesn't really know what makes Hunter good if they chose that as a change

That's the problem really.  Hunters aren't good at all.  They have a couple "must have" cards that make for good combos but any hunter deck without those cards is doomed.

[schild]

Lol they changed an active card.

Making a shitload of money or not, this is a ccg made with the mentality of a social gaming company. Gross.

[Merusk]

Yeah. That's a cardinal sin in a real ccg.  You fix it in the next set with a counter card.  You don't monkey with card mechanics like its a damn MMO.

[Paelos]

It shows that Blizzard doesn't really know what makes Hunter good if they chose that as a change

They don't.

[schild]

If Wizards had a single human being in management or higher that played Magic competitively, this butt of a game would've at least had trading, and some semblance of cohesive design.

They clearly don't because it clearly doesn't.

[Ingmar]

They've done it several times - this isn't even the first nerf for this card. If this is like the prior times you can dust it for full value instead of half for a week or whatever. Still pretty annoying I would think.

[Ironwood]

If Wizards had a single human being in management or higher that played Magic competitively, this butt of a game would've at least had trading, and some semblance of cohesive design.

They clearly don't because it clearly doesn't.

Did you mean Blizzard ?

[schild]

Yes, I meant Blizzard.

Sorry, there's leakage through the internets from how much the new Modo client blows ass.

[HaemishM]

So when is that Hex open beta coming? (Real question)

[Rendakor]

Probably a month or two. They've said they'll give beta keys to streamers, so I emailed them for some. Will hook up f13ers if they deliver.

[Maledict]

Mark Rosewater didn't even reply to my email years ago about how bad Magic Online was, and he was replying to *everything* at the time.

I honestly have no idea why they continue with such a pile of terrible fail. I can only presume they make so much from the hardcore playing it that they don't ant to invest at all to open up their market more (and maybe continued worry over cannibalising their physical market).

When Decipher released an online version of their Lord of the Rings game, despite being a tiny company with a small outsourced developer, their software knocked the socks off Wizards. Seriously, something that bad can't happen by accident.

[HaemishM]

All the CCG style games I've played online have all had decent interfaces - but then I haven't played Magic Online. So basically it looks like ANYONE can make a better interface than Wizards. Shit, Hearthstone is kind of terrible in the interface department (in the "fuck it, we don't need features" department of overly simplified interfaces) but it sounds a whole lot better than Magic Online.

[Ingmar]

The really fucked up thing is that v3 of MTGO is ugly as shit but at least playable, and they've managed to make v4 worse in basically every way except it looks a little nicer.

[luckton]

http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/480-possible-naxx-pricing-structure-leak

Leaked gold prices for Naxx wings.  Prices decrease by 100g for each objective completed in the previous wing, but if you wanted to buy the entire thing outright...

[Paelos]

I don't think those prices are right. It's been stated other places that the first and last wings are free.

[Simond]

So when is that Hex open beta coming? (Real question)

They may have just hit a snag.

[KallDrexx]

Apparently WOTC has patents covering quite a lot of mechanics, including the act of tapping.  I don't know enough about Hex to know if they violate any of them but on the outset it doesn't seem good.

*edit* I'd be surprised if Blizzard isn't violating these either though.

[schild]

Everyone violates them. Wizards has done an inconsistent job protecting their assets. They're more evil about it on paper than online, but until Hex, no company came close to scaring the fuck out of Hasbro and their online arm (and MODO is a fucking cash machine).

The complaint is hilarious though and looks as though they had an 8 year old proofread it. Though it may have been one of the MODO engineers.

[Ingmar]

It really is extraordinarily sloppy.

[MrHat]

So when is that Hex open beta coming? (Real question)

They may have just hit a snag.

Who let someone put all this marketing stuff in a civil complaint?

[schild]

So when is that Hex open beta coming? (Real question)

They may have just hit a snag.

Who let someone put all this marketing stuff in a civil complaint?

I'm a big fan of them not even using Magic online as a comparison because it's a butt ugly piece of poopass. Whereas they used the ONE platform for Magic that doesn't print money, ipad Duels.

[MrHat]

So when is that Hex open beta coming? (Real question)

They may have just hit a snag.

Who let someone put all this marketing stuff in a civil complaint?

I'm a big fan of them not even using Magic online as a comparison because it's a butt ugly piece of poopass. Whereas they used the ONE platform for Magic that doesn't print money, ipad Duels.

"Magic is played using elaborately illustrated cards that transport players into an imaginary realm in which they do battle with one another."

"Cryptozoic copied the cards, plot, elements, circumstances, play sequence, and flow of Magic."  Dat flow.

[schild]

I've never seen a court case won on esoteric art house definitions, but we'll see.

[Lakov_Sanite]

That is a very sad lawsuit.  It's a sign of weakness from wizards if nothing else.

[schild]

Well they got a shitshow lawfirm to draft up a complaint about a shitshow product (MODO) and failed to produce a single relevant piece of data as to what Hex is infringing on (MODO), when the only thing Wizards cares about is said product. If the judge is a gamer, this is going to get thrown out on the basis that even Hasbro is ashamed of MODO and knows they deserve whatever comes their way (ianal but i play one on tv) (in the 90s) (ok, i lied, the 80s).

[Maledict]

From my understanding you can't copyright game mechanics anyway, so whilst Hex clearly is taking a whole host of its basic mechanics from Magic (far more so than any other CCG from what I have seen) that's not a reason for copyright theft.

[Lucas]

A quick tech question while we're on the HEX subject: I downloaded the client from their web page in the event I get to play closed or open beta, but when I open the launcher it always says: "could not resolve host: origin.dl.hex.gameforge.com; unrecoverable error in call to nameserver". How can I fix that?  (feel free to answer via PM so we don't derail too much)

[SurfD]

From my understanding you can't copyright game mechanics anyway, so whilst Hex clearly is taking a whole host of its basic mechanics from Magic (far more so than any other CCG from what I have seen) that's not a reason for copyright theft.

Not sure.  Didn't wizards successfully sue some other card game company into dropping the use of the term + action of "tapping" a card (turning it sideways to indicate it had been "activated") a while back?

Not exactly familiar with how Hex plays, but if it plays like almost a carbon copy of Magic, they could have a problem.  At least Hearthstone can get away with the distinction that there is no "land management" element for your mana gains, it simply has a steadily increasing mana flow, and they dont have "tapping" or anything similar.

Might depend on what exactly Wizzards is trying to nail Hex for.  I cant really see them winning on grounds of "game flow" or any of that nonsense, since pretty much every single CCG type game out there revolves around alternating turns and early / mid / late resource flows as core game elements.

[Ironwood]

Yes, I distinctly remember them doing a 'tapping' thing and winning.  But that's a bit more....reasonable.

[Malakili]

The term tapping can be challenged, but a card doing something, and then not being able to do another thing until your next turn can't be, as I understand it.

[schild]

I'd imagine Wizards is pretty chuffed they couldn't copyright the term "priority" along with "tap[ping" because priority is the single biggest thing that separates Magic from other CCGs. And Hex grabbed the priority structure wholesale.

[HaemishM]

So when is that Hex open beta coming? (Real question)

They may have just hit a snag.

That took WAY longer than it should have. Somebody's law department must have just woke up last week.