Board 8 > RATE THE GAME - #219 - Hearthstone

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sleeping Dogs misses the top 100, Red Alert places 199th.

• Rate on a 0-to-10 scale, with up to one decimal place (like 8.8)
• If you change your rating, delete your previous post
• No alt-account shenanigans
• Please suggest future games to rate
• If you want to rate a game you missed, make it clear in your post
• If there are multiple versions of the same game, rate your favorite
• Dont be a dick

Tracking Google Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18aVHprZfGYJAAgREmqqOwku3lIiNGkHTzuzevYiKhQk

Leaderboard:
1: Suikoden II - 9.29 (27)
2: XCOM 2 - 9.20 (5)
3: Resident Evil 4 - 9.17 (49)
4: Persona 5 - 9.15 (35)
5: Deus Ex - 9.14 (20)
6: Super Mario Bros 3 - 9.11 (45)
7: Baldur's Gate 3 - 9.10 (18)
8: Bloodborne - 9.06 (34)
9: Mass Effect 2 - 9.04 (34)
10: Persona 4 - 9.03 (43)
11: Super Metroid - 9.02 (42)
12: Disco Elysium - 9.01 (29)
13: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations - 9.00 (44)
14: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - 9.00 (34)
15: Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening - 8.98 (24)
16: WWF No Mercy - 8.96 (17)
17: Metal Gear Solid 2 - 8.96 (40)
18: Chrono Trigger - 8.95 (58)
19: FTL: Faster Than Light - 8.95 (12)
20: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 8.94 (20)
21: Yakuza 0 - 8.93 (17)
22: Umineko no Naku Koro ni - 8.92 (14)
23: Super Mario Galaxy 2 - 8.90 (40)
24: Astro Bot - 8.89 (27)
25: Half-Life 2 - 8.87 (26)
26: Red Dead Redemption 2 - 8.86 (14)
27: Civilization IV - 8.85 (16)
28: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - 8.84 (29)
29: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - 8.84 (37)
30: F-Zero GX - 8.80 (28)
31: Super Mario World - 8.80 (53)
32: Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.78 (35)
33: Metaphor: ReFantazio - 8.77 (23)
34: Portal 2 - 8.77 (41)
35: Nier: Automata - 8.74 (39)
36: Rayman Legends - 8.72 (21)
37: Bioshock - 8.71 (38)
38: Hades - 8.71 (40)
39: Fire Emblem: Three Houses - 8.71 (27)
40: Cyberpunk 2077 - 8.68 (17)
41: God of War (2018) - 8.68 (29)
42: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - 8.67 (34)
43: The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - 8.66 (16)
44: Outer Wilds - 8.65 (27)
45: Metal Gear Solid 3 - 8.65 (44)
46: Steins;Gate - 8.64 (17)
47: Xenoblade Chronicles - 8.64 (31)
48: Silent Hill 2 - 8.64 (23)
49: StarCraft - 8.63 (25)
50: Final Fantasy VII - 8.61 (54)
51: Elden Ring - 8.60 (38)
52: Diablo 2 - 8.60 (19)
53: Celeste - 8.60 (37)
54: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - 8.59 (47)
55: Fire Emblem 7 - 8.59 (40)
56: Tetris Attack - 8.58 (14)
57: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 8.57 (25)
58: Super Smash Bros Melee - 8.57 (53)
59: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 8.56 (44)
60: Metroid Prime - 8.55 (40)
61: Okami - 8.55 (31)
62: Batman: Arkham Asylum - 8.55 (32)
63: Team Fortress 2 - 8.54 (19)
64: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - 8.53 (39)
65: Fallout: New Vegas - 8.52 (18)
66: Final Fantasy X - 8.52 (59)
67: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.52 (42)
68: SoulCalibur II - 8.49 (36)
69: Mega Man X - 8.48 (37)
70: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 8.47 (42)
71: Resident Evil 2 (2019) - 8.47 (24)
72: Halo 2 - 8.45 (33)
73: Donkey Kong Country 2 - 8.43 (43)
74: Kirby Super Star - 8.43 (41)
75: Super Smash Bros Ultimate - 8.40 (46)
76: Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal - 8.40 (17)
77: Shadow Hearts: Covenant - 8.40 (10)
78: Spider-Man (2018) - 8.37 (26)
79: Street Fighter IV - 8.36 (22)
80: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - 8.36 (17)
81: Parasite Eve - 8.36 (14)
82: Super Mario 64 - 8.32 (61)
83: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 8.30 (53)
84: Triangle Strategy - 8.29 (14)
85: Dragon Quest V - 8.28 (19)
86: Hollow Knight - 8.27 (32)
87: Inscryption - 8.27 (15)
88: Monster Train - 8.26 (9)
89: Pokemon Red / Blue / Yellow - 8.24 (53)
90: It Takes Two - 8.23 (17)
91: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 8.22 (16)
92: Mass Effect 3 - 8.22 (31)
93: Sonic Mania - 8.19 (19)
94: Streets of Rage 2 - 8.18 (17)
95: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - 8.15 (30)
96: Horizon Zero Dawn - 8.15 (23)
97: Dead Cells - 8.14 (16)
98: Slay the Spire - 8.13 (27)
99: Pokemon Gold / Silver / Crystal - 8.10 (41)
100: Shovel Knight - 8.10 (23)
101: Ghost of Tsushima - 8.10 (21)
102: Super Street Fighter II Turbo - 8.10 (27)
103: DOOM (93) - 8.09 (22)
104: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - 8.08 (21)
105: Genshin Impact - 8.07 (8)
106: Guitar Hero II - 8.07 (27)
107: Sleeping Dogs - 8.06 (15)
108: Ori and the Blind Forest - 8.05 (26)
109: Return of the Obra Dinn - 8.03 (19)
110: Dark Souls - 8.02 (35)
111: Spelunky - 8.02 (20)
112: Tetris - 8.01 (52)
113: Mega Man 2 - 8.01 (33)
114: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - 8.00 (30)
115: Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - 7.99 (17)
116: Balatro - 7.99 (21)
117: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - 7.99 (42)
118: Vampire Survivors - 7.99 (27)
119: Wario Land 4 - 7.98 (15)
120: Star Fox 64 - 7.97 (41)
121: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 7.94 (41)
122: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - 7.93 (29)
123: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - 7.93 (41)
124: Mark of the Ninja - 7.91 (7)
125: Dead Space - 7.91 (20)
126: Ikaruga - 7.90 (12)
127: World of Warcraft - 7.89 (17)
128: Final Fantasy V - 7.88 (42)
129: Psychonauts - 7.85 (21)
130: Skies of Arcadia Legends - 7.83 (18)
131: Undertale - 7.82 (47)
132: Metroid Dread - 7.81 (32)
133: Control - 7.81 (22)
134: Viewtiful Joe - 7.80 (23)
135: Super Mario Bros - 7.79 (53)
136: Bioshock Infinite - 7.79 (28)
137: Final Fantasy VII Remake - 7.78 (31)
138: Final Fantasy XIV - 7.78 (24)
139: Xenogears - 7.77 (19)
140: The Walking Dead: Season One - 7.77 (34)
141: Katamari Damacy - 7.74 (33)
142: Tales of Symphonia - 7.73 (41)
143: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - 7.73 (26)
144: Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 7.69 (13)
145: God Hand - 7.69 (9)
146: 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 7.68 (33)
147: Blast Corps - 7.67 (16)
148: Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark - 7.67 (4)
149: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - 7.66 (39)
150: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - 7.66 (36)

151: The Last of Us - 7.65 (39)
152: Crypt of the NecroDancer - 7.64 (14)
153: Monster Hunter: World - 7.63 (11)
154: Crystalis - 7.61 (13)
155: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos - 7.61 (18)
156: Life is Strange - 7.59 (34)
157: Stardew Valley - 7.58 (25)
158: Assassin's Creed II - 7.56 (25)
159: Banjo-Kazooie - 7.54 (36)
160: N++ - 7.53 (7)
161: Xenoblade Chronicles X - 7.53 (10)
162: Grim Fandango - 7.53 (19)
163: Rocket League - 7.52 (24)
164: The Witness - 7.49 (20)
165: Recettear: An Item Shops Tale - 7.49 (18)
166: The World Ends with You - 7.47 (30)
167: Earthbound - 7.47 (41)
168: inFAMOUS: Second Son - 7.46 (12)
169: Worms Armageddon - 7.43 (20)
170: Final Fantasy IV - 7.43 (38)
171: Spyro 2: Riptos Rage - 7.42 (28)
172: Splatoon - 7.42 (6)
173: Contra - 7.41 (25)
174: Jak II - 7.39 (15)
175: Crash Bandicoot: Warped - 7.38 (26)
176: VVVVVV - 7.37 (34)
177: NBA Jam - 7.36 (23)
178: Bayonetta - 7.35 (23)
179: Xenosaga Episode I - 7.33 (18)
180: Braid - 7.28 (30)
181: Goldeneye 007 - 7.23 (27)
182: Octopath Traveler - 7.22 (23)
183: Chrono Cross - 7.20 (25)
184: Disney's Aladdin - 7.19 (29)
185: Final Fantasy VIII - 7.15 (45)
186: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - 7.14 (17)
187: Kingdom Hearts - 7.12 (55)
188: Sonic Generations - 7.10 (23)
189: Borderlands - 7.07 (17)
190: Shadow of the Colossus - 7.05 (44)
191: Golden Sun - 7.04 (36)
192: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - 6.88 (33)
193: Sonic Adventure 2 - 6.88 (38)
194: Overcooked! - 6.76 (15)
195: Gears of War 2 - 6.68 (10)
196: Super Meat Boy - 6.64 (26)
197: Tecmo Super Bowl - 6.64 (16)
198: Mortal Kombat II - 6.63 (25)
199: Command & Conquer: Red Alert - 6.61 (8)
200: Cassette Beasts - 6.55 (14)
201: Pokemon Sword / Shield - 6.47 (22)
202: Deathloop - 6.43 (15)
203: Secret of Mana - 6.40 (21)
204: Drakengard 3 - 6.25 (4)
205: Super Mario Sunshine - 6.23 (36)
206: Final Fantasy XIII - 6.05 (41)
207: League of Legends - 5.90 (21)
208: Wave Race 64 - 5.88 (24)
209: Mega Man 7 - 5.88 (25)
210: Donkey Kong 64 - 5.73 (35)
211: Dragon Warrior - 5.61 (21)
212: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - 5.49 (28)
213: Destiny - 5.48 (10)
214: Pokemon Go - 5.45 (32)
215: Fortnite - 5.28 (15)
216: Fallout 76 - 3.00 (5)
217: Devil May Cry 2 - 2.51 (21)
218: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - 2.27 (20)

Game 219 - Hearthstone

I would've rated it much higher years ago but I feel like it's fallen off hard...

6.5

3.3

I liked it for a time but it's just got too much RNG and ridiculousness to be much fun long term for me.

Here comes Ulti

Also it's probably being spared an even worse rating by me having not played it for years. I've watched some streams from youtubers fairly recently (covertgoblue a mtg streamer I like crosses over with hs a lot through rarran) and the meta seems WAY worse now.

9

I am probably the board 8er with the most hours on this, both in standard + battlegrounds. It has also had the effect of causing my backlog to become so big lately (as well as a influx of new games that seem great in the last decade)

I like it! Sometimes the meta is shaky, but thats the same with most online games. I have played a lot less than I used to but the meta right now is actually decent? Every class is at least playable, and there have been some where its like one or two.

To elaborate the pacing seems way too fast for me now and too much junk gets thrown on the screen too often. Way harder to follow game flow for me than it used to be which feels like a game I would enjoy less.

Lopen posted...

To elaborate the pacing seems way too fast for me now and too much junk gets thrown on the screen too often. Way harder to follow game flow for me than it used to be which feels like a game I would enjoy less.

oh its definitely a lot different than it was in 2014 or 15. Fatigue is very much a dead strategy and control generally is built around a win con and boards get way more swingy. Arena is effectively dead too.

thing is Im generally a sicko aggro lover (although I also enjoy whenever handlock is viable) so thats never bothered me. Hell even when I played Magic I mostly just did RDW in some style.

It's hard to rate this because I quit 8+ years ago and I understand the game is quite different now.

I enjoyed it while I could but eventually got tired of the grind and you can't enjoy the game at a high level without either grinding or spending hundreds of dollars.

Guess I'll say 6.5/10

As a control priest main, yeah, not a fan of where the meta has gone the past couple of years.

But I still find it really fun, currently my favorite decks are starship death knight, which is probably as close to a control deck as you're going to find anymore, and handbuff hunter, just because it's completely mindless to play and can lead to something completely absurd, such as dropping 34/30 in stats on turn 4.

That said, I'm really an arena main, where there's at least some semblance of trying to use minions to fight for board still.

8.5

It had a lot of ups and downs, but battlegrounds were pretty great when I still played.

8/10

Can I rate it if I only played it for like 4 hours and it was in the first year??

UltimaterializerX posted...

0/10

Did we get a 0 before
I actually had to check the rules to see if 0 is even allowed lol

There have been a few

5

It was good at times but I wouldn't play it again today

So I've played this game a lot. I don't play now since I quit during Whizbang (after playing pretty much straight through from classic to RoS - Outlands to Barrens - and then a longer break before coming back during Badlands and playing until a bit into Whizbangs.

I can't check exactly but I know I have like over 2000 wins with both Priest and Warlock, and maybe Rogue, and over 1000 with Paladin, Mage, Hunter, and I'm pretty sure Shaman. I don't really play druid or warrior a lot so I know they are pretty low. As for DK... I don't remember. I didn't actually play it at all until Plague DK was meta.

In Standard I have a handful of top 200 finishes and some other decent ones, but I was never consistent enough to really do anything that groundbreaking. I was also not a good tournament player and struggled outside of ladder when I entered qualifiers.

For Arena, I didn't really take it seriously after a while because eventually I found that the variance in it was just too great due to class card quality.

As for battlegrounds. I've hit 10K rating a couple of times and usually hit 8K if I really want to. But I really stopped focusing on it when they made it pay to win.

Fun thing: Here is a video of me vs kibler from the KotFT meta. Where I lose, but I think it's a good game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRaz9k5E4cI

Like for me rating this game, like a lot of games I've played a lot more several years is hard because of how high the highs are and how low the lows are. If it was like JUST standard I'd probably give it an 8 overall. But for as much complaining as I've done about standard, I think the pay to win in BGs, lack of real focus in arena, murder of duels, twists, and such, and how it's a thing Wild is drag down the score a bit.

6/10

UltimaterializerX posted...

Shes a spell for 7 mana now and you get all 5 Ysera cards for playing it. If you play a more expensive card first, you get all 5 dream cards in buffed form.

The best deck in the game currently plays an 8 mana card that automatically buffs the Ysera spell and casts it for you for free 3 turns in a row, and it cannot be answered or interacted with in any meaningful way. Blizzard hasnt nerfed it yet because they cant change the patch schedule that they themselves made.

LMAO that's amazing.

I'm not surprised-- card effects with verbal descriptions like this explains why I'd been watching streams and it seems like just this wave of cards flying around constantly despite the streamer doing his best to explain what's going on.

I'm going to stick with my 3.3-- I think that preserves the good early times I had with it in a sense and is what the science supports, but it really does sound like it'd drop into the 0s or 1s for me if I made an earnest attempt to try to play it these days.

Nanis23 posted...

Did we get a 0 before
I actually had to check the rules to see if 0 is even allowed lol

I've given 2 or 3. DK64 SotC and maybe one other. There is one other game I'd give a 0 off the top of my head we've yet to rate, and probably a few others I'm not thinking of.

I think Ulti's given like 10 at this point!

UltimaterializerX posted...

0/10

The worst game ever designed, without question. Like I actually wish I could rate it in the negatives. Its that bad.

Motion to strike. You are such a caricature.

I can't speak to what Hearthstone has been like since I let it go, but I played for seven years, and Ulti was raging in the Hearthstone topic for at least half of those...I find it incredibly disingenuous that someone would hold themselves prisoner to a game for over three years and still rate it 0/10, yet I have no doubt that this has little to do with recent changes. That's just ulti. Plays a game intensely, must enjoy it on some level or is a total masochist, and then rages about every little thing that rubs them wrong without acknowledging any of the good.

I know I'm going to get the counterpoint, "but mah ratings! Look at all of them!" That doesn't change the fact that the limited number of games where Ulti and I have crossed paths seem to universally involve Ulti coming in, asking for help, while getting frustrated with something, boiling over, getting help, continuing, getting mad about something else (often trivial,) and then harboring a grudge over that one or two things as justification for why EVERY LAST THING IN THE GAME IS AWFUL AND THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS SHOULD ALL BE FIRED AND BURN IN EVERLASTING DAMNATION!!!

Once Ulti has decided to hate a game, there is no going back, no redemption, and no positive qualities that remain. And yet he also persists in whatever his version of experiencing the game -- I hesitate to call it playing -- entails. I accepted this for Hollow Knight because Ulti says he has a completionist stream and doesn't put a game down once he's committed to it, but that's the thing: You can't complete Hearthstone. Either Ulti's never figured this out, or...*gasp*...he actually enjoyed himself.

During those years we overlapped, Ulti was a scourge in the Hearthstone topic, taking over any semblance of conversation with his raging, prompting me to put him on ignore and then begrudgingly back off at least a dozen times to be able to see the conversation. He eventually contracted another B8'er to finish the climb to legend for him, which is the closest the game has to a completion status. And then he continued playing. Along the way, he has cried about literally every single loss he ever took due to the randomness inherent in the game, like a poker player crying about having pocket aces busted by someone playing an objectively worse hand. In the poker world, they would call that person a bad player, and I'm convinced that's what ulti is -- a bad player and a bad sport.

If Ulti is allowed to rate the game 0/10, then I motion that whatever the average is without him, that I be allowed to rate the game double that to balance out, even if that would make my rating higher than a 10.

Tough one to rate since it's had a lot of variance over the years.

I think ... 6.5

azuarc posted...

would hold themselves prisoner to a game for over three years

I could absolutely see this playing to the detriment of a game if you felt you didn't get anything out of it with hindsight.

My League of Legends rating is actually a couple of points lower than it would be because it felt like a huge waste of time to play with more time away from it. I also will give FFIX a pretty low rating when we get to it and I believe if I hadn't done a thoroughly unfulfilling 100% of it I would actually rate it higher.

More playtime is not always good.

Lopen posted...

I could absolutely see this playing to the detriment of a game if you felt you didn't get anything out of it with hindsight.

Not hindsight. In the moment. Constantly playing, constantly raging, constantly going back for more.

Nobody is going to continue to play a game that long if they aren't enjoying it. The Ulti experience is getting to hear him go off on games he's playing while understanding that he must be getting something out of it even if he won't cop to it.

I re-read Ulti's post, and he does make it sound like the game went downhill after I stopped playing, but I also wholeheartedly believe that he would have given the game a 0/10 back then, too.

Nah

I constantly raged at League of Legends while I played it too. In particular I recall raging often when I was struggling to hit platinum rank one season which sounds a lot like the thing Ulti would have raged over.

Now granted my rating of League of Legends is 6.2 not 0 because there was actual legit strong fun there in between the rage, but I'm just saying you can't really take that to mean anything.

Rage playing a game to your completion goal because it's played some psychological trick on you is totally a thing that can happen. Like full disclosure I will not rate FFIX much higher than 0, and I played that game much more than far better FF games.

And I might buy that argument if it were only Hearthstone.

Live service games are always going to be tricky to rate because are you rating it for its current state? The memories you had of it? Team Fortress 2 generally is looked at fondly but are people still looking to play it now? How is a game like Overwatch or PUBG perceived vs the year it came out? This mindset is also probably why a lot of fighters today arent seen as well as ones in the past with less frequent updates.

I probably would have given it a lower score if this was around when I took a year long break (Nathria?) but Ive kinda just come to peace with it as a game I enjoy but mainly in moderation

do think Ulti probably needs a intervention though (he still plays just stop already if you hate it so much)

It's Ulti. He is actually pretty consistent

Lopen posted...

Rage playing a game to your completion goal because it's played some psychological trick on you is totally a thing that can happen

This is something that happens to him often and you can just tell. Like I love Warcraft 3 but I'm not going to try to invalidate his 0. It profiles as exactly the kind of game he'd 0. Just like Hearthstone does. Just like League of Legends would if he ever got into it.

Like here's Ulti's 0 formula

1. Started by liking the game or seeing some potential in it.
2. Put enough time that he got hooked on the game somehow
3. Ultimately ends up hating the game because he wanted to stop playing it way before he actually did

It's honestly not that hard to understand and it's not rage baiting

I didn't say it was rage baiting -- at least not for us. Arguably maybe for him.

I will concede that my biggest hating is usually reserved for something I expected to like and then did a full reversal on because something I didn't expect to like gets abandoned before I can get that far.

But if Ulti actually started by liking or seeing some potential, it would be nice if he would at least admit that once in a while instead of just constantly fuming and nitpicking. The pettiness of his choice of complaints is typically absurd, and he absolutely does not let anything go even when it isn't relevant in the moment. It feels more like every bad experience he has seeps in and poisons the entire product for him permanently, and he doesn't even know what he's mad at and lashes out at something randomly to blame it on.

Honestly though the number of live service games that are looked at better now than at launch may just be like two

(FFXIV and Sea of Thieves)

I'm not gonna argue the merits or lack thereof of Ulti's actual reviews I just think his ratings are genuine for as absurd as they are

If you want a game Ulti would rate like a 3 find a game that starts mediocre for him, he kinda sours on, but the game is fairly brief and has no completionist tendencies, difficulty spikes, or replay value so he doesn't get the playtime needed to spiral into hatred mode and just beats it and says "well that kinda sucked"

Lopen posted...

If you want a game Ulti would rate like a 3 find a game that starts mediocre for him, he kinda sours on, but the game is fairly brief and has no completionist tendencies, difficulty spikes, or replay value so he doesn't spiral into hatred mode and just beats it and says "well that kinda sucked"

This doesn't describe Hollow Knight at all though

Oh he gave Hollow Knight a 3?

Well that's probably "really liked it a ton early and it got frustrating to play late but unlike Hearthstone had a finite end so he was able to stop playing before he completely hated it"

Lopen posted...

I'm not gonna argue the merits or lack thereof of Ulti's actual reviews I just think his ratings are genuine for as absurd as they are

If you want a game Ulti would rate like a 3 find a game that starts mediocre for him, he kinda sours on, but the game is fairly brief and has no completionist tendencies, difficulty spikes, or replay value so he doesn't get the playtime needed to spiral into hatred mode and just beats it and says "well that kinda sucked"

counterpoint: Shadow of the Colossus

Basically the key is how long Ulti remains compelled to play a game once he's passed into disliking it. If that drags sufficiently long it will inevitably become a 0. If he didn't like the game much to begin with but is beating it because of some external reason or it got its hooks in early it will inevitably become a 0.

LiquidOshawott posted...

counterpoint: Shadow of the Colossus

Probably completed it entirely because of hype and was rage playing it 95% of the time.

Ulti may rank Hearthstone a 0 but his history playing it implies at least a 6.

That being said, him giving it a 0 here was always expected and if that's how he feels, that's how he feels. Addiction is a tough thing to break.

People can rank things however they like. This isn't meant to be objective. Ulti just rates purely on emotion, and hatred is his strongest one, so you get a lot of low scores from him.

Ulti gives more 0s AND more 10s than anyone but I don't think this is him gaming the system I think that's just how he is.

He was raging about how it's the worst game ever and the developers should be fired back when I played it. He never seemed to enjoy the game despite playing it for thousands of hours

I haven't played in a long, long time. I was a control main in a game where they clearly didn't want control to exist.

So then I started to just play Battlegrounds. But then they fucked it up too.

So... Same score as WoW. High highs, low lows.

5

I think that's the problem for me with any game that goes on forever, there's always going to be good and bad parts and obviously the bad parts will make me quit but I still have fondness for the good parts.

FFDragon posted...

I think that's the problem for me with any game that goes on forever, there's always going to be good and bad parts and obviously the bad parts will make me quit but I still have fondness for the good parts.

yeah and the thing is thats just how gaming is at this point, some online games are just going to go on forever (WoW, the MOBAs, Pokemon Go, Fortnite, this game probably) or over a decade (GTA Online and Destiny come to mind, good thing I never got into either). and then sometimes they are just Concord and die in like a week.

Maybe its more just enjoy it while it lasts

Lopen posted...

Ulti gives more 0s AND more 10s than anyone but I don't think this is him gaming the system I think that's just how he is.

I didn't say he's "gaming" the system -- because I don't think he's tossing these ratings with any sort of intent. But when the median score on this list is an 8 (#109/218 is 8.03), giving a game a 0 hurts it far more than giving it a 10. Especially for a game that ultimately doesn't have that many ratings -- we might be at almost the end of page 1, but I see a total of 12 ratings. Hearthstone won't clock in at an 8 even sans Ulti, but if a game with 12 ratings did, and then receives a 0, it would fall 63 spots in the ranking. There's a reason why in educational circles, there's a strong push to disallow assigning zeroes even for work that is never turned in -- it makes the average irretrievable for a struggling student to get above failing because of how much weight a 0 has in a system where the average is, would have been, or should be well above halfway. I know this is a different circumstance, but the fact that this one rating is effectively holding the game hostage still feels really bad for people who care about the game in question as more than just a random entry on a leaderboard for everything else to leapfrog.

And I don't think the zero is genuine. Like, I know Ulti has tricked himself into believing it. I'm not claiming he's a liar. But I do think he's objectively incorrect. Or he really needs to fix his priorities and stop playing games he rates so poorly all the time. However, the zeal he talks about the game -- and which he is capable of talking about it in private conversations -- demonstrates that this is not absolutely zero-point-zero out of 10.

So while people are free to rate games however they like, this doesn't sit well with me at all.

Honestly I dont think Ive spent money in years. Not caring about the glowing Rag or Cthun portraits is probably how

have considered the BG pass at times just because of the double heroes but most heroes are at least playable right now

I've played every day since the Summer of 2014.

9.5

I've always enjoyed myself- when the standard meta is in a rough place I just mix things up by playing a little more Battlegrounds or Arena or Wild (or Classic while that was up).

The designers do make some pretty questionable decisions on release, but I like that they've embraced the "digital" in digital card game in recent years and so things get adjusted in balance patches every two weeks or so, which also keeps BGs and Standard feeling fresh. (I'll admit they could stand to be a little more proactive with Arena and Wild adjustments though.)

The only criticism I'll slightly object to is Battlegrounds being labeled Pay To Win. It's true that free players only get the choice of two heroes instead of four at the select screen, but with the game leaning heavily into non-hero specific "special enhancements" in the last couple years (Tavern Spells always in the shop, Trinkets/Quest Rewards unlocked on turn 4/6, Anomalies changing how the whole lobby needs to play), the impact of your hero choice has been greatly diminished since BGs launched in their vanilla state.

...which makes it more of a "pay to have extra fun" situation (since you're obviously more likely to be offered a flashy hero like Reno when you have the extra options). And I'm personally okay with that!