Random Subject Saturday - Hearthstone (A.K.A. My Newest Addiction)

Hello and welcome to Random Subject Saturday; that day of the week where I tell you about a really awesome game I started playing, and mention how terrible I am at it.

I'm really bad at this game...

If by some strange twist of fate you like card games, and don't mind playing them on a computer, then boy do I have the game for you. (It's certainly the game for me... It's almost physically painful stopping for long enough to write my daily blog posts.)

About a day ago I started playing Blizzard's online card game: Hearthstone. (And I haven't slept since...) Initially not sure if the game would be pretty fun, I had been for the most part avoiding the game ever since it came out a few months ago, barring the occasional TotalBiscuit video. (he being one of the YouTubers I spoke about here) That was until a day ago when I figured; "Well, I always say I'll try anything twice, lets give this a whack." Jeeze but is it way more fun that I expected.

A friendly title welcomes you to only thing you'll be doing for next few days.

 Hearthstone is a something of an Online Trading Card Gamed, barring the trading part, in which players use decks of cards comprising of spells and minions that they themselves can create themselves, in order to beat the opposing player. Sounds fairly much like any other card game you've ever played no? To be fair, you're mostly right. Those of you who are familiar with the card game Magic: The Gathering will find yourselves largerly at home with rules of Hearthstone, with creatures starting out asleep, or "tapped" as you would think of it in Magic, and the player has an allotted amount of mana to use each turn, with an additional regenerating mana crystal accruing each turn, up to a maximum of ten.

As it turns out, familiarity does not mean you'll be any better at the game.

So the question is, (as I'm sure you're wondering), if Hearthstone doesn't do anything new, why is it worth playing? To be honest, it's just good fun, and it's free. I've always been a believer that anything you get for free is something you cannot complain about, (barring a select few circumstances). The game bases itself around the earning of gold coins from quests in order to unlock new packs of (5) cards. What I like is that none of the cards are restricted by any form of paywall, and you can get any of the rarer cards with enough determination. For those of you without the time, but with the paycheck to want something quicker, Hearthstone does allow you to pay real money for packs with better chances of rare cards; and to be frank I think that is something of a fair exchange.

The opening of new card packs is about as fun as doing so in real life.
(I was too stupid to realize what to do with this screen at first though.)

And again, it's just good fun. Hearthstone is basically a result of the same argument that follows every installment of Call of Duty, without the long stream of actual predecessors behind it. Many people would argue Call Of Duty is stupid for doing the same things every year, and perhaps it is, but enough people seem to be fine with that, that they continue to buy it anyway. Why? Because it's fun. Ain't broke, don't fix it. As long as the current Call Of Duty formula remains popular, it will remain an annualized title. The same ideas apply to Hearthstone, which uses a lot of the better concepts from other card games, but does so in an entertaining way. And what more does a game need to be than entertaining? Again, it is also free.

Even when losing, which I do frequently, it's still an entertaining game.

Final verdict: If you're bored, or a card game enthusiast, I think Hearthstone is definitely worth a look at. Unoriginal it may be in terms of some of it's gameplay mechanics, Hearthstone is still a fairly large amount of fun to play and for some of the crazier types that enjoy learning the in's and out's of things (read: OddballGreg), also makes for an interesting puzzle in creating the best decks.

Anyways, that's enough out of me. I hope that you have perhaps found something of interest in this post, or at least were somewhat entertained by the strange things that I say. If you know of any other online card games you would like me to try, or perhaps have a comment of your own about Hearthstone, consider leaving it in the box below. Also, consider sharing this with any friends who are bored to death, maybe they'll like Hearthstone too. If you would like to see more posts like these or just want to read more of my strange ramblings, perhaps consider liking my Facebook page or following me on Twitter using the associated button on the sidebar to the right. Regardless of what you do, I hope you have/had and AWESOME day, and I will see you tomorrow.

Totsiens vriende.