Over the past few days, the Hearthstone community has shared its thoughts on the game’s new rewards track. The feedback has been so overwhelmingly negative that Blizzard has issued a response.
When the new Hearthstone rewards track was teased by the development team, Blizzard assured players they wouldn’t earn less gold for time spent. But after players like Jesse Alexander, Octavian “Kripp” Morosan, and more pointed out this wasn’t the case, Blizzard decided to respond.
In a blue post by Hearthstone game director Ben Lee, Blizzard apologized for what it called “confusion and disappointment.” Lee said during the natural progression of the rewards cycle, the team’s intention is to “give out extra XP over time through a variety of ways.” This is, according to Lee, intended to help players get through the rewards track overall and to help players catch up if they join later in the expansion.
Lee said part of the confusion comes from the fact that Blizzard didn’t provide any details on how seasonal events will impact the reward cycle. The developers believe that the bonus XP given during the seasonal events should make it so that players earn more rewards than they did in the previous system. Lee claims the lack of this knowledge is what led to the “incomplete projections” that players have come up with over the past few days.
The team does agree, however, with a point that was made about the pack rewards at the end of the new track. Many players felt that six packs at the end of the track weren’t worth the effort it took to get there. The team agrees, according to Lee, and will be updating the track so that these six packs are now 1,350 gold you can spend on whatever you want, including packs.
“Our goal for the Rewards Track continues to be that all Hearthstone players earn more gold and total rewards per expansion,” Lee said. “We’ll continue to evaluate the impact of these changes, listen to your feedback, and iterate as needed until we get it right.”
