Hearthstone: Free-to-Play or Pay-to-Win?

It might seem as if Hearthstone is more Pay-to-Win than Free-to-Play. But fear not – COG’s Cole Jackson shows you how you can maximize your Hearthstone buying and playing strategies to the get the most bang for your buck.

[micx]

I'd say Pay2Win more than Free2Play. Unless you want to grind for a year or so, you'll have to shell out 100-150 bucks.

[LifeInNZ]

Granted, but look how long some people play this game because they enjoy it. $100 is not much to spend when you look at it that way. I've paid more than that for some supposed AAA games that only last 6-10 hours.

Lets not forget Eye of Judgement which was a similar game. Not only did you have to shell out for a PS3Eye and the game but to stay competitive you had to keep buying card packs.

[mattdillahunty]

i've played the game for about a year now, and I've probably spent around $150 in total on it, most of the money going towards packs and the PvE Adventure content.

i think the model is somewhere between free to play and pay to win. I went for many months without spending money on Hearthstone, so i know what it's like to have to build up your decks through packs from quest reward gold or arena runs. it sucks, and it feels restrictive. i would constantly think, "wow, that deck looks really cool. i wish i could try it, but i don't have those legendaries and epics." and it sucks.

on the other hand, there are plenty of cheap decks you can make that you can win with. Face Hunter is currently one of the easiest decks to get legend rank with, and you can make the entire thing without any epics or legendaries (which means it costs next to nothing). another good deck that's easy to make is Mech Mage, and you can get legend with that if you're dedicated.

lastly, having great cards does not make you good, and it does not mean you'll win. there are plenty of people stuck between rank 5 and 20 that have Dr. Boom, Tirion, Ragnaros, Sylvanas, etc. and they just don't know how to play the game at a high level.

i think that more than anything, the game feels restrictive if you don't spend money. like i said, it's no fun when you want to try a new deck but you just don't have the cards or dust to make it. and that can turn a lot of people off to the game. nobody wants to be forced to use a certain deck type, even if it's a good deck.

as a side note, Blizzard better have something planned down the road once more and more expansions are released. imagine a new player wanting to get into the game when Naxx, GvG, BRM, and a few other expansions have been released. it would be extremely daunting, regardless of whether the person wants to spend money. hopefully Blizz will have some sort of reduced price package deal by that point.

[ScubbaSteve]

Most of the card games are P2W. Even the real life predecessors were P2W. That said they can still be fun and there is always the excitement of collecting cards. The problem I have with these are just the price tag and how often the games don't let you trade cards. Unless you're dead set on grinding for cards they may as well have you hooked up to a machine because they're going to milk you each card expansion.

[grailly]

It depends on how you play it, I've been playing it totally F2P since the early beta.

Many people just shell out the money because they see decks online and want to build the exact same one, and in that case it's more P2W. On the other hand, for me, trying to build a deck from the cards I have feels challenging and fun.

[Digital_Anomaly]

The free-to-play model is very rarely a true free game. I mean getting by and succeeding are two different things and if you want success in these games then inevitably you'll spend cash.

Still, it's nice to get tips on how to not spend as much!

[Jdoki]

Pay2Win...

Win what? Legendary 1? Then yeah, you need a lot of cards, and will need to spend some money.

Pay 2 Be Competitive at your skill level?

Pay 2 Have Fun?

Both of those can be done for free.

Spending money will allow you to build competitive decks and more closely follow the meta - but it doesn't automatically make you a better player, and won't guarantee you wins.

It's a ridiculous idea to categorise the game 'Pay2Win' - it's not black or white.

[Slevon]

You can get by for a while FTP but if you want to get into the top ranks you will need cards that just take to long to grind. Arena is near useless for newcomers to gain anything good. I will not buy packs in the game but I am okay with the card expansions

[TheROsingleB]

You do know that the cards you get in Arena to build a deck are not limited by what you have in your own collection, right?
A player can come in brand new, just play the arena and would have access to every card in the game library. What you are given to choose is still completely random, but all the cards are there.

[Slevon]

I know, i just feel the risk vs reward in the arenas is not worth a new player saving up 300 coins to play in. IMO

[skyrimer]

Pay 2 win at its worst. As soon as you start doing well, you'll start playing against opponents with 1-5 legendary cards easily, and tons of very rare cards.

If they limited the amount of legendary/rare cards per deck, it would be at least a bit more fair, as it is, it's under a huge paywall to be competitive, or play 8 hours a day to earn enough gold.

[Takwin]

It absolutely is not pay to win unless you mean tournaments and consistent legendary rank.

You can get to rank 5 EASILY with basic cards and legendary with a lot of skill and budget decks (see: Trump budget mage and many since him).

I have spent $50 on the adventures and maybe $80 on packs and I consider it absolutely a deal when I consider how much fun I have had playing over almost 2 years now AND how many hours I have put into it.

[kevnb]

You don't need to pay, but it does save time.