At first it didn’t seem Blizzard minded that a not insubstantial chunk of Hearthstone players weren’t human, but that turned out not to be the case. Then, when the Naxxramas expansion hit, the developer appeared nonchalant about people being locked out of the game’s online store for months on end. Now it’s come good on this issue too and awarded affected gamers with some rather juicy swag.
Over the last week or so, Blizzard has been supply players hit with the “closed shop” bug with free packs and a healthy amount of gold. The amounts seem to differ from person to person, but the general numbers appear to be 40 for card packs and between 1600-3200 gold.
On Reddit, a player by the name of Gindaff received the following email:
Not the zero charge for the purchase.
It also turns out Blizzard had been investigating the issue since Naxxarams launched, according to “Daxxarri”, a customer service representative, though it took until the eve of the next expansion’s release of the company to solve the problem:
We haven’t been ignoring the issue, and in fact, we’ve had team members dedicated solely to fixing this and related issues since they appeared in the wake of the Curse of Naxxramas release. Despite that this has been a top priority, and we have resolved these issues for many players over the last few months, we know that this is unacceptable, and we’re very sorry for the impact this has had on you.
A post on Blizzard’s Hearthstone forums was recently updated with the following information:
First, some good news. We recently applied a fix for many of those who have been affected by this issue. Emails with additional information will be sent to those affected by this fix.
With the release of the Goblins vs. Gnomes patch, we will also be rolling out fixes that will re-open the Shop for those who remain affected. Upon logging in once the upcoming Gobins vs Gnomes patch is applied, Shop access will be made available to this group of players.
What I had trouble finding was an official announcement regarding the free packs and gold for affected players, though it’s possible Blizzard is keeping it on the down-low as not to antagonise players who weren’t affected. I know that sounds strange, but these types of people do exist.
Comments
7 responses to “Why Is Blizzard Handing Out Packs And Gold Days Before Goblins Vs Gnomes?”
This article needs some editing:
“so Blizzard has been *supplying* players hit with the closed shop bug”
“*note* the zero charge for the purchase”
Sadly it is human nature to always want what others have that we do not already possess. Then, if we do have something, it is never good enough.
Actually Hearthstone is very much pay to win. I play it a healthy amount, and sure I win a fair amount of games, but a lot of games I’ve lost too due to bs cards. I have been “cheap” in that I didn’t buy any card packs, or the Naxx wings(and unlocked them via in-game playing). Should a player have an advantage simply because they spend money, vs another player? By freebie-ing packs and gold to specific players and not everyone, Blizzard give them an advantage and a pat on the back. Meanwhile, in WoW I’ve spent thousands of dollars, and there’s no favouritism when people have queues over 4k to get in, or when fighting with bots in battlegrounds.
So does this make me a little disgruntled? Yeah. I would like Blizzard to treat everyone like a valued customer, not just their favourites. But whatever. The one free arena game with G&G is a good example of how to do things.
Hearthstone isn’t pay to win, it’s free to play, with a ‘pay to speed up’ mechanic. There’s currently nothing you can get with money that you can’t also get with in-game gold, the only difference is speed.
All cards can be earned in-game without paying any money, with the exception of the Elite Tauren Chieftain, and maybe one or two other promotional cards. You don’t know how your opponents acquired the “BS cards” you say you lost games to, they may well have acquired them in-game, and you have the same opportunity. That’s not called pay to win, that’s called progression. What you can do is pay to speed up that progression rate, and that’s a mechanic that is common to free to play games.
Pay to speed up to win. Does that make you happier? If two people of relatively equal skill play the game the same amount, and one of those people also buys card packs and the naxx wing with rl money, there is an almost certainty that the person who spent money will have a tactical card advantage. This card advantage should enable the player to win games in situations where the other player couldn’t, until the other player catches up. I’m not a lone voice in the wind; Google some key words like “Pay to Win Hearthstone” and others will reciprocate what I’ve said.
I have the Elite Tauren Chieftain card, not even sure what that was from. And sure I don’t KNOW; maybe they botted or were EXTREMELY LUCKY or something too. But I have played the game a fair amount, and getting a string of OP legendaries dumped on me kind of suggests that they spent some $. Don’t get me wrong; Hearthstone is a great ftpptw game. I’ve just lost games due to aforementioned string of legendaries and nodded solemnly because I accept it, I don’t emote “well played” and I go onto the next game. Dota is another great ftp game, but in that case you are on equal footing with any other player no matter how much money anyone throws at the screen. You will just look cooler if you do.
Don’t take my response as argumentative, I’m more curious than combative. Why does speed matter? Card packs are randomised, you can get 5 legendaries in the same pack if you’re lucky. I’ve gotten this before, which I thought was pretty lucky. And aside from that, there’s always going to be someone who played more than you did and unlocked cards faster than you did, whether there’s paid avenues for that or not.
The thing is you really don’t know how your opponent earned his cards. Trump has played 3 different decks to legendary rank without spending a single cent on those accounts. Some players have probably played twice as much as you and unlocked twice as many cards. The issue you described in your first post seems to be that you don’t like coming up against players with more card options than you, but it doesn’t seem to really matter where those cards came from, it’s just the fact they have them.
Side note: the regular ETC can be crafted, but the gold ETC was only available from attending Blizzcon 2013.
Speed matters because the early advantage can let you blitz more games, which in turn rewards you with more gold and cards. It’s like if you could twink a lvl1 character in WoW or D3 with a lvl30 weapon and armour by spending money. No other lvl1 chars can fairly compete unless they either spend money or put in the time to cross that threshold… and sure they could get the lvl 30 stuff at lvl30, but by that point the significant advantage is lost. It does matter less over time as more ppl play, but then again if you encourage a friend to play the game right now, they’re also looking at a significant hurdle unless they pay.
Yes I don’t really know. I play more WoW than Hearthstone. But the chances of getting legendaries ARE low(1 in 20 packs?), and statistically you can offset that by buying packs, which in turn does give people a winning advantage. Did they or didn’t they? Maybe they didn’t… but a lot of players do, and there are times that I am almost certain that they did. Trump is a professional player with expert card knowledge and spends countless hours with Hearthstone… using him as example that it can be done isn’t the best example of balance. It’s like showing the underdog winning in a 1:9 matchup.
Ah thanks I think I got the ETC from the virtual ticket(which I buy for the WoW pets). Yes spending rl money, but coincidental! =)
It is a known fact that if you were to take a deck full of legendary cards and a deck full of basic/common cards the basic/common cards would win due to the fact that basic/common cards have more synergy and most times are just plain out better. It’s not pay to win, you just seem like you want some free cards because you hate grinding.