The online game I've played the most is Dota, by a large margin and so I'm quite used to the game's environment- You have a bunch of people (mostly students and young professionals) who play a game for a variety of reasons. Everyone increases in skill by spending more time playing, but there are generally skill caps which players hit- beyond a level they dont increase in skill by just playing more. The caps are different for different players, and obviously professional players cap at very high levels of skill. Hearthstone, which is another game I spent a lot of time on- is rather different. While you naturally increase in skill by playing more of the game, a lot of success depends on the cards you have collected in game (Dota has all heroes/items available to everyone). Cards can be either gained by playing a lot- now I mean a LOT, or you can spend money and just buy them. This is why many players complain about Hearthstone being 'pay to win', since you can definitely pay real life money to have an advantage in the virtual world the game has.
I've always hated pay to win games. 'Mafia Wars' is a game I spent some time on- playing in facebook. I quit the game when I felt the extreme 'pay to win' nature the game had. From an idealistic point of view, Dota requires for more skill than Hearthstone and is far purer a game than Hearthstone just because of the difference in the nature of micro-transactions that can be done. Dota allows you to buy items to use in game, but purely for cosmetic purposes.
Let's look at the competitive scene in both games. Dota has a few teams which are considered as the world's best, and there are small differences as time goes by and the nature of the game itself changes (due to patches to improve the game balace etc.) but good players remain good players more or less. The nature of competitive gaming is so that only the very best are rewarded (unlike real world sports where you can earn a living by being say the 500th best in the world- say at Cricket or Football) and considering this fact, the top players in Dota remain at the top more or less, even if they fall slightly out of the limelight which focuses only on the very best. Hearthstone, in spite of all the luck present in the game- still has a relatively stable pool of world famous players. However this is more due to their personality and ability to network with the world's best, than due to them being decisively better at the game. Someone like a Kolento might actually have been the best at the game- if only the game allowed this. There is too much randomness to the game, and players' success can only be judged by their win percentage over a large number of games against similarly ranked opponents. This is why tournaments often see surprise victors in Hearthstone, but rarely in Dota.
A quick look at twitch however will show that there is almost always a larger number of people watching hearthstone than Dota. There are also atleast as many or close to as many people playing Hearthstone as Dota. But why? - Dota is clearly a far superior game in the sense that it requires more skill than luck or real world money. The answer is that people dont necessarily want to watch a pure game. They dont want to necessarily play a game that measures their skill accurately. They want a little bit of luck- that extra little edge they get by using real world money. This can be compared to the dislike people have for purely capitalistic economies where they get rewarded exactly based on their merits, and not on recommendations by friends and relatives/bribes etc. Add on top of that the marketing budget that Blizzard has for Hearthstone, thanks to all the money made through in-game card sales.
I, however, am a lover of meritocracy- an idealist. And as such, I could not stand Hearthstone for long and got tired of the randomness and luck and the pay-to-win nature of the game. If I was so lazy as to want my real life job to influence my advantage in a game, why play the game at all- it breaks all immersion.
I've always hated pay to win games. 'Mafia Wars' is a game I spent some time on- playing in facebook. I quit the game when I felt the extreme 'pay to win' nature the game had. From an idealistic point of view, Dota requires for more skill than Hearthstone and is far purer a game than Hearthstone just because of the difference in the nature of micro-transactions that can be done. Dota allows you to buy items to use in game, but purely for cosmetic purposes.
Let's look at the competitive scene in both games. Dota has a few teams which are considered as the world's best, and there are small differences as time goes by and the nature of the game itself changes (due to patches to improve the game balace etc.) but good players remain good players more or less. The nature of competitive gaming is so that only the very best are rewarded (unlike real world sports where you can earn a living by being say the 500th best in the world- say at Cricket or Football) and considering this fact, the top players in Dota remain at the top more or less, even if they fall slightly out of the limelight which focuses only on the very best. Hearthstone, in spite of all the luck present in the game- still has a relatively stable pool of world famous players. However this is more due to their personality and ability to network with the world's best, than due to them being decisively better at the game. Someone like a Kolento might actually have been the best at the game- if only the game allowed this. There is too much randomness to the game, and players' success can only be judged by their win percentage over a large number of games against similarly ranked opponents. This is why tournaments often see surprise victors in Hearthstone, but rarely in Dota.
A quick look at twitch however will show that there is almost always a larger number of people watching hearthstone than Dota. There are also atleast as many or close to as many people playing Hearthstone as Dota. But why? - Dota is clearly a far superior game in the sense that it requires more skill than luck or real world money. The answer is that people dont necessarily want to watch a pure game. They dont want to necessarily play a game that measures their skill accurately. They want a little bit of luck- that extra little edge they get by using real world money. This can be compared to the dislike people have for purely capitalistic economies where they get rewarded exactly based on their merits, and not on recommendations by friends and relatives/bribes etc. Add on top of that the marketing budget that Blizzard has for Hearthstone, thanks to all the money made through in-game card sales.
I, however, am a lover of meritocracy- an idealist. And as such, I could not stand Hearthstone for long and got tired of the randomness and luck and the pay-to-win nature of the game. If I was so lazy as to want my real life job to influence my advantage in a game, why play the game at all- it breaks all immersion.
