This morning, Blizzard announced a new online collectible card game (CCG) that's free-to-play. 'Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft' is an homage to games like 'Magic: The Gathering', and features many of the beloved characters from the 'Warcraft' series.
The game is being created with the player in mind, and not just for hardcore CCG players. They want it to be as accessible as possible to players of all skill sets, and have players be able to jump on at any point in time and not feel left behind (such as they did with 'World of Warcraft').
So far, they have planned for over 300 cards in the game, with 5 cards in each individual pack. Players can either earn the packs of cards to play with, or buy them individually. Although Blizzard has not yet decided on a cemented price per pack, they're thinking around $1 will be the price come launch. They will run through Alpha and Beta and decide what will be best.
To stray away from the standard 2D card game, Blizzard plans to have the 'Hearthstone' animated, to bring more immersion to the game. The goal is to make it more fun and exciting than current online card games.
You play the game as one of the 'Warcraft' heroes, much as you do in the physical 'World of Warcraft' card game. Another thing that's being pulled from the physical card game is the rarity of cards. There will be different rarities, such as "rare", "epic", and "legendary" for cards of different types. Blizzard is also including a mechanic to use multiple cards of the same type, as well as card crafting on the player's part. There will be an included tutorial which will help you create your deck, or you can just let the game create a deck for you.
'Hearthstone' is focused on 1 vs 1 play, and will make use of the battle.net matchmaking system. When you duel enough people, the player will earn medals, which they can then turn in for more booster packs to create a stronger deck.
The game is playable today at PAX East, and according to Pardo, it'll be an, "experiment" to see if Blizzard can, "announce a game and release it in the same year".
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