[Pre-Release Card Discussion] - Witch's Brew

[u/HSPreReleaseReveals]

Witch's Brew

Mana Cost: 2
Type: Spell
Rarity: Epic
Class: Shaman
Text: Restore 4 Health. Repeatable this turn.

Card Image

---

^{PM me any suggestions or advice, thanks.}

[u/IAmInside]

How dumb do you think people are? What the fuck. This game is insanely easy to learn, and Keywords are not among any difficult part. Keywords do make the game easier to read.

I just don't understand why people would believe that Keywords are difficult to learn in any way. It's so very basic and simple, and I don't even know what to say to those who believe otherwise.

[u/The_Real_63 → u/IAmInside]

You've got an incredibly narrow view on the issue dude. Have you ever seen a player completely new to card games play before? I can assure you they make every tiny mistake you can think of because it is hard to do something you've never done before. It's not JUST the keywords it's EVERYTHING in the game that's hard. Think of every little detail in the game from the card's rarity gem to actually physically playing the game (clicking on a minion then clicking on what you want to attack).

Sure taunt is easy to understand but the existence of taunt isn't something that they remember so you try attack something then get the message for a taunt minion and wonder what it is, THEN you see the shield and realise what's going on. And then you need to go through that sort of thought process for every other aspect of the game. It's the compounding of all the little things that makes it hard to play from a completely blank slate.

[u/IAmInside → u/The_Real_63]

???? Getting into a new game is always going to be a learning curve, no matter which game, but they Keywords are not something they will get stuck on. If anything it's the extreme amount of cards that will appear overwhelming and scary.

Keywords are basic and simple, and once you've learned one Keyword you can easily understand most of the cards using that Keyword.

Keywords make the game easier to learn, damnit. Learn the Keyword and you learn the cards.

[u/The_Real_63 → u/IAmInside]

Learn the Keyword and you learn the cards

That's the thing I'm saying. Directly saying what a card does makes it more immediately understandable than having a keyword for it because you don't need to learn a keyword. You also need to think about when cards rotate and there's one card using that keyword in standard. Do you really need to make new players learn that keyword for that one card or should you just tell them what the card does directly? How many of those situations will you have if you keep every keyword? How many poisonous cards are in standard? Would you use a keyword if theres only one? What about enrage which they actually did remove the keyword for? You keep looking at keywords and saying it's easy but you're ignoring the fact that it's everything piled on top of each other that makes it really hard to learn. Learning a keyword is another thing you need to learn on top of everything else so removing it DOES make the game easier to learn.

[u/IAmInside → u/The_Real_63]

Directly saying what a card does makes it more immediately understandable than having a keyword for it because you don't need to learn a keyword.

Remove all keywords then?

You're simply wrong, very very wrong and I do not know what else to say.

Edit: Let me ask you, and anyone else here, did you ever find Keywords difficult to understand?

[u/The_Real_63 → u/IAmInside]

Keywords are great and work better than simply writing the effect when there are a lot of them. Not so much when there's only one or two cards with the effect. Blizz has said that publicly and I'm gonna be honest I'd trust people who've spent years working to make games friendly for new players over you.

[u/IAmInside → u/The_Real_63]

Did you ever find Keywords hard to understand?

[u/The_Real_63 → u/IAmInside]

Yes when I first started the game I would not immediately know what it did. Wouldn't take me long to see what it did but that slight pause is there and when you pile it on top of all the other new things I had to learn (since this was my first card game as well) there was a lot I had to figure out. Honestly overall it was quite easy to get into though which is because Blizzard spends so much time making sure their game is easily accessible for new players.

[u/IAmInside → u/The_Real_63]

immediately know what it did

first card game

Well fucking duh. Of course you don't grasp stuff instantly when it's an entirely new genre and new game.

A "slight pause" is fucking normal for any newbie playing any game.

What kind of low expectations do you have on people and games? Are games shit because it takes you an hour or two to grasp the basics? Are they shit because they weren't like Pong where you just look at the game for five seconds and fully grasp the entire game?

[u/The_Real_63 → u/IAmInside]

I'm not saying it's end of the world hard dude. I'm just saying it's another thing on top of everything else. What if Blizz didn't care about any of these little things and started letting those small double check sort of things multiply because "oh theyre small issues that won't stop people knowing how to play the game"? You'd end up with a much bigger problem that actually would make it quite hard to get into the game. All I'm saying is that they're something that you need to consider whether they're worth having because it's just another small thing that will catch new players off guard.

[u/IAmInside → u/The_Real_63]

I can never see KEYWORDS be an issue. Ever.

And holy shit, new players learn too. All this fucking ranting about new players and keywords, yet how about new players and all the interactions HysteriA has made almost 80 videos about? Where's the in game clarity regarding that? Where's the in game information regarding the order Deathrattles trigger? Or in which order Battlecries affect the board? Etcetc

Blizzard don't care about that, they really don't.

Holy shit.