On the weekend, I was able to try Blizzards latest released game
HearthStone, finally. It is free to play, and apparently not one of those evil "pay to win" games. In short, it's basically a collectible card game, and reminds me very much on
Magic: The Gathering - admittedly being the only collectible card game I ever played :)
In short, the game is fun, the rules are very simple, it is learnable quickly, and seems to be fair and balanced. If you are a PC gamer and in your mid 30s like me, you will also like the occasional
Warcraft II reference, including various Warcraft 2 soundtracks playing in the background. Additionally, the game is ideal for an "old" gamer like me: I don't have much time to play games, and it is possible to quickly start it and play it for a short amount of time, and have fun.
But there are also bad sides:
I'm pretty new to this game, so my impression might be wrong, but as newbie, it is very, very difficult to win a game against people who already own hardened decks and advanced cards. I currently have a win-loose ratio of about 1:20, I think. One time a player decided not to kill me although he could have, but to heal me instead. Assuming he had done a misclick, I continued to play, struggling for my life. But after a few rounds, the same happened again: Instead of finishing me, he healed me and continued playing, demonstrating his superiority. I felt like a mouse in the clutches of a cat, pretty helpless. It's a bit frustrating, being confronted with overpowered players like this. I'm not sure if the disabled possibility to chat in the game is positive or negative in that respect.
Regardless, it is fun and I'm looking forward to the game being available on my Windows RT tablet. :)
Basically, the ranked matches are generally easier than casual matches because the higher ranked players don't want to risk losing matches when they tweak their deck. This means the casual games are full of overpowered players trying new tactics. The ranked matches, on the other hand, adapt to your ability.