I have been playing Hearthstone since beta. Its a fantastic TCG. At first I was a bit of a noob when it came to the game, but I quickly figured out some strategies that helped me level up characters and get a few basic cards. As I stated in my last blog, I discovered the horrible truth that, to win big, you have to have good cards. So over the last couple of days I've been doing a few of the quests they provide you to get in game gold and I've also shelled out a few RL dollars to purchase a few packs. I could be satisfied with a basic deck, but when your getting spanked a good bit it can be frustrating since their matching system isn't all what its cracked up to be.
That being said, I put together a very nice Mage deck that I felt pretty confident in. It was based off something I found on the interwebs, having to modify it to make up for a "Few" cards I didn't have yet, mostly the very rare or legendary cards. Still, what I had put together seemed like a nice combo. I won't go into specifics about the deck, but lets just say, after playing a few matches in casual mode, I decided to attempt ranked play. I felt that at the very least, it would match me with people who were at the same rank, which it did. I managed to play the first couple of matches and was surprised that I was actually winning. This experience was pretty new to me. They way it works is you start off at rank 25 with two unfilled stars. once you win a match, you fill a star, when you win two matches, you move onto the next lower rank. I managed to win three matches in a row, which placed me at rank 24, so I kept going. I was patient and too my time working all the options. I had played against a few of the decks that came up before, so I had a pretty good understand of what cards they player was depending on, so I was able to counter them or remove them from play quickly. I kept winning, which was a strange thing and once you get a very nice streak going, the game will reward you, so instead of getting one star for a win, you start getting two stars for win. Once I hit rank 20, I took a moment to decide if I would continue. I wasn't and still am not sure at which point you start loosing stars if and when you lose a match. I managed to get a few more wins to finish the night at rank 19, at which point you need three wins to advance to the next rank. I'm sure it gets even harder the further you go down, but now that I'm at rank 19 once the season is over, I should get a Naxxramas card back. Its actually pretty daunting since I'm seeing a bunch of cool people with different card backs which indicates some kind of skill.
Now, what does all this have to do with the Hearthstone Community?
Well, one of the reasons I love Hearthstone is the limited interaction with other players you have. You can do a few basic emotes while playing, but that is about it. They can't say anything to you via chat, unless you have them on your friends list. They can't talk to you via voice chat, so basically, you don't have to encounter the "Dicks" that this sort of game might attract. However, there is a big "BUT" coming. You see they can still be Pecker heads even if they can't text you or talk to you. They can do it through actual game play.
Lets say for instance, your waiting on them to take their turn. Well, some of them will just wait till the last minute letting the timer run out before finishing their turn even its clear they have nothing they can do. They just want to drag it out. Another thing they will do is, lets say your pretty much on the ropes, one or two health left and all they have to do to win the match is attack you with any of their creatures, but they don't. They start casting all kinds of stuff out of their hand, boosting creatures attack, putting more creatures out. Its clearly them saying "Hey, not only did I kick your ass, but here's all the cools shit I didn't cast". What I do is when my opponent doesn't concede and its clear I am the victor, then I will do my best to finish him off quickly on my round, I don't drag out the abuse or try to cast more stuff. I just do the damage I need to finish that person off and conclude the match. There is no need to be a douche and make the player wait for the kill shot. What purpose does that server. Back a few weeks ago, I would just concede the match if I knew the end was inevitable, but now, thanks to one of my twitter buddies, I will wait and let them get the kill shot, because one, it shows that I'm a good sport about losing and two, it lets them savor the victory I am sure they deserved. But, if they start casting a bunch of crap out of their hand, then I just concede because now its clear that your trying to be an ass and there isn't any need for that.
So, even without the ability to gloat or scream at you through chat, the dicks can still manage to ruin a fun game. Where there is a will there will always be a way.
