Heroes of the Storm has come under quite a bit of scrutiny by its players over its monetization scheme. Arguably, HoTS asks a lot from its player’s wallets. At an average of 9.99USD a skin and a hero, participating in everything HoTS has to offer is an expensive dream. When you think about it, a skin or a hero costs as much as a fast-food meal. For me in Canada, it is three bus rides, and an hour’s minimum wage. That is expensive when you consider the fact that the cost of living everywhere around the world is rising while free-to-play developers ask for what is ridiculous prices for aesthetically pleasing content.
“It is very difficult to justify any price for virtual goods…”
Yes, no one needs to purchases skins to enjoy Heroes of the Storm. These skins if anything are status symbols. As mentioned in a previous article on Blizzard’s Hearthstone, skins perhaps do have an effect on game-play on the psychological level, but they have, in most cases, zero impact on the mechanics of a game. (Unless their hit-boxes are awfully designed) This is to avoid, of course, a pay-to-win scheme that would drive players away from the game after creating an economic stratification of the player-base. There is an excellent description and list of games in the Steam Community forums concerning this phenomenon.
Clik here to view.
Even Diablo’s Master Skin (reaching level 10 with Diablo) isn’t as menacing as his Diablo 3 counterpart.
It is very difficult to justify any price for virtual goods. We treat them often times as material goods: something we can hold in our hand and is hostage to the erosion of time and space. Virtual goods, however, come into existence through codes and numbers. They manifest through pixels, only, and can be lost forever in an instant. Honestly, virtual goods such as skins, heroes, and so on and so forth are fascinating when we consider them to be “property.” At least, many players frame their interaction with virtual goods as if they were interacting with material goods. The truth is, you never really “own” a skin, you simply have access to it after stepping past the monetary boundaries.
Many players will argue, for example, that it is fair for developers who offer a free-to-play games to ask for money for their virtual goods. How else will they recoup development costs? On the flip side, many players will argue against this assertion, claiming that Blizzard, as a business, has only created a “cash cow”, so to speak. Though both points are fair observations, they’re both too flippant to describe the controversy in full.
There is a tension between these two claims. The number one rule of any capitalist endeavor to make money. At the end of the day, Blizzard’s ultimate goal is to turn a profit. Hence the often cited phrase, “Blizzard’s bottom line.” Its secondary goal is to make an enjoyable game. This causes a tension because on the one hand, making an enjoyable game costs quite a bit of money. On the other hand, to make money also requires time and money. It is a delicate balance during development between the two. Make a game that isn’t enjoyable and players won’t spend money. If you don’t make items people want to buy, no one will spend money. So, production is split between the two, and hence costly skins and heroes.
It seems then that these skins, despite a community’s unfavourable reaction, are “worth the cost” from a business stand point. In an interview with Smite developer, Hi-Rez Studios, in 2014, The Escapist celebrated Smite’s generous one-time payment for its roster of champions. However, the developers alluded that the payment scheme makes little sense now that there are 39 characters to chose from.
“I think it is fair to assert that Blizzard…subtly forces players to purchase heroes…”
Reddit user cgmcnama wrote an excellent guide on earning gold in Heroes of the Storm: F2P Gold Acquisition Guide. But this user accidentally critiques Heroes of the Storm’s monetization scheme, revealing the ways in which Blizzard has implemented certain structures to encourage players to spend money. cgmcnama weighs the maximum potential gold a player can earn before hitting the maximum player level and leveling all heroes beyond level 5 against the total cost of entering the Hero League (ranked play). It is important to note that, oddly, ranked play is only accessible to players who have unlocked at least ten heroes, which is a suspicious design choice. cgmcnama concludes that after level 40, gold gain per hour drops drastically to the point it is impossible to earn enough to afford heroes as they are released. cgmcnama’s more poignant conclusion, though, is that Blizzard doesn’t reward “gold grinding.”
Clik here to view.
Is the new Butcher too similar to Stitches?
There is a stimpack you can purchase that boosts gold and experience gain by 100%. Since gold gain is already minimal, this doesn’t necessarily allow you to attain the expensive heroes that much faster.
With this in mind, I think it is fair to assert that Blizzard has developed its reward system, along with the Hero League, to subtly force players to purchase heroes. Consider the fact that Quick Match and Hero League are drastically different in their design. Hero League operates more traditionally through its drafting process like League of Legends or DOTA 2. Quick Match, however, is nothing but frustrating because you never know what map you’re on or what heroes will comprise your team (if solo queuing). Hero League is the definitive competitive experience that a majority of players—even if casual—are looking for. Yet it is only accessible to those who have either spent exorbitant amounts of time earning gold (which cgmcnama has shown is difficult) or have purchased the heroes to play.
Even if player’s have purchased the least expensive heroes to gain access to the Hero League, their is a potential problem on the horizon. As tier lists are created through statistics and celebrity players, some heroes will be more valued over others. More importantly, since there is a variety of map types, some heroes will perform better on some maps over others. This could result in hero discrimination in the Hero League. For players to be Hero League ready, they will need to have access to a vast portion of the heroes.
So it is unfortunate how much heroes cost in Heroes of the Storm. But is more unfortunate that Blizzard appears to be forcibly nudging players to spend real money. Blizzard does offer bundles, but it is yet to be proved that they are “that” economical. I would close this by saying that Heroes of the Storm is on the borderline of being a money-grabbing scheme like so many iOS titles.