Today I would love to share and comment on a well-known game, developed by The Billzard—-Hearth Stone. First of all there is a youtube video that gives a rough idea of how this game is played. The link is as followed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcAjg4pnxlM

Basically, the game is played with cards. Two players carry a deck of 30 cards respectively and use various combinations to beat the opponent.

Part 1. My own feeling and experience when playing

When I am playing this game, I acted quite experienced, especially when I draw a card. I could always analyze the situation on the board now and make seemingly good decisions. I do have the feeling that the game is under my control because I have been playing this game for 2 years and I am familiar with almost every card. Although it has nine characters and each of them owns quite different specially-designed cards, I am still handling them well. No matter it is winning or losing, my expectation is correct most of the time. This is the experience I gained from the past two years. To add on, there is also sometime that I would shout out loud and excitedly. It mainly happened when I draw an extremely crucial card out of my deck which can help me revert the hard situation on the board and play a comeback. I would be so excited that it takes me 3 or 4 times to drag the card onto the board. Another example is when enemy put a significant card onto the board, I will point to that card and say something like why you appear or why are you, showing my frustration of being beaten by that card. It is full of surprise and fun and it contains problem solving as well. All of these elements contribute to my experience.

Part 2. Others’ feeling and experience when playing

I have spent plenty of time online watching other famous players playing hearth stone. Twitch and douyu (Chinese website, similar to twitch) are the most welcomed channels. Worldwide champions all play live there with their web camera on. I really admire their skills. When they are playing, they act more mature and confident. Of course, some of the players are more emotional. Their reaction would be a lot stronger because they have played too many games. Their experience will decrease the fun when they achieved some hard wins. However, if it is something they did not see before or they did not expected, it is imaginable that how excited they would be. Besides that, professional players wear a smiling expression all the time. They play with the fun extra elements that the Blizzard designs in the user interface. What impresses me most is their playing speed. I always see they conduct 4 or even more operations within 1 or 2 seconds. While the animation of first operation is still going on, they actually finish their round already. Meanwhile they have planned what they will do in next round verbally.

Part 3. Analysis

The lens of experience:

One important reason that professional players are more experienced is that they are exposed to almost full deck. There are quite a number of legendary cards that not every one of us could have chance to obtain. It costs quite a lot of money, as well as lucky. The endogenous value of these cards allows those players to come up with better decks than others. They know what would happen in next round or even the round after next round because they are much more familiar with the trend.

The lens of surprising and fun:

Professional players train themselves with various new strategies. They try different combinations and it gives a lot of surprise back to all of us. This is the value of this game and this is why hearth stone attracts so many people. Even The Blizzard had admitted that they did not expect hearth stone to be such a success. They underestimated its power of bringing players surprise, fun and happiness. I am also enjoying problem solving in hearth stone. I would have a feeling of satisfactory if I could use my deck to beat the opponent, especially when I predict his action precisely. It would give me a hint that I am a good player and thus I could be more confident.

To conclude, hearth stone is a fantastic game that brings tremendous happiness to its players. It is a precious experience to have played this game this long time.