So, I have played tons and tons of hearthstone, and am now not enjoying it at all. This feel s like kin of game that you have to play all of the time and all the day to get anywhere - the opposite of casual. It was fun in the beta but not so much anymore. I feel like I so often spot a failed game very early on and always concede because i know it will be better than dragging it out.

Just not enjoyable anymore..

Sorry that you feel that way. I play it very casually about an hour once every one or two days and have a very good time with it. Yes, I lose more games than I win (about a 40% win rate) but it is good fun. And I have not and will not spend money on it.

My advice: Don't concede. At least not until the very end. There are many many rounds where the early lead turns on a dime as the cards fall wrong or the opponent gets lucky. If you just aren't enjoying the game, that's one thing, but play till the end, you might find you win more games than you would think.

Yeah I play for about an hour a day as well. It's still fun for me.

Well with HS if you're playing casual and you just want to dailies there's no reason not to concede if you have say a less than 25% chance of winning; that said provided your decks are good enough you shouldn't have that issue all that often. There's obvious situations when to concede like mana wyrm coin mirror image, but aside from those. My objective is usually just finish mah dailies and I win somewhere around 80-85% of the matches I don't concede in.

The game is definitely extremely boring at higher ranks due to lack of variety; don't really see a situation where that ceases to be the case. It wasn't an issue with the old ranking system way back when before everyone netdecked absolutely everything; but that's not coming back.

Have you tried capitalising on your obviously flawless foresight? I wish I could tell the future.

As for Hearthstone, looks to me like a balanced and accessible game that has broad appeal, being tied to Warcraft and a suitable monetisation model. Is it a game for quitters or for people who play all day every day? I don't know. Neither does TC. It's free. Everybody do what you want.

I've definitely thought I had already lost a game early on but I still keep playing and somehow find a way back to being competitive. It's a bummer you don't have fun with it any more, maybe try and just play with friends?

Hmm, maybe I am giving up too early. Rank 19 in ranked and just feel like I know how a game is playing out, especially if I face a Hunter Rogue or Mage. Really tried to think abut my deck (favour Paladin), but seem to get trounced 90% of the time...

It takes awhile, but eventually you learn the game enough that you can win at lower ranks easily without an optimal deck. For the most part, fill your deck with minions that often trade favorably and you'll have a good shot at winning if you play with card advantage in mind.

Thanks for the advice folks, it seems I might be rage quitting a little too early - a problem of my own making...

I don't have a single win.

Such is the folly of a game that offers attacker's advantage. Once you fall behind, the only way to recover is to simply draw better and RNG your way out of it.

Stick with it - if you're playing casual you're likely getting paired up with people who just have better cards than you. Try ranked and see how that goes for you. Once you break level 20, there are people who farm that level of the ladder for golden portraits, but once you get to level 19-15... that should hopefully be more competitive and enjoyable for you.

I don't necessarily feel it's a bad game, but I just found that I don't care much for the collectible card aspect of it so I'll never be able to keep up with those that do. Luckily there are lots of other games to play.

@starvinggamer: Well, that's sort of true but you have to be able to play in a way that lets you hang on long enough to come back.

Ive played a ton of hearthstone. Ive come to the conclusion that im the worst player! Never spent money, but i believe that the game is balanced so i should win some....right....hopefully!!! I can easily go 0-3 in arena. Its an odd one, i know the rules, i watch tb and see how it can be played, just doesnt work for me. Maybe im too rigid with decks and dont play the game in front of me, maybe im too flexible and dont set up combos. Who knows. Either way got alexstrasa (spelt wrong but cant be arsed to google it) in a pack today so feeling pretty chuffed.

Thanks for all the tips! I don't mind losing, just not all the time. I have won 1 game in twelve in the arena. Even in casual and ranked I'm definitely losing : winning at least 4:1. I've bought one pack, looked at all my custom decks carefully. Guess I'm going to take that tip of not quitting too early.

I don't agree with this at all. Sure, this is the case if you are making the correct move every turn, and just not drawing the cards you need. But seeing how people play on the lower ranks, the key to winning is learning to make the right move in a given situation instead of just throwing minions on the board or waiting to topdeck flamestrike. If you're relying on a very specific set of cards to recover tempo, sure, a lot of times that combo is not going to happen. But you can plan around that. Tweak your deck. Try different strategies. Blaming it on card draw and RNG is lazy.

If you feel like you know how a game is going to play out, you have to plan for those specific cases. Keep at it and try not to get frustrated when you lose. Notice what kills you, and think about how you can play around those scenarios. I know that is some pretty vague advice, but it worked for me! As soon as I started thinking about what the opponents best move would be on the next turn instead of just thinking about my own move, I started winning. I'd be happy to give you some pointers if you want to present some of the specific scenarios you're having trouble with.

Hearthstone is one of those games where I pick it up and play it until I lose. Same with Dota 2, where once I start losing I'd better stop unless I want a losing streak to bung things up. I'm the same way with gambling. Lose once, quit and pout... Then return to a meaningless existence, spent hating the internet/life a little bit more.

@hadoken: Definitely a good policy for gambling, and Hearthstone does feel like gambling from time to time.

I find it generally pointless to judge a game based on how it's played at lower skill levels. Then again, that seems to be how Blizzard balances their games nowadays.

The bottom line is that once you fall behind, your opponent is the one with the power to make every trade favorable for him/herself until you draw the right combo of cards that allows you to A) neutralize their side of the board and B) put an active threat on your side of the board for an equivalent amount of mana. Since power level is generally flat across the smaller pool of cards that actually get used in decks, this is incredibly difficult to do.

This is more or less where the problems started for Blizzard, yes. Albeit something like Sunwell raiding was unsustainable (90% of the top guilds died/merged together) and I don't really have a solution MMO-wise; obviously they should have balanced Starcraft better so the early game isn't irrelevant.

Also it's worth noting that a game doesn't have to be balanced well to sell; so asking for balance is always questionable from a business perspective.

@starvinggamer: Blizzard has admitted that people going first have a slight advantage, weirdly enough I win more games with the coin. I have been playing a lot of priest lately which rarely "attacks first" and I win more than I lose.

Nah, the times I've come back from having ~10 health while my opponent was at full, my board was empty and he had a couple of minions is too numerous to ignore. Also happened a bunch vice versa. You should quit when you are going to die 100% guaranteed. Otherwise, keep going and see what happens. You might drag out the win more often than you think.

Pretty casual compared to actual CCG's. I have a friend who has dropped thousands of money on Legend of the Five Rings card. Whats that, you're asking yourself? What the hell is Legend of the Five Rings?

Exactly...

@bemusedchunk: Thousands of money you say? Thousands of money indeed.

@fredchuckdave: THOUSANDSof money.

He got all that money from taking surveys on the internet.

I like the gameplay in Hearthstone just fine, but the metagame around it offers too little in the way of progression. Without quests, you get 10 gold every 3 wins, so to buy a new pack of cards, it takes 30 (!) wins. Worse yet, you get nothing if you lose which is heart-breaking especially early on when you don't have cards to make a solid deck in the first place. It feels like a "it takes money to make money" situation. I'd prefer something like a 3 gold per win, 1 gold for a loss, even if that would mean less gold (on a 50-50 win-loss average.) Or give us some dust for a loss. I understand they have to make money and can't give the cards away for free, but add some other revenue streams that don't impact gameplay. Maybe exclusive card backs, custom emotes or card effects.

That said, it's still a game to check on every once in a while, especially when you have gathered some quests to accelerate the slow progression.

I dunno... for someone lamenting about how it's not a casual experience anymore, you certainly have a hardcore view of the game. I always plan a few moves in advance and such, but I'm never thinking "oh, he played this card and this card against this deck, so I'm absolutely not going to win." That doesn't sound fun at all, no matter the truth involved. Instead, when I see cards like that, I start thinking of my counter strategy.

I'm not going against that line of thinking, I'm just pointing out the contradiction. If you want to have fun with a game and play it casually, you need to stop yourself from dissecting it from every angle.

Going with the moment-to-moment, luck of the draw mindset will probably lose you more games, but I can guarantee it's more fun for the "casual" player than trying to count cards or look for your own defeat.

Just my 2 cents, duder. Do what you will, and have fun. Personally, I'll remember this thread whenever I start to think too deeply about the game. I'd like to keep Hearthstone as that casual game I can load up for an hour and have fun win or lose. Getting too serious about it sounds like a bummer, and I've got too many other games on my plate that are serious to the core anyway.