When Blizzard announced the end of the Hero’s E-Sports League, I was greatly disappointed. I never was into watching e-sports for any game, but it was an indication for the overall health of the game. When they announced the end of the Hero’s Global Championship (HGC), it began the process of slowly putting the game into ‘maintenance mode’. Blizzard immediately cut the Hero’s team and moved developers to other projects. They left a small, much more focused team dedicated to Hero’s, but that doesn’t stop the game from feeling like it is on life support.
Diablo 3 (D3) was a prime example of what Blizzard could do if they don’t give up and toss in the towel. Rumor had it that upper management gave up on D3… Reapers of Souls proved them wrong. It revitalized the game and made it much more enjoyable.
I would have had some hope of a resurgence of HOTS in the future. Maybe, we will. The remaining team might make the next Reaper of Souls and bring HOTS back to life. But with the cut in the team and what appears to be lack of support from management, I’m not so optimistic they can pull of what the D3 team did. But enough of that, lets talk about some ideas that could bring HOTS back.
- Quick Match (QM) Changes
This will be a difficult task. One of the problem I felt HOTS had was the transition to rank. With QM being easily the most played, there wasn’t a good way for players to learn the ranked meta. Also, when I played ranked (I’m not a pro FYI) I never felt the intensity in a ranked match. It was just a more organized un-ranked draft with players communicating better. If HOTS is gonna make a comeback, Blizzard has to find a formula to get players into ranked.
OR….
Embrace the QM model and add a QM rank. This might draw some negative feed back, but one thing that is common in MOBA’s is banning the most OP champs (like Azmodan currently in HOTS). Also, Hero League queue times are just garbage at the moment which continues to lower players involved in ranked. So if we have QM ranked, you would be able to play the commonly banned champions more often in a competitive setting. Granted the team comps may still suck, but Blizzard could create a formula to still reward players that had poor comps. They could even make each champion have a rank that is based of skill (Win/Loss, KDA, etc) and will increase/decrease based on performance. This would give players more reason to master a hero and make QM much more competitive.
- Create new takes on MOBA’s
This is where HOTS already had a niche. HOTS was the only MOBA I found with many different maps and objectives that really made the game more interesting and enjoyable. If Blizzard could expand this thinking to new game modes not yet tried in the MOBA genre, it may lead to a revived interest. One idea I had was to try and make a MOBA Battle Royale out of HOTS. Obviously, this would need a lot of work, but it would be an interesting idea to see come to fruition
- Get Rid Of Loot Boxes, Simplify the Currencies
Blizzard tried to use the same method from Overwatch to monetize Hero’s, but it just not working for me (and most other people). The recent boosts that were introduced have been well received, but I think the community as a whole would be more than happy to see loot boxes go and return to the old format in the store. The leveling system introduced when they brought in loot boxes would have to be tweaked a little. For those who don’t know, you have an account level that is made up by the collective total of all your champions levels (each champion has its own individual level). When you gain a level, you are rewarded a loot box. If they were to eliminate loot boxes, simply reward some gold instead. And this leads me to the triple currencies problem…
Lately, every game I play seems to have three different currencies that are used in the store. One that you actually can buy with real money, one for cosmetic items, and one for buying champions. I see no reason for have three different currencies. Blizzard can easily fix this buy removing shards and going with just Gems and Gold. Most people want simplicity in their lives, so simplify the currencies!
These are just a few of my personal thoughts on how to turn HOTS around. Will we ever see drastic changes in the future? Probably not, but lets hope the team remaining kick some butt and prove the upper management wrong!