BlizzCon 2013: Hearthstone Fireside Chat

Blizzard Entertainment’s newest offering, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a strategy card game played on a PC or Mac (and eventually an iPad, iPhone and Android) based in the Warcraft universe. The game features fast (10 to 15 minutes) matches of skill and luck and its beta has been the hot ticket to have for the past few months.

Players can play as a Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior (each class is its own deck), and Hearthstone allows players to play against the computer (helpful when learning the rules of the game) and against other players in a three different modes:

Play Mode: duel other players to level up heroes and complete quests. Matches are made through Battle.net and Blizzard swears they will make sure opponents are matched in skill and decks.

The Arena: A skills test mode centered more along deck-building knowledge. Players assemble a new deck from random cards and meet other participants for loot and rewards.

Practice Mode: Learn to play and test out new deck against an AI opponent.

Heathstone has questing for gold rewards, which allows players to buy more card packs or enter the Arena; cards can be disenchanted for materials to build other cards needed to complete a deck. Also, players will be able to contact people on their friend’s list to compare decks or play a friendly duel.

Hearthstone is designed for all levels of experience and developers promise that the game will teach players everything they need to know as they play.

Hearthstone is free-to-play, though upgrades to card decks cost in-game gold which can be purchased via Battle.net. Blizzard is hoping to release it this year (Christmas, anyone?) for PC and Macs, with a iPad, iPhone and Android app available in the future (with cross-platform compatibility).