Hearthstone

The short version is that Hearthstone faced the same problem all card games faced. You have to constantly add in new cards and gimmicks to keep the meta and game play interesting (and also the investors happy because you need to sell cards at the end of the day). In order to make players wanna play and buy these cards, you have to power creep them. Eventually you end up with way too many cards and gimmicks in the game that the game has lost its identity, but also most of the old cards are unplayable because they're just too weak after 10 generations of power creep. I started playing in 2015 right around the time the Black Rock Mountain Expansion was added all the way to around 2018. I did feel a slight decline in quality around 2017, and after Ben Brode left in 2018, all of it just went to shit. But early Hearthstone really was peak. The decks and classes all had a ton of their own unique identities that mirrored how the characters played in wow. Face Hunter, freeze mage, control warrior, patron warrior (my favorite), handlock, demonlock, and so many other ones (mill druid probably my all time favorite deck to play). Turn 2 coin (always) huffer (YEP) will always be one of the most aids interactions in all of gaming. There was also a very vibrant community with a ton of good streamers like Forsen, Rekful, Reynad, Dog, Savjz, TrumpSC, Kripp, Amaz, Firebat, and so many more. And Blizzcon would be fun to watch because back then most of the players would be these streamers. Since then the game's gone completely to shit. I think around 2016 the oversaturation of cards became an issue, they introduced standard where you only play cards from 3 sets. And while i cant speak on the state of the game for the last couple years, i also have 0 desire to play it these days. If I were rating this game back in 2015-16 it would be around a 9. Today it would be a 3. So just like Sam I was going to give this a 6, but tbh battlegrounds is a pretty fun gamemode and it did bring me back for a year or so. So for that I'll give it a +1.

Until it wasn't. Was really great when it first came out and then for an expansion or two but no trading and way too many cards with power creep just destroyed the game. Wouldn't touch it with a 10ft pole today even though I still dream of the fun nights playing it back in 2014.