If there's a more reliable way to win back gamers, I can't think of a better one than free stuff. Last month, following a meltdown about the lack of a new board to accompany the latest Hearthstone expansion, Blizzard felt compelled to issue a statement to the effect of: "No, we're not winding down the game down." The same post also teased that pets are in development, which is probably the second best method of player appeasement.
That brings us to today and the free stuff. Upon logging in to Hearthstone you will receive a notification that a golden Harth Stonebrew card is available for free from the shop. According to an accompanying post by Blizzard, it will be available until August 28, and over the rest of the month we'll also be able to snag one golden and two normal Perils in Paradise card packs for free. As my colleague Andy Chalk often says about this kind of offer: You can't say fairer than free.
Harth Stonebrew is a fun card that has seen a decent amount of play, although it doesn't dominate the meta or anything. The text reads: "Battlecry: Replace your hand with an iconic one from Hearthstone's past. (Once per game.)" So, when you play Stonebrew, the cards you're currently holding are swapped for a selection of highly-synergistic cards from one of the best decks in Hearthstone history. You might get the core components of Grim Patron Warrior or maybe what you need for a Cubelock combo. You can see a list of all the possible iconic hands here.
Players mostly use Stonebrew as an 'uh oh, my current cards do nothing' alternative win condition to be played in a pinch. There's also the nostalgia factor of being able to revisit classic decks that have since rotated to Wild. The normal version of Stonebrew was given away in February of this year as part of the game's 10th birthday celebrations, and at the time I felt it was a bit cheap that we didn't get a golden Stonebrew, given that we did receive golden copies of the other 11 'gift' cards that Blizzard released.
Amusingly, the decision to right that wrong may have been prompted by one of Hearthstone's most 'vocal' fans/critics, a content creator called Zeddy. On July 14, he posted to X that Blizzard could "gain some goodwill and reward players" by giving "the golden Harth Stonebrew to everyone for free like you should've in the first place." Today the official Hearthstone account quote-retweeted Zeddy with "OK" and the eyes emoji.
👀 OK https://t.co/4xR4lLVpU6August 1, 2024
What's funny to me is that Zeddy has had a fractious relationship with the dev team in the past, though I don't doubt his heart is in the right place, but appears to have secured a real community win here. That or it could just be pure coincidence. For those of you not familiar with Zeddy's, let's say energetic, feedback, just know that it has led to this iconic gif being enshrined in Hearthstone folklore.
Players who already own a Golden Version of Harth Stonebrew will automatically be granted 1,000 runestones (the in-game currency) instead. Which is just as well, or you know it would have set Zeddy off again.
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