We have some great news for World of Warcraft fans as the card based game Hearthstone Heroes of Warcraft open beta has gone live. Themed on WoW, Hearthstone is described as a fast paced card strategy game, and is said to be just as addictive as the main game.
Blizzard opened up the Hearthstone HoW beta in the US last night, with Europe having to wait a few extra days as usual. For now the game will be available to play for free on PC and Mac, with iOS and Android versions planned for later this year. Blizzard has warned that due to overwhelming demand, they might have to temporarily disable new open beta account activation to prevent server overloads.
For the past few months there has been a closed beta available for a limited amount of players to sample, now it is ready for the wider community. It a nutshell, Hearthstone will see you play online competitively against other players in a World of Warcraft themed card game. The idea is to defeat your opponent by using strategy and card combos to zap their health down to zero.
Blizzard profit when you buy in game packs of cards and want to enter the battle arena. You can still buy new packs of cards to strengthen your deck using the in game currency which you earn through gameplay, although this takes far more time then using your real money to buy them.
Some players will come on to play for free, others wont mind spending some money as it is after all paying for enjoyment. We posed this question to our readers in regards to the Elder Scrolls Online, as many beta players were unhappy paying $15 a month subscription fee. A Chinese clone of the game has already been released, with Blizzard preparing to take action against the company responsible for the rip off.
If you have already jumped into the open beta then let us know your thoughts on it by leaving a comment, is Hearthstone worth playing?