Hearthstone: Dat Rage

[Nauticus]

Hi, wanted to ask you guys some things.
I've played games since I was little, played alot of sports and for several years, I've been into magic the gathering. Hearthstone is a great game for what it is doing, a simplified Magic the gathering that removed alot of problems with the game it took most of it's inspiration from.

I've learned alot in sports and gaming to be patient, especially with magic where it's very important to keep your cool and not tilt, since it greatly affects your planning, and playing in general.
But for some reason.... I'M TEARING MY HEAR APART FROM THIS F***ING GAME! JEEEEEZ!

Maybe becouse it's the first card game I play online/on the pc, and maybe all the random effects. I CANNOT stop tilting in this game, it affects my progress alot and makes my time with this game very unpleasant. I've had no problem with CoD, Dota etc, so I dont know why I'm so easily enraged in this game.

Any tips on how you handle tilt/rage for a game like this?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

The key to not losing your shit in Hearthstone is no different from the key to not losing your shit over any trivial issue. You just need to settle down and keep things in perspective. There's no special "Hearthstone" formula for not freaking out.

Having played a ton myself, I'm quite familiar with how aggravating Hearthstone can be when you're on a run of bad luck. Skill can and will show itself over a long period of time, but over a short period of time...a single draft, a single arena run, a single bad run of hands, etc...you can get pretty hosed by the RNG. And it's easy to feel put upon. Just try and remember that for all the times the God of the Cards screws you and your Mad Bomber hits you three times in the face, you get your own share of lucky breaks that you probably rationalized as evidence of your awesomeness. So just grit your teeth and wait for the tides of luck to swing your way again. Even the best players don't win more than 70-80% of their matches.

 

[Nauticus]

I've had my bad runs in magic, no doubt about that. But even in situations such as getting a game loss becouse of a missing card in my deck-list, on a deciding match that would eleminate me from the tournament on a Grand Prix, I didnt even flinch... sure it sucked but I wasn't sad over for more than a moment. Maybe I'm having a bad run in HS now aswell, but it's been on for a while if so. I'm no awesome player in HS, or magic, but I know what I'm doing.

Been thinking on it while taking a walk with the dog.
The only thing I can point out at this moment, is that I'm missing a face to play against. Someone I can shake hands with before and after the match, share thoughts and wish good luck in future matches. And the possibility to have friends around me to chat with between the games and share laughs.
I might not be the one to sit alone behind a screen and playing card games after all....

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

The key to not losing your shit in Hearthstone is no different from the key to not losing your shit over any trivial issue. You just need to settle down and keep things in perspective. There's no special "Hearthstone" formula for not freaking out.

Having played a ton myself, I'm quite familiar with how aggravating Hearthstone can be when you're on a run of bad luck. Skill can and will show itself over a long period of time, but over a short period of time...a single draft, a single arena run, a single bad run of hands, etc...you can get pretty hosed by the RNG. And it's easy to feel put upon. Just try and remember that for all the times the God of the Cards screws you and your Mad Bomber hits you three times in the face, you get your own share of lucky breaks that you probably rationalized as evidence of your awesomeness. So just grit your teeth and wait for the tides of luck to swing your way again. Even the best players don't win more than 70-80% of their matches.

This.

Also, I think hearthstone is designed so much towards that integration and accessibility for new players etc that there are cards that are deliberately overpowered.

Well at least they seem overpowered, but there are several of them, so it becomes less so. Does this make them overpowered still? Maybe not, but there are some ludicrously strong moves in the game, to make people feel awesome without even doing that much.

It's just part of the simplicity of the game. It isn't a random battle mode of chess. You always enter a game with a relatively good 'chance' of winning, but a newbie against a grandmaster chess player stands next to none, with the small chance being there probably for the sake of human error on the grandmaster side.

It is designed to not be possible to be learned that much that long-term players can just stomp on everyone else.

Sadly, this creates some losses that make you feel like rubbish because 'what could I have done to win that?'. Answer being often, nothing.

And, as BloatedGuppy covered, it works both ways, you can win from next to no skill too, for a good draw or similar. Or even having random great combos in your deck that you never planned means luck has played its part.

For me, it means I just casually play the game from time-to-time and don't take it too seriously, as I can't take away a belief of great skill dictating a win or great improvement coming from excessive playing. It's not like Starcraft, not that it is trying to be.