Death of a Game: Heroes of the Storm

Blizzard's red-headed step-child.
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#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.
Sources:
news.blizzard....
web.archive.or...
web.archive.or...
• Blizzard DotA - BlizzC...
heroesofthesto... .
• Blizzard DOTA - BlizzC...
www.pcgamesn.c...
web.archive.or...
web.archive.or...
www.pcgamer.co...
web.archive.or...
• Heroes of the Storm™ C...
heroesofthesto...
news.blizzard....
news.blizzard....
www.gameinform...
www.destructoi...
www.ign.com/ar...
www.polygon.co...
• The Eternal Conflict -...
• Heroes of the Storm - ...
www.polygon.co...
escharts.com/t...
• Forged by Fire: Heroes...
news.blizzard....
• Heroes of the Storm 2....
• Heroes of the Storm Ca...
• Richard Lewis on Overw...
www.polygon.co...
• Dragons of the Nexus -...
heroeshearth.c...
• MechaStorm - Heroes of...
www.forbes.com...
us.forums.bliz...
www.vg247.com/...
us.forums.bliz...
venturebeat.co...
gamerant.com/b....
us.forums.bliz...
/ statistically_predeter...
www.pcgamer.co...
heroeshearth.c...
venturebeat.co...
www.bleedingco...
www.invengloba...
invenglobal.com/articles/10051/2019-heroes-of-the-storm-year-in-review
• Heroes of the Storm - ...

[@99zubat87]

I hope some day in the not distant future we see Death of a Game: RAID: Shadow Legends

[@jellophant9716]

Prove this isn't high level stealth shilling

[@nebufabu]

Wait it ever had been alive? There was an actual game with actual people playing? I thought it is shills all the way down...

[@brightonbegole5459]

Can’t die if it never really lived, so..,

[@henriqueww5175]

I would love to see a ''Fortnite death of a game'' not that i hate it or anything but i think it is stagnating the game industry and the young generation that is growing playing it.

[@FireCamp105]

can't kill what's already dead

[@ThatFeelBr0]

"With Overwatch 2 on the horizon..." Oh the past. So innocent.

[@robertlupa8273]

What happened?

[@ThatFeelBr0]

@@robertlupa8273 After more than a year without any news they announced OW2 and Diablo 4 would be delayed, thought they never said the release date to begin with. Possibly, in part, a result of the current Activision/Blizzard legal troubles.

[@sweptay]

@@robertlupa8273 Delayed with an expected release in 2023

[@HerreraAlonso]

It seems that the past is always innocent wich means the present is innocent

[@scardy92]

Well they clearly announced those games too soon in order to appease their fans after the Blitzchung/China controversy

[@RazCroz22]

It's kinda hilarious how HotS was made to be the most casual friendly game available on the market and Acti-Blizz overlords decided to force create a esports around it, which is opposite of casual. They even tried to de-casualize the game a little with various changes over time to heroes and gameplay.

[@JesseTheGameDev]

100% agreed, this was silly. They intentionally designed the game to be casual-friendly, then they tried to force it as an esport. 2 contradictory philosophies.

[@Wyzai]

It's not really very casual either. If you copy-paste builds, HotS is probably more complicated than LoL.

[@odinatra]

Theoretically you can have both, but it happens very rarely.

[@FreneticPotato]

@@odinatra the key is balance, something Activision-Blizzard is not particularly known for

[@fbiagent6456]

@@Wyzai HotS's micro is almost non-existent and the macro is so simple that an 8 year old can already play it.

[@R.Konksson]

I fucking love HoTS... and they way they treated this game makes me furious. They single handedly destroyed their own game...

[@vincentdimitri169]

come to the dark side.... Dota 2 awaits you.

[@captaincool6785]

True

[@fatrat600284]

It's still around, nothing is stopping you from playing it.

[@creativename2567]

Aside from the nostalgia, league is way better.

[@fatrat600284]

@@creativename2567 Not really, honestly HOTS has better game play and more variety. It cuts out all the bullshit and gets to what makes mobas fun, the team play and fights.

[@DeadFishFactory]

I'm glad Valve took over Dota with IceFrog in charge. I can't imagine how bad Dota would be if it were under the care of Activision-Blizzard.

[@krustyklownkollege7361]

Not too hard to imagine. Just look at Heroes of the Storm.

[@Dolwerflamingo]

@@krustyklownkollege7361 fun early, boring late

[@MrPronGogh93]

@@Dolwerflamingo fun early, but not for so long: I did play the alpha, or I think it was the alpha (the 35$ early access), i was from lol in a period where even lol bored me and while fun for the first games, especially because I could play characters from my infancy, plus one of the better graphic in the genre, I also got bored really fast from the game because it did lack any recognition over personal performances, and that's was something they could not change

[@darklordish1]

everything valve does for dota 2, hurts it

[@alies-]

@@krustyklownkollege7361 yeah, hope you are having fun watching your character wasting 2 sec to turn other side in dota 2. also last hiting creeps for 20 mins must be really enjoyable for you

[@justinsanchez3286]

Blizzard in 2012: Valve is taking away the game from the community that built it! Blizzard in 2020: All your maps are belong to us

[@zebastakian6973]

Tbh, I think Valve treated Dota 2 better than Blizzard.

[@CanineLupus0114]

Blizzard didn't gave a shit about Dota till it was taken by Valve, they had that coming

[@crylune]

Blizzard can go fuck themselves in this regard. Icefrog literally went to THEM FIRST, wanting to work with them with the condition of having final say in balance changes & having all heroes be free. Iirc he was laughed out of the building.

[@yurinalysis8034]

@@CanineLupus0114 Don't ever forget when Dota starts making a lot of $$$

[@yurinalysis8034]

@@zebastakian6973 Actually they did, even original developer of Dota mod from Warcraft 3 named Ice Frog still works to them.

[@epithet052]

"The biggest profile MOBA flop so far" Paragon: *looking away meme*

[@Ilikefinalfantasy795]

i played that i think i was the wolf caster guy.. good stuff.

[@mercenaryninja]

oh man, i played serath and khaimera it was a lot of fun. i miss that game.

[@tmacker14]

"Laughs in Gigantic"

[@Jimmybob0900]

Didn’t epic kill paragon so fortnite could get as many resources as possible

[@tmacker14]

@@Jimmybob0900 not completely paragon was basically dead by the time fortnite came out. The success of fornite ultimately caused them to say "lets pull the plug on this dying game"

[@peasantofpersia]

You gotta do a "Death of blizzard" soon.

[@Kappi__]

Activision is sadly to big to fail

[@darlingdevil1575]

Sorry to tell you, but it seems like the rot in blizzard was there long before the merger. Recent allegations proves that much.

[@civils6790]

Overwatch first

[@civils6790]

@@VincentVincent_89 no need to get salty bitchboy, compared to what it was years ago, its as good as dead,bitch ass the most overrated game ever, and since overwatch 2 are already dead before release, how do you feel fangay?

[@longhairedqueer9365]

@@civils6790 bro ur the one whos mad now jesus christ LMAO

[@FriendlyYandere]

Hots, is exactly the kind of MOBA I was looking for, no items, team shared experience, variety of maps with different objectives, and most appealing of all, shorter match. Too bad It doesn't get the love it deserves.

[@budilamarius5053]

Yeah, I enjoy playing this dogshit unbalanced, dumbed down casual moba, really makes you feel like Batman.

[@FriendlyYandere]

@@budilamarius5053 Here you go, I give you an attention.

[@gablam-7947]

@@FriendlyYandere too casual

[@FriendlyYandere]

@@gablam-7947 Ah, you want an attention too? here you go.

[@suthiraksb]

It has many good systems that I love, but the system that make us left is matchmaking. 5 random new players vs 5 pros party sometimes 5 soft heroes vs burst mages team even balance can't help Share exp has both good and bad, If your teammate are good your overall exp will lead enemy's for sure unless their special role is too good, If your got bad teammate that keep feeding sometime yours may follow the enemy's 5-6 lv. and will never change the games.

[@LamborghiniDiabloSVPursuit]

What went wrong with HotS in a nutshell: It couldn't feed Blizzard-Activision's ravenous, monetary hunger fast enough to survive.

[@whyisgamora4191]

This. lol

[@Sorrowdusk]

Ay Warcraft Reforged says anything you make in customs belongs to Blizzard just to make sure Dota doesnt happen again :3

[@grimzz1499]

about a month ago i started calling Activision blizzard EA 2.0 if u wanna join in on the trend

[@nicolaos355]

@@grimzz1499 I wouldnt call it EA 2.0... just Activision Bli$$ard. Their greed is so big, that Im not even interested in playing the game I liked coz of that.

[@crabbycrab9955]

This, and how and why did they expect to compete with League and Dota in such a short time. During their Esport time, number of viewers actually went up. It was still below 100k, but apparently slow and steady doesn't work for Activision.

[@trygveplaustrum4634]

Activision Blizzard: Well, if you can't beat 'em... Prevent 'em from making any independent content that you don't own, *ever again.*

[@AgrPerez]

And thus... Warcraft 3: Refunded was born

[@Green-tf8uw]

@@AgrPerez and died at the same time

[@Marceau.]

I mean, Blizzard pretty much got their revenge with Hearthstone Battlegrounds. Nobody plays Auto Chess anymore nowadays.

[@midas6753]

@@Marceau. tft is still ridiculously popular though

[@tiagodarkpeasant]

@@midas6753 the previous set was dumb, but this one is really nice, and playing the same game on pc or mobile is really nice

[@darklorty]

Ok, I'm convinced now. nerdSlayer is a Thresh main. Every single clip of LoL has a thresh either hooking or flaying someone.

[@DanoLefourbe]

Today's lesson: don't try to build an e-sport economy for a game that doesn't even have a community yet. Especially considering the future of esport as a whole is still uncertain.

[@codycos]

Esports are basically just advertisement for the game, and to sell content.

[@PASBGR]

Lets be real here, buddy. I remember how hots managed to attract a lot of attention around the 2.0 patch. It had the community needed. One thing we should agree here - if your game is shit, then it wont be played! Hots suffered from severe delusional mechanics of "we can win with the power of positivity, friendship, cupcakes, and flowers". Their delusional thinking of perfect community, and purging toxicity have backfired on them! Hots was trying so hard to be unique, that it blew it all away! LoL and DotA are so similar, and yet they manage to share it all. Blizzard fuckupstertainment even paid LoL Esport players to play their casual mess. All of them did their jobs, and moved back to their fun counterparts. And I dont blame them! I had enough of the game, that I moved to LoL myself! My god, did I make the right choice! I knew whats going on in the ranked. Playing with players on LoL made more sense than HotS (I still cant explain it). Way more fun than being frustrated in the random shitshow of ranked hots. Should I even get started of how hard it was back then to run their messy game? The performance was awful, and it had bunch of issues on the newest hardware. The customer support was suggesting to players to "Buy different computer hardware"... Again - when your game is shit, you wont get players! This is in general the blizzard game creation quality since 2013. The game got the attention, and did not manage to hold it! Lets not defend their stupidity any more. They got back what they invested!

[@DanoLefourbe]

@@PASBGR I smell a bias here.

[@PASBGR]

@@DanoLefourbe/videos Thats a very simplistic answer, which doesnt explain what wrong did I say. I played this shitshow fiesta since may 2015

[@eugenehardy5298]

@@DanoLefourbe i smell another braindead fanboy here, dont forget to pre-order their next "refunded" shit.

[@WolfBergMenace]

This video really hit close to home man, HotS was the first game I actively played with my friends from 2016 to early 2021. We finally stopped after the game got basically no updates and turned stale. It hurts to see the game die like this.

[@mb10637]

At this point it’s just a casual game. I like the simpler mechanics in hots compared to any other MOBA. Plus, with hots, u can jump off for 5 months and come back with not a lot changing, so ur not far behind.

[@Surefire11B]

Best part about these comments is that the game is still updated up to twice a month with reworks, balance changes and the like. Also while some mechanics in the game are simpler, there are many mechanics that are far more advanced than others, such as map drafting and having different mechanics and timings for multiple maps that change how you play and build the heroes. It's only simple if you don't dive deeper, like most "simple" games. This game is absolutely not just casual. There is a huge amateur scene with several nationally and some internationally recognized tournaments that are still running with huge rosters today. Just because Activision said "see ya" doesn't mean the players did.

[@brojakmate9872]

It could be worse. They could literally kill the server like Paragon

[@Cylisium]

Blizzard also clearly lacked advertising for HOTS. They put a million cashprize for the HGC, but not even on their launcher have they put an ad for their event as we could have seen for the Overwatch league.

[@Noobie2k7]

Honestly played the game for years and had barely an idea they even had an e-sports scene at all until it was announced it'd been canceled lol.

[@Nierez]

Seriously I was so deep in League of Legends that I heard about HoTS from a friend of a friend of a friend. So Blizzard advertisement did not reach me. Tried it, have not left ever since.

[@Noobie2k7]

@@Nierez I did enjoy the fact it had so many different maps with various win conditions, even if they did somewhat boil down to the same thing. Though that zerg rush one can fuck off. I just feel like the lack of ways to players to have any real individual impact on games kind of hurt it a lot when it came to actual ranked. When your entire ability to progress in ranked is reliant on the other 4 members of your team not being fuck ups.

[@SamGarcia]

I'm guessing all the advertising went to South Korea

[@greenshell1121]

@tolbo ton because dota by name is already popular. News just spreads orally. If it had different name I doubt it would have the same fan base as it has now

[@Thagesthoughts]

What's really wild is that, in their desperation to avoid another DOTA, they've all but ensured with the updated Warcraft 3 EULA they'll never have another phenomenon spring up from the editor software their games come bundled with. Nobody's going to invent something that catches on like wildfire in the Warcraft 3 editor if Blizzard is just going to step in, fuck them over, and profit off their free labor. All because Blizzard was pissed off that they let DOTA slip through their fingers and their own incompetence killed HOTS.

[@aka-47k]

yeah the monetezation killed hots, it was the only moba i ever tried out just cause diablo vs jaina was such an awsum conzept. but after i seen that i need to grind random games with random heroes for a long time just to get what i want..../or pay alot) meh. im just too used to grind vs pay monetezation so i calculated that at that time i would need literal 50 hours to get 1 character i just dropped out.

[@Chadius]

Moral: You can't shove eSports down everyone's throat. Read the room and find your audience, THEN decide where to go.

[@ii2gjdp20sjdj2]

They did the same exact thing with Overwatch. The grassroot scene was just starting to flourish when they announced OWL, swiped all of that away and started forcing esports down everyone's throat. It's so miserably corporate and worse it's trying to emulate real life sports with those stupid ass team names and homestands and what have you... Now the viewer numbers are pitiful when you compare them to other major esports scenes. They even moved to KZbin...

[@TheEregos]

Except it was massive for Heroes and Overwatch. It dying for Heroes was a big blow and Overwatch is one of the biggest ones around period. Heroes has just went grassroots now Blizzard are not involved, it was a game that was always going to have eSports as it still does.

[@nikolastapakkis7021]

True, people didnt like to watch it casually why would they want to watch the esports part? During release it had a hype spell for a few weeks i think 2 weeks in the top 4 and then it just dropped. Now it has 4x less viewers than runescape.... The vid also makes a great point. Nobody knows a single hots pro, i played the game and watched streams when it released and the only players i remember were the league pros that jumped to hots for content and then went back to lol.

[@em7894]

Overwatch is and will never be an esport no matter how much they pushed it to become one. Blizzard is an embarassment to competition

[@nikolastapakkis7021]

​@@em7894 Thats a bit harsh i feel. Blizzard has had alot of success in hearthstone competition. There is only 1 fault i feel in Blizzards system, they tried to make esports out of things that cant have esports. It is the same problem Epic had with fortnite esports. In all fairness to Blizzard HOTS didnt flop esports because it was a bad idea, it was just worst than the alternatives LOL and Dota2. If those 2 didnt exist there was a chance that HOTS esports would be a massive thing but you are directly competing with games that are better and more enjoyable to watch. Now Overwatch only failed because its very hard to follow i feel. Its will never have the appeal of CS or TF2. I think one more problem that will arise now is if they try to make WARZONE esports. The game is dying out very fast and BR games are generally bad as esports because they are hard to follow from a directors point. You will have 50 teams competing, you have multiple gunfights going at the same time, you have the gulags you have so much action at all time that it would be impossible to show everything.

[@DeusExDraconian]

And to think if they had actually cared in the first place they could've had all that DOTA2 money.

[@Amplifymagic]

They were too busy focusing on World of Warcraft, which was and still is a money printing machine.

[@ufuk5872]

But its valve who make the pro scene so enticing with it money pool that keep growing every year, with the way blizz handle their esport wanting it to be TV friendly i doubt it get close in their hand.

[@tsozohoshi6182]

@@ufuk5872 that's true. Blizzard's approach to eSports needs re-evaluating. Overwatch could be much bigger in the eSports scene if blizzard took the right steps

[@nickarmitt4722]

@@tsozohoshi6182 That awkward moment where before suspension the OWL was getting record viewing figures and people saying the destruction of the meta and ban pools had shaken the league up in a big way: making it better for the viewer. But hey... They are only worth about $12BN, roughly 4 times that of Valve and didn't need to make their money from monopolisation and anti-competition way of running. That is why Valve and Gabe are now sycophantic about Epic store... Cause us in Europe told that fat diabetic piece of shit that Valve would get huge fines if they proceeded to act like cunts. But you autistitards knew all this right? Being the autistic retarded virgins you all clearly are. Only MOBA players Ive ever met have been virgins and thotts.

[@oneonly2762]

@@nickarmitt4722 U mad, bruh?

[@highsocks5914]

"At least we got Deathwing" -Hots community.

[@금강산-c9t]

Too bad Deathwing has the most unoriginal and ugly skillsets

[@budilamarius5053]

Dogshit design of a hero, get that abomination out of my game.

[@whyisgamora4191]

Hah I was so excited for him, too bad he turned out to be a boring, rushed, annoying piece of shit.

[@Noobie2k7]

I prefered Deathwing when he was just the meme of the game where every hero tease trailer was "Deathwing confirmed! And here's why" with some random nonsense about how a plant seen for 2 seconds in the trailer looked like Deathwings left nut.

[@Lucitaur]

Would be funny and ironic if he was the last hero added. And aspect of death announcing the official death of the game!

[@Frozen_Death_Knight]

Well, it is official. The game as of today is getting no more updates. Can't say I didn't see this coming since I quit around 4-5 months ago, but it is still sad regardless. Thanks for the memories, even though they weren't so great. Referencing songs aside, I loved playing this game. It was the last breath of the old Blizzard before everything went completely down the drain the last few years. It was fun while it lasted, even when there were so many rage moments. The game was there for me in my lowest moments and in my moments of triumph, but now it is time to close this chapter of my life. I hope you are happy, Blizzard. You just lost a 2 decades long fan of your games for life. Not going to play any of your games after everything that has happened for the last 5 years.

[@fn5k]

This was the only MOBA I ever liked. A lot of nice memories over thousands of games. Stopped playing after it entered maintenance mode because I refused to let Blizzard ruin my memories of HOTS. They really tend to destroy everything good.

[@allzofeel]

Imagine if they kept Blizzard All Stars. "Hey wanna play some BALLS?"

[@Rogueakeri31]

I mean, HotS still sound oddly sexual.

[@SuperThunderPanda]

waht do the double Ls stand for

[@nandu6136]

@@SuperThunderPanda all

[@Sebastian82]

the BALLS acronym was actually the main reason for the rename because it would have caused issues with sponsors

[@poison2028]

incrediBALLS

[@Choppytehbear1337]

Waiting for "Death of a Game: Warcraft 3 Reforged."

[@bartekrudy1161]

It can't die if its not alive to begin with :D

[@MrRuano825]

We already have a Wha Happun on it.

[@KeyLimeadeish]

@@bartekrudy1161 we still got a video on artifact's stillbirth

[@lorenzo3]

lol reforged 3 they didnt even update the ground layer and i think they worked 2 years for this shit as write its a really 30$ scam

[@PlayingWithStupid]

@Joe Gott @Choppytehbear1337 You guys want a real scam? I was playing w3 reforged a few days ago, and then battlenet suddenly deems that I no longer own the game. I'm still waiting for a reply from their support. www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/fr4qtf/warcraft_reforged_suddenly_removed_from_my_bnet/

[@theblankking1966]

Hots: “I’m not dead” N.S: “You will be in a moment.” Hots: “I feel fine.” N.S: “You’re not fooling anyone.” Hots: “I think I’ll go for a walk!” N.S: **blackjacks** In all seriousness I actually really like this game and it really hurts to see it go down this path. Probably the most painful death of a game to watch for me besides Battleborn, another unsuccessful game I really enjoyed. I hope it finds success in the future but... yeah, I’m not liking the odds. (Edit: Just wanted to thank all of you for the insane amount of likes and all the fun mini-discussions an that one guy who knew what my profile pic was from. You guys are too much and I'm so flattered

[@flarest1234]

The Blank King Paragon was also a sad death.

[@Samm815]

"I feel happy~!"

[@HyperBlast4]

ya i liked HoTS too, was fun but once activision blizzard decided to pull their esports, almost the ENTIRE community left and it just...wasnt fun anymore

[@Shadow.24772]

yea...i stopped playing the game when the esports got terminated..not to say i was a big fan of the esports. just, the way they handled it. it should've been left to organically happen. also, the ranked, should've been exclusive 5 man team only... sure, it would have been sparsely populated, BUT it's the game's strength so should've been used, also encourage "veteran" to bring new players in to become "cogs" Ha Ha. god, this video made me shed tears of sorrow...

[@ItsJustTeddington]

You can't kill what is already dead at conception. HotS was a stillbirth.

[@Ara_Arasaka]

So I’m here from the future with some news…. Yeah. It’s dead-dead.

[@Warlockhound]

after watching this video i started playing hots again lol

[@maxhoyle7040]

Me thinking youre playing the seconding starcraft 2 installation

[@matttyler9963]

But there's literally no freedom in that game, pick a character and 6oure basically locked into whatever spell you level up first and that's all that's to it

[@HrHaakon]

It's actually a pretty good game tbh. Not perfect, but it's fun.

[@Chillrogg]

It’s so fuuuun

[@Chillrogg]

@@bearok89 glad to hear bro 🙂

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Oh yeah and here's this DOAG we have been cooking up. If you are affected in some way by this quarantine this one is for you guys :). Sources in the description as always.

[@suisei9040]

Been waiting brother - Love your content!

[@Hephamos]

@Canadian Viking But it isn't over? The game marches on despite all of the obstacles it has been given

[@DarkThagan]

So I am not supposed to watch this? :(

[@j.murray5656]

Hey how about resident evil rebirth of a franchise? (After 5 and 6). Would make be really revelent now given re2 and the quarantine situation. Also i just really want you to cover resident evil more.

[@LookIDrum]

But HotS is still online, getting updates, and being maintained? They just cut e-sports and the team size a little. Didn't put it on maintenance mode or anything like that. Yes it may be a bad sign, but it's still very much alive with people very much playing it.

[@loksunl8714]

see "Source: TotalBiscuit", oh the nostalgia is hitting me again .RIP TB

[@jannesainio7672]

Miss him so much. Reason I went through comments, I saw TB's name in the vid.

[@morganbothwell7747]

@Qunt Goblin don't hurt yourself with that edge

[@Dean123123100]

@Qunt Goblin careful now, you might kill someone with all that edge or yourself if you fall over

[@someguy9970]

B. M. Hey remember when TB told someone to get cancer and die, then he himself got cancer and died? Ironic.

[@stijolew5127]

@@someguy9970 Remember when the person he said that to accepted his apologies and didn't hold a grudge against TB for years, even after his death? But hey man, I guess being happy that a dude died because he one time said a mean thing to someone on the internet gives you the moral high ground.

[@Tintelinus]

"There was another Moba at the time being developed, called heroes of newearth, but thats a story for another time" With the announcement that they are shutting down the servers of that game, I think its a good time now. Its kinda funny in a way that of all Mobas born in the Moba craze of the early 10s, only like 2 or 3 remain standing with LoL, Dota 2 and I guess Smite?

[@MrPronGogh93]

And the reason why lol and dota2 are still at the top, kinda, is they incentivize personal performance over the team, dota2, or are just cheap to run, lol.

[@Awsomatude]

Smite was really the only one that successfully made a unique MOBA. Paragon was the only other one that compared, but that copied too much from the other bigger names.

[@thegreatbookofgrudges6953]

I actually really like HoN b'coz that's how I learned moba's mechanic

[@himlolo]

@@MrPronGogh93 dota 2 isn’t team focused? Maybe if you’re playing turbo alone. League is also team focused I don’t know how people say stuff like this. If you play alone you’re just gonna feed. Some characters jungle I guess but most of them need to stay for team fights. And you say this while characters like death wing exist in hots.

[@MrPronGogh93]

@@himlolo no, play league at higher elo, you just pick the most broken champ in meta who can solo carry though overloaded kit or damage, or both. Even kn the support role, team oriented champ like Braum are useless compared to thing like lux, sona, pyke or any support who can deal tons of damage. Maybe on flex and championship thing are different, but not on soloQ, in the last 7 year I did play.

[@LoudMutes]

Seeing all this footage with TotalBiscuit in it... I miss that man so much. He got me into following gaming journalism, and there has never been anyone that can replace him and his 30 minute tirades about fov sliders. You'll always be remembered John.

[@igorthelight]

True!

[@Suthek]

"You call this a bloody FOV slider you donkey?!"

[@TerminusTartaros]

Amen brother

[@Trakesh]

Reminder that he abused his wife after she decided not to vote in 2016.

[@misao6397]

@@Trakesh fuck off, the man was dying of cancer and dealing with a lot of stress. In his final years he was definitely becoming loopy as fuck but that shouldn't cancel out all the achievements and good things he did in his life. I doubt you would be sunshine and smiles while knowing your death was coming. Don't try and drag dead people's names through the mud.

[@boxtears]

I admit I still like this game though and play it regularly.

[@shippoi]

I play it every so often. It's a nice change of pace from the other Mobas. It's less stressful than the other Mobas, that's for sure 😅

[@mahghuuuls]

I play it regularly.. It is my favorite moba

[@thelastfanboy131]

Just finished playing some HOTS with a friend and said "lets check out KZbin before I go to bed...oh"

[@matheusg.3508]

I can't understand how people still insists the game is dead... I think that they want it to die, it's the only reason...

[@ououkuaipao]

@@matheusg.3508 well its dead compare other two

[@OfficerDva444]

@@matheusg.3508 I agree I think ppl see it as a failure and would rather have it dead then exist.

[@OfficerDva444]

@@ououkuaipao Sadly true =(

[@matheusg.3508]

@@OfficerDva444 Just let other people be happy... I don't like LoL or DotA and I don't go out making people stop playing it... O.o

[@fntthesmth423]

You do have to admit that, no matter the many failings of this whole thing, "Heroes of the Dorm" is a good name

[@nathanpurss4582]

I love Hots, I wish it wasn't forgotten about because it's actually pretty fun when you play with friends.

[@hoamanh7638]

Any game is fun to play with friends.

[@TheSpaniard]

Yet another DOAG that makes the entire series just feel like an ever-running thesis on gaming companies screwing up by getting too greedy.

[@TzvetozarCherkezov]

They literally screwed up by INVESTING too much money in their e-sports scene and thus creating a bubble. Not to mention the game had the biggest team of all teams in Blizzard, which means it drained the most resources. It's the opposite of what you're saying. It's the company not understanding how much to invest in order to get continuing organic growth.

[@Ulubai]

Jim Sterling Son would be proud.

[@ououkuaipao]

@@TzvetozarCherkezov and hots game design focus on too much teamplay killing it like overwatch for me. Good thing is that overwatch has no competition but it is a dead game for me. And all the aoe ability and rank games make me sick of the game

[@Chadius]

This and Wha Happun are the tag-team kings of this.

[@user-rv8yv4yh9n]

I still love HotS, even though i've been avoiding blizzard games. A MOBA that doesn't destroy you if you've fallen behind individually, a higher focus on ability use instead of items, different ways to comeback after a rough earlygame. crying shame what its become.

[@speedstorm4923]

I disagree with what Richard said, you can still carry the game and be the star of the match. I play mostly DotA nowadays but I have to say that hots has the best hero ideas of all the mobas, where in the hell do you have a hero that is controlled by two players besides hots?

[@RSMVreviewer]

@@speedstorm4923 gimmick hero fitting for a casual game like HotS

[@Scorbutic]

That's the problem. You SHOULD get destroyed in a MOBA when you fall behind. That's the point. That's called being bad. That is the incentive to improve. Not having that is what got shitty players in high ranks in this game.

[@exploertm8738]

@@Scorbutic its calling bs balance with no way to comeback. If I am falling behind in first 15 minutes of match then why should I play rest like what, last time I played Dota for example average match was 40 minutes+ long, even more or less one-sided ones. By your logic, if you failing in early game, then just straight disconnect, why bother trying?

[@MefoWho]

@@speedstorm4923 name 1 player whos like richard said, a faker-dendi-simple god of the game of hots. Being different doesnt always come with success

[@Steak51430]

23:00. Guy is spot on. I knew of cloud9 for winning hots once. But never knew any players and didn’t care much about the team or any that existed. I don’t even play LoL or watch it but I still know who Faker is. Genius point.

[@user-fr1ys2wn4t]

Wait what? People didn't realized this from day 1? I thought it was pretty obvious that you as a player didn't have any influence on the game. The game is so straight forward that you can't tell the difference between playing against players or playing against bots.

[@Peachrocks5]

The thing that bothers me about this though is that this creates a game that has roles everyone flocks to and most people avoid and try to get out of playing. Role queue to a degree helps, but even there some people will try get around it by playing a support like a core or being ridiculously greedy. I mean sure Heroes is worse, because nobody has impact in that game, but in Dota and LoL there's no denying some roles have way more impact then others and ultimately it's still people who have to play those low impact roles. It's always annoyed me how in many scenarios in Dota especially, even if you have two supports that have one of the carries by their balls, it just doesn't matter, they pop black king bar or something and just own you anyway and you need to beg your carry to stop farming for five seconds to help you take advantage of the opportunity you should be able to act on without asking permission. Playing as a support in a solo queue for 95% of people is a miserable experience and only the very best are skilful enough to overcome the natural handicaps the role has. This ultimately is why I don't play Dota with people anymore. I 'like' the support heroes, but playing them with most people is just horrible. Maybe if Heroes was three players instead of five and wasn't so heavy handed and fixed in its roles like healing and such. If I could design a moba, i'd like to try that and mess with some things and have more 'services' that function a similar way to those mostly undesirable roles. There are those who like them, but I've never met someone who refuses to play carry/core. Met plenty who refuse to play support.

[@avatarblood0]

@@Peachrocks5 i honestly disagree with you when it comes to supports in dota. You seem to not understand the role and how you can carry your team as a support. The point of a support is to carry the early game. You are the strongest in the first 10 minutes and it's your job to make sure your carry farms and your enemy doesn't. You also have to make plays and help not only your lane, but other lanes get kills. If you do your job well you carried the game by making sure your carry is really fat and your enemy can't even afford bkb. Late game you aren't as strong, but you can still help a lot by placing good wards. Vision wins the game.

[@FuryhotsOP]

Damn this really hurts to see, being one of the ex pro players from hots I agree it got released way too late and Alpha/Beta phase took way too long and didn’t get enough attention early on. I don’t think hots should ever try to compare themselves to Dota/league because the way hots was designed is so different from both of them yet Blizzard forced the name “moba brawler” I think if the game was released sooner then the esports scene was going to be fine no matter how much money blizzard invests. Overall Blizzard too slow and poorly timed hots when it could have been something big but never as big as Dota/league. Nice video though thank you 💙

[@DevastatorKnight]

Good to see you still around Fury. Loved to watch all the HGC games. I still enjoy HotS but I do miss it having a competitive scene to watch. Hope you're doing well.

[@Digger-Nick]

@@rampart5631 Hots games are shorter and character design is arguably better. Unlike league, I'm not stuck on a team with badkids for 30+ minutes because they refuse to surrender a game they made unwinnable.

[@matheusg.3508]

@@rampart5631 I Switched 5 years ago and neve came back hahaha And hardly I will come back even if HotS die someday in the future... It showed me how a true MOBA is like hahaha And I will never settle for less again XD

[@jonathanlui930]

I've never touched HotS but am an avid Hearthstone and League player. However, I distinctly remember reading the article about the cancellation of the esports scene for HotS. As a player was it a shock, were teams told in advance? And through some quick reading I've learned you were mainly a tank player, what were your thoughts on the teamwork aspect of HotS and that there was less room to carry games on ranked or in professional games?

[@SuperiorApostate]

nah, fuck them and their PC culture. I said and hoped it would crash and burn and it did. Fuck blizzard altogether.

[@porkbabyy]

HOTS is such a stellar game, and all those employees’ hard work totally shows. his points are valid but this shit hurted

[@flameofanor1415]

"Stellar" is such an overstatement.

[@seld2040]

@@flameofanor1415 It is, you like it or not.

[@Zaxomio]

​@@seld2040 It's honestly been one of my favorite games since beta release. I've been playing it on and off from the very beginning and I always find myself returning, can't say the same for my 3000 or so games into league, I never went to go back to that cesspool again. I don't think this game will leave my pc until the day they close down the servers.

[@seld2040]

@@Zaxomio Exactly, it's the same for me. It's a great game :) you never have the same game twice.

[@ragingmoo157]

Zaxomio same man I’ve been on and off with the game too and right now I’m playing again

[@hellcopterts8895]

Death of a company: Merge with the greediest money milk corporation you can find.

[@enriqueramos2426]

They don't work with EA... or do they?

[@MonkeyJazz75]

Although Blizzard is in a bad place comparatively, you'd have to be truly insane if you think they're a dead company.

[@minddtrixxter4983]

@@MonkeyJazz75 well the "true" blizzard died when they merged, from this point on its just a shell of it former self

[@andrewferrer2026]

@@enriqueramos2426 they merged with Activision for a long time. Although they're seperate, there is still Activision Blizzard

[@colby1398]

@@MonkeyJazz75 Dead in what way? Financially sure, they're fine. As a company that makes games worth playing? Nah, they dead.

[@LeonhardWelebny]

Yes, as a long-time fan of HotS, I for sure "hate" this video. What I hate about it is how accurate it is. There was so much potential killed by mismanagment :(

[@alies-]

true. man, its a really good game on paper. problem is that it was managed VERY purely, starting from rejecting dota before Valve and Riot aquired it. Same goes with wc3 reforged, they just fudged up one of the most legendary games in existence. I really hope that Microsoft will do something to make that game better

[@slimpwarrior]

It's still much more fun that any other Moba

[@michaelsude5291]

The TotalBiscuit fottage got me cold. He was for long time my favourite Streamer/Contentcreator. Thanks for adding him.

[@Netherlag1]

where is that part?

[@michaelsude5291]

@@Netherlag1 Around 08:28 are several gameplay parts from him.

[@lynnmorgan5897]

May he respawn in a better place

[@nikolakarovic5964]

RIP

[@Leedark3]

I almost shed a tear when I saw that name on screen.

[@nadiab1197]

yet hots is still the only moba game that I love to keep playing

[@Apasus1]

@@terreausore2435 you can easily snowball as a team, you clearly haven't played the game. Theres also a lot of variety in builds depending on what your team needs. I would say hots have MORE build variety than league of legends since you get to pick between 2 ultis.

[@Nickins]

Imagine taking a game designed in a way where people are incentivised to work together and saying it's "for snowflakes" because you don't rage quit every other match like a little baby like they do in lol and dota

[@Barbell_Neptune]

@@Apasus1 thats it? just by having 2 ultis? what about LOL's thousands of item builds?

[@Nickins]

@@Barbell_Neptune thousands of item builds and only 1-2 meta ones, which anyway do not change your gameplay in any meaningful way

[@Apasus1]

@@Barbell_Neptune "thousands of item builds" yeah which comes down to ap/ad/on-hit/tank XD. i've played lol since beta and hots since beta and i prefer lol but hots is great and what he said is just not true.

[@jacoboalcaldebravo7316]

A minor thing that is also worth mentioning: When Leoric was implemented in HotS, Blizzard had another beef with Valve over Dota 2. This time, it was over the hero Skeleton King. I don't know the details, but i rememeber how suddenly after Diretide (halloween event) Skeleton King was no longer playable in Dota 2 and the patch notes indicated he was removed due to "Seasonal reasons" until they released a Christmas event the same year in which they revealed Wraith King to substitute Skeleton King. Dunno if this means that Blizzard won a case against Valve or Valve wanted to avoid a case with Blizzard, but it was pretty interesting.

[@MrDeflador]

It was the later, that is also why windrunner is now windranger

[@jacoboalcaldebravo7316]

@@MrDeflador Oh, yes. I forgot about that. And also the changes done to Omniknight and Silencer to make them look different from SpellStealers and human Paladins. These changes were introduced in the summer if i remember correctly.

[@MrDeflador]

@@jacoboalcaldebravo7316 omniknight Changes were way later, it was when they added statusresistance in strengh (which they removed later on)

[@dr.sweetlove7859]

“The thing that annoyed players the most.” *Shows Murky* Yep that’s a good reason why I get annoyed with the game.

[@bigsmall246]

Murky was the most fun character ever

[@dr.sweetlove7859]

@@bigsmall246 I was more of a Lost Vikings man myself. I just get annoyed by Murky because when I played against friends who mained him and were Diamond they would just merk me in lane. So maybe it’s just the PTSD talking.

[@adam-ft2ny]

Illidan

[@kolofre]

I mained murky, hes the most amazing character in the game

[@GarkKahn]

No, morales and its ulti travelling 5ft away when you could basically teleport to the other side of the map What a waste of mana and time

[@user-hw2tg5bt1d]

“Activision blizzard” is still so surreal to hear

[@Maulwurfx1]

is it? Its been like ten or so years now

[@flufychickens]

@@Maulwurfx1 yaa but they didnt start using the term "Activision Blizzard" till past few years.

[@igorthelight]

Activision-Blizzard: "Now we are one!"

[@strikestorm]

I play HoTs everyday :( also since being “killed” the game is in the best state of its life. Weekly updates and monthly balance shifts

[@RbDaP]

That's my issue with this whole dead game meme when we talk about hots

[@tairad9474]

I feel the same. I play the game often, so was kinda shocked to see it lined up as an entry in the series.

[@snares187]

Oh well, guess we should all stop playing now someone releaed a video saying the game is dead

[@sadskeletor7907]

Nowadays people consider e-sport players and e-sport scenes as the most important things for MOBAs and multiplayer-only games. Everyone has their opinion and while most say that HOTS is dead, I, on the other hand, don't care about e-sport or e-sport players enough lul. HOTS is the only MOBA I actually enjoy playing as DOTA and LoL have minion last hitting, item shop and other stuff I really don't want to care in a video game. I just want to have fun and play TOGETHER rather than listen to some toxic 12 years old telling me that I play wrong (Like I care... but I do enjoy to play DOTA 2 just to troll them).

[@sucu7359]

I wasn't believing the "dead" meme until the deathwing release too, they started that smiler toy event like any other and just stopped. I don't know if it still receives updates weekly according to this guy, but no new content for nearly half a year now? thats just being in the grave.

[@Blythe985]

I didnt follow Hots news for a while so when I read the title I was just like: "SAY IT AIN'T SO" I love the game alot. Its just that when they moved people away from the dev team and announced the stop of the Esport League it kind of killed my motivation. I felt like the game was being left behind and I was playing a game without much of a future. Really made me sad. I think this is one of the best MOBA's out there and the first that made me actually play ranked games because I wanted to AND I had a great experience

[@matheusg.3508]

It's strange to say that but... Without the eSports scene, the devs aren't overwhelmed anymore, and the game is way more fluid theses days ! It's strange but there are more people playing it now than before, you should come visit a play some matches haha

[@erikciel2817]

no

[@СергійЧучвара-Шмагара]

Game is still running and still good. Yes, no official payed tournaments, so what!?I Wasnt attending them before, no planning for future. Closing pro scene influenced people who was earning money on that, not average person who just had fun of playing not a bad game. Feel pitty on all these sheeps and slaves of fashion who can switch from the thing they are doing and like to another(not really better), just because mass is more hyped abt other stuff. Abt heads of blizzard who decides the course of the company nowadays and how it should grow, - wish they burn in hell😊.

[@abhabh6896]

It just doesnt work out. Their approach was too idealistic in design. Everyone equal? Maybe causal players complain about that but in Esport scene it needs to be like that for those pros to be entertaining.

[@Blythe985]

@@abhabh6896 It never felt "equal". You stood out with skill not items. The notion that you couldnt carry in this game was also kind of weird to me because you clearly could. You just cant do this 1v5 stuff you see in other games

[@badisghouila8410]

This video was about the death of HOTS esports in my opinion...

[@erth8096]

Yah game is still running good they are even releasing new heroes

[@TurboDodgeXVI]

Yep, still loving it almost every day.

[@maikatiemuj2706]

@@TurboDodgeXVI quit that shit when the deathwing patch came,worst time in hots by a long shot at least for me

[@Moonwhale]

Yeah, seriously the gameplay in this game is so much better than any MOBA. and I started in DOTA and tried everyone else. LOL even felt slow to me. like their normal speed felt like walking that was years ago though. I felt Heroes of Newerth was the best Sequel to all those when HOTS wasn't available yet.

[@ladjiel]

Anyone know the opening jazz instrumental song of this video ?

[@nekowatt5945]

The biggest and most fascinating reason why I always watch your DOAG videos is that I have either played or at least been involved in some way with these games. Marvel Heroes, Gotham City Impostors, Hawken, Gigantic, Wildstar, Paragon, Dirty Bomb, etc. and now HoTS. I've damn played them and it's so interesting learn all about what happened to these games that have cultivated a significant part of my life..

[@1337-Nathaniel]

Oh.. My.. God... YOU killed the games! It all makes sense!

[@nekowatt5945]

@@1337-Nathaniel Haha lol, to be fair not every game I touched became a trainwreck. In fact a lot of these games had potential (Paragon, Dirty Bomb, Gigantis, HoTS) and the fact that they were free gave me nothing to lose. I just wanted a fresh free game that isn't LoL, DoTA, Smite and TF2 but every one of these just didn't come out well.

[@JustDoIt12131]

26:27 "Trying to get an appropriate team composition, and then praying your teamates were willing to work together even if that was the point of the game, made for many frustrating experiences" This is the key. The gamer comunity's view of *team* games is absolutely corrupted: they think what makes a good player is to stand out among your team, when actually what makes a good player in a *team* game is to cooperate with your team. They would prefer to sacrify their team so they don't die rather than dying to make their team survive and win the teamfight. They think as an individual instead of as a team. The problem is the comunity. It's as simple as that. Heroes of the Storm is much more a team game than dota 2 or LoL. That's precisely why so many players have problems with it.

[@francka.4174]

You don't have to go that far. Without even talking about " taking one for the team " people ain't even able to do a camp together 30 secs before going on the first objective most of the time (at least in QM) and fight blindly with their brains turned off (if they do have one, which at a certain point can be questioned). Solo laning ? Most of them don't even know what it is and for many playing in a team means be always together. What heroes are more suited for it ? They have no idea. And the list goes on and on. That simple sentence u quote summarize most of my experience of this game. Some may think differently but in my opinion the only way to really enjoy this game is with mates you already know, not with random people.

[@DougMarv]

@@francka.4174 sigh I hate those noobs on QM, I mean seriously the players on this game are the most noobs I ever seem. Specially on Brazil server, where majority not even are brazilians(we speak portuguese) but other south Americans that speak Spanish

[@Aganie.]

IzexJorge even if you’re in a game losing too you can just have a laner pusher and win the game thats also super tedious as you can just do that in pretty much any game

[@suthiraksb]

Choosing Ana and got Genji + Hanzo in team = GGEZ. Unless they know to stop for healing.

[@DougMarv]

@@suthiraksb OW heroes r very broken and fun I love them xD

[@codencecoudini]

I've always liked how NS videos are always like "This game is dying or dead, but why is that? Let's investigate and see if we can conclude something." Whereas other videos are like "This game is dead! It sucks and here is why! Activision did games bad! "

[@gamesux420]

Those two statements mean the exact same thing though, they're just worded differently...

[@stalinium2020]

@@gamesux420 not really, both statements have a different mean.

[@Kenny833]

Would make sense if he titled it as such instead of claiming the death of it in the title.

[@aerieleah533]

@@gamesux420 not really. By presenting the information the way he does, he didn't force his opinion down the audience's throat. He lets you draw your own conclusions using the same information he used, and there's also a sense of satisfaction of you realize the same things he does based on what he says. Also, the latter statement is just destructive while the former is constructive. Negative versus positive.

[@Calx9]

@@gamesux420 Ignore everyone else. You are absolutely right. The tone is different but the statement and question is the same.

[@BKNimaruIchi]

Man seeing TotalBiscuit in a video (or his avatar at least) threw me for a loop. Hope you're resting in peace big guy, you're dearly missed.

[@pocketheart1450]

I played and loved Heroes of the Storm. A lot, on both accounts. After they announced the scaleback though, I admit, I saw no reason to put effort into it anymore and jumped ship. I felt betrayed by Blizzard, and I'm not even an e-sports competitor or anything.

[@CraftyArts]

Yeah that kind of pushed me away and it makes me angry because I tried league of legends and after the tutorial managing items let alone individual leveling just was a nightmare. Basically I'd just be spending time on a forum to figure out the best item leveling slots and then each match taking Twice as long... No thanks.

[@MoonHoundHati]

Same here. This game was the first MOBA I ever played and the only one I've played long-term. The sudden and complete cancelation of the Esports scene was incredibly bad for optics, even to someone with little interest in it, like you and I. Combined with the drastic scaling back of the development team and thus content release rate and reduction of it (no more new maps) and the game just feels like it's been left to bleed out slowly. I tried going back for a bit last year, but the game's playerbase felt worse than when I left, with, for example, people in diamond rank not even knowing which lane was the solo lane despite having picked the solo laner. That makes its matchmaking problems even more glaringly obvious than it had been before.

[@3dTank]

Same, I played it a lot and switched to it from LoL because of a better community and, for me, more fun games on average. But LoL has kept improving and HotS was just abandoned. Seriously, fuck AB. They're as bad as EA and Bethesda (sadly) atm.

[@Igneeka]

Same, I've always been playing LoL but didn't expect to enjoy HoTS as much as I did, it was flawed for sure but I loved it as a more casual, simple fun MoBA (along with some really creative characters to play) but massive lack (or rather scarcity) of updates and new content just made me leave, I mean sure it's not dead as it still has a dedicated playerbase, at least it still had one when I left but Blizzard is clearly waiting for the game to die

[@renzokuken631]

Yeah me too. If Activision/Blizzard stopped having faith in the game, why should I continue?

[@pinoarias8601]

Personally, as a long time HOTS player, I've got to say that the addition of lootboxes was the best change in the game by far. Before that system the only way of getting the cool skins was paying for them. With the lootbox system getting epic and even legendary skins became extremely easy without having to spend a single penny.

[@kyrios0307]

Haha yeah, Im always happy when I get an EPIC or LEGENDARY item from boxes. Recently I got the Dark Nexus Hound.

[@luketfer]

by contrast I had the exact opposite feeling on loot boxes. Lets say I wanted the D3 diablo skin (which I did), now originally I could have bought that for £10 OR I could spend three times that gambling in loot boxes trying to get that specific skin or the shards needed to craft it. the 2.0 loot box progression was what actually turned me OFF of playing HotS, the moment it was introduced and they did the stupid 'weekly skin rotation' thing I just stopped playing. Loot boxes are great IF you don't want a specific skin, like ONE specific skin and you just want all sorts of skins from all different heroes. They SUCK if you want a single specific skin and don't care at all about the rest of the junk you get from the boxes.

[@H41030v3rki110ny0u]

I hate loot boxes because the progression skins lost their flare... when I unlocked my first "Master" skin I was so happy. 2.0 and on you could just buy them with shards :(

[@luketfer]

@@H41030v3rki110ny0u Yeah I was always proud of my King Stitches Master skin...yet when 2.0 came out it was just a bog standard rare skin...like wtf...

[@ououkuaipao]

I straight dont bother to change anything else other than skin. 2.0 is ok but doesnt bring me anything else

[@chesh1re_cat]

I love this game and will keep playing it as long as the servers are running, but this was a great analysis. I've played many MOBA for many years and still think HotS gives the best experience for the casual player

[@adriangonzalez3600]

Team fighting was always the best part of MOBAs for me, and that's what this game excels at. My favorite characters were always good in at least a few different maps, unlike other ones where your favorite character are only good in the most specific of matchups that never occur because the meta forces you to use 10% of the player pool.

[@MariaChar]

I was diamond before I switched to league of legends a year ago and all I got to say is that I miss hots cuz that game never made me mad or toxic and I actually chilled playing it . Too bad it died and they didn’t keep putting new stuff into the game.

[@weirdtales9590]

@@MariaChar But they are putting new stuff in to the game. And the competitive is returned with the CCL (not sponsored by Blizzard for now,but the quality is good)

[@michimatsch5862]

@@MariaChar The game is still running and they keep adding heroes and things.

[@calvinstephenson6232]

@@MariaChar they just added a brand new hero two weeks ago. I haven’t played in years, but I’ve come back to hots the last couple of months and it’s been fun. Games are as easy to find as ever, and like I said, they just added a new hero “Hogger, a Knole from Warcraft” just a couple weeks ago. Come back if you’re board.

[@Dolwerflamingo]

DEATH OF THE GAME: HEROES OF NEWERTH, WHEN¿

[@benbecic7401]

I still play this game, it's good

[@rtsoldat]

more than ever, like 5 of my friends joined the weeks past to enjoy all the free heroes and got stuck playing ranked now lol

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

6 years of play and I am still enjoying it :)

[@iammikeDOTorg]

+Juan. I’m a casual 🤷‍♂️

[@kannachan2744]

I gave up after my queue times took 20 minutes every time.

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

@@kannachan2744 EU 20 seconds

[@captainwedge2335]

While the esports scene is not the same, there's still a very active amateur scene open to all skill levels that's going strong. Nexus Gaming Series (90+ teams) in NA is having signups for its 9th season right now and Heroes Lounge (110+ teams) in EU is going on its 12th season. Lots of opportunities for anyone that enjoys the game still!

[@channelecruteak]

I want to log on and play but every time the chat lobby is just spam of the N word and trump shit. Log Off LOL

[@captainwedge2335]

@@channelecruteak that might be the case from the general chat in game, but both the NA and EU leagues are safe places where you don't have to worry about random general chat things. Also, I'm pretty sure everyone ends up leaving general chat because it's never worth it anyway

[@Department81]

I consumed a lot of the HotS e-sports content. The problem with the current amateur leagues is the lack of organization. The channels that broadcast the competitions are hard to find or disorganized. For example, Khaldor's playlist is just a huge conglomeration of all HotS videos. Where can I find the last week or last tourney in an orderly format?

[@Niceguy54444]

Nope its death

[@Aztonio]

@@channelecruteak Welcome on the internet

[@erickienitz1490]

"This is stupid. I wish we weren't penguins and that our show wasn't canceled." ~Brak

[@magoog9864]

Im still playing it. Faster queue times now than ever before imo

[@FractiousOrderXypher]

not as toxic as the other mobas

[@EL-ISS]

I never got into it, but when I did have my brief time playing I noticed that people weren't as big of assholes as they are in other MOBAs like League it DOTA. Not as much tilt, not as much raging or BM. The games not for me personally but I'll acknowledge it's humble fan base lol.

[@doctorsnakeeater1997]

God, such a shame cuz in concept, Heroes of the Storm looks SO cool.

[@marlowencna]

It is cool to play. Specially with friends. It is also a horrible "hardcore" esport game.

[@smonkk8556]

its incredibly fun too. such a shame

[@KVPMD]

@@marlowencna We have a croud funded eSports scene by now with Heroes Lounge division S. The Playoffs just ended and at least in europe it was a lot of fun. I at least do prefer the team focus OR the solo focus of SC2. I can't stand LoL to look at. We get new heroes every new season, by now that are quarters. The next should be in April so I expect the next hero to be announced soon. I think the most important part was at the end: HotS was not sustainable. It was to fast as it started late. They had to get up in heroes to counter the champion pool of LoL or DotA2. We had times with a new hero every 3 weeks. It was insane. They had to much work for sure, it was nearly impossible to stay up to date as a player. If you had a holiday and maybe some work stuff and came back 2 month later there were 3-4 new heroes, totally shifted meta... On the other side the massive additoins + eSports made it impossible to balance. It was really a mess. Now the game has slowed down. We have lots of heroes and maps. We have 1 new hero, about 2-3 major reworks + 1-4 minor reworks per quarter. The game is rally solid at the moment. Hope next seasons brings another hero as expected and we keep having fun and eSports keeps growing slowly. So... come, test it. All heroes usable for free at the moment (corona) by the way.

[@vitorborges807]

Idk. It always felt way too simplified to me. It kinda misses the main point of this kind of game. It's more of a party game to play with your buds than anything really competitive.

[@KVPMD]

​@@vitorborges807 Maybe different people have different points for a game. They classified as a hero brawler (instead of MOBA) at the start and this had a reason. This game is a lot more about team coordination, desicions and and (5man) fighting. Groups of 3 or more moving on the map are common even in the first 5 minutes. On the other hand mechnical things like last hitting is missing. This causes feedback problems. You can't compare as good as in other games. XP is really important but there are different ways to get it and it is really hard to say if you should stay in lane, gank heroes, get a camp (jungle in other games) or help others. Even in pro play you see massive XP gain differences. Laubers FC is currently the best I have ever seen in this. The game is so more flexible. There is no jungler in your team. There are good heroes for camps but it can be Meele, Bruiser, Ranged, Mages or even Healer. This makes it a mess in low ELO / MMR and make the games match making feel bad. Some can get a camp in between 2 lane waves.

[@leeh1ful]

the xmas event is still going....4 months later. total maintenence mode

[@amirhayek821]

? It has been the toy event for over a month now for europeans.

[@barbarus30]

Sad but true 🥺

[@DracoDatura]

@@amirhayek821 The toy event IS the xmas event Sadly they abandoned this game so much, there are no people to maintain these simple event updates :((

[@Aztonio]

@@DracoDatura twitter.com/ghallahad/status/1245589805141856256?s=19

[@amirhayek821]

@@DracoDatura really? omg.. :(

[@davids5195]

I'm still actively playing and loving the game, and we're still receiving very frequent balance patches and updates. So, it's still quite alive for me!

[@HeIsDreaMe]

But still a trash match making system. Lol. Game is garbage, I had to ditch it

[@sirrismendozasunlessrealms5775]

@@HeIsDreaMe As a new player, I got matched against level 1,000. But it didn´t stop from winning games, it is a team effort after all.

[@HeIsDreaMe]

@@sirrismendozasunlessrealms5775 Play a real great, you'll understand. The match making is fucked, frankly you get too many people who don't give a fuck. Making a sole team based game boring as fuck. I can go carry in LoL with newbs who don't give a shit. HotS, not as easily. The game is dead, throw in the fucking laat nail already.

[@msjfhbvgyu1371]

@@HeIsDreaMe bitch the only reason you can carry in LoL it’s because Lol it’s not a teamwork game but more of a “if I gain enough experience and buy all the right items I can kill everyone in the enemy team alone” so shut up

[@LTSurge8888]

I came here to officially put the last stone on this grave, RIP HOTS, was a great game, such a shame they dont care

[@LinkheyLC]

I am also a alpha player of HoTs and I still play it to this day. It's a fun game, I enjoy it far more than LoL which I also play. I suggest anyone who hasn't played it to give it a shot

[@ShinYamiZakura]

Started during Beta, and enjoyed a lot playing Tyrande and Valla (I mean, who doesn't like shooting arrows in a Blizzard game, the animations feel so smooth) but I don't really play anymore (no king rules forever, and most of the people I used to play with have moved on since then). I don't know if it was the playerbase being more welcoming or the game being new and fresh with everyone knowing they were definitely no gods, but the amount of flame was really WAY lower than in LoL at the time when I used to play.

[@phetmanonline]

i was also an alpha player as well. turned this shit game it off and deleted from hard drive the moment I had my FOTS on wow retail account

[@KarkatTheEternal]

For me its a game you play for 3 days with party of friends to never see it again in 3 months. As my main game is Dota 2 i just feel that playing hots somehow serious is waste of time and the impact im making in game is minimal. In Dota 2 you can learn someting new every match even with 3.5k hours in.Which is impossible in Hots.

[@LinkheyLC]

@@KarkatTheEternal valid. Unfortunately when I say I still play it is maybe like 10 games a month lol very casual about it

[@KarkatTheEternal]

@@LinkheyLC Yeah i think the game is good for this and should stay :)

[@francocavecchia8246]

Blizzard (or ActiBlizz) did too little, too late. Peak MOBAs popularity was between 2012 till 2016-17 at best, period. They didn't give two spits about DoTA when it was a mod, and later saw a big opportunity for making profit (no coincidence they now force W3R map creators to give them full IP rights on any creation done with their map editor), Valve and RioT saw the potential and took the shot before it was too late. The evidence is the later card-gaming trend that they developed with HearthStone, followed by Valve with the lackluster Artifact which attempted to grab fans into a money making, lootbox riddled machine. Ultimately, even if the idea behind HoTS was interesting, the game itself came to be in the later days of the genre, and that killed it before it was even out.

[@Ivnie]

Artifact died on arrival, because it was overflowing with microtransaction and wasn't even f2p which is a death sentence to a session game, but all in all you're completely right, Blizzard tried to occupy a niche that has been already occupied, it was too late.

[@BlGGESTBROTHER]

@@Ivnie "Blizzard tried to occupy a niche that has been already occupied" That basically sums up the AAA gaming industry over the past 15 years.

[@Ziko577]

They waited too long and instead of striking while the iron's hot, they came too late and it was awful seeing both HotS & Hearthstone die off. Digital CCG's are too screwy and the MOBA genre is dying as well. It's no wonder that Riot is slowly moving away from LoL and focusing on spinoffs in other genres and the forthcoming Valorant will be the test to see if they can move past this.

[@1337-Nathaniel]

It's a shame really, because I did not like DotA/MobA games when LoL, HoN and hell even before, when WC3 DotA was a thing. But HotS did something special for me. And enjoyed playing it a lot. I even went and looked for a clan online, to be able to get better and play more.

[@mechkota]

Blizzard had the whole time of the world to learn how to make good MOBA and they decided " lets see what maked LoL and DotA popular and we should do the opposite.Ehen make people pay even more for the privilege of playing a Blizzard game We’re Blizzard! Hey moba fans fak your favourite mechanics and go play our game. " Thats why this game failed. Blizzard had the whole time of the world to learn from other mobas but they learn nothing.

[@Riitje]

Despite all this it's still my favorite MOBA, but that might be because I don't like the genre all that much.

[@adrian-ioanmunteanu3027]

Blizzard announced that the project will no longer receive any major updates and will enter maintenance mode. RIP

[@thenewshaymetal666]

I started playing the game several weeks ago and really like it.

[@boutikadrezius7564]

Wait until you get to 55% win rate

[@caysien912]

@@boutikadrezius7564 That's what you say on your behalf. :))

[@Moldinav8]

@@boutikadrezius7564 still would like it:)

[@Mattis35]

@@boutikadrezius7564 I am at 58% win rate and I don't see any problem...

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

I've been playing it since beta and it is still a great game! :)

[@Xalozar]

"Catchy music tune" You're goddamn right

[@loganise]

I'm trying to remember where It's from.. I want to say It's from a Phoenix Wright game, but I can't recall..

[@YasserDjoko]

@@loganise It's Detective Conan (Case Closed in the US) Main Theme, you can listen to it here kzbin.info/www/bejne/epK3c5d6jZh_bdE

[@loganise]

@@YasserDjoko Appreciated! Thank you so much! I confused it since I used to play Ace Attorney Online and that's where I heard it!

[@YasserDjoko]

@@loganise you're welcome!

[@jack12345678936]

柯南

[@borga6566]

Despite everything, I still love this game and will keep playing it.

[@amonnoma1370]

Same much better than other mobas.

[@TG-ge1oh]

I'm afraid one of these days they'll just shut down the servers... They even stopped doing events after dragging the last one till April. You can see Blizzard's lack of love dripping all over it.

[@Doncroft1]

@@TG-ge1oh I don't think they will. Blizzard's never shut down one of their big titles before like you say. Why would they?

[@SailorMoonkin]

i see u have a horde icon there for the horde! :D

[@Leo-pr7ly]

@@TG-ge1oh they stop loving their games, Starcraft II is also on pure maintain mode, all new stuff have to be paid for, not even new portraits or archievements added. And the bad WCIII remastered. Activision burned it down. CD Project Red is the new hope.

[@DmytroBogdan]

As an old Smite MOBA player I can confirm that a factor of strong individual in competitive team play is very important for a casual player. I personally follow pros I like and it motivates me to boot the game more often to try their builds or strategies.

[@Amplifymagic]

I recently went back to playing this game, after over a decade of playing MOBA's, I still prefer the casual and laid back hero based combat than the last hitting and laning mechanics of the past.

[@sEaNoYeAh]

Yeah, frankly last hitting and laning are dated and boring mechanics that are only still there because 1) everyone is used to them and 2) they never tried anything else to bring any depth to the early stages of the game. But absolutely no MOBA player thinks laning is the most interesting phase of the game. It's filler.

[@ursoanonimo8398]

And to this day, we all still wait for Cairne Bloodhoof to be added. Ishne’alo’pora.

[@Amplifymagic]

Urso L. Hell yes! FOR THE TRIBES!

[@mechkota]

@@sEaNoYeAh How the hell laning is boring? When during the laning phase, not only are you last hitting but also fighting to keep them from last hitting as well. The laning phase will mostly have the most fighting because you want to constantly force the enemy to lose gold and exp so you can start controlling the game early.There are constant trades and pokes. During this time roaming will also occur, so will teamfights that happen in Dota when people teleport to the tower of someone that’s being dived. It very much isn’t just you hitting creeps for 20 minutes.

[@firstnamesurname2482]

​@@mechkota That's what braindead casual player always said. They couldn't process 2 task at once. It's funny when you think about it.

[@AnemoneMeer]

Honestly, it would be less accurate to call the game dead, and more accurate to say that it's a miracle it's still alive. What little remains of the dev team is and has been truly trying their best, and the playerbase is still passionate. There's still a competitive scene and everything. And yet Activision Blizzard is still aggressively choking it, simpsons style. Speaking as someone who has played since beta up until recently, Activision Blizzard is actively, knowingly, and intentionally trying to kill the game in spite of its playerbase's passion.

[@matheusg.3508]

I would add that people who don't play the game actually want it to die too... They keep spaming that the game is dead so people stop playing it, but if it depends on the playerbase, it will never die hahaha

[@petertcormack3570]

Agreed. At the end, when he was summing up, all I could think of was "but it's still a really fun game that I love to play." None of his points were invalid, but I do disagree with his use of the term "dead" - even if that can have multiple meanings - because it definitely still exists (unlike Paragon - curse you Epic!) for online play (unlike Battleborn - RIP), has a big enough playerbase that I can get into games when I'm playing, and is a really solid game in terms of gameplay, graphics, and all the rest that we plebs actually care about. Keep going HotS; we love you!

[@ampthebassplayer]

@Lucas Tell that to Fan.

[@nicholaskinkaid]

@@matheusg.3508 I would like to clarify (or perhaps correct your point) in saying that what you are saying is true, but that tends to be the case for 'infamous' games. Games that are *hated* by gamers that don't play them (for whatever reason) and therefore want it to die. I.E. Fortnite, Call of duty, HoTs, Overwatch, WoW, Etc. It is such a popular concept that games will often get labeled 'so-and-so killer' in hopes that 1 game will cancel the other.

[@matheusg.3508]

@@nicholaskinkaid Yeah I understand that and agree on... But I just don't understand why people do that hahaha Let other people be happy ! XD For example, I don't like Fortnite AT ALL, but it's okay for people to like it, I see the appeal, it's just not my cup of tea...

[@atlas3079]

My favourite moment in heroes of the storm was around the release of cho'gall, a hero which essentially had you bring one of your 4 team-mates along in a backpack, casting spells while you controlled the moment. It was some of the most fun I've had in a Dota-style game, making co-op essential and fun. I remember hearing that HotS could become the "mario-kart" of MOBA, and I really love the sound of that. It's unfortunate that blizz seemed to just want in on the big eSports money-pie.

[@DogginsFroggins]

I remember playing him with friends over skype CAST CAST WHAT ARE YOU DOING11111!!

[@danielzboy]

This analogy of HOTS being the "Mario Kart" of MOBA is pretty fitting... It's like, LoL and DOTA could be Sony and XBox, 2 giants battling it out with the best, and HOTS could just be Nintendo: casual, fun, excelling in its own capabilities and never attempting to be what it isn't. Not the best comparison I know...

[@H41030v3rki110ny0u]

My brother and I still play HOTS and play Cho'gall pretty often... so fun, and unlike any hero in any MOBA game.

[@kurtw6922]

Abathur is the best, most fun and unique moba playstyle ever created.

[@nobalkain624]

This was the only Esports I watch, and was rather sad when they shut it down.

[@TheHighborn]

When it comes to E-sport, blizzard never knew what they were doing. It's very evident

[@theonoble8080]

OWL seems to be working pretty well

[@TheHighborn]

@@theonoble8080 nice joke

[@theonoble8080]

@@TheHighborn the grand finals brought in around a million viewers last year and if it weren't for the pandemic the homestand matches would be been really succesful

[@TheHighborn]

@@theonoble8080 the problem is that overwatch itself is a sinking ship as far as i know

[@theonoble8080]

@@TheHighborn yeah your probably right ngl

[@emanuelstornello8009]

the fact that most mobas need to have a solo-carry sterotype to be entertaining makes part of why moba audience are chernobyl toxic.

[@Prushinthespirit]

Well, Blizzard went from it to the absurd degree when you are completely helpless if your team has a wrong composition and cooperates worse than the enemy's one. Blizzard have this dumb habit to invent a bicycle when noone ever asked them. So, that's why the majority of people choose stereotypic mobas instead.

[@emanuelstornello8009]

@@Prushinthespirit i agree, blizzard fucked up. I was just commenting on how the state of mobas can't find a balance between team game and solo-carry.

[@justme89632147]

I think having having no gold system not only limits the solo-carry potential but also limits the number of ways you can play a character. You are limited to playing a character to only a few ways and all those ways are how Blizzard intended them (the talent system). In LoL you have your runes (which aren't champion specific like the talents in HOTS) and a LOT of items to build, this makes it so that you can play a character the way you want to or you can adapt to the situation of the game. Full glass cannon, or more lifesteal, maybe a more supportive route, there are so many options to choose from. This was what bothered me the most about hots, that I'm limited so much to how Blizzard wants me to play a certain character. This way, playing the same champion a few games in a row gets boring really fast. There is no other build I can try out, oh maybe I can take a different talent this time, woopdeedoo... With non-champion specific runes and items there are limitless amount of options to customize your playstlyle with one champion. Sure, if you're competitive there will always be a meta, this is as certain as death & taxes, but it's very rare that there is only ONE correct build for a champion, there usually are multiple good build paths you can take. It also keeps players engaged, when watching youtubers or pro's and they try a completely innovative build, a lot of players will want to try it out themselves and so they keep playing. Tl;dr I think experimenting with items or runes/talents is a big deal in MOBA's, the ability to modify your champion to different playstyles and adapt to situations is what keeps playing the same champion over and over fresh. In HOTS you only have the talent system, but these are champion specific, so it's still not really unique and more of a pre-cooked meal given to you by Blizzard. While a home-cooked meal made by yourself always tastes way better.

[@steen0059]

@@justme89632147 The rune system just seems really stupid in a more strategic moba style that LoL and Dota have. It creates this situation where you could be already at a defecit/disadvantage before the game even starts. Seems...dumb.

[@fuckdyoud2734]

Sort of, its purely just that the potential needs to be there. Its not like I hate goign even in a moba or not stomping. but its not that bad getting stomped in a moba anyways, it usually doesnt last that long and you get to see some cool ideas in the enemy player. Some people really really hate the idea of losing badly so thats why you dont see solo carry potential in these mobas, its an attempt at player retention that actually fails, because most people can carry a game if they just try. I just hate the idea of skill capping good players by limiting the impact one player can have on a game.

[@jamesedwards2751]

This was a great video. As someone who has played HoTS since the open beta, it's so sad to see the direction the game has taken.

[@darkstarshellby3435]

This really hurt hots was really special to me

[@matheusg.3508]

It's still alive dude, with million players playing it everyday... Just log in and see it for yourslef hahaha I must say it's almost the best moment of it's life spam actually, only losing for the time when HGC was on... God I miss HGC, it was the only eSports event that was fun to watch...

[@apoc3037]

It still is for me

[@Kingsiegek]

@Pattarapol P you very bad lucky friend, even the most long plays i get is from 30-40 and thats rare to happen.

[@alexferreiro2880]

I knew Maplestory 2 was going to be on the chopping block here the moment I saw the announcement yesterday, but I could never imagine it would be so soon. Looking forward to this one.

[@Xpit12345]

I love HOTs it's literally the only MOBA I like. Such a shame it's going down like that. Esports meh, never cared about it.

[@fbiagent6456]

Esports bring money, exposure, and influence.

[@FiLpLokko]

@@fbiagent6456 but they should focus on the game first, if the game is good and have a potential for esports it will naturally grow a good esports scene, they shouldn't take that much of investments to artificially build an esport scene, maybe just a smaller investment, instead they should invest that money in the game, then when the game is more sucessful, then they could give a bigger boost to the esport side, btw i dont care about esports either, but i know the good it can do for the game

[@Manganization]

The game isn't dead though. The e-sport community is, but that's also showing signs of coming back too. But overall, the game never died. It's funny, but killing the esports aspect helped the game more than it hurt it.

[@Icetea-2000]

The game isn’t really dead yet

[@Fatymable]

@@Manganization lmao delusional

[@Zippyd00da132]

1:17 Pour one out for Lost Vikings.

[@djoakeydoakey1076]

Best XP soakers in the game IMO. OP when they first came out.

[@DogginsFroggins]

Godamn they were busted when they launched, if you were up against a good viking player you basically always lost due to level disadvantage.

[@theshinken]

Loved playing those. They were garbage tier because of no buffs for years to support them while the rest of the cast got patched monthly, crazy high skill required to play them correctly and being very, very situational, only working on half of the map pool while almost useless on the other half. Friends and teammates alike dreaded the times I picked them. But when they work and you get that XP train rolling, it feels so rewarding and awesome! Always loved to play them for that chance. Also, the few times Hasuobs actually picked them in professional games - those moments were so hype!

[@bisexualichigo4227]

I was literally about to sleep and you do this me. I can’t turn down your videos, they are great. 😩

[@hoshi314]

Lemme take a crack at decoding the next DOAG : MapleStory series why? MapleStory 2 recently got the "Culling Blade" at March 27 this year and the timing for me is not coincidence at all

[@kyotheman69]

people still play Maplestory 2? surprised this game hasn't died yet

[@Sirius-Nightstream]

@@kyotheman69 it technically is dead. it got its plug pulled. Though honestly, i'd like to see one on both Maplestory 1 and 2. they're both dead when you really think about it

[@edwardp3864]

Maplestory 1 is still alive and well, especially in Korea.

[@OizenX]

MS2 died so fast I dont even think theres a story to tell

[@Sirius-Nightstream]

Divinex oh yeah mainly in Korea. GMS is still booming in reboot but it seems the game has died out a bit. Still is

[@ggEmolicious]

My favorite thing about hots was getting to play as characters that I had felt a sort of personal connection to through the other games. It even brought lesser known characters to my attention like LiLi who I loved playing in hots and then when I went back to WoW and saw her there was like “ohhhhhhh, THAT was LiLi!” And then quickly said “my uncle taught me this one!”

[@RAMENn00dleb0y]

Very interested in this as someone who never really played MOBAs seriously.

[@1337-Nathaniel]

I highly recommend playing it. Especially if you are familiar with the heroes. The thing I miss most, and the reason I stopped playing, is not having a group of friends that could play together regularly.

[@RAMENn00dleb0y]

@@1337-Nathaniel I actually did play Beta and release of HOTS but not for long. I've tried my hand at LOL and DOTA and the like just never seriously dedicated time.

[@RbDaP]

You should try again. Game is very different since beta and from all mobas hots is the most friendly in terms of "Lord help me I haven't played in years"

[@azure5584]

Do come join us, it's easily the least frustrating moba experience, while also being super fun!

[@RAMENn00dleb0y]

Ha thanks for the welcome, but I have enough time sink games as is. It is neat to look back on that time when MOBAs were untouchable.

[@mvrsts]

Man, I still play this with my friends It's sad to see how this game turned out, cause i like the fact that this is a more casual moba I'm a competitive person, but i cant put 6 hours a day keeping up with the more famous mobas. I'm not 15 anymore. This was a nice balence for me

[@schadenfreude6274]

5 years ago, it is unthinkable to ever see a Blizzard game on this series, yet here we are now with Blizzard swimming in shit.

[@greysquirrel404]

Isn't "Death of a Game: Diablo 3" kind of overdue since the second expansion was cancelled?

[@lorenzo3]

they kill all of their game blizzard is dead until maybe overwatch 2 diablo 4 and shadowlands but we have to wait 1 years for this ones...remember that blizzard is with activistion thats why you only see call of duty games i think blizzard is in a really bad times today if they want to compete with other games they need to put it free and alot of work and money to ads

[@Ake-TL]

Lolo Diablo 4 may be good, but don’t have high hopes for “ Expansion, but we call it sequel” and “ We will destroy out lore even more “

[@maxxieboy271]

As an 8 year league player, i've recently fallen in love with HotS, its so refreshing. I love the lore of LoL, but the gameplay was exhausting after a while, and the longer matches proved less feasable with a kid of my own

[@E_Clip]

Blizzard didnt just ignore Dota, they downright laughed at it and called it "not a real game". They have refused to update the WC3 client for many years to support a simple reconnect feature, something that older Dota players had so much trouble with, let alone other features that were needed. In fact all the features the Dota players asked for back in the day (match making, stat tracking, reconnect, etc) are now staple in every single multiplayer game that exists today. I think this is one of the main reasons Pendragon was so frustrated working on it and thats why he decided to hand it over to IceFrog. You can read more about it here www.gamasutra.com/view/news/111507/DOTA_Creator_Goes_Commercial_With_League_of_Legends.php Blizzard never supported any Dota tournament and constantly smeared the players and the fans of the game. and the absurdity is that 99% of WC3 players were playing only Dota and nothing else. There were rumors back than that IceForg approached Blizzard in an effort to make a standalone Dota, but they rejected him 2 times, at which point he went with Valve. Now whether that is true or not, I don't know, but that was being mentioned many times on forums etc.

[@TypetwoAbsolute]

99%? I guess you were playing a different version of TFT than I was.

[@budilamarius5053]

And now to ensure they don't repeat the same mistake twice, they release Warcraft 3 Reforged with a new policy that basically says if you create a custom map we own it In case someone comes up with a new big hit , no other game company can touch it because it's under activision/blizzard trademark.

[@HadouGun]

@@budilamarius5053 Then because Reforged sucks they don't get any custom games.

[@_hakuu3760]

yeah the whole dota tournaments back in the day(Asia's finest etc) were funded solely by the community Blizzard didn't give a fuck about it, couldn't even be assed to update wc3(iirc for 10years wc3 was just sitting at 1.26a cmiiw) idk about 99% of players playing wc3 because of dota but I can affirm that a lot of players bought wc3 just for the sake of playing dota

[@fitacola88]

Interesting Video. my top reasons it flopped: 1- Late to the party. 2- Slow to Launch (years in Alpha Beta made many players play a shitty version of the game and killed hype). 3-Game Engine not optimized. As a HotS player i think you forgot one major problem the game had: the engine. It was using the SC2 RTS engine, that isnt optimal for a 5v5 Moba game. It ultimately made the game more dependent on a good CPU and a good internet connection. This reduces your possible playerbase by maybe 2/3 (compared to LoL for instance). Many other problems are then just a consequence of low player count. matchmaking gets worse, tournament viewership suffers. I would also have loved to try to understand why Blizzard fell asleep on the wheel and let DOTA2, and LoL form with original DOTA creators, while Blizzard slugged so long with a what felt like "sc2 part time mod".

[@Homiloko2]

I don't think Blizzard was ever in touch with their mod community. Did you see what they did on WC3 Remake? It's like they're actively trying to kill their own content creators.

[@TheKnightOfSmite]

Also add Dunkey's video slamming HotS so it gave awful perception of the game, as well as "this feels boring because there's no individuality" criticisms

[@EpicFunkyMode]

This one hurts. HOTS has been my favorite MOBA since launch. The only thing keeping me away from the game was a lack of consistent squad to queue up with. The heroes were unique and super experimental (Deathwing was such a cool and weird idea) and the talent system was a good way to make sure the match didn't get stale as time went on like it does in league and other MOBAs. When they started removing ways to monetize the game and canceling e-sports events was when I knew the game wasn't gonna last any longer. A massively overlooked gem that will be missed.

[@WHATTHEH4CKZ]

The game's still well and alive unless you want to live off of esports. Takes less than a minute to even find ranked games at master level on EU, games are still challenging and fun. No idea why you're using the past tense, lol. Deathwing came out barely 4 months ago, way after they shifted away people. To compare it to other Mobas to put things in perspective: Dota 2 got 3 heroes last year, HotS got 4. LoL got 5 champions last year.

[@HarumiYu]

I played HoN like crazy back in the day, because they had some fantastic announcers, sadly the game not reached the ultimate popularity being such a nice MOBA.

[@DrNiradino]

I reached somewhere around 1750 MMR back in HoN before i got banished to russian only servers. Game itself was fun, better Dota 2 then actual Dota 2, but devs were kinda scummy.

[@Karanthaneos]

@@DrNiradino There's a sort of comeback recently, they've been updating the character models and even released an x64 version not so long ago. It's certainly not thriving and rerising, but I'd play a couple games for old time's sake.

[@kratosgamerization4907]

I will keep playing hots. I personally like this over overwatch. Its make me sad...oh well Raiders Roll

[@jordanbarton1624]

I was an alpha tester with the focus on teamwork (tank player), and with a toxic moba-like community it eventually lead to me leaving. It never mattered how good you did, you’ll get shit talked and lose anyways.

[@craftworded]

@@jordanbarton1624 I was an alpha tester but i still play,i just mute the chat because of how shit the community is.

[@captainsternn7684]

Try getting shit talked and winning. Had a teammate shit talk me even though I was carrying the team and got MVP winning the match. Glad I recorded that match to laugh at later, gonna create a video compilation of jealous teammates.

[@nemanjanemanjaa4551]

Fill em full of daylight!

[@maxleon5993]

I still play it a lot

[@malohn2068]

Please please, could you look into death of a game - Worlds Adrift? Such an amazing game ruined by forced PvP to pander to such a tiny percentage of people that it alienated so many people.

[@silvercat18]

It was a simple tale of a team biting off far more than they could chew, coupled with using an engine that really couldnt handle anything they asked of it.

[@HaugeBauge]

True

[@zeratulrus142]

Man, you just reminded me how fun this game can be, I really should play it again some time.

[@faustalexander2585]

I started watching HotS with MFPallytime and the fun of his matches made me try the game. Overall its still fun to play, and I wish it had more players.

[@plushling6996]

TO ANYONE THAT STILL WANTS TO PLAY THE GAME: Even though this game might be "dead" in a financial sense, It doesn't take away that It's still a game worth playing if you're willing to look into it. It's playerbase and queue times are not as big of an issue if you live in North America or Europe. My suggestion would be to gather up a few friends with you first as the whole team aspect of it works to it's advantage there. There's more than enough content to get started and every hero is free ATM. If you want to play this game, don't let this video and others like it deter you. I'll make a follow up video on this topic soon but know that the devs and the community are still very passionate about the game and (especially on reddit) will welcome you guys with open arms.

[@DracoDatura]

I still love this game but the fact the xmas event is still going on because they don't have time (don't give a sh*t?) to change it is really disheartening...