In a move which has dropped on the community like a ton of bricks, Blizzard has today revealed one of the features for their out-of-game levelling system for Heroes of the Storm – Artifacts.
And the community are … less than pleased.
Writing on the Heroes of the Storm blog, Blizzard Community Manager Vaeflare gave us the run down on the new out-of-game feature — a very Blizzard-remodeled version of the League of Legends Runes system. According to the post, “Once a player reaches Player Level 15, they will unlock an Artifact Slot.”
Within these slots you will be able to place a variety of powerful Artifacts in the form of Gems, Relics, and Trinkets that you can use to further enhance and customize your heroes.
While the Artifacts system has all the hallmarks of a Blizzard mechanic — naming conventions, options, gold-cost — it does appear to be nothing more than a direct copy of the Runes system in League of Legends, allowing players to create upgrades to their characters by way of purchasing small upgrades — such as attack points, armour, mana regeneration. The Artifact slot will be immediately unlocked upon reaching Player Level 15, with two additional slots — the Relic and Trinket Artifact Slots — being available to unlock for 2,000 gold each.
Vaeflare provided several examples of what can be purchased to fill out these slots, but the real fun to be had is reading the comments section below, where a host of intriguingly written suggestions were made by the Heroes community.
“No no no no NO NO NO!” wrote user Jamesborg99 — who I imagine is a young boy by the name of James Borg who was born in 1999, though I’m just guessing. “This is the SINGLE WORST FEATURE of League of Legends, an out of game decision that heavily influences the in-game combat. Please reconsider.”
In reply, user Wickeda wrote:
OMG , this is really the worst what could happen to this game. Blizzard..shame on you! I’m disappointed and not interested in an invite anymore, playing League of Legends already.. don’t need another copy of it!
There are, of course, a whole host of these replies — with only a few seemingly in favour of the idea.
Why anyone is surprised Blizzard have made this move, however, surprises me. To make a game that is going to compete with behemoth’s like League of Legends, Blizzard are going to have to make a game that competes. Holding out on out-of-game upgrades like Artifacts is only going to place them at a disadvantage in an already mature market.
And while some of the points being made in the comments section are valid — ie, the “long grind to get advantage over people before the match even begins” and un-evening the playing field for new players — the reality is that the field was already uneven by virtue of the number of hours Alpha players have had over those who will enter through the Beta or Full Release of the game.
Only time will tell whether Artifacts manages to hold people’s interest and keep users playing through to Level 15, or whether its similarities to League of Legends will in fact drive players away in measurable numbers.
