How Hearthstone Tricks You into Spending Money 

Hey, different type of video this time. I really like psychology and after stumbling across this reddit thread I wanted to make a video on what strategies are applied in the game to get us as players to spend money on it. There are definitely things that I didn't even consider so if there is anything else that gives you this marketing kinda vibe let me know!

Solem is DEFINITELY not getting any packs to give away next expansion

Why did I click this video? Simple, everybody's talking about Hearthstone's greed in Reddit... wait a minute, that's social proof. I'm just a cog in the machine and I have no free will.

“There is even a rogue hero portrait, which is unheard of” kekw

I quit After 6 years of Hearthstone and i am not regretting it at all.

Lmao I'm broke so even if I'm tricked I cant even buy anything :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Tbh ive been calling HS a gacha game cuz legendaries are like 5 stars

“You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with” jokes on you Solem I only have 2 friends

Honestly I have so often lost after a winstreak just before hitting a safe floor just by bad machups/draw, that I feel the game just doesn't want you to hit the safefloor so you can't stop playing.

As a psychologist, I give You a Seal Of Approval. This video is a great step in combating gambling addictions. Great work Solem

What a mad lad, he releases this video the same day he gets promoted by Blizzard.

Blizzard- "It ain't no lie, baby. Buy buy buy."

I"m loving the straight talking. Also a psych fan, so interesting to see how you connected these well known techniques into the HS franchise. For anyone wanting to create their own business, you just have them gold to get started with :)

Why do I keep spending money on Hearthstone? (1) - Because I like playing it (2) - My hour is worth more than 100 gold

This guy is featured in game client but makes this vid, mad respect lmfao

A concise and highly insightful video that absolutely nails the core psych/behavioral components underlying the (malignant) monetization efforts of big gaming. Thank you this significant contribution to the gaming community.

All I ever want to do in Hearthstone now is hit legend so I've finished the game technically speaking. However, I am just stuck at diamond between 5 and 3. I pretty much go 50/50. Since the new expansion and the new rewards, I log in, do my daily, leave. I used to get gold for winning. Now I don't. I used to get about 6 packs a week. I've had 2 this week. Res priest got better in wild. Secret mage is still a bore. Token druid may as well flip a coin. I've just stopped grinding it out as the game is the same 3 decks over and over and over. I'll get the adventures. They are fun. I actually enjoy them. But anything else, hero portraits, card packs, pre orders etc. I'll never pay money for them. Especially card packs. I've earned them by playing the game. The card packs are worth exactly that. My time. Changing the rewards system will not change the value to me. They will never be worth the money. As Solem said the other day, GOTY Witcher 3 is 15 euros. You can spend 200 euros on an expansion and still not get all the cards. One way to make people keep playing would be offer a complete set bundle. Yes it would be pay to win. But the game is already. Sorry I've gone on WAYYYYYY too long!

Love the analysis Solem, keep up the great work fella! Ive been playing since the start and even off meta decks that would be considered weak give me around a 50% win rate. I have felt for a long time there are hidden mechanics to keep a balance of win/loss.

oh from meme deck channel to hs economics one nc

Solem, I've been really enjoying your content the past few days. You come across as a very well spoken individual who sums up the entirety of Hearthstone's existence with a few simple jokes and well thought out ideas concerning the game. I started to play right before Whispers of the Old Gods released, so I was able to explore Curse of Naxxramas and Blackrock, which hooked me. Subsequently from that point I 'invested' hundreds in every expansion forward, then had an epiphany in Rastakhan's Rumble, that the "Paying literal house bills for a weighted dice roll" archetype wasn't worth it anymore. People should see this video. Well done.

There's also the difference between the early HS expansions, which had 1 legendary per class and the sets since Un'Goro where every class gets two legendaries. Meaning you have to spend way more to get all the legendaries in a set.

I played hearthstone for many years and spent a lot of money and I never felt that I had it all, currently I play runeterra and now I have practically the entire collection without having spent anything.

For me it ended several years ago when they tried to push out more and more timed exclusives. I like to dump money into lootboxes, i played yugioh for my entire life, it feels so good to be lucky and get the cards you crave. But there must be balance. If i pump 120€ into hearthstone an dont get any good stuff for it, i'm out. There are so many wallet-swallowing hobbies that give you so much more serotonin for your cash. If blizzard really wants my money, they have to give me more good feelings. Until then, i will bust open more of them juicy yugioh-displays.

Tbh Solem you could probably make a mini series about hearthstone talking about different psychological concepts people face when playing the game. E.g. why people tilt when, why people BM whatever. I know you might not think you're a professional psychologist but no one has to be a professional at something to advice or teach things. Being a professional accredited psychologist will just make you more valuable and premium for people that need those kinds of "lessons" but this is hearthstone and this channel is an entertainment one. Point being if you really enjoy psychology you should challenge yourself to make videos about. Not only will it encourage you to make new and original content, but it will he fulfilling and it will encourage you to delve more into the wonders and mysteries of the human mind. Thanks for this great video as always

This is why I play evolve shaman every expansion lmao

This was such a fascinating video! Thanks for putting so much time and thought into it.

I have mad respect for Solem. This is very tough for a big hearthstone streamer to do. But is much needed to help us consumers.

Solem is a beast. Love your content not specifically because of heartstone but I love the twist your personality gives to it. Thanks for such quality content

Hearthstone in 2016: Use skills to win Hearthstone in 2020: Use credit card to win

"you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with." Very interesting insight, and makes me happy to know that i helped steer my friend, who introduced me to the game, away from spending more money on it. (He'd been playing for a couple of years, but I had been a perma player on mtgo for half a decade, and easily beat him repeatedly despite having weaker decks and no exp with the game, which ended up being an eye opener for him.) Just received another text from him about a newer card game he has been playing for a bit called Legends of runeterra, and one of the biggest points he made was the cheap economy of the game! So proud of him

Best video you've ever done tbh. This gave me so much to think about

I dont even play hearthstone anymore but watching your content is always a breath of fresh air for some reason Love your energy

It made me happy to see you featured on the launcher yestoday. Thank you for voicing these concerns. I love hearthstone but i hate hearthstone marketing team

Great video! @Solem I have found once you understand psychological marketing principles it is easier to avoid their allure. Thank you for making such an awesome video dude! Financial education is always important :)

Hi Solem, I like the different videos you're making recently. Although I would be happy to get some good 9 old gods deck :)

Color coded bookshelf deserves a like

Been playing for 5 years *Still haven't gotten my first golden legendary*

What a good video! Thank you for your effort solem.

I do agree with what you say at 8:00 . In my packs I got I had 2 legendaries and was really excited since it was only 10 packs I had. They were both shaman legendaries and got disappointed.

Video: solem lost billion dollars in Hearthstone in 5 years, and he trying to explain, That this is not his fault.

That outro made me sub, nice going!

Great vid as always 🤜🏼

Sunk Cost Fallacy is something I feel like is very relevant with Hearthstone players. No one wants to drop a game they put so much time and money into, yet people are still choosing to quit. I feel like that says enough about this new system to incite some changes.

Out of all these concepts Scarcity is definitely the one that works the most on me personally. When I saw the N'zoth hero portrait even though I played so little during the last expansion I though maybe the game would turn and I would want to play in the future.

Good summary of the psychology behind these type of games. Collecting card games has been around for ages. It has always been something we get into, just for the fun of collecting the cards, the excitement of getting really good/ rare cards, and playing the game. If everyone just got card packs and legendaries thrown at them for just playing the game a little, for me, that would take away some of the excitement. I feel like they're at least trying to balance it out, by giving you something good here and there, but still doesn't make it so you get all the goodies without either playing a lot, or investing a lot in the game. Games, in general, get kinda boring for me the moment everyone just has all the best stuff. If I had a say in this, I'd even go as far as creating some new limited supply cards every now and then. Either version of cards that has slightly better stats, or just a cosmetic upgrade, like a platinum card, or something. Just so that we have a chance to get something truly unique every once in a while.

tbh the most fun moments in trolden videos are thijs getting as unlucky as humanly possible

I can definitely agree, I play pokemon tcg and they have mastered making cards desired. Even if a card is garbage in the game it could be a full art rainbow and you really really want it. They also have new dice and sleeves or pins every expansion. It's very well made to get you into the game by making league decks that are very good decks that you can bring online. The one major thing I do think they do very very well is forming an in game economy for online version so not matter what your cards have value in game and offline.

Thank you for spreading this information. Every player deserves to know what they're spending their money on. If you want to know, I clicked on this video because I think it's incredibly important for people to know the ways that games with microtransactions trick them into paying money, and I want people to be able to consent to that if they want to. If you end up spending hundreds of dollars on everything in a game over the course of 2 or 3 years, you deserve to know what you've been compelled to do. Publishers don't want customers to have this information, they don't want people to be aware of how much they're spending or why, because that'll cut into their profits. So yeah, I'll watch the whole video and support it as much as I can, so that everybody knows what's happening.

RIP "Challenge a Friend" Quest! Asking to use my friend's decks was a cool way to see what they have built, what they value, and why not just test some builds I don't have access to? I can't imagine that wasn't motivating for some. Without the quest reward, there is no incentive for them to respond, unless you're already "actual" friends.

9:14 lol i haven't played clash of clans in years but recently started trying it again. I played it when I watched this video and then you mentioned it. Also why I clicked on this video: Cause you're entertaining ofcourse

I clicked on this video not because of hearthstone. I clicked cause I love this guy's personality and attitude

Oh look, it's me. I was hoping telling people to watch Let's Go Whaling would get more people to look at the video, but I never would have thought a streamer was going to signal boost it like this. Cheers mate!

I clicked on this video because the title got me thinking. Pretty interesting video, well done.

To answer the question of why I clicked on the video, I thought this would be some new news on the state of hearthstone. Though it wasn't particularly new information, having words to describe the psychology is nice. Thank you Solem for being non-ragey.

finde sollten mehr solcher videos existieren. hoffentlich unternimmt blizzard etwas das bisschen gold da istn anfang aber nicht wirklich zu friedenstellent evtl würde ich mir den arenapass auch lieber kaufen wollen als in als belohnung zubekommen , jedes stück gold zählt für die nächste erweiterung :) mach weiter so solem

Wow that music at the end of the vid hit me with some serious nostalgia

That was one of the smoothest outros I've ever seen

Hey Solem. Can you maybe make a video on witch books you read, have read or intend to read, and if you choose to do so, i would like to know why you read the books you do, and why you read the books you did, and why you intend to read some other books in the future. Maybe thats an idea for a video on your second chanel. Love your hearthstone videos btw

Thanks, I got to legend for the first time with one of your deck after 3 days of playing.

I like this type of videos, you should do more of this

I love it! Quality!

What about this? Blizzard creates a subscription system for Hearthstone. You pay "€" for the subscription and get ALL the cards in the game (or atleast most of them). This would still make them money and I think alot of people would actually buy this instead of gambling.

I subbed before you even said "why not consider subscribing" lol.

Blizzard tricked me with the Old Gods this time. I love those creatures and their lore so much.

Your theory about matchmaking being gamed to show newbs crazy golden legendaries is interesting. When I started HS in 2015 or so, I remember being matched against some crazy mismatches... games where I had ZERO chance of winning against players with multiple golden legendaries. Wondering now if that was poor matchmaking or matchmaking designed to make me more interested in HS.

Seeing you opening that Zai have me Vietnam flashbacks. That was my 7th pack this expansion

i like this guy a lot. very informative !

I've stopped playing hearthstone 3 years ago, and today I've subscribed because this was a very well made and interesting video (yes, I've clicked on it because the title was interesting)

For me, it’s watching content creators play fun decks and deck archetypes that I want to try out but don’t have nearly enough cards to play. I’d say my overall favorite deck style is either Highlander decks or combo decks, both of which require a high amount of legendaries and epics to create. I’ve not spent money on the game aside from buying the league of explorers adventure and the welcome bundle (of which I got onyxia from rip). As much as I’d like to spend money on the game to have fun with these decks, I can’t with my situation and have to resort to constantly dusting my collection down to the bare bones just to play a deck, which certainly could fuel that desire for some people.

I appreciate your bookshelf.

You have a link to the Video youre refereing to at the beginning of the video?

Hey solem, can you share a book list? I'd be interested to know some good psychology books as I just finished one by malcolm gladwell.

When you get your first rank, you have a 10x star multiplier. Hence, your MMR is rigged, and you encounter either other new players (majority) or some ex-legend players.

Interesting Video! Wouldnt mind if you make more like this. In fact it seems like hearthstone's card draw and randomness isnt completely random. At least thats what i experienced,when i *almost* hit legend multiple times in different seasons and lost over and oder again when i was just one win away. And i lost because of Bad draws.

10:55 i can assure you that great chess moves will empress, be remembered and even studied in decades while some random heartstone RNG will be watched and forgotten in an instance.

I don’t even play hearthstone anymore but I still watch all of your videos

Bro I'm a psychology student and I literally watched this video RIGHT after your lecture on anchoring.

6:50 I'm pretty sure this is 100% true. About a year ago I thought a little bit about the rng in hearthstone after my sneed's pulled mukla for the third time that night. I thought that maybe the random really wasn't random. If this is the case it would be reasonable to think that they would use this to make the game more addictive. Since then I've noticed a few things; after taking 2 month off then opening packs, I got 5 legendaries in 40 packs; if I lose or win multiple games in a row my rng will flip to counter my streak; decks like spell mage are extremely powerful because they constantly add random cards to your hand, which could be weighted to give you what you need in a certain situation. Now I realize that this could be confirmation bias at work, but if Blizzard wanted to maximize playtime for their game, it would only make sense that they would use "fixed rng".

1.i watch your vids every so often 2. i saw the word “trick” “money” and “Blizzard” and i’m like yeah a hot topic, prolly has a lot i(everyone) can agree on.

I'd expect more contents beyond hearthstone in the future

The biggest thing I miss from the old school, card/comic shop days are wagering cards or entire decks with other players. I went all the way through middle school without paying for a Yu-gi-oh card. Glad I stopped spending money on this game a few years back.

Can you recommend a good book about finance?

Dope bookshelf

Solem has gone rogue and I love it.

This is why I keep my wallet sealed in a gun safe inside a small vault that requires a keycode and eye sample just in case Hearthstone wants my money.

Games like this and Gacha games prey on FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out. You mentioned this as well with the Mecha Jaraxxus hero frame. Tons of players feel the need to buy something that is promoted as a one time only deal, even though it maybe obtainable a different way later. Basically any game with microtransactions has that now.

The crafting dust costs. I was under the impression (and still am) that it would be inefficient to craft all the cards I wanted from old sets I did not have, so I ended up buying a 60 pack of GvG. When I probably could have crafted most of what I wanted, but it didn't feel like I was organically building my collection that way. Same thing with adventure cards. If you craft some adventure cards and then later buy the adventure, you're wasting your dust getting duplicates that you crafted. Now, you can just buy Wild packs with gold, so you're not faced with that choice as much

You picked the BEST chess clip that exists to date that fully undermines your point about chess being less entertaining than Yogg but thanks for the vid its cool

Holy shit.. I had that exact moment on my 1st play of expansion.. guy had golden yogg and fully decked , deck of new cards.

Solem: Across your entire friends list *looks at friends list* Me: *cries*

i remember clearly big streamers mention hidden win/lose rate ration that is like 60% to win a game and 40% to lose a game thats why you see many decks in hearthpwn or other websites staying near that range , ever notice you win a match and next match you face someone 100% counter your deck easily ? yeah thats why , one of big streamers try to do it off stream with different account and he notice massive difference , which means many twitch streamers their accounts can be rigged to win more often but not 100% chance ( player skill aside i mean what he play and what he facing and probability of it ) its main reason i quit hearthstone

This is pretty cool!

Is this the Solem video linked from the Hearthstone launcher? ;)

Nice bookshelf mayt

It’s very funny on the fact that rng is the biggest factor in Hearthstone. One time, I accidentally clicked on competitive with my mage spell deck, with the spell quest and Reno hero. I meant to just play normal, but I didn’t really want to lose some rank, so I played anyways. The warlock I fought was so much better than me, but because of the bs I was able to pull out with my quest and then Reno saved me from a game where I was two hits away from dying. The rng was just too big on my end. And even playing that same spell deck, unchanged from last expansion, playing it when people still bring serious decks into casual play I still bs wins because of how much random I get, so much to the point where I am debating on focusing on that deck for comp rather than the serious decks I have built.

As a relatively new player, I tried the older extensions like the "witch hunt" with 4 hunters. Still full price and not updated anymore. I had huge issues because the last boss uses new spells, which were not available at the time of the expension. So Blizzard does not check or update them, even not limit the cards to a certain time. But charges full price. They just do not care. That's it. Regardless of the many errors and bugs upcoming each "update"

That dolphin shoals “Mario kart lick” playing around the middle of the video... couldn’t focus on what you were saying listening to that fire.

Hah, joke's on them. Been playing for way too many years without spending a dime on the game. Not fueling the greedy, lying, dumpster trash that is blizzard.

Solem, you always get me twitch Prime

One thing I don't think I've heard anyone mention is that now when you go to buy packs it defaults to the 9.99 option instead of the 100 gold option