Player Agency: Hearthstone
“You are not prepared!” is what Illidan says at the end of the tutorial of Hearthstone which captures what this game is all about: Preparing, planning, and making choices to do so before you head into the next battle. Hearthstone leans into player choice and offers a lot of it. However, the game does start by giving the player a fraction of this choice, it begins to expand the space of possibility as the player becomes more skillful. To make these choices matter to the player, the game also introduces quite a bit of uncertainty as well as utilizing noise and redundancy. Hearthstone manages to give the player the right amount of choice, always edging on too much, and expands this choice as the player becomes more skillful. Therefore, this game masterfully manipulates information to influence the player in making meaningful choices.
Firstly, I will focus on choices, and the sheer amount of them in Hearthstone. Without keeping the information flow in mind, the game has quite a lot of choices in the form of card deck building. There are many card packs, with a ridiculous amount of card variants which can also be used to build custom decks. This system lets the player choose what cards they want and gives them agency. However, to reign in the player and their choices so they do not immediately get bored, most of these cards are locked and can be unlocked as the player spends time in the game. By restricting the player and their space of possibility in this manner, the game ensures as the player becomes more skillful, they are met with higher challenges with more cards. The interesting part that may not be apparent to the player is how this system is used to give the player a higher perceived agency then there actually is. Most cards can be categorized through their attributes and stats. Cards can have battle-cry, healing, or taunting bonuses to name a few. Hearthstone could be boiled down to just one such card of each category, but by altering each of these cards stats slightly giving them different aesthetics the player is given the illusion of more choice. The game also restricts the space of possibility through time limits and crystal costs of each card during each turn in a match. The player does not have all the time in the world to choose as many cards they want from a vast collection of cards. This is the start of how the game manipulates information to give the player meaningful choice leading to agency.
Hearthstone utilizes an imperfect information system for the player. While in match, the player cannot see the opponent’s hand of cards. The player also does not know anything about the deck the opponent has built. By hiding this knowledge, the game introduces uncertainty and challenge for the player. Through the match, each player must learn the opponent’s hand and try to predict their deck and play style. As the player becomes more familiar with the opponent, they can begin to understand how the opponent will use the game system to their advantage and through this perceived information, they can plan and strategize their own moves. This imperfect information system alongside the knowledge of the objective information and perceived information all lead the player to make meaningful choices that are both discernable and integrated.
Hearthstone continues to introduce uncertainty for the player in all aspects of the game. This is largely done through randomness and chance. Unlocking new cards for deck building, which cards you pull into your hand each turn and which ones the enemy will get are all random which lead to higher uncertainty and therefore a more dynamic challenge. Each player must deal with this uncertainty as they plan and make choices. This may seem like it takes agency away from the player, however by giving the player a more chaotic challenge, the game also gives them satisfaction and the feeling that through their choices and agency they could overcome this challenge.
On top of this uncertainty, the game introduces aspects of noise to further instill uncertainty. The most prominent noise factor is the amount of noise visually and through literal sound. As the game progresses, there are cards flipping, lights shining, and player champions talking and interacting. Although each of these things on their own gives the player some level of knowledge such as the AI player’s personality and style and each cards effects, all together they create a level of noise that can disrupt the players perception of the information. The player is bound to miss some incoming communication which can introduce higher uncertainty and challenge to be conquered.
This all seems like quite a bit of uncertainty for a game. If left at this point, the game could cause a lot of anxiety in a player, especially those new to the game. To counteract this, Hearthstone also introduces quite a bit of redundancy in its communication. A player can see how many more mana crystals they have by looking at the visually glowing crystals, the number total at the bottom, or which cards are glowing to show that they can be played as the player has enough mana for them. All this redundancy counteracts the level of noise introduced by the game. Player champions also interact and more importantly react to actions and what is happening in the game. For example, if a lot of damage is taken by the player, the enemy champion may boast. This is also redundant to the health number and damage numbers that are visible to the player as well as the animation that play while they are hit. These interactions and redundancies can also nudge the player to think in certain ways and predict some enemy strategies. These, alongside many other redundancies help counteract the uncertainty of the game and therefore keep the player in the perfect spot between boredom and anxiety while they make choices informed by the information and uncertainty.
Hearthstone has amassed a large player base and has kept these players interested for many years. One reason for this success is how the game controls information to influence player choice. Player choice is communicated through uncertainty, noise, and redundancy to increase a sense of agency and reward for these choices. Alongside these design choices, the economies of information such as the objective information such card rules, and perceived information such as possible card combos all lead the player to make important choices. Hearthstone successfully gives players agency and choice, while making sure to keep these choices in check to ensure meaningful play for the player. Through introducing overwhelming choice and restricting it, to overflowing information and chaos the player is always kept informed but challenged. Perhaps another character line to best describe this is from a Murloc … “mgrlllmgrlrrr”.
