I’ve heard the sentiment that Hearthstone these days seems to exude Warcraft better than the scatterbrained World of Warcraft, and I can kind of see that. The digital card game certainly hasn’t come to the bottom of the nostalgia well, this time drawing up memories of WoW’s most notorious battleground for its newest expansion.
Yesterday — a day in which nothing else of note happened, please don’t cross-check that — Hearthstone announced that it’ll be cranking out Fractured in Alterac Valley come December 7th. This expansion includes 135 new cards, an additional set of hero cards, the Honorable Kill keyword, and spells that last for three turns. Players can log in today and grab a free promotional legendary card to get ready for the release.
And speaking of getting ready, Patch 21.8 dropped yesterday to lay a lot of groundwork for the expansion, including some card and merc balance tweaks, a new battlegrounds armor system, and the Tamsin Roame hero.
Source: Hearthstone
Activision-Blizzard is considered a controversial company in the MMO and gaming space owing to a long string of scandals over the last few years, including the Blitzchung boycott, mass layoffs, labor disputes, and executive pay fiasco. In the summer of 2021, the company was sued by the state of California for fostering a work environment riddled with sexual harassment and discrimination, the disastrous corporate response to which has further compounded Blizzard’s ongoing pipeline issues and the widespread perception that its online games are in decline. As of fall 2021, multiple state and federal agencies are currently investigating the company.
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