Article Written by TitoSantana
While everyday it seems something new is changing or broken in twitter, it is still a vibrant hub of information and interaction for the Hearthstone community. It’s the gateway to so many interactive communities that can expand the highs and lows of the game outside of game itself. However much like playing a game of Hearthstone, there are good plays, and bad plays. I’m here to get you started on the right course.
First things first, who you follow is going to really dictate your Hearthstone Twitter experience. There are a lot of people that contribute to the space. When you find somebody you like, I recommend taking a look at their “following” list and use that to grab other content creators. If you start with somebody you already have some knowledge of like Ridiculous hat, or dare I say, TitosantanaHS (that’s me) you’ll easily find plenty of great Hearthstone minds that are going to help inform you, entertain you, and in many cases interact with you.
The Hearthstone development team (also known as Team 5) are also very active on Twitter. Not only do they post useful information about upcoming events, and patches, and issues, but they also often engage with the community about concerns, bugs, ideas, as well as in some cases, just basic personal information which helps you remember that team five are normal people with normal lives (this part is important for later, remember it).
So the Hearthstone Twitter world is your oyster, what do you want to do with it? Some folks just follow and lurk, and that’s all they need. Others like to actively engage quite often (this is me). Additionally if you are building your brand for content you create, like YouTube or Twitch, this is a great way to start getting your name out there. The more ways people can see you and your name and brand, the more likely they are to find and follow your content.
Then there are some others that just like to see the world burn. They are always talking about the negative. This patch sucks. Why didn’t the devs find this interaction? This game is stupid, I’m not sure I’m going to keep playing (they do). They find the joy expressing their lack of joy. I’d recommend following less of these people. If you are here because you love Hearthstone, why do you want to follow the people who want you to dislike the game for their clicks?
That doesn’t mean you can’t be critical of the game. We all have things we love and dislike about the game, the meta, and all things in between. It’s ok to express your feelings, but there are ways to do this without also being negative.
Let’s take an example. Right now there is a new Death Knight location called “Construct Quarter”. It’s a card that is clearly overtuned, and to many it is surprising that it made it to the live version of the game in its current form. We will likely never know if they thought it was fine as is, or if they wanted to have the powerful card in the meta for a bit, just to nudge more people to play Death Knight since for a new class it came out under-tuned. This is something that you might want to tweet about. I’m going to give you two tweets, and you think to yourself which tweet would be better.
- “Construct Quarter is so broken. Who’s the STUPID developer that made this, they should be fired. Do they even have QA?”
- “The DK location is overturned. I’m not enjoying the meta right now. I hope they fix it soon, or I might end up playing other games until the next patch”.
If you answered 1, then you likely need to continue reading. If you answered 2, I would simply appreciate it if you continued reading.
Always remember we are trying to solve equations without the full amount of information. We have no idea what happens behind the scenes. For example, when the Hearthstone team added the currency “runestones” to the game, people were upset, and justifiably so. I am not a fan myself. However, if you think it was the Dev’s on team five that thought “Hey wouldn’t it be fun if we added something everybody will hate, and will create more work for us?”, you aren’t paying attention. This was done by people we will never know about, who are not on twitter interacting with us. At the end of the day, Team five works for a company, and that company has the goal of making money. Remember that if your thought is to yell at a dev about anything.
BONUS TIP: IT IS NEVER THE RIGHT MOVE TO YELL AT A DEV.
One final note on interacting with devs, or anybody really. If they are making a post about a subject, and you respond, be kind, and be on topic. For example if a Hearthstone Dev tweets “Excited for this new feature releasing on Tuesday!”, do not respond with “ WHY ARE YOU DOING NEW FEATURES WHEN ROGUE IS BROKEN”. For one you look stupid, and ideally you’d like to look smart and insightful. Secondly, that’s not how development works. Finally remember that these are passionate people that are PEOPLE , that like to make the game we love. If you’ve been working on a thing, and you get to announce the thing, do you think you’d want to read complaints about something entirely unrelated? Interact with people the way you’d like strangers to treat you about things you are working on.
BONUS BONUS TIP: ALWAYS BE KIND
The following you gather on twitter will be a reflection of yourself. If you are nothing but salt, you’ll find salty people. If you are insightful, or funny, or kind you will find yourself a part of a wonderful community that enhances the play experience of the game, even when the game is not at its peak. The choice is yours. Choose wisely.
