This a hard topic for me to talk about since there is a clear conflict of interests, as someone who wants to develop a career in Heroes of the Storm there is a personal gain for me, which brings the challenge of being critical not only on the topic but of myself as well. I decided to ask for another perspective on the issue, I reached out to Not Paradox and he gave me his point of view as well.

As I see it there are two main issues with content creation in Heroes of the Storm, the first is Patch release, and the second is community perception towards content. Patch release is for Blizzard to fix, while community perception has to be a work effort from all of us.

The patches

Heroes of the Storm content cycle is very fast, we have big patches every 4-5 weeks and after those 3 weeks later a balance patch comes along with sometimes arguable decisions. Heroes of the Storm released way later that the other big names on the genre, Blizzard had to rush in order to keep up with the roster that other mobas offer. This development cycle is good for the growth of the game but bad for high quality content, since it can easily get outdated. On the current development cycle your subscription feed in Youtube would look something like this:

(Week 1): PTR releases First look video on all the new reworks/heroes

(Week 2, 3): Basically unedited Gameplay. Not worth making any guide on new hero since it’s probably overpowered and going to be nerfed or underpowered and going to be buffed.

(Week 4) Balance patch get release, new patch is announced. Reviews of the patch notes.

Balance patches go live on Wednesday and PTR goes live on next Monday, a content creator has about 5 days to create good quality content before they have to jump on PTR. During this time the new hero hasn’t been played by pro teams so they would have to wait until the weekend to see the non-balanced version of the hero played by the top of the world. Then the cycle repeats.

This amount of changes to the game so quickly don’t help the Meta stabilized, with the rise of a new hero there is always the opportunity for other heroes to shine because they have synergies or counter synergies with the new hero. A good example would be Thrall first the [Q] range was buffed but that wasn’t really enough. The introduction of Fenix on the other hand really helped him since the synergy between earthquake and salvo was too good. Then he stayed because teams realized the value that he can bring to a match. There are also heroes that can shine in the Meta over time, Sgt. Hammer got reworked almost a year ago, and no one looked at her, after Korea showcased her in MSB now is basically a Meta pick instead of a niche strategy.

When I told Not Paradox: [“… Blizzard doesn’t encourage high quality content since with the amount of time between patches, content can be outdated in 1 week or less”] his response was:

“This is tough because you’re right, I find my “why the pros play series” constantly being changed because the most highly competitive heroes tend to be changed the most frequently. Maiev’s play style from the time I released my video to now is quite different, I am likely going to make a new video. However a quickly updating game can be beneficial. The game doesn’t get stale and people always want to know about new content.”

On the last part I had honestly not considered the amount of people who come back into the game just because a new hero got released, we don’t have the exact numbers but I do have the anecdotal experience of seen more people on placements on HL the week a new hero is added to the game. As I see it there is a fine line between keeping the Meta stable, and keeping the game new enough for people to come and try it again, but content creators get sacrificed in the middle.

The problem I find with “keeping the game new enough” is that it can lead to returning players feeling confused. This happened to me before with Hearthstone, During Whispers of the Old God I played the game very competitively. I won a couple of online tournaments and I ended up a couple of points short of making it to the Americas Spring Qualifier for playoffs then I burned out and left the game when the next expansion got released. Since thn I have tried multiple times to come back casually into the game but I find myself lost on a completely different game, and is frustrating to feel that all my previous knowledge is useless now. Ever changing games can ruin the experience for returning players who are as valuable as new players.

My proposition to this is to have a slower content cycle, more on par with Overwatch. This content cycle could look something like this:

This content cycle is pretty straight forward. For this to work, an incentive should be added for player to go and play on PTR. Instead of using the PTR exclusively as a server test, we could use it as a testing ground for balance. This could help Live patches to be more stable and not need to be fixed right away.

Instead of scattering pieces of content here and there, we could cram it all together into a big patch that would shake up the Meta. New heroes, reworks, maps, skins, everything. Players have one moth to learn and understand the new mechanics and interactions, time for Blizzard to realize some things that might have slipped through the PTR, but also time for players to find their own corrections to the issues. Let players find their own solutions to a strong strategy. Balance patch should be released after this month to keep things fresh, BUFF heroes that are underperforming and tune down the heroes that are a bit too strong/oppressive. After one moth the cycle repeats.

Content creators have 1 month to release ptr content, the new things as well as the brainstorming of new strategies that might come along. Once the patch gets releases the strong heroes will be decided, this is the time craft strategies about the newly released Meta, how to play against and with the new mechanics, and also shine a light upon possibly too strong heroes or strategies. Finally after the balance patch is time to release Tier lists, Hero, Map and Draft guides, with the insurance that this will be reliable for at least 2 months, most guides and tier lists are outdated in 1-2 weeks with the current system.

The community perception

This is what I think is the more significant issue with content creation, since through hard work you could overcome the difficulties of the current development cycle. The issue is there is not much interest in the community for analytical or educational content.

When people create “basic” guides they are received with “everyone knows this”, “this is so basic” or “who cares”, followed by down votes to oblivion. Just because a piece of content is not educational for you, or is something you already know doesn’t mean it can’t be helpful for someone else. If you go on reddit for the first time as a new players there is rarely any educational content on the front page, there is usually HL complains (Which I have been a part of), talking about toxicity, how -insert meme hero- is not a troll pick, funny moments and stream highlights from which only the funny moments are high quality content, and fair to them those people put a lot of time and effort on those videos, the issues is when only those get views , we are going to a point where Nubkeks and Grubby are both creating their own version of funny moments, two of the biggest educational content creators.

Not paradox had this to say about the issue […”On the other hand the comunity (reddit specifically) doesn’t like people sharing content”]

For me it’s less the admins of the community, more the community itself. The first 4 mistakes guide I brought out hit the front page in under an hour and stayed there for 24 hours. Every other video I try to post to reddit gets instantly downvoted down to -10. Yet is filled with comments of “this is great” “We love this” and “Why is this downvoted.” So my short 5 minute educational videos I want to post disappear from the sub and the sub ends up filled with “HL sucks” and “Your daily Alex the ProG” The only positive content from youtube I can consistently see on the front page is the “Funny and WTF moments. I think most content creators from hots have learned that putting a lot of effort into your videos isn’t worth it. People downvote content creators on reddit and this means their best bet is to milk both worlds by streaming and then just re uploading their streams onto youtube. No editing, just full ~25 minute videos you could find on their twitch if you looked.”

Now comes the element that as far as I’m concerned is definitely key in this argument but at the same time is hugely controversial and based on opinion, so feel free to jump to next paragraph. There is a big part of this community that doesn’t like being proven wrong. What I mean by that is for educational content to work it has to be direct, it has to be accurate and it has to be based on the highest players of the game, trying to simple out their gameplay so people who want to learn can get in “the right traks”. More often than not the reality is certain heroes, builds or compositions are not good, and that is healthy for the game. But when it comes to personal perception, people take those statements as personal attacks. Let’s be clear, you can like bad heroes and that is fine, I would encourage you to not play them on HL (especially since there are other 9 players who are competitive minded) but you do you. No one can go into your pc and play another hero for you. Just because a content creator says “X hero is not good” doesn’t make you a bad player for liking it, or makes them jerks for saying that.

Blizzard has been doing their part as well, they send codes for content creators to give. I would like to see more of a featured video of the week with the featured streamer, since both elements are important for the game.

“As for Blizzard helping, I think people want to say that they don’t help at all. But small twitch streamers get featured all the time on their launcher. They haven’t done much with small youtubers yet but I can say they are looking for ways to work with them as well.”

For some reason over the years content creator have been moved from an “admiration” point of view to a “disgrace”. The online community tends to despise those who are trying to make it into the content creation world, and I find this confusing. As a student of economics I was taught that the more competition the better, the more people are “fighting for our attention” the better those minutes will be spent. I ask you what is so wrong about wanting to have more than one Grubby, or BamBam or Mewn, (I mean their size not their personality). Back in 2012 Swifty inspired me to pursue a career as a content creator, that pursuit has diverged over the years but I still put in very high regards those people who through their own work have been able to create communities for people to connect on an ever so disconnected world.

At the end of the day it all comes to us, our perception and how do we receive this content. I would encourage you to up vote content that you already know if you found it accurate, since it will help it reach someone who maybe doesn’t know that. Look at the down vote on reddit less as “I disagree with this” and more as a “People shouldn’t see this” because even if you disagree with something it might be good value, it might have effort put into it and it might be worth discussing.

The current cycle of the game doesn’t help create content for a community that rarely receives it well. But even if Blizzard doesn’t slow down their development production or packs it all together we can still have content creators who are willing to have their hours of hard work become obsolete if there is the audience willing to consume them.

If we want this game to grow, we need to encourage the biggest ambassadors of the game. Content creator spread the word, of a good game developed by a good company that is way more than the “family friendly moba” tag that is often attached to it. Those words bring new people into the game. I started playing this game because a Nubkeks video popped up on my suggestions tab, after that I watched the 2016 Blizzcon finals and since I haven’t stopped playing, it has even become part of my job. I invite you to share content even if for you is known knowledge, let the content creator know when their content is good. Be participant of the conversation, sometimes (very often) things go over our heads and we can figure it out. Support small channels as much as you do big channels, and appreciate the people who (with no salary from Blizzard) want to create content to make the game better, because as long as they succeed we all succeed.

Thanks for reading

Reach out to Not Pardox’s Youtbe or Twitter.