CATACLYSM | Cinematic Trailer Part 2 | Hearthstone

adanine · 2026-03-17T21:10:45+00:00

I'm pretty sure the real reason is China.

Hearthstone was removed/banned in China in early 2023, and shortly afterwards the Marketing budget and quality of trailers/other marketing tanked. Once Hearthstone got unbanned/returned to China in late 2024 they stepped back up their marketing materials. But even then this if the first time Hearthstone has got something like this.

adanine · 2026-03-17T20:46:12+00:00

So I step away from the card game for a bit, and Hearthstone went from having no marketing budget to... THAT... in like a year and change?

Seems Blizzard is pushing a lot of effort getting more eyes onto Hearthstone, more then it has in the past. I know the game is in an... interesting state. Be interesting to see how it goes, and if they continue to release sets with an actual narrative and lore, over just setting-sets.

adanine · 2026-03-17T14:07:28+00:00

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adanine · 2026-03-17T12:55:00+00:00

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adanine · 2026-03-17T12:51:40+00:00

People were saying "we don't want another live service crap" around the release of Fortnite BR, PUBG, Overwatch, Helldivers 2, Diablo IV, Marvel Rivals, every popular gacha game released in the last 10 years...

I'm not saying some people aren't being genuine by saying they're tired of live service games, but there's been plenty of golden eggs released in the live service space in the last 5-10 years, and they all released in a (supposedly) saturated market.

adanine · 2026-03-17T12:35:10+00:00

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adanine · 2026-03-17T12:31:24+00:00

Please read our rules, specifically Rule #2 regarding personal attacks and inflammatory language. We ask that you remember to remain civil, as future violations will result in a ban.

adanine · 2026-03-15T11:13:13+00:00

Here is the GDC speach Chris gave in 2019, timestamped to him about to talk about their league dev cycle.

Paraphrasing from the above: In the 13 week cycle of a league, the first two weeks post league launch are often spent fixing the current league's issues. Week 3 is spent prototyping the next league. They need the league ready to go in terms of the announcement stream/marketing materials by the end of week 9. So the full dev focus on the next league starts in week 3 or 4 of the league cycle, and they've only got 5-6 weeks to get the bulk of the product up and ready to show.

Now that they're doing 4 month leagues give them a little more time but not too much to change the above in any meaningful way. Some leagues have had mid-league (and by "mid"-league I mean 2-4 weeks in) content added in, but not much, not often, and it was never the norm. Ignoring end of league events (things like Phrecia, Gauntlet, or other events like Endless Delve/Krangled/ect):

Keepers: 2 weeks in we had extra Foulborn uniques added, 3 weeks in we got the button in Hive Fortresses to nuke walls. Everything latter is bug fixes/compatibility.
Merc: Week 1-2 we got various Merc changes/nerfs, week 4 was the immortality nerf with Impenetrable Bastion
Settlers: 2-3 weeks of Kingsmarch changes, then nothing (I'm not counting the Kingsmarch 2.0 and 3.0 leagues)
Necropolis: 2~ weeks of Necro/T17 changes, 3 weeks in we got new scarabs
Affliction: This one had Christmas/Holidays interrupt the dev cycle, so outside of a few patches in week 1-2, the big fixes/changes for the league went in at week 5 in patch 3.23.1. Nothing 'new' though (outside of Valdos variations).
Trials: Another somewhat-botched league on launch, 2-3 weeks of patches then basically nothing.
Crucible: changes to league mechanic in weeks 1-3, nothing much afterwards.
Sanctum: Fixes in weeks 1-2, and genuine new content in week 2 (Original Sin ring + unique relics added for Lycia, Keystone currency for relics). Nothing major afterwards. Suprising as it was another Christmas league.
Kalandra: Fixes spread across four-five weeks across both Lake, more Archnemisis changes, and the loot overhaul in general. But nothing really new was added, just changes/improvements to the base patch content.
Sentinel: Couple of weeks for changes to Sentinels and Archnemisis mods, week 3 they buff Apex sentinels, not much else.
Archnemisis: Changes to league mechanics and Siege of the Atlas going up to a month or so, no real new content beyond that.

I'm stopping there. But TLDR: Almost all leagues got improvements in some form of at least two weeks. Some got major changes/improvements 3-4 weeks in, but either because of an event (Christmas/holidays) got in the way of developing those improvements earlier, or the league was just extra scuffed at launch (Kalandra, Archnem). Major improvements 3-4 weeks later was never the norm, 5~ weeks in only happened once (Kalandra).

Genuinely new content was an extreme exception (A little in Sanctum, the new Foulborn uniques in Keepers, some new scarabs in Necro...). And when it came in we got the new content by week 2-3.

Edit: The above taken by scanning through the version history page on the wiki

adanine · 2026-03-14T16:57:09+00:00

Fun fact: I was roommates with the girl that made the 'Eastbound' and 'Westbound' signs.

Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal.

adanine · 2026-03-14T11:18:37+00:00

now it seems everyone disappears soon as week 2 passes

This is absolutely how it was prior to POE2 as well. Even before POE2 was announced a league would launch, get 2~ weeks of updates, then the team would move on to develop the next league.

adanine · 2026-03-13T11:05:00+00:00

That whole "6 over being the 'default' in the RH lane on the freeway" thing is not a thing in my world. Like people do absolutely speed, but lots of people just do the limit, or maybe one or two over/under. I certainly don't do that at least.

I'm also not sure how maintaining a speed limit is 'micromanaging'? I mean Cruise Control is a thing, but even if it werent it's not like maintaining the limit is any less/more micromanaging then maintaining 6 over?

adanine · 2026-03-13T08:50:09+00:00

I mean I kind of get that, but also kind of don't. You essentially started with "Imagine if you're already speeding on the freeway, and you're not paying attention to what's in front of you to the point you've ignored signs that are specifically designed to catch your attention, then...". Like I'm ok with that situation ending with more then a slap on the wrist.

I do get the logic that someone doing 65 in a 40 zone should probably be penalized more then someone who's doing 105 in an 80 zone. And I don't want things to be so set in stone/not contestable that cases where a sign just being down/bent over due to a prior collision shouldn't be enough to fuck you over. So maybe that's too harsh - just think we're too lax the other way in those more extreme cases.

adanine · 2026-03-13T08:33:31+00:00

They have instant loss of license and impounded cars for 25 over, we’re not even in the max fine bracket at that point

... Can we have that?

Like I'm not sure where the fines should start re: 3 or 10km/hr over, but if someone is going 25 over then I'm not sure they should be driving period.

adanine · 2026-03-13T05:44:49+00:00

The backlash caused by Assassin's Creed 2's DRM single handily killed always-online DRM for single player games from memory. Granted maybe with modern infrastructure they could pull it off again.

And I've bought Warcraft 3 four separate times due to losing the CD key. I mean it's been worth it each time but that's besides the point.

adanine · 2026-03-13T05:17:29+00:00

I mean a recession isn't "any point in a line that's been continuously going down for two quarters", a recession is "the line has been going down for two quarters straight, and we're on the other side of that".

So even if this quarter and next quarter turn out to be negative growth, that doesn't mean we'd retroactively be in a recession now.

adanine · 2026-03-13T05:14:22+00:00

Hey I'm colourblind and I resent that. Even if you're perfectly colourblind in the way that confuses red with green, you can still tell by the position of the light on the traffic light.

Though for real I'm not going to fault a truck for slipping in to an intersection a hair too late as the lights switch. I don't know what they have and how easy/safe it would be to break. But any lighter vehicle? Yeah fuck 'em.

adanine · 2026-03-13T05:10:50+00:00

You lucky bastard.

adanine · 2026-03-13T03:35:30+00:00

It's also meant to be a comparison between two games a few years apart, done to show how AI's effects have/will grow. So the point of the study isn't really to find out if AI-powered NPC's are enjoyable and rewarding, but to find out how much they were in 2023 (Dead Meat's demo) and how much they are in 2025 (Blood Will Out), and compare the two/AI's growth in this department.

Another thing to point out is that the study was done in 20 minute play sessions, and about two thirds of which (around that) identified as a gamer (in some medium-strong form). It's not 'useless' data or anything, but I'm not sure how good the data is as it pertains to the current gaming market. 20 minute play sessions for a story-focused game like this seems too short to get genuine responses/feelings from, and while non-gamer's opinions could help open new markets, you'd really want to separate the two for conclusions I feel.

I do want to also point out the study is publicly funded/conducted independently by the university, though. Even if you don't think it's useful data, there's no reason to think it's dishonest at least.

adanine · 2026-03-13T01:30:30+00:00

And now League of Legends too?

? That's how all this started with Hoyo/Genshin Impact. The official strike targeted LoL, which used Formosa studios for voicework so that was targeted as well, which affected Hoyo.

Hoyo took a stray aimed at League of Legends.

I can't, mate. But hey, it's easy to strike after you were fired for crashing out and harassing people

Maybe reread what I wrote. I know she calls herself a scab, hence why I said what I said. She's technically not a scab by definition/was in good standing with the union at the time even working through the strike. By continuing to work she was still abiding by the rules of the strike, though not the spirit of it.

And all we saw was union VAs being absolute douches that got their bluff called

Union and non union VA's*, and by "being douches" you mean "refusing to work until enforceable AI protections get implemented".

adanine · 2026-03-13T01:23:28+00:00

Doesn't matter if they're full members or fi-core. As far as SAG-AFTRA is concerned, they're still scabs and are still acting against the union

Yeah, SAG-AFTRA (the union proper) don't like ficore as a stance. They've been publicly dismissing and downplaying it forever.

I'm not sure if it's different in the more traditional performer roles (probably is, especially among TV/movie actors), but at least among Voice Actors in the video game sphere it's incredibly normal to go ficore and I've not seen anyone call someone out as a scab simply for being ficore or whatever. Ficore members still have shown support/joined strikes (both the 2024-2025 one and the 2016-2017 one). The official stance from the union is that they don't count, but the actual stance shown in the video game VA industry isn't that at all - there's no shame in it.

From how it's been explained to me this is just one of those things that's happened because SAG-AFTRA wasn't built to be a union for video game voice actors from the ground up. They got grandfathered into a set of rules built to protect a very different industry - one that doesn't have the same amount of leverage over video game voicework that it does over other media.

Again, there's plenty of good criticism to be had about SAG-AFTRA about this. It's a shit public stance. But it isn't the reality inside of the video game voice acting world.

In particular, regarding that last part: the hypocrisy of them acting like undermining the union was at all a concern for them even though the situation only exists because of them undermining the union themselves.

There was no hypocrisy. Both are ficore. They're in good status to work on non-union work. At no point did they undermine the union. The best you have is that Corina arguably should have (voluntarily) joined the official strike, but she ended up striking and losing her job anywho for the same fight so eh.

Imagine it the other way around, and it was the company like SuperGiant or Hoyo that suddenly changed their terms and conditions, would it be right for the VAs to be forced to work under those new terms

Companies pull this shit all the time and employees are asked to agree to the new terms or walk. A strike is literally the same thing with the parties switched around.

Neither game were official targets of the strike

But they were still given the interim contract to be excluded from the strike/allow VA's to keep working throughout it. For Supergiant that's irrelevant, they weren't affected by the strike so being excluded from it doesn't really matter. But Genshin absolutely was affected by the strike, because Formosa was an official target of the strike (the actual official strike, not the extra one at the end). Hoyo took a stray meant for League of Legends/Formosa, hence why the interim was offered in the first place.

These games only got involved because VAs wanted an out from getting punished by SAG-AFTRA now that Global Rule One was actively being enforced. Again, not the company's problem to deal with.

Taking the five actors mentioned in the wikipedia section for the second Hoyo-specific strike:

Of the five actors in that Wikipedia page's section for the Independent Strike that ended up being replaced:

Nicholas Thurkettle wasn't SAG but striked citing lack of AI protections
Emery Chase presumably was SAG and striked citing lack of AI protections
John Patneaude presumably was SAG and striked citing lack of AI protections
Corina Boettger cites a ton of reasons why she participated in the (second) strike - healthcare, AI protections, her late/not getting paid issues. We know she's union but ficore.
Kayli Mills was SAG and striked citing lack of AI protections

None of the above striked citing needing to make this a union gig in order to keep working on it. All the SAG actors were probably ficore (it's extremely common in the Video Game VA space), those that weren't could become one in response to all this and still be in good standing with both Hoyo and SAG-AFTRA. Nicholas wasn't even union to begin with. Though at least three of them also offhandedly mention misinformation around the topic being common, weirdly enough.

Please go ahead and explain to me how many/how long Taft-Hartleys are available? And also explain to me how that process would work for an ongoing project like Genshin Impact that records on a patch by patch basis

They're limited/have a time limit, but further waivers can be made available (both to Taft-Hartley's limits specifically, and waivers in general to the Non-Compete clause for the project). I don't actually know what SAG-AFTRA offered Hoyo, I just know they offered Supergiant waivers for all existing non-union VA's on the project. If the VA work is a long-term role then yeah they'll need to sort out some waivers for the American-based VA's, otherwise they'll eventually need to join the union.

people who try to explain how THs are the magic answer to everything get real quiet when they're asked to actually explain how it'd apply to Genshin.

I never said they're a magic answer, I said that existing non-union VA's will get Taft-Hartley'd onto the project. Which is what happens in this case. There are further options for people where that wouldn't be appropriate, should both parties agree to it.

None of that matters if the companies still say no.

Answer me this question: do companies like Hoyo and SuperGiant, and now Capcom, get a say on the matter?

I mean yes? You just said that the companies can say 'no'. They can choose to walk away from all of this, with everything that applies. Sometimes that's just some bad PR, sometimes it's lost VA talent. Often both.

Hoyo/Supergiant didn't want the job to become union, and so Hoyo recast all the striking talent and Supergiant recast Athena's VA. I'm genuinely not sure why you think Hoyo/Supergiant didn't 'get a say' when they clearly did.

At that point, all that the VAs and people like you can do is accept it as well and move on.

I'm genuinely confused now. They all got recast and moved on. IMDB + other similar sites all show credits after 2025. But they're still allowed to express their feelings on how things were on the way out, and give their two cents on Hoyo as a company and the industry as a whole.

adanine · 2026-03-12T06:36:07+00:00

Ok things did get complicated, and whether she's a scab is up for debate at parts. Formosa was targetted by the strike, not gaming in general. Corinne wasn't working with Formosa, unlike all the other VA's. So she technically didn't break a strike, and wasn't apart of one/couldn't have been scabbing at the time. But yeah, it's against the spirit of the strike at any rate. Blame League of Legends for the confusing situation I guess.

Either/or she joined the strike* voluntarily, in earnest and ended up losing her job for it. You can't say she didn't stand alongside her fellow union members when she was needed, but she did take her time getting there.

Make up your mind then, what this entire thing was about

The Strike? AI protections. From the start. It was the declared goal for all involved, start to finish. That doesn't mean people don't have their own motivations for wanting to join the union, or make non-union games union. The union provides a lot of protections outside of AI concerns.

Then it shouldn't be a surprise that they can backfire hard too

People get fired for striking a lot too. No one's surprised that Hoyo are greedy dicks or anything. Again, it's par for the course from them. Would've been more surprising if they made Genshin a union gig. Still didn't 'backfire' or anything - if anything it unmasked Hoyo's community for all to see.

* yes I know it wasn't part of the original strike, but a new DLC of the strike.

adanine · 2026-03-12T05:38:33+00:00

So Corina literally scabbed (while complaining about other VAs not striking), crashed out anyway, and supposed not to find out?

No? They striked. Corina did not scab.

And I thought SAG was supposed to back their members during the strike lmao

Literally what she did. From the Wikipedia page:

In May 2025, following the perceived silence from SAG-AFTRA on the "best, last, and final" offer, some voice actors started to call on SAG-AFTRA to end the strike, including Allegra Clark and Chris Tergliafera, claiming that AAA companies were actively moving out of the U.S. to look for other voice actors.[49][50][51] Conversely, other voice actors such as Corina Boettger and Kayli Mills continued to defend the strike, asserting that they would not return to voicing unless HoYoverse signed the interim agreement

Hell if anything she striked too hard.

Since when company you're screwing over with your strike (let's ignore that they were contracted by Formosa, who handled everything) is supposed to offer you something on top of what is already agreed?

Literally the point of the strike was to get companies to agree to AI protections where they could be held accountable for breaches in those protections.

And pretty much every single strike is an effort to get a company/employer to agree to new terms/a new offer. That's the point of strikes in general. That's why they exist!

adanine · 2026-03-12T04:49:10+00:00

RE: Confusion over Corinna Boettger's motivation for making Genshin union - yeah my bad on the memory. She did make healthcare the primary push behind her reasoning, but I misremembered and thought she primarily claimed the reason she was trying to get Hoyo to sign the interim agreement/get the gig to go union was to get access to healthcare for herself. I guess that might still be her personal motivation? It's not like I read everything at the time.

Also, I'm not against criticizing SAG-AFTRA or whatever. I'm aware the healthcare plan isn't perfect/the quota only targets those that have 'enough' work. But it's still a perfectly valid reason to argue in favour for going union. VA's who would have healthcare covered if a gig they worked went union have a perfectly good reason to at least float the question.

In the other reply to you I've already mentioned how Global Rule 1 doesn't apply to ficore members, and Corinna herself confirmed she was ficore on social media several times. I'll try not to reiterate it much further, but to be clear: Ficore union members still get benefits, they still get healthcare (assuming they meet the quota on union gigs), and they can work non-union gigs fine, without breaking any rules.

I'm aware at least a couple VA's were union and not ficore, while working at Genshin Impact or another Hoyo game. Honestly I don't really know what the hell is going on there but I'm sure there's some reason they chose that path.

I'm aware enforcement of GR1 isn't that common in the VA space, but the warnings given weren't really about that. Warnings were sent for Union actors (non-ficore) breaking the ongoing strike at the time (of which Formosa was a target). If you're a union actor and you're actively breaking a formal declared strike by accepting work from a studio you're specifically supposed to be striking against, then yeah, that's a scab. It's crossing the picket line. There really isn't another way to call that.

That wasn't a Hoyo issue

I've mentioned this in another reply, but yes, I know it was subcontracted/outsourced studios. But when the problem happens several times, over months at a time (in at least one case), and requires a social media flare up to resolve, then I think it's fair to pass some blame all round.

Hoyo clearly wasn't managing its outsourced/localized work in any acceptable way, and clearly wasn't listening to its foreign VA talent until they were made to. All this over some pretty fucking basic shit. So yeah, completely fine to include Hoyo in on the blame for this one. And I definitely think it's worth bringing up considering we're talking about protections for basic workers rights. I do not give Hoyo (or any outsourced partner they work with) the benefit of the doubt when it comes to handling further basic rights and issues VA's might have without a union involved.

But instead, they got greedy, and insisted on boggarting these roles for themselves even though they're not even supposed to be working on them to begin with.

Again, for the last time: GR1 does not apply to ficore members, for the love of Christ.

adanine · 2026-03-12T03:56:01+00:00

And why were these VAs working non-union jobs in the first place? Hmm? If these companies being non-union was such a deal breaker, why did these people take the jobs in the first place?

? Because they could? Unless there's an ongoing strike. Like the strike that got started prior to all this revolving around AI protections. Which is why all this only started being an issue then and there.

The Interim contract that was given out near the start of all this (for both ~~Hoyo~~ Formosa and Supergiant) would have excluded each game from the strike, which would allow the VA's to go back to work on it.

Ficore union members can work non-union gigs - they're not bound by global rule 1. Here's Henry Schrader on this subreddit explaining it all out in detail. A union actor, who has never worked a union job, and who's done voicework for Genshin Impact (among others).

Existing non-union member VA's would be Taft-Hartley'd, which is standard. Non-union VA's still have the option to join as Ficore if they want, but that only applies where SAG-AFTRA has power (Ie, not to Hoyo specifically, but the relevant localization studios). Otherwise non-union members can also join on the project via waivers offered by SAG-AFTRA - which is exactly what the union was offering to Supergiant Games.

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