Hearthstone’s availability on smartphones is bad for my health

Custom deck building at red traffic lights

When Hearthstone made its way to the iPad, I may or may not have played it for two weeks straight. My wife and I would sit down by the fire (or hearth, if you will) with our iPad and laptop in-hand and play for hours while time escaped us faster than Thrall escaped from Durnholde Keep.

Now that’s it’s available for phones, effectively making it playable anywhere at anytime, I may need professional help.

I’ve been playing Hearthstone casually since its official launch, but I’ve been getting into it more than ever recently. After the honeymoon of launch excitement ended, it was tough to really sit down at a PC and play on a constant basis — it’s not like I didn’t want to, it’s just that the grounded nature of PC gaming felt odd for a fast-moving card game. Since I never take my iPad with me outside of the house, it was basically the same situation. But it really feels perfect for the mobile platform given it’s “just one game” nature.

Every single mode or action is basically built for phones. Custom deck tinkering? You can do that at a stoplight. A quick class challenge is perfect for waiting in line at the checkout, and so on. Online games typically take a bit longer due to the head-to-head element, but since most matchups take 10-15 minutes you can fit them in-between breaks at work. People often downplay the mobile platform as a joke, but it’s built for things like this. I think I play my 3DS and Vita more often, but I don’t always have them with me at all times.

It also highlights how genius Blizzard was to integrate everything with their account system. Even if you play on a PC before work, your iPhone during your lunchbreak, and your iPad before bed, everything is linked seamlessly with cross-platform play to boot. While Nintendo still drags their feet with a unified 3DS and Wii U account system, I don’t have to worry about losing a second of Hearthstone progress.

It helps that Hearthstone isn’t a slouch on smaller devices. I’m using an iPhone 6 (no Plus, it’s too big!) which allows me a little more screen real estate, so it’s actually pretty comfortable. Just like on tablets the touch controls work like a charm, and Blizzard made actions relatively easy to pull off with a wide zone for cards to trigger. My only real gripe is that you need to “zoom into” your deck to choose a card first, which makes things a tad slower when it’s your turn, but it’s not a huge deal.

I’ve been playing through the new Blackrock Mountain expansion this past week, so stay tuned for some thoughts on whether or not it’s worth the in-game or out-of-game cash.