Last Month Hearthstone implemented an “Invite-A-Friend” system for the game. Players use a link to invite new players to play Hearthstone and the link used would bind the accounts together. For inviting one player and the invited player reaching level 20, the Original player would receive Morgle the Oracle, a (very awesome) Shaman class hero. A player gets a free card pack for each friend that reaches level 20 once the fifth friend reaches level 20. Hearthstone is a free to play card game that has been out for 2011. At this point in Hearthstone’s life, the amount of gamers that have not discovered Hearthstone is a very small number. Joining Hearthstone can seem like a daunting task. Hundreds of cards have been added through multiple expansions and it can be intimidating to try to collect them all, which is required to compete competitively. Many people may have the problem where none of their friends are interested in Hearthstone (like myself). Many Hearthstone players will probably resort to using a second personal email to create a new account and grind their way to level 20 for Morgle.
Blizzard could keep players around by incentivizing friends who are linked to play with each other. Once a player reaches a certain level, such as 20 or 30, let friends earn quest credit by playing friends. Limit this to one quest a week or unlimited quests for a limited amount of time. The level requirement and the time limit put on these perks would reduce the amount of fraudulent accounts created.
Every plan has its own set of flaws while at the same time requiring a good enough incentive for players to go through the trouble of talking friends and family into playing.
Have an idea of how to the invite-a-friend system should work? Leave a comment!
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