Blizzard has posted an update on its website that announces the removal of the controversial Artifact system from Heroes of the Storm‘s Alpha.
The following explanation was given:
Artifacts were designed to provide you with a meaningful way to spend gold, while also providing additional options to customize your heroes. We wanted to test artifacts in the Alpha to find out if the system fulfilled those goals. As testing began, many of you voiced concerns around fairness issues, “correct build” issues, balance, new player tension, and other issues that made it clear that artifacts weren’t working as intended. We agree—those issues started to outweigh the benefits of the system.
As a result, we have decided to remove the artifact system from Heroes of the Storm with a patch scheduled for later today.
Myself and hundreds if not thousands of other Alpha participants voiced our displeasure in the Artifact system after it was implemented just a couple weeks ago. Essentially, it added a system to the game that created a new way for Blizzard to monetize what will eventually be a free-to-play release through an upgrade system that improves stats for specific characters—if you’re familiar with League of Legends, it’s like the Rune system, only more complicated. This system would add some customization to the game, in addition to adding a new grind for players, but also convolute it at the same time. It didn’t last long.
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Blizzard makes it clear in the update on its page that nothing in the Heroes of the Storm Alpha is final. Instead, it will continue to test and tweak things to test the experience before it hits release.
The Heroes of the Storm Alpha is currently invite only. To enter your Battle.net account into the lottery to join the Alpha, all you have to do is visit the site and sign up.
