You may hate Heroes of the Storm, and Blizzard is fine with that

The upcoming free-to-play game previously known as Blizzard All-Stars, and Blizzard DOTA before that, up-ends a few conventions of the genre. Eurogamer reports that Heroes of the Storm eschews longstanding MOBA mechanics in favor of more casual gameplay that should appeal to a wider audience. Last-hitting is gone and teams level up as a group so new players aren’t as much of a handicap as in other games. Shops and items are also out, in favor of a regular Blizzard skill tree that World of Warcraft players will be at home using. Chris Sigaty, Production Director on Heroes, explained the thinking behind the changes to the game.

“First of all, the core game de-emphasises a lot of the things that create rockstars, that we think leads to people getting into that toxic space, and reasons to be angry at people who simply don’t know things yet. We want to emphasise the team side of it – the feel that we’re all in it together. The other side that we think is going to have a big impact is game time – we’re trying to keep it around that magic 25 minutes. In a 45 minute or longer game, the frustration just builds and builds and builds.”

Heroes of the Storm is open for beta registration now.