[Wording] Two minor wording inconsistencies

#1 - June 28, 2013, 12:05 p.m.

Cone of Cold currently says:
Freeze a minion and the minions next to it, and deal 1 damage to them.

Betrayal currently says:
An enemy minion deals its damage to the minions next to it.

To be consistent with previous wording used on other cards (Defender of Argus, Explosive Shot, among others), the words "the minions next to it" could be replaced by "adjacent minions".

That's it! I did not know where to put this, so I figured I'd post it here. It's a nearly irrelevant "polishing" thing.

Ben Brode

#7 - July 1, 2013, 4:07 p.m.

Hey Noxious!

Good catch! We had talked about this exact wording, and I wanted to give you some insight into how we write card text.

Here is what we consider when we write card text:

Card text should be easily understandable, the first time you read it.

We often jettison cards that take a while to “parse”. We don’t want you to say “What?” after you read a card.

Card text should feel like natural language.

Traditionally, card games have read a bit like computer language. That’s important when it’s just you and a friend sitting a table, you need to know how to resolve edge cases – but when you have a computer to handle those, the cards don’t need to be as explicit.

Card text should be short.

Instead of “Your hero deals 2 fire damage to target hero or ally”, Hearthstone just says “Deal 2 damage”. The computer will highlight your targets for you, and there is way less text!
We felt that “the minions next to it” felt more natural for Cone of Cold, but “adjacent minions” felt more natural for Defender of Argus. It’s not consistent, but hopefully both wordings make sense, and are easy to “parse” for players who are reading the card for the first time.

- B