One of the great things about digital, server-based games such as Hearthstone is that it allows companies to detect trends in gameplay. Such as if a certain type of deck is being used by many players, is there a reason for it? Is it broken in some way? Sure, this can lead to all kinds of rights abuses, but it can also be a reassuring thing: for instance, just because some people are awesome at Hearthstone, doesn't mean that everyone is.
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In fact, few people are. Blizzard released a look at the percentage of players in the upper ranks of gameplays and the kinds of people who make money playing video games and the numbers are much smaller than you might imagine. For instance those with the Legend rank, the best of the best players, account for only 0.5% of the game's total population, which numbers in the millions.
You can interpret this one of two ways: okay, I am not Legend, but neither is really anybody else and the chances of me facing one of these guys is miniscule. Or two, how come I always get stuck fighting Legend players? If you find yourself thinking the first, congratulations, you realize that you are a single fish in a pond full of other fishes. But if you find yourself thinking the second then it's not them, it's you. Blizzard wants to reassure you that you aren't as bad as you think, but if you lose every match, the only common denominator is yourself.
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"We're here to let you know that you're actually doing better than you think! In fact, most of Hearthstone's Ranked Play players lie between Ranks 25 and 15. Many players aspire to acquire the unique Hearthstone card back each season that awaits at Rank 20. Even going from Rank 20 to Rank 15 is an impressive feat." The developer said in the post.
Recently, there was a small dust-up on the forums regarding Blizzard employees playing Hearthstone in both Casual and Ranked play. Since they have access to all this meta-data, what's hot, what's exploitable, who's good, who's bad, they shouldn't be allowed to play. The number of Blizz employees who play is a perilously small percentage of players. Nor can they devote the amount of time it would take to become Legend, because 'jobs'. Yes, they have access to this kind of information, but knowing and doing are two vastly different things.
The whole post, which goes into detail, is a fun look at the community and how Blizzard processes the data. Be sure to check it out, and keep playing Hearthstone. We know you will anyways.
