Hearthstone announced that it is cancelling all Fireside Gathering events as well as disabling the ability for players to create public events. In addition, any public events that are existing are going o be converted to private events. This is to promote the safety of players given the risks associated with the current global health crisis.
In Hearthstone, a Fireside Gathering is a real-world gathering of people who have the intention of playing the game. This is generally done in public areas and in addition to playing, the goal of such gatherings is for players to meet and hopefully form real-life friendships.
Hearthstone did reveal in a post that while it is indeed disabling public events, they still wanted "individuals at home to have an opportunity to partake in the upcoming Pre-Release weekend, so we’ll be keeping private event functionality intact." With the release of Ashes of Outlands just around the corner, having a Fireside Gathering is indeed important. Even with this change, players can still have their very own one-person event should they want to enjoy opening their first card packs for Ashes of Outland.
With this, Hearthstone said that Private Fireside Gatherings are going to:
- Be eligible to receive Nemsy Necrofizzle if they fulfill all hosting prerequisites.
- This means having an established Tavern.
- Be eligible for the Fireside Gatherings card back.
- Allow event listing creation the same day it is meant to be hosted.
- Have the same Fireside Brawls as public Fireside Gatherings.
- Be visible on the website only to the innkeeper hosting it.
- The Fireside Gathering itself is going to be visible in the game client and attendees are still able to search and find it in the client as well.
However, Fireside Gatherings are not going to:
- Be visible on Tavern or upcoming event pages.
- Show up if anyone tries to search for it on the upcoming events page.
- Count towards any Tavern or Innkeeper progression.
- They are not going to count towards establishing your Tavern.
- Players still need to host public events in the future with at least 3 check-ins in order to establish their Tavern.
What this all means is that a private pre-release Fireside Gathering still gives a player the chance to bust open card packs of the new expansion even before the official launch on April 7. Private pre-release Fireside Gatherings are scheduled to take place the weekend before Ashes of Outland goes live, which is between April 3 and April 6.
