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I'm actually having a lot of fun. I'm seeing a lot of stuff I could see improved, and I would like to see added (brighter board colors, flavor text for everything), but it's surprisingly fun. Not what I was expecting.

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Was it ever really in question(of course it was going to be awesome)

I'm liking it! Learning how to play, I went from "Eh, I'll pass", on this, to legitimately enjoying the beta so far. I feel like the game can still do a lot, but I like it for what it is.

My favorite impression is Pete Hines, though. I have never seen someone right so fervently about one of their own properties.

Mmm, open beta now. Just beat the storyline; nothing too difficult if you've played Hearthstone etc., which this is clearly imitating. One thing that stood out as different from HS is the lane system, and the return of what feel like global enchantmentss from MTG (Supports). Very cool. Haven't played HS since three or four months after its full release, so I don't know if any of the new mechanics TESL uses were introduced in later HS expansions.

It does seem a bit more complex than I remember HS being when last I played, which is not necessarily a good thing for people wanting to play casually and still put up decent arena scores. Time investment in card knowledge (your decks plus every possible opponent card/combo), theorycrafting, staying abreast of shifting metas every patch and so on can be significant.

For general fans of the series without a particular attachment to card games it'll probably be a temporary amusement. Worth dabbling in perhaps to see the quality card artwork and new visual interpretations of well-known series characters. TESL will probably struggle to capture a large chunk of the card game market, stuck as it is trying to siphon off mojo from HS while at the same time a Witcher card game is coming hot on its heels.

Sedrethi from the UESP ESO Guild persuaded me to try Legends. So far I like it, though it's confusing as hell for someone who has never played a collectible card game before. I've played dozens of card and board games, but never the collectible type - I've always found it faintly offensive that how good you are at a game depends partly on how much you spend on it, what with e.g. certain Magic the Gathering cards having cost £80 in 1997, gods only know how much they are today. So I've only ever played games where everything you need is in the box.

The tutorial is a nightmare. It does not even begin to explain the basics to someone who is completely new to CCGs. It needs a hell of a lot of work before release if they are planning on marketing Legends to general fans of the Elder Scrolls series, rather than only people who've played CCGs before.

I was put in a bad mood right from the beginning. I chose a female avatar - the Nord woman with the wolf. Yet in the voice-over, I was referred to as male. The first boss talked about me as "the Nord" and then said "and for his opponent"... It really bugged me. It also bugs me that every single boss I've fought so far, up to the 9th round (which I haven't done yet) has been male. All of the characters, except for the one who's listening to the story, are male. It's like saying "this isn't a game for you, girlie". Apparently we are in search of some sorceress, so it might become less of a sausagefest after we meet her; but for now it's pushing all my buttons and I've been a female in gaming for over 2 decades. It feels like we're back in the early 90s where only males were expected to play games.

It's also confusing as hell that you can, e.g. destroy your own cards. And it's not altogether clear which cards need to be placed directly on the field and which need to be placed on top of another card. An explanation of this would be really nice. I blew up my own cards several times because I didn't realise that Wrecking Blow was an action rather than an item - I thought I was equipping my characters with the ability to do a Wrecking Blow rather than performing the Wrecking Blow immediately!

I need to write some feedback on the official Bethesda site but I need to play everything through again, starting at the beginning, before I acquire enough coherence to do so.

Aside from that voice acting bug (surprised they didn't catch that), it seems like you're way overanalysing the gender thing. TES games haven't felt like a boys' club since Daggerfall in my opinion, so I think you should give them the benefit of the doubt. Also, story spoiler if you think it isn't female-friendly:

I agree they could do a better job explaining how the various card types work, but for future reference you can easily tell which does what by looking just below the card name.

The Nord that they're talking about is Tyr. You're the "opponent" they're referring to in that dialogue. (I imagine it's a lot easier to understand what they mean when your character is not a Nord.) Throughout the whole story, they do not specify the Forgotten Hero's race or gender.