Power creep
What is power creep? How each new card, hero or weapon arrives slightly stronger than the last until old options are obsolete, in Hearthstone and beyond.
Power creep is the gradual unbalancing of a game as new content keeps arriving a little stronger than what came before, until older options are no longer worth using. It is common in competitive and collectible games, such as trading card games, that release new content over years.
Examples
Each game links to the source that describes it using the mechanic.
- Hearthstone, made with Unity
- Warframe
- Team Fortress 2, made with Source
Related terms: Nerf and buff, Gacha, Live service game, The meta.
Sources
Checked .
- Glossary of video game terms — Wikipedia
- Power Creep — GameDesign.gg
- Power Creep - TV Tropes — TV Tropes