Blizzard is giving away Hearthstone card packs to mark the launch of Battle.net gifting

The new Battle.net social features, which were announced earlier this month, including Blizzard Groups, user profiles and avatar, and the ability to appear offline, are now live. Along with all that handy goodness is a feature we haven't heard about previously, "Gifting," which enables players to purchase and send in-game goodies to their friends. To encourage people to give it a look, Blizzard is giving out free a Hearthstone Classic card pack to everyone who logs into the new Gifts page prior to December 31.

To give a gift, pop over to the Battle.net shop, choose the item you want to send, and then instead of clicking "Buy Now," select "Gift." From there, you'll be prompted to select the recipient from your friends list and add a message, after which you'll check out as normal. If you're fortunate enough to have someone send you a gift, a notification will appear in the upper-right hand corner of the Battle.net client. Click it! Then click "Claim" in the pop-up window.

Speaking of free Hearthstone cards, don't forget that you can pick up a free Whispers of the Old Gods pack (and another one the following week, plus two Arena tickets) for logging into the Hallow's End event between October 24 and October 30, and a Golden Classic pack for subscribing to Twitch Prime between November and January.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.