Upper Deck announces WoW minis game
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 7th 2008 at 12:30PM
Upper Deck has dropped an announcement about the final conquest of the Warcraft universe over the complete whole of nerd-dom: they're going to make a WoW minis game (yes, there's already an RPG system, so until someone puts together an official LARPing league, I think we're done here). The miniatures will come out in Fall of this year, and the game will feature standalone raid and dungeon scenarios, which means you can play against your friends or play by yourself against "automated dungeons." Upper Deck also says that there will be an Organized Play structure for the game, including Local and World Championships.There's nothing yet about any "loot minis"-- Blizzard is apparently working closely with Upper Deck to put this together, so you'd think they might try to replicate the loot cards of the TCG, but I'm sure that if they do come up with something like that, we'll hear about it. There's also no word on actual gameplay yet, but Upper Deck says that they'll update the site with a downloadable gameplay demo, so we can see exactly how it will work.
Excited about this? Halo has been to the mini universe already, as has Marvel and DC. Will Warcraft have success in this, the last of the realms of nerd-dom?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, WoW TCG
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Drink Feb 7th 2008 1:02PM
I hope they're compatible with heroclix. I'd like to see Mal'Ganis take on Wolverine.
Matthew Rossi Feb 7th 2008 1:09PM
Probably won't be, sadly. Different companies and all.
Heartless_ Feb 7th 2008 1:22PM
Well cool, sort of. Not sure I like the idea of "loot minis" and not sure I like pre-painted miniatures games. Outside of D&D Minis, not a single pre-painted mini game has been successful. All of them have been too expensive to play and that hurts the game in total.
I would much have preferred a unique mini game, something where we could make copies of our own characters to play with. For example, a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) system. That way I could buy the "trolls" pack and "shamans" pack and combine them to create a Troll Shaman.
IMHO this will be another poor game developed by UDE. The card game is successful, but if you ask me, it would never have made it without the Warcraft tie in. Crappy mechanics, loopy rules, and loot cards make it worthless as a true competitive card game in my book.
Mike Schramm Feb 7th 2008 2:14PM
Heroclix are relatively successful, if the kids who came into the Gamestop I worked at a long time ago to spend all their allowance money on the figures are any indication. I think anytime you make such a niche product like this, the idea of "successful" is pretty relative, not to mention that the markups on these things make numbers mean almost nothing-- charging 12 bucks for a few cents worth of figurines means you can sell a fraction of what you make and have them be "successful."
But in terms of competition, you might be right. I like the loopy rules in the TCG, because they're fun while playing with friends, but in a tournament setting, that's a major weakness.
Sean Berstein Feb 7th 2008 3:04PM
No offense to your comments, but the wow trading card game is one of the top games I've ever played, and I've played over 50.
Heartless_ Feb 7th 2008 3:36PM
Sean I understand a lot of TCG players enjoy the game, but if you've played over 50 then you should have no problem admitting that the WoW TCG was just poorly designed.
Newer TCGs should not suffer from the age old rule problems that Magic the Gathering dealt with ten years ago. For example look at a game like The Spoils TCG that fits its entire RULEBOOK on a single piece of paper, and has very little errata and nearly no need for an online compendium of official rulings like the WoW TCG. That is how newer games should be designed, not this mess of a rule set that the WoW TCG has.
I actually enjoyed the WoW TCG for a while, but then the horrible rules and loot cards destroyed my interest. Not to mention the fact that the WoW TCG is a one-format game. Draft and sealed, of all varieties, fail miserably with the WoW TCG and that is a staple in my book of a good, competitive TCG. It underlines fundamentally flawed design decisions.
The raid decks are cool and I give them credit for that, but that is the only redeeming aspect of the game.
To qualify my stance a bit, I played with the top WoW TCG judge for my entire stay with the game. I spent more time helping figure out rulings than I ever did playing the game. I was originally recruited to assist with an official strategy for the TCG, before the deal fell through. You will not find someone that was more excited about the WoW TCG launch and you will not find someone more disappointed in the game than myself.
seankreynolds Feb 7th 2008 7:04PM
{Outside of D&D Minis, not a single pre-painted mini game has been successful.}
Heartless, meet Mage Knight. Mage Knight, meet Heartless.
The game lasted 4 years ... far longer than most TCGs.
jephit Feb 7th 2008 2:20PM
I find this especially frightening because it was WOW that finally freed me from the tyranny of miniature games. If these two addictions are to be merged the siren song of unholiness may very well overwhelm me again. Like an addiction to comic books and music didn't suck up enough of my disposable income. Best not let my wife see this information or I may never be allowed near a hobby shop again.
Darkhov Feb 7th 2008 3:12PM
...crap.
mirilene Feb 7th 2008 5:43PM
I love the SW Minis. This has a lot of potential. Table top recreations of WCIII Missions. Go go!
Fel Feb 7th 2008 7:39PM
The success will definitely depend on how many people actually go out and start playing it. Not many people picked up D&D minis when that came out, but WoW does have 10 million subscribers at this point, and the nostalgia factor has got to be higher than D&D minis, which is basically... the same thing as regular D&D. o_o
Rambull Feb 7th 2008 8:12PM
Well, Warcraft has finally come full circle. Tabletop fantasy games inspired the original RTS. So its only fair that the MMO inspire a tabletop minis game. My collection of Warcraft Minis will be the same size as my collection of Warhammer minis. Zero.