Call for Submissions: All about WoW TCG
by Lisa Poisso 
Aug 20th 2010 at 5:00PM
WoW.com is accepting article submissions from experienced WoW TCG players. What does it take to get started? What's the gameplay like? How do the loot cards tie in, and what's been available so far? Is the game part of the tournament scene? Your article will give readers who've never played WoW TCG a peek into the game and the world of card games.
Submissions should run between 750 and 1,000 words. We will not accept articles submitted under player names or pen names; please use your full, real name and email. Please include your email address again at the bottom of your article in the body of your submission. Links should be included as full URLs in the body of the copy; no active links, please. Artwork is not mandatory, but any you choose to include must be work of your own or from Creative Commons.
Unfortunately, the Seed program currently only accommodates submissions from individuals living in the United States, and we are not accepting submissions outside of the Seed service. We hope to make international submissions available at some point in the future; check Seed.com for updates.
To submit an article, read up about our guest post program, then sign up for Seed. WoW.com articles are not listed among Seed's open category listings; click here to view the assignment and submit your article. (You won't be able to see it unless you have a Seed account.) We'll accept submissions for this assignment until 12:00 midnight EDT on Fri., Aug. 27. If you have further questions about this assignment, drop us a line at seed@wow.com. Good luck and good writing!
Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions for Breakfast Topics via Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours! Filed under: WoW Insider Business, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ken Aug 20th 2010 5:39PM
I don't think spin-off games do well. For a tabletop rpg, people play D&D, but not a great number do DDO. For a trading card game, they play Magic: The Gathering (until they get sick of their old cards not being legal) but they don't play Magic spin offs. I think the only reason the WoW TCG is even profitable is because people can get gear in the MMO itself.
katieb8704 Aug 20th 2010 10:06PM
I'm inclined to disagree - I've met plenty of WoW TCG players that have never played the MMO, and plenty that used to play the MMO that now only play the TCG.
The nice thing about WoW TCG, and its new owner Cryptozoic Entertainment, is that a lot of older cards are still core legal.
If you're interested in more information - check out http://www.cryptozoic.com/
Cyanea Aug 20th 2010 11:47PM
Not really. I started (along with several other people) playing the TCG something like two years before I even thought about playing the MMO. In fact, it was the TCG that got us into the game. We just wanted a new card game to play...Magic and Yugioh were both broken and hindered by their massive libraries.
Wonk Aug 20th 2010 5:45PM
Gimme dat loot card!
ladeezluvlarry71 Aug 20th 2010 5:57PM
The WoW TCG is really hard to get into because of the lack of organized play and prize support on a local level. I dropped a good ~$1000 on cards before realizing that I would never have an opportunity to play in real life without driving hours (and I live in a major city). The cards have no resell value, whereas you can always dump Magic cards on eBay. Card shops don't really want them either or will offer you $0.10-0.25 each. Epics are worth as much as unplayable rare-equivalents in other TCGs and buyers are almost nonexistent.
I want it to be great because it's a really fun, simple MTG ripoff with great art and some fun, original mechanics, but man, it just isn't played enough to be viable.
Hal Aug 20th 2010 10:53PM
Sadly, I have to agree with this, although I don't know how it's changed since the TCG changed hands.
UDE always had a system of licensing for official events; only certain stores in a given region were permitted to hold official events (and thus offer prize support). The result is, as said above, a necessity to drive long distances to play. I ran into this myself. I used to live in an area that had a very good regional interest in the game. Then I moved to Baltimore; the nearest location to me to offer official events is an hour away by car (and given traffic conditions in the DC area, an hour is never just an hour). Sure, there are other game stores in the area that sell the products, but there is almost no interest, and I would argue it's because those stores can't host official events.
So yeah, anything that would generate interest is a good thing in my book. I'll write up a bit for this and see if it goes anywhere.
Gnimsh Aug 20th 2010 6:04PM
Both upper posts are proof that this is a great idea. A lot of wow.com readers has NO idea about the card game and it's a great game. Sure it's similar to mtg as card games has some standards, but it has it's flavour and mechanics of it's own and is gradually fighting for it's way. Last change was a blast, when Cryptozoic took after UDE and you can now feel Blizzard's hand behind prizes and torunaments organized around the world.
Great Idea wow.com. I bet some well known players will love to write a weekly column on wow tcg.
And allow us Europeans to write for you as well.
Cheers.
Cogfizzle Aug 20th 2010 6:56PM
Can you explain why the Seed thing is required?
I think I wrote to you guys last year about wanting to option in as a writer for TCG issues. It's a great game, and one that I'm really passionate about highlighting to the rest of the WoW universe. We had a great response from getting WoW MMOers into the game recently and they've all been really impressed with how it feels like WoW.
I'm an experienced MMOer, have 15 years TCG experience, I'm currently a freelance writer for the WoW TCG, I'm passionate about this subject and have dozens of topics I could write about, and I want to write for you.
I don't really understand what the obstacle is?
Travieso Aug 20th 2010 7:19PM
SEED is a convenient way for the WoW.com staff to review submissions and pay the authors.
http://www.wow.com/contribute#appgw
Cogfizzle Aug 20th 2010 7:28PM
/cry
Thus triggering of the few occasions in my life where I wished I was an American. Most of the other reasons involve food.
Oni Stardust Aug 20th 2010 7:36PM
I'm very interested in seeing what kind of articles come from this call out. I've been assembling a small collection of wow cards here and there for awhile now and I'm interested in finding somewhere to play now.
I would be very interested in hearing more about the game from experienced players before I try to jump in.
A quick question for the experienced wow TCG players while we're on the subject: dose the game have any good, standout third party sites I can explore? Like what wow.com is for the MMO or like what Metagame.com used to be for Yu-Gi-Oh?
Cogfizzle Aug 20th 2010 9:29PM
http://forums.wowtcg.com/showthread.php?t=195
That should point you in a few of the right directions. But tbh a lot of the best players/writers go through the official forums and blog.
http://forums.wowtcg.com/forum.php
http://worlds2010.wowtcg.com/
Oni Stardust Aug 20th 2010 10:04PM
Thanks. I'll give those a look through.
Cogfizzle Aug 20th 2010 10:29PM
The basic rundown is that pretty much every class has at least one 'good' spec/deck for it, and usually there's a couple. The exceptions are Hunter and Death Knight, but those classes are getting the best of the new cards in an effort to help them out so it won't be long before they're competitive.
The current bogeyman is Mage. You know how in the MMO you get nailed by a rogue when you're not expecting it and he kills you before you really have a chance to fight back, so as you corpse run back all you can think of is how much you hate Rogues? Well right now that's how a lot of TCG players feel about Mage - it's right on the border between 'very good' and 'too good'. If every other class has 2 or 3 good specs, Mage has 5 or 6 (aggro frost, control frost, control arcane, control fire, aggro fire, control traitor...). Right behind Mage is Fury Warrior, then probably Enhancement Shaman (Feral Spirit FTW) or one of a few Warlock builds.
If you want to start playing tournaments there's a new distinction that was created this year - Classic and Core. 'Classic' is every set from the TCG, going back 4 years - there aren't that many of the older cards that are played, but there are enough to make a difference and you may find it hard to track them down. 'Core' is cards from the past 3 years of the game. Currently that's not too different to Classic, but when the Cataclysm expansion hits at the start of 2011 it will mean the Burning Crusade expansions drop out of Core, and that will be HUGE. It might be worth you targetting having a deck ready for that new Core format, because that will mean you don't have to chase down too many older cards.
Amaxe Aug 21st 2010 12:27AM
"Dropped Packet"
When played, the card your opponent just played is removed and whatever effects are also removed.
Text: I'm sure you just did an awesome move, but the game dropped a packet and is treating it as if it never happened. GG Bliz... /facepalm
Konifer Aug 21st 2010 10:58AM
The iMac that the human is using in the post picture isn't plugged into anything.