The WoW Minis Game has a bit to go before it sees release in Fall 2008, but wowminifan.com has some news fresh from the New York Toy Fair to whet your appetite, including a few pictures. The miniatures themselves especially look pretty awesome, and I can see a lot of non-players buying sets just for display purposes, especially if they haven't managed to get their hands on a Figureprint.
Here's some fun news for our TCG players. Upper Deck reveals a new March of the Legion Tour coming to various North American hobby stores this month. WoW TCG team members will be coming to the stores and playing against all comers at sealed deck tournaments at each stop. Anyone who beats one of these "Legionnaires" will win a Varimathras extended art card and a Leeroy Jenkins T-shirt. Everyone who stops by will get Weeble extended art card (I approve of cute Gnome Warrior chicks, but how is she a protector if she's dual wielding? Learn to use a shield, newb).
It sounds like the events should be fun. I'm actually liking the Varimathras card, if only because he's one of my favorite shady characters in WoW lore thus far, and I cannot wait for the day that he assassinates the Dark Lady and uses his loyal pawns, the Deathstalkers and Defilers, to take over the Undercity and rule with an iron fist as the new supreme ruler of Lordaeron. But I digress. Anyway, it look like it should be a good time for all you TCG fans.
He's a man of myth, legend, and internet memes -- a Paladin crusader for Truthiness, justice, and the Alliance way. His name is Stefen Colbear, and he's putting the Horde on notice. That's how it would have been anyway, but sadly, this hero never came to be. Upper Deck hired artist Todd Lockwood to produce the above image for a special WoW TCG card inspired by The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert -- a known video-gaming and role-playing enthusiast. Lockwood's finished product depicts a microphone-sword wielding Human Paladin named Stefen Colbear, who exudes the very essence of Truthiness.
Unfortunately, Colbert's agent nipped the idea in the bud. According to Lockwood, he didn't even show the artwork to his client. Blizzard and Upper Deck presumably had hoped Colbert would feature the card on his show, giving them mega-publicity. An unknown individual leaked the image onto the net a few weeks ago, and WoW and Colbert fans excitedly spread it around in both card and wallpaper forms.
Even though Colbear never saw the light of day, his legend nevertheless strikes fear in the hearts of those who would threaten the Colbear Nation. So watch out Kael'Thas, watch out Archimonde! But most of all: watch out, bears.
The first Darkmoon Faire event of the year is set to kick off this weekend (and indeed, has probably already started) in Orlando, Florida. If you're around down there and have any interest in the TCG at all, it's a lot of fun -- they're going to have lots of beginner and advanced tournaments, of course, and an ingame leveling contest on an event server, as well as tips on how to build the best deck and do some card crafting. I went to the Chicago event a little while ago, and I can confirm it's a fun way to spend a weekend afternoon. As always, if you go, take pictures and drop us a note when you get back.
In other TCG news, reader Dave (thanks!) sent us a note about what looks to be a brand new booster set, called The Hunt for Illidan. The set was announced quite a while ago, but with a release date of July 2008, retailers are just now ordering the cards. And there will be new loot cards in the new set, so we'll keep an eye out to see what else Blizzard has up their sleeve for new TCG rewards.
Glenn Rane is the other artist sitting next to Samwise (who you may also recognize as the frontman for L70ETC), and also in attendance were Tom Bava, Randy Gallegos, Terese Nielsen and Justin Sweet, along with Ben Thompson, who we're told was a big part of putting the book together. I suppose it's too much to ask for Blizzard to leave sunny Southern California sometime to do these signings and meet some of us who aren't lucky enough to live there? It is? Oh well -- at least it keeps them close to their real work.
Tomorrow's the big day for the Spectral Safari tournament that Upper Deck is organizing. At various locations all around the country, TCG players will be competing for prizes of all kinds, including the coveted Spectral Tiger mount. The good folks at Upper Deck have also posted a guide for would-be tiger winners -- they've broken down a few classes in the TCG game, so even if you haven't been practicing maniacally for the last few months, you can still read up and and have a chance at winning the tournament.
And don't forget that even if you're not playing, Upper Deck wants you to go anyway; send them pictures or reports of the event, and you might get chosen to win even more prizes. And if you do go, drop us a note here on WoW Insider about what it was like -- obviously, UD is hoping for this to be a big event tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to see who shows up at the various locations. If you are going to compete, good luck! Win yourself a tiger mount!
Yup, be a reporter for Upper Deck's TCG site, and you could win a Spectral Tiger card of your own. All they're asking is that you go to one of their events next week, bring a camera and a notepad, and the best stories from the event will win prizes, either a Spectral Tiger card or a box of March of the Legion.
Pretty cheap way to get someone writing for you, but then again our overlords here at WoW Insider pay us in Savory Deviate Delight and Conjured Glacier Water. So count your blessings, I guess.
WoW Insider has obtained a copy of the "sell sheet" sent to distributors about the upcoming WoW minis game, and it contains information about pricing, pack size, and even some hints at a release date.
Basically, the minis will become available in three different ways: there will be the core booster sets, which will contain three minis of the same Horde or Alliance faction, plus three character cards and six ability cards, and will have a suggested retail price (SRP) of $14.99 per booster. Additionally, each booster will have a chance to include an ingame Loot Card, supposedly from the Trading Card Game (there is no word if there will be loot cards specifically for the minis game), and a 1/8 chance to have an "epic" character.
More info on the starter sets, including the full text of the "sell sheet," after the break.
Are you looking around your WoWspace and thinking, "gee, I could really use more World of Warcraft action figures" then you may just be in luck. As we announced recently, coming this fall, from Upper Deck Entertainment, is the World of Warcraft Miniatures Game.
You will be able to acquire miniatures that will serve as both game pieces and collectibles, as each one "will be mounted on a uniquely engineered removable base". Each miniature will reportedly be a highly detailed 3-D rendering of characters in the game, including not only each race and class, but bigwigs like Thrall and, evidently, Leeroy Jenkins, who has already appeared in the Trading Card Game.
Your minis will face their opponents in head-on battles as well as raid and dungeon scenarios, which can include player co-operation, much like in-game.
These little guys and gals even have their own site, over at WoWMinis.com. Let's take a sneak peak, shall we?
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?
Two big pieces of news today from Upper Deck about the WoW TCG-- first of all, they've announced details about their latest booster set, called Servants of the Betrayer, and available this coming April. The set will have new sub-factions, new ally types, and heretofore unreleased abilities for your deck. Additionally, the booster packs will continue the trend set in the last expansion, and contain 19 cards per pack, with those extra loot consumable cards showing up more often.
Second, Upper Deck has also revealed details of the Spectral Safari, a series of events at local card stores at which players will be able to win the Spectral Tiger Mount card. The contests will take place on March 1st at selected retail locations, and the winner of each contest will take home a Spectral Tiger Mount, while a Robotic Homing Chicken will be given away as a door prize, and Upper Deck will give out other prizes to winners as well.
So mark your calendars for March 1st if you plan to attend one of the tournaments, and look out for Servants of the Betrayer in stores in April (that's the booster set, not actual servants of Illidan).
Upper Deck continues their series on the art of the game by talking to two artists who've done some terrific work for the TCG, Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai. The two partners talk about how they make some of the art of the card game (with a Wacom Cintiq-- drool), and specifically how they made a couple of multi-card pieces. For the most recent raid deck, they had to make a mural of Magtheridon and his channelers that went across five cards, and that the challenge wasn't just creating an interesting piece of art overall, but also making each card interesting enough to stand on its own.
Very cool interview, and definitely neat to see what these two guys are like, working on the forefront of digital painting.
Interesting. So it seems that the ESL might be stepping up to fill in the space that the WSVG abandoned when they fell apart. In our interview with then-WSVG president Matt Ringel, he also mentioned that they were getting support from Blizzard in the form of special realms and UI mods. So it looks like ESL is now benefiting from the work Blizzard did there.
Of course, the other question we have about these types of updates is when, if ever, they'll be placed in player hands as well. Players have wanted an observation system for PvP, especially in the Arenas, for a long time, and it's not a stretch to think that if Blizzard is developing tools for professional tournaments, they might also have a plan to get those tools into player hands in some form. But even if we don't see them in the game for a long time, it's good to know that tournament development on Blizzard's end didn't die off completely with the WSVG.
WoW Radio (home of our illustrious podcast) has announced the finalists in their WoW Idol contest, and you can listen to and vote on them right now over on their web site. There are a ton of interesting choices, too, from Sevhnn's dance-hop flavored "MS Warrior Tribute," to Selserene and Rob Munsch's delicate classical turns on Azerothian themes.
I have to say that I especially like Jeff Wichtowski's "Keep the Tank from Dying," just because it sounds so perfectly like one of those songs. But these are all good-- "Strength and Honor" from Liquidator and Threat sounds good (is that a Fort Minor sample at the end?), and "I Smile When I Gank" (by Daryl Brewer, who apparently won the last WoW Idol) is hilarious (love the backing vocals), and the Hyskelettes' "Heal!" is a great Beatles cover/parody.
But only one can be the WoW Idol popular choice, and win some great prizes (WoW Radio has also added some new ones in-- I believe the winners are also going to get some Winter's Veil boxes from Upper Deck). So definitely run over there and get your vote in ASAP.
Upper Deck has announced the loot cards that will be appearing in their new Servants of the Betrayer expansion pack for the TCG. As seen on their website, the new loot cards are:
A "Personalized Weather-making Machine," that will create a random weather effect over a person's head. The options we've heard so far include, sun, blue skies, thunder, rain, and snow.
And an X-51 Nether Rocket, which is an epic flying mount. Yes, finally, you can ride around the skies of Outland Slim Pickens-style, on the top of a rocket. Unfortunately, the mount doesn't go rocket speed, it just goes regular speed-- it's available in regular or epic flavors, just like the other loot card mounts.
Pretty cool, I guess. The rocket will probably end up being the fan favorite. Although considering that the Pet Biscuit is supposed to be pretty common (it is a consumable, after all), that's probably the one we'll see the most of.
In fact, the most interesting thing about the expansion isn't even these loot cards-- it's the fact that these boosters will also have a new hero type in them: "Traitor heroes." For the first time, TCG players will be able to play non-Alliance or Horde NPCs. Interesting. The booster set releases in March of 2008.
Here's some fun news for our TCG players. Upper Deck reveals a new March of the Legion Tour coming to various North American hobby stores this month. WoW TCG team members will be coming to the stores and playing against all comers at sealed deck tournaments at each stop. Anyone who beats one of these "Legionnaires" will win a Varimathras extended art card and a Leeroy Jenkins T-shirt. Everyone who stops by will get Weeble extended art card (I approve of cute Gnome Warrior chicks, but how is she a protector if she's dual wielding? Learn to use a shield, newb). 
WoW Insider has obtained a copy of the "sell sheet" sent to distributors about the upcoming WoW minis game, and it contains information about pricing, pack size, and even some hints at a release date.
Are you looking around your WoWspace and thinking, "gee, I could really use more World of Warcraft action figures" then you may just be in luck. As we announced recently, coming this fall, from Upper Deck Entertainment, is the World of Warcraft Miniatures Game. 
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.
WoW Radio (home of our illustrious podcast) has announced the finalists in their WoW Idol contest, and you can listen to and vote on them right now over on their web site. There are a ton of interesting choices, too, from Sevhnn's dance-hop flavored "MS Warrior Tribute," to Selserene and Rob Munsch's delicate classical turns on Azerothian themes.
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