Many massively multiplayer online gamers are "
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_all_trades,_master_of_none"
target="_blank">players-of-all-trades", which
essentially means that they'll play any game - MMO or not - that
strikes their fancy. As one of those "player-of-all-trades" online
gamers, I'm constantly on the lookout for a fun, entertaining "game"
experience. I've tried the World of Warcraft TCG (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/12762" target="_blank">which
you can read about at Ten Ton Hammer). I've been a long time
player of
target="_blank">Dungeons and Dragons. You might
even catch me playing a little online Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune if
the timing is right. I have a constant yearning to go to McDonald's
when they are having their
href="http://monopoly.promotions.com/postmonopoly/front.do"
target="_blank">Monopoly prize promotion. If it
spins, moves, lights up, or generally has a chance to exclaim "You're a
winner!" I'll play it.
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Warstorm is
labeled as an CCG product with MMO elements.
Recenly, I was scouring the Internet for my next fateful gaming
encounter, when I stumbled upon a game called Warstorm, a CCG that
claimed to also have a MMOG elements. "Holy crap!" I exclaimed, "It's
like merging
target="_blank">beer and pizza into one
deliciously good, yet drunkenly awesome product!" With my curiosity
piqued, I got ahold of the development company's team lead, Matt
Deegler, and had a short chat with him about
href="http://www.warstorm.com/" target="_blank">Warstorm
and why MMO gamers might be interested in this pseudo MMOCCG. Like you
the reader, I was fairly stumped with the entire idea at first, so I
had Matt give me a brief explanation about the game and how it's like a
massively multiplayer online experience.
"Warstorm is our latest free-to-play, short form game," Matt explained.
"In Warstorm, players become Warlords who place armies into battle
versus NPC’s and other players. The combat is
turn-based and victory comes by defeating either the challenger
directly or by beating all armies controlled by that
challenger. Warstorm has strong trading card game roots as
the squads are comprised of cards that the Warlord owns.
Cards can be earned, bought, sold and traded through the game, and a
larger collection means more flexibility in creating squads."
"The MMO element of the game comes from Warstorm’s ability to
support tens of thousands of players simultaneously battling enemies,
Matt continued, "chatting with friends, and trading with
everyone. From our eight man tournaments up to our
game ladders where thousands of players compete against each other,
this game is focused on player vs. player strategy.
We have focused a lot of energy into making the game community-centric,
designing ways for players to communicate, learn, and bond with each
other."
Of course with any MMO or CCG, there is almost always a cost of some
sort. Continuing on my pizza and beer analogy, this sort of masterful
combination couldn't be strictly free... or could it? According to
Matt, good players can certainly do well with the free cards that
players can accumulate. Personally, I have my doubts that any "
href="http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11988_4544327,00.html"
target="_blank">world champions" would come out of
the "free card" ranks, but I might be wrong. However, the whole of the
game seems to be available to any player, even those that don't want to
pay with cold hard cash. Sounds like our
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/Top10F2P" target="_blank">typical
F2P games, doesn't it?
"Warstorm is designed so that no player needs to spend money to get
into the game," Matt said. "In Warstorm we give all new players a free
initial deck to be used to build their first squad. With this
squad a player can begin their journey, earning additional card packs
as awards for beating NPC’s in missions, reaching higher
levels and accomplishing battle achievements. Some rare cards
are unique awards for achievements that require effort, not
money. This means that a good deck can be built based on
free-to-play awards. "
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Ranking
ladders are a large part of the gameplay in Warstorm
Finally, Matt and I got down to the nitty-gritty and discussed the
actual gameplay we'll experience once we start up a session of
Warstorm. For the most part, Warstorm sounds very similar to a lot of
the lobby-based MMOGs that we've been covering recently. While hundreds
of players might be hanging out in the card game lobby, you'll only get
up close and personal with one opponent at a time. That said, Matt did
mention that sixteen person tournaments were being held and that there
is always a game to be played. Over the course of a gamer's experience
they'll continue to earn higher (or lower) ranking within the Warstorm
community.
"Ranking is based on a chess ranking system that is used in many
popular games, such as World of Warcraft, called the Elo ranking," Matt
said. "If you challenge a player who is far higher ranked than you and
win, then you receive more experience and rating points than you would
if you challenged someone below your rank and win. It means
that it is better for you to challenge stronger players because even if
you lose, you lose less points than if you lost to someone at your same
level, and you still gain experience points which will help you earn
Achievements."
"There are three ladders: advanced, intermediate and beginner," he
continued. "If you are successful in being at the top of your lower
ladder, then you will be automatically moved up to a higher
ladder. This helps keep you at the level of competition and
gives you the ability to improve and continue to move upwards."
While this sounds like pretty standard fare for the card gaming world,
what MMO elements have really been introduced into Warstorm to give us
that beautiful
target="_blank">hybrid mixture? As a
"player-of-all-trades", I came to
the game looking for both pizza and beer, and I certainly don't want
one without the other. Thankfully, Matt's next point discussed the
advancement system within Warstorm, which is very similar to what you
might find in today's MMORPGs and RPGs.
"Every Warlord will gain experience through battling opponents, and
experience points are required to level-up. Warlords at
higher levels are allowed to play more squads simultaneously, allowing
for huge battles," Matt said. "As to your card question: In a battle,
the quality of your army depends on what cards you have available to
play and what strategy you use to construct your deck.
Warstorm’s flexible battle system can allow high-skilled
low-level players to compete with higher-levelplayers who might not
have designed as-good a deck."
"Every card has a role in squad-based combat. A squad is a
7-card combination of a Hero plus six other cards. Selection
of a Hero is important because s/he is the leader of a squad, and the
units in the squad must be the same race as the Hero, currently Human,
Elf, Undead or Orc," he continued. "Combined with the hero there will
be a range of units. The typical offensive units are
Infantry, Beasts, Archers, Cavalry and Apparitions. There are
certain units that are more effective against each other. For
instance, Archers deal double-damage against Infantry, but they are
weak against Cavalry who can trample them. This balance of
power means that there can never be one perfect set. "
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Card
collectors can certainly appreciate the art on these cards.
But Warstorm isn't strictly focused on PvP content either. On the
contrary, gamers will find a mixture of PvP and PvE in the game,
including a number of single player PvE scenarios for players to
developer their Fatal1ty-esque PvP skills. "Although we focus on PvP as
our strength, we have PvE scenarios for those who prefer to develop
against NPC’s," Matt said. "These single player scenarios are
a great place for a player to gain experience and additional card packs
while testing out squad combinations. Over time we will
produce more PvE content and challenges through expansions such as our
faction campaigns. "
With all this talk of pizza, beer, card games, and MMO, I'm almost
ready to head out to my local gaming store to give the latest card game
a whirl, as well as going by the Warstorm website to give their product
a try. As we always try to do in our developers interviews, we gave
Matt the final word of the afternoon and asked him if there was
anything that he'd like to say to the Ten Ton Hammer readers and the
Warstorm fans. Of course, he gave a great farewell
"I’d like to first thank all of our current Warstorm fans.
You guys are great, and we could not have made this game without you
and all the fantastic feedback you give us," Matt finished. "For those
of you who have not checked us out yet, come on by! There is
no better game to be playing between Lich King raid bosses!"
We'd like to thank Matt again for his time, and we wish the best of
luck to the Warstorm team and their intriguing MMOCCG.
