World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

With World of Warcraft choosing to sponsor TNT's NBA Playoffs, a lot of talk is being generated about the Massively Multiplayer Online Game's (MMOG) choice of sponsoring a sport like basketball. Some see it as a strange fit for advertisement, but the truth is that many gamers enjoy sports and not just Madden Football. The NBA Fanhouse's Tom Ziller recently spoke with Upper Deck's Patrick Sullivan about the choice of WoW to advertise with the NBA and his research and development work on the World of Warcraft Miniatures Game.

PS: I think that there are two things you can point to that they have in common compared to other games. The first is the visual element. WoW is very visually immersive, from the starting zones all the way through the end of the game. All the areas have their own distinct flavor, the races all have a unique look, basically every part of the game is visually engaging. Basketball is very similar. The court is small (relatively speaking), the ball is large and there are very few players on the court. That means, as a fan, you get to see everything as it's happening.

• You can read the full interview here.
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