WoW Insider at the Comic-Con WoW panel
Blizzard, as well as reps from companies that make Blizzard products (TokyoPop, Upper Deck, Wildstorm) were on hand at Comic-Con in San Diego today to talk about their plans for the rest of the year. Comics, books, sculptures, miniatures, and the trading card game were all discussed and WoW Insider was there to bring you back this report.
Wildstorm Comics, makers of the WoW comics
Wildstorm kicked off the session by polling the audience on who would like to see a comic title that focus solely on Horde, then solely on Alliance and then pitting the two against each other. As you can imagine, the audience was very happy to hear this. No details were given, but clearly something along these lines is already in the works.
DC Unlimited, makers of WoW action figures and collectibles
DC Unlimited showed their new series of figurines they are debuting at ComicCon. Sketches of Succubus, Murlocs and other Azerothian creatures were shown. They are also showing many of the finished sculpts on the exhibit floor. Check the gallery at the end of this article.
Upper Deck, makers of the WoW TCG and the upcoming WoW Miniatures game
Upper Deck was next. The trading card game developers were excited to talk about the premiering location cards into the game. Many of these will be drawn by recognizable talent like Gabe from Penny Arcade and Jim Lee. These will be debuting in the Darkmoons Faire expansion, coming out in September 2008. This set will also introduce new loot cards such as the bear mount from Zul'aman. A Black Temple Raid pack will also come out in the same month.
The Drums of War expansion will arrive in October 2008 and come with two themes: PvP and Arena themes. This will have new starter deck for 2 players, everything you need to start. This is to get more players to try out he game.
Next they showed slides of the WoW Miniatures they are debuting later this year. They talked a lot about the level of quality they are striving for by executing a faithful translation of the NPCs. They also spoke of legendary sculpts, finely detailed sculptures of well-known names in the Warcraft universe, including Onyxia coming out next year. The Core Set will be out in November with booster packs including a random figure.
Q&A
A question and answer session followed. Most of the questions were fishing for information about the future of the game which, of course, the panel refused to answer. Here are the more useful (and amusing) exchanges all answered by the single Blizzard rep there:
Q: Is there an update for the WoW movie?
A: No, but it's going to be really cool. There is boldness inbound.
Q: Where are legendaries for classes that change roles often?
Q: I'm going to answer this clearly so there is no ambiguity....um. (laughter) I'm positive someone is working on it.
Q: Will Murlocs become a playable race?
A: The danger of that is blowing out the balance of the game. The power for the fin will decimate the game.
Q: Will engineers see love in the expansion?
A: We have items that will make engineers the coolest players in the game.
(The dev tried to give a clue, but was afraid he would get ganked in the office come Monday morning, but he did promise "big love" for the Engineering class soon.)
Q: Why did you change the mechanic of sacrificing a character to gain a Death Knight?
A: That would go over like a fart in church. (They compared it to extreme sports: sounds good on paper, but not a good idea when implemented.)
[EDIT: Noted that Blizzard presence was a rep and not a dev.]
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