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Perfect Ten: Online collectible card games that will tap your heart
While it might be a stretch to put collectible (or trading) card games in the same family as MMORPGs, it's hard to deny that their audiences are pretty similar and quite open to a little crossover between genres. Massively has made mention of TCGs as their numbers and popularity seems to be on the rise online. That led up to the day that my editor came into my office, smacked an Elmer Fudd Pez dispenser out of my hand, and told me that I better do a top 10 list on card games "or else." "Or else what?" I chirped before thinking. "Or else you'll be our full-time Darkfall columnist," my editor said. So hey! We're talking about card games today! How about, I don't know, 10 of them?
A lively evening of Hearthstone
The first thing that hit me when I logged into Hearthstone after begging a beta invite off a friend was an overwhelming tsunami of nostalgia for World of Warcraft. It wasn't surprising, of course; this is the card battling spin-off of WoW by the folks who make WoW. But for a player who hasn't set foot in Azeroth for some time now, the audio and visual cues were like the hit of a powerful drug that opened the pathways to all sorts of memories. The chunky, goofy exterior that Blizzard slathers across the Warcraft franchise often belays a serious depth that number-crunchers and elite strategists attempt to plumb. Both are perfectly at home in Hearthstone, which is affable on the surface but, like many CCGs, has no end to the possibilities in builds and play sessions. So what's it like to sit down to an evening with Hearthstone? I'm glad you asked.
Electronic Arts enters the card-based MMO arena with BattleForge
With games like Magic Online and Freaky Creatures in the gaming consciousness, this variant on the concept of microtransactions is on the rise. Electronic Arts must think so too, because they've just announced their card-based MMO offering, called BattleForge.BattleForge will be an entirely Web-based card-game, where you'll build your fantasy army by the purchase of online decks, or trading them with other players, or even winning them in tournaments. Gameplay itself will feature the use of four elements and a mystical forge to do battle. Being developed by EA Phenomic, Germany-based creators of the SpellForce series, this upcoming MMO is expected to launch in the Fall of this year. [Source]
