2008 Woodie Awards
World of Warcraft board game makes multiplayer action more personal
Michael Kersulov
Issue date: 1/19/06 Section: Features
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During a new semester, it can be difficult to find outlets of entertainment.
Some students prefer to seek out private activities that hone their interests in solitude, perhaps having a fit of excitement in popular video games. But there is no need for all of one's free time to be spent alone in front of the television or computer screen trying to get to level 60 or finding the castle with the correct princess.
Recently, Fantasy Flight Games and Blizzard, the innovative gaming company that introduced video game series of epic proportions such as Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft, has developed a new way for their fans to enjoy previous triumphs in the form of a board game - World of Warcraft: The Board Game. So throw your Monopoly and Sorry to the side and break out your eight-sided die, because this game is not for the weak of heart.
Azeroth, the land of Warcraft, sets the battlefield with over 120 plastic characters, 450 cards, 21 colored dice and 16 heroes to play, bringing back childhood memories of Dungeons and Dragons' escapades but with a modern twist. The 10-pound game mimics the massive multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, in that each player can select their own race (human, orc, troll, etc.) and fighting class (warrior, mage, rogue, etc.). The battles in the game rage between players versus creatures. Yet players can also challenge each other, settling scores between the Alliance and the Horde.
But as players level up, gaining new powers, abilities and strengths, players can seek out the overloads to win the game, battling legendary entities of Azeroth, such as the mighty Kel'Thuzad and the great dragon, Nefarian.
The duration of the board game is typical to the video game in that it takes a bit of time to play, estimated to be around two to five hours of playing time for one game. This allows two to six players to enjoy a large amount of time completing quests and vanquishing evil or creating it. While this might seem to be too much time to dedicate to one board game at any one time, try to remember the olden days of D&D, which took so much time just to set up the board by placing pieces and reciting archaic scripts from Dungeon Mater's guides only to begin the game.
Some students prefer to seek out private activities that hone their interests in solitude, perhaps having a fit of excitement in popular video games. But there is no need for all of one's free time to be spent alone in front of the television or computer screen trying to get to level 60 or finding the castle with the correct princess.
Recently, Fantasy Flight Games and Blizzard, the innovative gaming company that introduced video game series of epic proportions such as Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft, has developed a new way for their fans to enjoy previous triumphs in the form of a board game - World of Warcraft: The Board Game. So throw your Monopoly and Sorry to the side and break out your eight-sided die, because this game is not for the weak of heart.
Azeroth, the land of Warcraft, sets the battlefield with over 120 plastic characters, 450 cards, 21 colored dice and 16 heroes to play, bringing back childhood memories of Dungeons and Dragons' escapades but with a modern twist. The 10-pound game mimics the massive multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, in that each player can select their own race (human, orc, troll, etc.) and fighting class (warrior, mage, rogue, etc.). The battles in the game rage between players versus creatures. Yet players can also challenge each other, settling scores between the Alliance and the Horde.
But as players level up, gaining new powers, abilities and strengths, players can seek out the overloads to win the game, battling legendary entities of Azeroth, such as the mighty Kel'Thuzad and the great dragon, Nefarian.
The duration of the board game is typical to the video game in that it takes a bit of time to play, estimated to be around two to five hours of playing time for one game. This allows two to six players to enjoy a large amount of time completing quests and vanquishing evil or creating it. While this might seem to be too much time to dedicate to one board game at any one time, try to remember the olden days of D&D, which took so much time just to set up the board by placing pieces and reciting archaic scripts from Dungeon Mater's guides only to begin the game.