A City of Heroes CCG is coming, apparently.

Alderac Entertainment Group Acquires the City of Heroes CCG License

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ontario, CA (March 14, 2005) – Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc. announced today their license of the City of Heroes® collectible card game from Cryptic Studios™. Award-winning game designer, David Williams (Legend of the Five Rings, Doomtown, Warlord, Initial D, Spycraft, Football Champions) takes the lead role to develop a game that brings together hobby and computer gamers for new gaming experience. Top Cow Productions (Witchblade, Tomb Raider, Hunter-Killer), who are also producing the City of Heroes comic book, will illustrate the artwork for this new game.

With an audience of well over 100,000 subscribers, City of Heroes has received mass market and critical acclaim in the gaming industry since its launch in April of 2004. The game was awarded PC or Console Game of the Year and Multiplayer Game of the Year by Billboard Magazine. It also received MMORPG of the year honors from Spike TV and Computer Gaming World.

The new game will release its first set, City of Heroes CCG: Arena, this November. “With such a popular license, I see this as an exciting opportunity to bridge the gap between card gamers, computer gamers, and comic book fans,” says City of Heroes CCG Brand Manager, Raymond Lau. “There’s no doubt that the joint efforts of high caliber companies like Cryptic Studios, Top Cow Productions, and Alderac Entertainment Group will result in a world class product.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Alderac Entertainment Group. In fact, I’ve loved their Legend of the Five Rings game since it was released,” says City of Heroes Lead Designer Jack Emmert. “Alderac has a long history of producing quality products and providing the kind of complete support that we feel is core to the City of Heroes property.”

About Alderac Entertainment Group
Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc., is based in Ontario, California. Formed in 1993, Alderac’s first product was the hobby gaming magazine, Shadis. It jumped into the collectible card game business in August 1995 with the release of Legend of the Five Rings which remains one of the most popular CCG’s to date. Alderac continued on to produce other collectible card and role-playing games such as Warlord CCG, Spycraft, Doomtown, and 7th Sea, and now has become an industry leader in hobby gaming.

About Cryptic Studios
Cryptic Studios, Inc., located in Los Gatos, California, was established in July of 2000 and is an independent developer of massively multiplayer online games for the PC and next generation consoles. Its first game, City of Heroes, launched in April 2004. The game takes place in a virtual world where thousands of people play simultaneously, take on the role of super-powered heroes, fight villains and help create a dynamic story in a visually-stunning, 3-D graphical world.

About Top Cow
Top Cow was founded in December of 1992 and currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and 2 licensed) in the industry's Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades. Its flagship franchise Witchblade was TNT's #1 original film of 2000. Virtually all of Top Cow's other properties are in development as feature films, live action television, animation or video games. Top Cow has also successfully licensed and merchandised its franchises into toys, statues, clothing, lithographs, puppets, posters, magnets, shot glasses, lighters, lunch pails, wall scrolls, mouse pads, die cast cars, calendars, Christmas ornaments, Halloween masks, trading cards, standees, video games and role playing games.

First the tabletop, and now this! Heck yeah! Move over, Yu Gi Oh!

My question here is this: Why would anyone play this CCG over playing the Versus System CCG that Upper Deck Entertainment produces? They get to do Marvel and DC characters and you get money for winning their regional type tournaments on up.

I mean, I'm all for AEG and Cryptic. Hell, I run www.thelionclan.com, a website about one of the clans in AEG's flagship CCG, Legend of the Five Rings. I just don't understand what CoH is going to bring to the table that I can't get out of Versus and I don't want to see either company waste money in a property that won't do well.

--Jed

Think about Coh .... k, got it?
now think about the L5R system ok?

heheh
I'll bow Dr Vahz and all this minions to drain all your end. muh hahaha

Just wait until you find out that it'll cost $20 apiece to get yer ultra-rare Fulcrum Shift (or Eagle's Claw or Phantasm or . . )power . Don't forget - you'll need 4 in a deck to maximize your chances of winning. If not 4, then 3. . . or 5. . . or some other marketing based strategy of $$$ = winning to convince people that they need to buy boosters by the caseload. . .

Don't mind me. . . I've just burned out on the pay-to-win market a long time ago.

At least it's AEG. When they put their mind to it, they can put out a good game and with their loss of the Stargage license, they'll be hungry for a big hit.

Let's hope they just don't end up recycling their Warlord engine.

[ QUOTE ]
Just wait until you find out that it'll cost $20 apiece to get yer ultra-rare Fulcrum Shift (or Eagle's Claw or Phantasm or . . )power . Don't forget - you'll need 4 in a deck to maximize your chances of winning. If not 4, then 3. . . or 5. . . or some other marketing based strategy of $$$ = winning to convince people that they need to buy boosters by the caseload. . .

Don't mind me. . . I've just burned out on the pay-to-win market a long time ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen. I detest the "collectable" aspect of these games. It takes what could be a fun game and turns it into card grab with the only winners being the ones with too much spare cash and the ones who charge $15 for a $5 pack of cards.

[ QUOTE ]
My question here is this: Why would anyone play this CCG over playing the Versus System CCG that Upper Deck Entertainment produces? They get to do Marvel and DC characters and you get money for winning their regional type tournaments on up.


[/ QUOTE ]

It's entirely possible that AEG just offered far better terms to CoH for their license and heck, if you've ever been in the vicinity of a John Zinser sales pitch - you'll know that the boy . is . GOOD.


-----------------

Without knowing the terms of the deal, and Just on a gut feeling - I think Jack Emmert made the right call. Upper Deck probably and WotC certainly would not have been able to treat the license with the attention that it's due. AEG has a proven track record in Doomtown handling someone else's setting, converting it to viable CCG mechanics, and treating that license with respect and enthusiasm.

While I won't make any secret about my current (coughrabidcough) dislike for CCGs in general, I just gotta respect AEG's ability to deliver in a business capacity.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Just wait until you find out that it'll cost $20 apiece to get yer ultra-rare Fulcrum Shift (or Eagle's Claw or Phantasm or . . )power . Don't forget - you'll need 4 in a deck to maximize your chances of winning. If not 4, then 3. . . or 5. . . or some other marketing based strategy of $$$ = winning to convince people that they need to buy boosters by the caseload. . .

Don't mind me. . . I've just burned out on the pay-to-win market a long time ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen. I detest the "collectable" aspect of these games. It takes what could be a fun game and turns it into card grab with the only winners being the ones with too much spare cash and the ones who charge $15 for a $5 pack of cards.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not neccesarily.
I have quite often put together tournament-viable decks that had nothing but common cards in them, and made a lot of the 'high price players' eat their carboard.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Just wait until you find out that it'll cost $20 apiece to get yer ultra-rare Fulcrum Shift (or Eagle's Claw or Phantasm or . . )power . Don't forget - you'll need 4 in a deck to maximize your chances of winning. If not 4, then 3. . . or 5. . . or some other marketing based strategy of $$$ = winning to convince people that they need to buy boosters by the caseload. . .

Don't mind me. . . I've just burned out on the pay-to-win market a long time ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen. I detest the "collectable" aspect of these games. It takes what could be a fun game and turns it into card grab with the only winners being the ones with too much spare cash and the ones who charge $15 for a $5 pack of cards.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not neccesarily.
I have quite often put together tournament-viable decks that had nothing but common cards in them, and made a lot of the 'high price players' eat their carboard.

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps you have. My experience(limited as it is, thank God) has been entirely different. From what I've seen, the focus of the game is not on the game but on who has what and how much are they willing to sell it for.

"What's that?", "You want to PLAY the game?" "Bwahahahaha! What a loser."

Sorry DK, making anything in a game collectable creates an unsavory environment that I'd rather do without. Let the "collectableness" generate itself over time instead of taking "x" card(s) and deliberately limiting the number of copies of it there are.

***stands up***

Hi, my name is Zagre

-HI Zagre

I was once horribly addicted to those [self censor] Pokmon craze cards.

I spent more money on that craze then anything else in my life, obsessed over it day and night. Alienated myself from some of my friends. I was diluted amounst other things and did I mention that I spent scads of money on it.

Needless to say as much as I really, really want to buy some, I know the consicuences(sp?) would be dire, and as such I am afraid I must retract myself from buying these cards...no matter how much I want them.

***looks over to see MrYukon holding up a shiney Fire imp summon card***

We wants it, yes, my precious...
AiEEE!!!
Must.... control.... self.


I'm not sure if I'm happy or upset about this.

I'll probably look at this in the morning and think to myself;What the hell was I thinking.

AEG also made the only CCG I ever really enjoyed: Doomtown. That game was a ton of fun. CoH should be in good hands with them.

Why would anyone want to play this over the Vs system?

1. Some people may not like the Vs system.
2. Some people may want to play a City of Heroes game jsut cuz they like CoK.
3. The mechanics of the game will most likely be quite different from Vs or other CCGs so it'll give variety.

Just because you like one thing doesn't mean people won't enjoy something new. I've played a number of CCGs over the years and enjoyed the variety. I've never been a "hardcore" CCGer so national tournament prize money is not why I play a game. (The only company sponsored tournaments I've played in were for Highlander, natch.) Wait and see what they game is like before you start blasting it.

[ QUOTE ]
“We are thrilled to be working with Alderac Entertainment Group. In fact, I’ve loved their Legend of the Five Rings game since it was released,” says City of Heroes Lead Designer Jack Emmert.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm... I wonder what clan he played...

I actually did some work last December in making a CoH version of MtG using a card editor I found, made cards for all the 'lands' (neighborhoods) but lost interest when I figured out how long it would take to get screenies of all the villians.

This'd be interesting to see, although I'd have no one to play with and little motivation to spend money on it.

Statesman played l5r huh... I just hope he didn't play Crane, and hope even more he played Shadowlands

Nah - he's old school L5R.

Probably played Naga-corn.

What's wrong with Crane?

I just hope he didn't play Ratling.



Doji Cryostat
Crane Clan Samurai

Oh man,
Naga-Corn and Crane aren't tainty enough.

You know he's gotta be Shadowlands with
all that "Soon." business.

Hmm... Good point. Didn't think about it that way.

Although, this could actually be an indicator that he played Ninja...

If he was actually a ninja would it be so obvious?

My vote still goes Shadowlands... perhaps Mantis

Man, I hope it's not Mantis...
They're so....

Dishonorable.

And stinky too.

Then it is settled, we need an official answer from the man himself, this is far more important than anything else...

Bwahahahaha!

I love the VS system. Heck, I play every Wednesday night. But we're not looking to duplicate their gameplay or overal system.

We chose AEG because of their dynamite record with card games. I love L5R - and Doomtown is one of the all time greats. I felt most comfortable with the direction that they're taking. Rest assured, we're involved in the process and aren't about to just throw this over the proverbial fence.

The RPG and the CCG are NOT about trying to make $. Instead, I pushed for both of these products because I knew they'd be cool. Strange, hunh? I'm not just the designer of CoH, but I'm also a fan. And as a fan, I want to see those things. So heck, we've been working on these things for quite a while.

So, if you aren't familiar with AEG yet - check 'em out!

See you in Wizard World LA!

I wonder if we might expect amusing cards such as "Foe Stuck in War Wall, Cannot Animate" (no cards may assist that character/minion card, and that card may not be used in any play, but it may be attacked by characters with sufficient high altitude travel or long range attack powers), and "Map Server Disconnection" (a player must remove all active cards in missions and place them as if ready, the missions are restored to beginning state, and then that player loses two turns while reconnecting).

Obviously harmful cards you don't want to recieve are

"Ruinous Team Mate" (a team mate decides it's really funny to see others accumulate debt): add this team mate's attack bonus to all attacking foes attack scores.

"Subtle Griefer": A character decides they want to spoil the mission without seeming obvious about it, and makes every possible effort to cause damage to the team. A single character card in the target player's hand must be chosen by the player who activates Subtle Griefer: until that character card is ejected from play by a different player, it cannot take any action to help any other character on its team, and will add its defensive bonus to any attack made on its team.

"Devolutive Nerfs": Nerfs draw the gameplay ease backwards: every card costs are doubled until a "Moment of Design Sanity" card is played.

"Zombie Bitten GM": Roll a six sided die. on a one, a map server disconnection is caused to all players who do not have "Temporary GM Favor" card in play. On a two, all players with "Temporary GM Favor" card in play have one character card raised to highest level (but can no longer evoke the Contented with Content unless this rule is contended in later rule content) On a three, the GM stumbles around its city, eating people with no effect to players who are safe inside their homes. On a four, the GM eats the brain of a designer during a convention: no noticable effect. On a five, the GM ramps up the Secret Normal Function Mode on the MMORPG and every player takes two turns in a row in place of one starting with the card player and ending before her next double turn would be. On a six, the GM infects a single player with zombism (the card player chooses which one), and the player is effected as per the l33t m0R3on'z card (the player's hand is played by each other player in turn. Once every player but they have had a chance to play their hand, they may again take a turn).

Hey, wait a sec, he replied, but didn't say anything about clan...

It's like saying "soon"