Gamertell

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that it will be release an online trading card game bases on the EverQuest franchise. The game will be titled Legends of Norrath and will be playable within MMORPGs EverQuest and EverQuest II. Yep, it is a game within a game. Not o much a minigame as a full card game inside a must larger game. The announcement was made today (August 8, 2007) by SOE president, John Smedley during his Fan Faire Community Address.

EverQuest I & II subscribers will receive free 55-card starter decks on August 28, 2007, and be allowed to play prior to the game’s official launch on September 4, 2007. Starter decks, which will follow the game’s first chapter titled “Oathbound,” will be available for $9.99 plus tax and booster packs will sell for $2.99.

The game will be launchable using an in-game menu or use a free SOE Station ID. Sony plans to offer “high-level tournaments” in addition to allowing casual matches between gamers or even single-player matches against the computer, er, server. The first storyline-based cards will be titled “Oathbound” and include more than 375 digital cards. Cards will be available in 55-card starter decks and digital booster packs. Players can accumulate loot including more than 30 items such as mounts, potions, clothes and spells.

It seems you’ll also be able to acquire cards my looting mobs and trade them with other gamers, thoguh you won;t be able to play them unless to pay to play the game. The value of getting cards is that you can redeem the loot on the card at any time and still play the card.

Although I dig the idea of a virtual trading card game within an MMORPG, I’m not certain Sony should be using real-world pricing. After all, part of the value of card games is the collectibility of the cards (thus the name). Better to use a more virtual world friendly pricing scheme. The best thing about a virtual card game within a game, though, is that it won’t kill any trees.

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