This year I had the pleasure of attending the Indianapolis Gen Con 2006. The main purpose of going was to see the new World of Warcraft Trading Card game made by Upper Deck, which was being demonstrated for the first time there.

Upper Deck picked only 200 people before hand from email submissions, thankfully I was one of them so with my email in hand I made my way to the their booth to register for my demonstration. At the booth I met Ben from Upper Deck who registered me for the 2:00 demonstration. So I had a few hours to look around Gen Con and also try out the Burning Crusade expansion.

(This is the ticket I received when registering with Upper Deck for the demonstration)

Blizzard didn't have a booth of their own this year, but they did share one with Upper Deck. So after I registered I went to check out who was there from Blizzard. I met five Blizzard reps who were on hand to answer questions and to talk with the players. They were really great people and very attentive to players who had questions or just wanted to talk about World of Warcraft. At the time I was there, Kacy did say that that the raid cap was dropped to 25 for the Burning Crusade expansion, many were wondering how that was going over on the official forums. Where is a computer when you need it!

From left to right: Kacy (PA Assistant), Nathan ("Tseric"), Jack (QA), ED (IT), Paul (QA)

I then got in line with everyone else to try out the Burning Crusade. After about a 30 minute wait, it was my turn. I was extremely excited. The first character I tried out was a Blood Elf Warlock which started out on Sunstrider Isle. Her bags were very intriguing, she had a Neatherweave bag (16 slot) and a Primal Mooncloth bag (20 slot). I then proceeded to head out and see what kind of monsters are in Sunstrider Isle, I found a mana wyrm, which was fairly easy to kill and also part of a quest. Oh and when you kill them, they turn into little blue balls. Then switching to a Draenei, who was in Hellfire Peninsula (and also had the same bags as the Blood Elf) I headed out to take a look at what monsters are on this Peninsula. I found a Mutated Root Lasher which also was fairly easy to kill. Of course I tried out dancing on both new races and the dances definitely live up to Blizzard's dances, the Blood Elf dance is pretty hilarious to watch.

I then switched to a level 62 Undead Priest. This priest had the new skill of Jewel Crafting on him. In order to use the skill you need to have a Jeweler's kit. Trying out the craft, I made a Sparkling Azue Moonstone, which required 1 Azue Moonstone and a Simple Grinder. After making this there was a cool down of one hour.

Running around with those characters in these news lands was a blast. I can't wait to explore it all. I couldn't stay on it to long because there was a line, but from what I saw it will be a exciting addition to World of Warcraft.

Now onto the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game!

I was able to snag some pictures of the box covers which were on display behind a glass casing. So I apologize if the flash shows up on a few of them.

Now I'm not a card player at all. I have never played a customizable card game. So this was all new to me. I sat down with Ben (not the same one I registered with) from Upper Deck to have my demonstration.

Just looking at the cards for the first time I was very impressed with the art work. The detail that went into these cards was simply amazing.

As Ben went over the rules of the game it was a little confusing at first, but as I started playing it I easily picked up the basics of the game. Upper Deck has made this card game so similar to World of Warcraft you can easily visualize yourself performing the card game actions in the online game.

We started out with two demo decks. I played Ta'zo a Troll Mage. This character had Enchanting and Tailoring. Ben played Warrax an Dwarf Warrior who had Blacksmithing and Mining. On each card it showed which weapon you could have, the mage having a staff and the warrior having a sword. Now just like WoW you have allies and each allies are different whether you are Horde or Alliance. Each character also has hit points and of course the mage has less then the warrior. After playing and learning some strategies, what each card does, how to protect your mage, using your resources and how to block attack, the depth of the many strategies that can be employed in a game became apparent .There were also quests that you could complete by exhausting the required amount of resources. I learned a lot and it opened my eyes to a new kind of World of Warcraft gaming. As my hour ended I was given four collectable Azeroth Oversized cards. The front of them have Gen Con 2006 stamped on the top left hand side in gold. On the back it gives the card details and the number it is in the set. So there will be a total of 16 in this oversized set. I'm sure these will be collectibles.

All in all I was grateful that I could try out this new trading card game. It is definitely something I will be purchasing when it comes out in October 2006. I give Upper Deck's WoW Trading Card Game FIVE Orc heads out of FIVE!

Don't forget to check out all of our pictures from Gen Con 2006!