Comments on: A Mini (Warcraft) Adventure

By: PoC

PoC — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 19:21:03 +0000

When I was a kid, I was very interested in the line of Mario Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, and the Sonic comics. In fact, I still sporadically read the Sonic Comics–the comic’s been going for fifteen years now, and the lead writer’s struck the balance between all-ages stories and compelling long-term character arcs. Long-term character arcs concerning cyborg monkeys, faster than the speed of sound hedgehogs, and mutant magic foxes. At any rate, I’d say the appeal of both sets of books was roughly the same–I got into them for the chance to expand the universe I was familiar with in games, and they stayed with me because they were also good in their own right.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:23:57 +0000

I absolutely love this stuff, I’m just looking for an excuse to buy ‘toys’. I even overcame my scepticism about the novels based on WoW and bought and read the lot, enjoying the majority of it and now I’ve started on the Warhammer ones.

There’s no doubt that this kind of stuff is squarely aimed at fans of the IP in its original medium (computer game, wargame etc.), but the fact that they keep producing it suggests there is profit in it. The last Halo novel got onto The NY Time bestseller list http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=50000 . Not sure how many they need to sell to get on it, mind.

By: Evan

Evan — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:28:16 +0000

I would use these minis for some PnP action.

By: heartless_

heartless_ — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:26:19 +0000

At my FLGS (friendly local game store), people play what is popular and currently that is Warcraft related games. It really annoys me, because the Warcraft games from UDE and the board game are fairly poor games IMHO. However, I don’t blame people, because no game is fun if there is no one around to play with.

By: Homunculus

Homunculus — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:36:37 +0000

This is substantially tempting.

By: Rockeye

Rockeye — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:12:34 +0000

I’ve never bought any of the spin-off merchandising, though I do remember having a brilliant Virtua Fighter poster on my wall when I was a teenager. I think it came with a magazine.

I did make myself a Sonic 2 t-shirt with fabric paints when I was 10 though.

By: James

James — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:37:54 +0000

Hrm. I pick up the odd bit and pieces of gaming knick-knacks, most of them coming out of collectors edition games (Which I compulsively feel the need to purchase over standard editions, does that count?). The two most prominent ones on my desk at the moment are the nice Big Daddy figurine from the Bioshock CE and a particularly lovely Altair figurine I found for sale in my local games store. I can’t say I’ve ever bought a tie-in novel before, though.

As to why I buy them, I’m not entirely sure. I’m a habitual collector and hoarder, and have the occasional amount of disposable income, so I suppose they are the two main reasons. I suppose it’s just that I enjoy scattering a handful of nice figurines around my desk to make it feel more like it’s mine.

By: Dorian Cornelius Jasper

Dorian Cornelius Jasper — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:33:08 +0000

Well, this is somewhat out of this blog’s typical readership idiom, but…

I’ve about a half dozen toys sitting on a shelf, some of which depict console game characters. Invariably, they’re all female, and all of Japanese make. Interpret that as you will.

Also, does Warhammer Historical count as anything spin-offish, or does it merely count as “painfully niche?”

By: drunkymonkey

drunkymonkey — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:07:36 +0000

I’ve bought a few Warcraft novels during my stint in Azeroth. I’ve only stomached two and a half, but they’re a mixed bunch. Lord of the Clans, which should, considering the story, have been brilliant beyond belief, was mind-numbingly simply-written, and had some truly dire dialogue. Po-faced all the way.

But then you have Cycle of Hatred, which at times reads like an absolute cracker. Funny, likeable characters, and a rewarding read – it was a refreshing relief to read that after my sights were set so low after LotC.

But why did I buy ‘em? Simple. I love the Warcraft world, and I also love reading. Mixing the two seems like a natural way of going about things, especially considering when I trawl through Borders and Waterstones the majority of fantasy I see (which, by the way, is my favourite genre out there) look to be taking themselves too seriously, with, you know, very little humour about them. As I like to make every literary purchase count (one of the reasons it’s taken me so long to buy anything more after I finished the Discworld series to the point at which it is now), I went with a universe I know I like.

And the miniatures? Maybe. I’ll see how I feel when they do come out. It’d be nice to have a one of Thrall (<3), but spending money on things I’ll only ever look at seems a bit banal.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:49:20 +0000

I got into gaming through sonic comics actually. I also discovered star wars at the age of 7 through little figures so i guess mechandise can pull you in. I’m not a serious gamer and haven’t bought a game since orange box so I don’t think I would buy anything connected with a game.

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:01:29 +0000

Devlin: The Emperor is Jesus and Elvis and every other divinity ever! Like, obv.

A Planescape Tattoo very much counts.

By: CitizenErazed

CitizenErazed — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:46:38 +0000

I own a quite ridiculous amount of Star Wars EU fiction (X-Wing, NJO, Legacy, Thrawn Trilogy, etc etc), so I’m definitely a target for this sort of thing, but I’ve never found myself pulled in by it. I own the Civilisation CCG, but that’s only because it came with Chronicles. Likewise I have the Big Daddy figurine, and a little plastic Master Chief, but that’s only because they came with something.

I personally find it interesting that it seems to work one way – games spun off from things, such as the X-Wing series of games or any one of the other million Star Wars games, not to mention Dawn of War for the WH40k universe, but not the other. I’ve read a couple of the fiction books and whilst they’re generally not bad, they don’t really add anything new to a universe. Mass Effect: Revelations, for example. It’s a good book, but given that the parts of it that you need to know about are explained at length in the game, it’s not really worth reading it if you’re reading it simply because you want to know ‘more’ about the universe it’s set in.