Bejeweled Comes To World Of Warcraft

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Bejeweled Comes To World Of Warcraft


Good news for those who like to sprinkle crystal meth on their crack cocaine: World of Warcraft [http://www.popcap.com/].

The idea originally took form as an unofficial version of the game called Besharded, created by Michael Fromwiller as a way to kill time during farming and long raiding sessions. The Bejeweled clone eventually drew the attention of PopCap, which responded in a very cool fashion by not only embracing the idea, but by hiring Fromwiller to create a more polished, official version of the game.

The Bejeweled add-on for World of Warcraft will offer classic, timed and "flight" game modes, according to Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20348], as well as a customizable interface, a persistent high score table and a "Bejeweling tradeskill" ranking for player achievements. The new mini-game will be available beginning September 25, and best of all, it will be absolutely free.

And that, kids, is how you do it. Bejeweled is an old game and the effort required to buff it up for World of Warcraft was probably minimal, but by doing the exact opposite of what the industry normally does in these cases, which is to say cease-and-desist letters backed by the threat of heavy-handed legal action, PopCap has managed to turn a forgettable little side-story into a potentially huge public relations coup and mountains of gamer good will. Is it any wonder they're at the top of the heap? Casual they may be, but a lot of mainstream videogame publishers would do well to take note.


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HobbesMkii

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza
Jun 7, 2008
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Someone might tell Hasbro about this, but then again, they're probably busy cutting out Scrabulous' heart and devouring it raw.
 

man-man

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Jan 21, 2008
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Good on them. Sooner or later the rest of the industry will realise that acting like a bunch of assholes just means we stop feeling bad about pirating their games. Forget DRM (it doesn't work) the most effective way to sell games is to have the goodwill of your customers.
 

Darkong

New member
Nov 6, 2007
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That is such a good idea, and good on Popcap for not just threatening the legal stick but for making something of it, its a shame the industry doesn't see more things like this happening.
 

Calabi

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Dec 4, 2007
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Two really addictive games in one, are they trying to kill their players for real.
 

Locobato

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Sep 18, 2008
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LOL @ Kukul, yeah some of those flight paths can take anywhere from 5 mins to 20 mins. Playing some bejeweled while I wait would be cool.
 

Arbre

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Jan 13, 2007
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Next step, Uno, Poker, Halo and Spore in WoW.
Wow will become that humongous grey city you don't lave, except for your holidays.
 

bittman

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Sep 11, 2008
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It's the in-flight movie we've been waiting for! Not that anyone ever sits around watching their flight every time right?....right?

Free Bejewelled hey? I'll wait for the catch, or less sceptically I'll applaud the clever market strategy behind it.
 

Samah

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Jul 7, 2008
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...the effort required to buff it up for World of Warcraft was probably minimal...
Hardly. This would have been written from the ground up. WoW addons are written in Lua with an XML document for the window toolkit, not C++/Java/whatever the original Bejewelled was written in. Basically the only thing that could have been kept would be the gem images.
 

poleboy

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May 19, 2008
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Doesn't this sort of suggest that WoW is boring and has a lot of down-time? That doesn't seem like such a great way to advertise your game.
 

Locobato

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Sep 18, 2008
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I understand the whole casual gaming thing vs. hard core gaming, but honestly sometimes I just need that mental distraction that a simple casual game like bejeweled provides. As far as wow is concerned, well I admit it does feel like a job you pay for when your grinding rep or mats. I had quit for several months until recently. Quit right at 68, two levels to go. Now I'm back and the game is fun again, so many friends that I haven't talked to because I haven't been playing.