“You all have phones, right?”

In it’s last few public earnings calls, Activision-Blizzard has been very upfront with the idea of bringing their most iconic IPs to mobile devices in one way or another; they’re coming whether gamers want them to or not. As someone who enjoys mobile gaming quite a bit as a way to break up the day and pass some time here and there, I’m nervously excited about the prospect of a mobile game or two using the Warcraft IP. While I’m confident a mobile WoW-style MMO would do well on mobile, I personally would love to see the team branch out and deliver something a bit different on the platform; a new way to experience the IP per se.

Over a year ago I was doing some brainstorming of ways that current IPs could be used in other settings; one initial thought that came to mind for the Blizzard IPs was a “Heroes of the Storm”-esque auto-brawler when auto-chess was just starting to take off. This to me would have been a unique way to hop on to the hype train of a newly emerging genre, while pulling in fans of already popular IPs. While I still think this would be a cool idea, there is a second idea that I could see performing even better. Have you ever played Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes (SW:GoH) or Marvel Strike Force or Age of Magic? All of these games are rich with content from collecting iconic characters to leveling and gearing them up to competing in PVP arenas to fighting powerful raid bosses and beyond. Imagine a game like these built using the Warcraft IP as a base…endless characters to collect (with various synergies to tag), tons of areas to use as map concepts, fantastic stories to retell alongside new additions, and so much more. The IP is beyond bountiful and it would suit a mobile game of this style so extremely well.

Now, of the three examples I used above, I personally think Galaxy of Heroes stands firmly above the rest with its more player, time, and guild-friendly modes and innovative styles of play; it would be my concept of choice to base a new Warcraft mobile game on. Raids in particular feel much more rewarding and guild-friendly in SW:GoH and the Warcraft IP would lend plenty of possibilities for cinematic and immersive raids in-game for sure. Let’s break it down a bit further. In SW:GoH, there are a number of different factions and resulting synergies with the baseline, all-encompassing factions being “Light Side” and “Dark Side”; for WoW I think “Horde” and “Alliance” would be the perfect start. From there, the developers could easily break characters down even further with race and class-based synergies as well. Galaxy of Heroes has Ewoks; WoW has Pandarens; Night Sisters to Night Elves and so on, so forth. With the Warcraft IP already having so much fleshed out in their MMO, creating these synergies is nearly an after thought.

With a basic idea of synergies outlined, the next task would be to decide which characters will be farmable upfront and which characters will be locked behind a deeper grind that would require specific geared up characters to progress through their story for an eventual unlock of said “special character”. This is where things get more difficult for me as WoW is packed full of iconic characters, with each carrying a significant part of the IP’s lore. From Sylvanas Windrunner to Jaina Proudmore to Garrosh Hellscream to Anduin Wrynn and onwards, there are a number of characters who could fit the bill as special unlocks. As far as in-game raids go, WoW is already pretty set on that front as well. They could easily pull a raid from each of their expansions, cut it down into phases with each phase including one of the raid bosses, and tie it all together in a simplified mobile version for guilds to take on. Now I know playing through these legendary raids on mobile will be very different than grinding them out in WoW, but I for one would not turn down a chance to play through Wrath of the Lich King‘s iconic Icecrown Citadel in a new format just to experience a taste of it once again. You could even tie in character shards (collected to unlock and upgrade characters) of a Lich King version of Arthas as a reward for completing the raid as well. Seriously, endless possibilities.

I could go on and on about the different ideas I have for this game concept and how legendary moments from the original Warcraft games to the beloved World of Warcraft MMO could be translated over to this mobile game concept, but this simple blog post would easily become a blog novel and my editor wouldn’t be very happy. In the end, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend looking into Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes to get more information on what the game is about, the different modes it offers, and how it is in an essence a love letter to fans of the Star Wars franchise. Once you get an idea of how the game works, I have a feeling that you as well will easily see how the Warcraft IP could be translated over to a similar format.

For now, we’ll have to sit back and wait to see what Blizzard has in store for us.

If you’re interested in joining conversations on topics like this or gaming in general, be sure to checkout out our Discord server at discord.me/OTN. Last, but not least, if you decide to download Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes to give it a try, come check our recently created guild on there, Capital City Squadron; new players welcome!

Image taken from denofgeek.com