Shut up and take my money

 Hex the MMO.

Artifact Card from Hex

There are a lot of games on Kickstarter that look awesome and as such the people behind them are trying ever harder to catch the attention of us gamers so we pick just their project to invest in.

And I wont deny that I have gotten a lot more cynical since the huge influx of Kickstarter project post started flooding my Facebook wall a year or so ago, but I will still claim that when you have a game that is awesome. You do not need stupid sales acrobatics to get the funding needed.

Hex is currently on Kickstarter and with 20 days to go it has already doubled the pledge it put up and I am really happy about that, but I hate, hate, hate the sales pitch video they have created. For me it takes away from the real purpose of telling us about the game and just goes into cringeworthy clown and circus territory. I was sold at TCG + MMO, I don't need to see Cory Jones having a fake kidney removal. I get that you are trying to show your passion for the game, but it just takes away the focus from what I am really interested in, namely the gameplay. (I must admit though that handing out the phone number at the end of the video was cool. Cool and possibly very stupid, but still cool). But really, will you just shut up and take my money?

Anyways, enough whining, lets have a look at why Hex: Shards of Fate has me excited enough to create a long rant post about their marketing video.
According to Cryptozoic Entertainment (who btw is behind the WoW trading card game), this is going to be a whole new genre. A cross between traditional TCGs and MMOs where you battle your opponents with decks build from cards you either buy in booster packs or more interestingly find when exploring dungeons with your avatar.

And cards are not the only treasures you will find during the PVE aspect of the game. No, there will also be items that you can equip your cards with and gems, that can be used to complete change how the cards work.

Excited yet? Great, but there is more. Cryptozoic Entertainment promises that there will be features like Guilds, Auction House and of course PVP battles.

Imagine doing TCG style raids with your guild to get a chance of a really rare card or piece of equipment.

How about doing an early solo dungeon run and getting a best in slot item, which you can then turn around to sell, enabling you to buy the one card you are missing for the perfect deck. Sounds pretty awesome to me.

Oh and then of course there is the whole part about tournaments where you can compete with other players.

The actual TCG gameplay looks fun and easy to learn (yet hard to master) so hopefully both veteran card players and newcomers will find it enjoyable.  Here is a gameplay video of a Hex battle.


You can read more about card types here.

Hex is a super smart concept. If it becomes succesful Cryptozoic Entertainment has a true cash cow on their hands as they can keep developing cards that can then be sold onto poor addicted collectors like yours truly. At 2$ per booster pack they are looking at a real nice income if the concept of Hex takes off. And I hope it will. I like the idea and as people who have played and enjoyed Puzzle Quest will agree to mixing genres often makes for really enjoyable gameplay and allows for a bigger marked than staying tied to the traditional game genres.

If you think Hex sounds interesting then it might be worth throwing some money after it at Kickstarter. Many of the packages they offer gives you extra value for the money you put in and all of the packages will give you beta access.

If you are on the fence you can wait for the game to be released in September 2013 and you can check back here once in a while as I will certainly add updates when I have had a go at the game. Also make sure that you check out the official Hex Site for more information.