As with the release of anything related to World of Warcraft, viewers flocked to Asmongold’s stream for the reveal of Warcraft Arclight Rumble. Blizzard announced the new mobile game yesterday, an action strategy offering inspired by tower defense games and set in the Warcraft universe.
Asmongold was more positive on the game as a whole than several Warcraft fans, although he noted that he never played mobile games and that the presence of “random items” that can be purchased suggested loot boxes and their predatory nature, specifically for a mobile game with a cartoonish animation style. There was one idea that struck him as brilliant for the game, however.
Inspired by the reveal trailer’s portrayal of Arclight Rumble as something akin to an arcade game that pops up in taverns across Azeroth, one commenter suggested that the game be playable in WoW as a mini-game. Players could discover new Arclight Rumble machines in different taverns and each new machine would correspond to a specific map.
“That would be great, if we could play this inside of World of Warcraft,” Asmongold said. “Different inn, different map. If they did this, I would actually play the game unironically… Why would I not play it? It would be great, man, and not as bad as pay-to-enter.”
The “game within the game” concept has proven successful for several other series. The most obvious example here is Gwent, which was such a popular mini-game in The Witcher 3 that CD Projekt fleshed out the mode to make it into a standalone title. If Arclight Rumble were to come to WoW as a discoverable mini-game, it would incentivize players to explore and find inns with new maps, as well as serve as some marketing for the mobile version of the game among WoW players skeptical of a pivot to mobile for the Warcraft brand.
It seems unlikely Asmongold will give Arclight Rumble a chance on mobile, given his stance on mobile games and their monetization strategies. But if Blizzard actually did add the game to WoW as a playable mini-game in inns around Azeroth, who knows? More and more players might just give it a shot.
Published: May 4, 2022 02:00 pm