Is there some sort of industry event on at the moment? Upper Deck have announced the in-game rewards for their WoW trading card game. Rewards come in two flavours: Rare cards with a direct reward, or a loyalty points system for buying heaps of stuff. One of the rare, actually “legendary” card rewards is a pet (pictured right), so there goes my paycheck. And a couple of the points-based rewards are trinkets (one fires fireworks, one makes you look like an orge), so I’m screwed there too. Basically, it is as Penny Arcade predicted; the most evil product ever. I’ll be trading in all my other trading card game stuff for this. Seriously. It’s already in a pile, ready to go.

Without claiming much ownership for the word “nostradaming”, this one made me chuckle and shiver at the same time. As early as August 2005, Penny Arcade accurately predicted Satan’s involvement in Blizzard’s next endeavor:

Fast forward to May 2006: Blizzard announces its cooperation with Upper Deck Entertainment to puplish the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. The features, as described in this month’s WoW Insider mail:

Heroes will be made. Legends will be written. Heed the Call!

Amazing original art from today’s top creators gives you a fresh look at the World of Warcraft universe

Uniquely coded rare Loot™ Cards feature cosmetic upgrades for your World of Warcraft online character

Play as your favorite class and race and experience all the depth of World of Warcraft in the TCG

Compete in a robust World of Warcraft TCG Organized Play program and win amazing prizes

And, not surprisingly, but as always a bit on the “strong reaction” side, the community is upset. No link, unfortunately, since Blizzard’s GMs deleted the first two threads about this topic in WoW General.