Past, present and future of Spellfire

THE PAST

The whole world of Spellfire would like to say thanks to all the Game developers of the Past. SPELLFIRE says huge THANK YOU to many honorable Citizens of the past during different ages of the moon:

Project Coordinators: Bruce Nesmith, Dori Hein, Dave Conant.

Game Designers: Bruce Nesmith, Tim Beach, Kevin Melka, Timothy Brown, Dave Cook, James M. Ward, Steve Winter, Jim Butler, Bill Olmesdahl.

Thanks to: Angelika Lokotz, Tom Baxa, Den Beauvais, Brom, Jeff Butler, Clyde Caldwell, Doug Chaffee, Ned Dameron, Diesel, Tony DiTerlizzi, Dave Dorman, Terry Dykstra, Jeff Easley, Stephen Fabian, Fred Fields, Ken Frank, Dan Frazier, Carol Heyer, Greg Hildebrandt, Tim Hildebrandt, Jim Holloway, Dave Hoppack, Daniel Home, Paul Jaquays, Dennis Kauth, Bob Klasnich, Charles Kohl, John Lakey, Laura Lakey, Roger Loveless, Erik Olson, Glen Orbik, Mark Painter, Keith Parkinson, Robin Raab, Robh Ruppel, Stephen F. Schwartz, Jeff Starlind, John Statema, David C. Sutherland III, Glen Tarnowski, Tim Truman, Valerie Valusek, Kevin Ward, Ken Widing, Robin Wood.

Special Thanks to: John Danovich, Mike Huebbe.

And thank you, thank you, thank you to all others who gave their hearts, time, and passion for the game. Thanks for TSR and Wizards of the Coast.

TSR was sold to "Wizards of the Coast," and Hasbro acquired "Wizards of the Coast." Developers were scattered. Some moved to work for other companies, and some might still be working at Wizards of the Coast. The official corporate death of the Old Spellfire might be the year 2000 when Wizards of the Coast turned over the game to the fans under the management of an appointed Council. At that time, the strict guide was created for the use of Intellectual property, legal distribution, and fearful violations.

The Spellfire community was active for several years: gamers created several fan-based sets, which became official in tournaments. However, it faded away without corporate support and some too strict rules created by the Wizards of the Coast. Some communities are still active in various countries, but most of them consist only of old players. It's too difficult to play the game for the new players because it's impossible to purchase the cards reasonably priced, and the game is not promoted anywhere.

Wizards of the Coast gave their permission for the community to make sticker cards only. They did not allow to reprint the old cards or publish and distribute the new ones.

But this is all the past.

THE PRESENT

The entire future of Spellfire will be in jeopardy if someone breaks Wizards of the Coast rules. There was no Future for the Spellfire in Wizards of the Coast eyes. They canceled the "SPELLFIRE" trademark registration:

Wizards of the Coast | SPELLFIRE | Application number 74560285 | 2006-06-10 | Cancelled sec. 8 (10-yr)/expired section 9

The game has never had a decent webpage with a proper domain name. Spellfire.com domain was for sale for 20 years. Spellfire.net domain with a crappy and outdated design was entitled as the official page for the CCG.

Major problems for Spellfire were identified as:

1. ARTWORK. Much of the artwork for the lands and characters of Spellfire was taken from existing TSR properties, including the popular brands it had built up as settings for campaigns and fantasy novels, like Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and Forgotten Realms. Other corners of the D&D universe were used in succeeding editions. Low-quality photos used for the cards were the last nail into its coffin.

2. TOO UNIQUE RULES. Many players were playing Magic: the Gathering, the direct competitor for the Spellfire CCG. At that time, that was treated as a weakness. Many players thought that it was a game balance problem, some players seemed way stronger than the others, some cards seemed too powerful, for some of them, rules were too complicated.

3. ERRORS IN GAME DESIGN. Some cards did not have any powers, and some had negative powers. Most of the bad decisions and errors were fixed in the later editions, but the new owner decided to maintain their main game and get rid of the biggest competitor they bought.

So, after more than 25 years since the birth of Spellfire, some guys who still love it decided to make a difference!

1. They bought back the primary domain for the game: Spellfire.com;

2. They re-registered the Spellfire trademark for the USA and European Union;

3. They created a company to make Spellfire great again!;

4. They knew that not only the trademark was required for the game, so they decided not to reprint any old cards, not to use any old characters, places, artworks, and anything that Wizards of the Coast still copyright;

5. They created new, utterly independent fantasy World of Spellfire, with their own stories, myths, places, heroes, creatures, items, and magic;

6. They drew their own beautiful artworks to show various locations and citizens of the Spellfire world;

7. They created the App for iOS and Android and started to digitize the game;

8. They knew that the game mechanics could not be patented. They knew that the patent for "Magic: the Gathering" has expired. However, they still decided to change some rules of the game, add new mechanics, rebalance the powers and rarities of the cards;

9. They merged classic collectible card game with modern technologies, blockchain, crypto, nft added augmented reality and interactive features to the game;

10. And they are giving back everything to the Spellfire Community again. 

This time, they aim to recreate the game, the rules, the fun, and the assets without any fear from the company that decided to ditch the game years ago.

THE FUTURE

The future of the game lies entirely in its Community's hands. If you love Spellfire and would like to resurrect it, you can apply for citizenship in Spellfire world and help to recreate the game you will be proud of. If any past developers, game designers, and editors would like to join a board again, Spellfire World and its Citizens will be more than happy to see them in their family.

There are many things new citizens of Spellfire can do:

1. They can play-test new cards, balance them out, share their ideas, fix the bugs and imbalance before the grand launch;

2. They can create new cards, new mechanics, new worlds embedding them with their mysterious stories, superpowers, and unique abilities;

3. They can draw new maps, new locations, new castles and dungeons, new champions, artifacts, and their allies;

4. They can test new interactive mechanics, create new spells and powers, create animations for them;

5. They can organize their own tournaments with global prizes and participate in tournaments in other cities and countries worldwide;

6. They can promote the game, get incentives, and teach kids, teens, and friends to ditch computer games to Spellfire CCG.

7. They can create local communities, local events, local promotions and invite other communities to fight for the strongest community prize. They can organize the championships between the teams;

8. They can translate all-new cards, App and website to their local language for better exposure and more immersive gameplay;

9. They can try to find sponsorships, fund this huge idea themselves, get shares of the company, manage it, help to launch the IDO and print many cards, promote the game and earn money from it;

10. They can make Dark Wizard feel sorry for his bad decisions in the past and start the new chapter in Spellfire history.

If you feel that this might interest you, go and apply for citizenship, contact the current fans, share your ideas, and join our small revolution! The magical journey is waiting for you, the dearest stranger.