Scrolls to Minecraft aka Apples to Oranges

After the tremendous success of Minecraft for years, Mojang decided to try another game. Was this game similar to Minecraft or possibly an improvement? Not even close! The new board/card game was set to be called simply Scrolls. Not surprisingly, Bethesda, maker of the Elder Scrolls franchise took offense to it  and brought a lawsuit as a result. In the end, the two companies reached a settlement where Scrolls could keep the name, but could not compete against Elder Scrolls or be trademarked. The only way Scrolls could really compete is to make a MMORPG with the units on the scrolls, but that won’t be happening now.

All that said, what about the actual game? Will Minecraft fans still like it? From what I have seen so far, there is not much carry over from Minecraft to Scrolls. The two games are very different with different fanbases. The biggest draw to Minecraft has been what you can create with your imagination. People are actually making money on Youtube showing off their elaborate creations. On the flip side, Scrolls is more about strategy and getting rare scrolls to compete against other players. Scrolls is considerably cheaper than Minecraft, but does not have the same number of players or even close. For example, I paid about $27 with a card to get Minecraft.  For Scrolls, I got it for $1 with other games because it was a part of a two week Humble Bundle. That deal is no longer available, but the game is still just $5. With or without the deal, you can see that Scrolls is not a big monster hit like Minecraft is. The server I play Scrolls on usually has a few hundred people on at a time and a few thousand all day long.

Scrolls is built well, but does take some time before you start to really enjoy it and get into the game. For me, it was when I came across Iron Ogres and then demolished most of my opposition in short order. You can start earning gold to buy scrolls and scroll packs in the tutorials and then the trials. This earning of gold right away helps to familiarize you with the store and the Black Market. The Black Market is where you can buy the best and most rare scrolls that are being sold buy players. In contrast, it is all chance when buying from the store. For example, some of the rare scrolls cost as much as 1500 gold while buying a whole deck of cards from the store only costs 1000. The Black Market allows you to beef up your decks after playing hard fought trials. There are even daily trials based on different difficulty settings.

All that said, I like Minecraft and I also like Scrolls. They are two of my favorite games right, but for completely different reasons. Scrolls allows me to strategize and build my own armies while Minecraft allows me freedom to create.