Harry Potter Trading Cards Replace Pokemon     9/26/2001

Harry Potter Trading Cards Replace Pokemon
By Martha Kleder

Move over Pokemon, the boy wizard is here! Wizards of the Coast, a small game producer that is now a division of Hasbro, has hit the market with the Harry Potter Trading Card Game (TCG).

In the game, players cast spells and make potions in an effort to “do damage” to their opponent and the “magical creatures” under his command.

Wizards of the Coast specializes in trading card and fantasy role-playing games, most notably Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, and Dungeons and Dragons (D&D).

“The Harry Potter Trading Card Game is a step beyond Pokemon, because it has children actively embrace occult images and pretend they are performing occult rituals,” occult expert Marcia Montenegro, founder of Christian Answers for the New Age (CANA), told C&F Report. “But it also moves children closer to playing the darker role-playing fantasy games like D&D and Magic: The Gathering.”

Children accessing the Harry Potter home page, run by Warner Bros., are linked directly to the Web site for Wizards of the Coast, which provides pages of strategy and online ordering information. Wizards also actively markets Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: the Gathering to Potter fans.

The Harry Potter TCG draws heavily from Magic: The Gathering, replacing its characters with those found in the popular J.K. Rowling book series.

“Magic: The Gathering takes place in the mystical multiverse of Dominia where players become mighty wizards and, armed with beautifully illustrated cards of various creatures, artifacts and lands, cast spells and enchantment aimed at killing off the opponent,” said The Milwaukee Journal.

Pastor David L. Brown, Th.M., president of Logos Communication Consortium, said Magic: The Gathering is dangerous because “it conditions the minds of the players to be receptive to the occult and violence and those who really get into it become addicted. It becomes the focus of their lives.”

While not a role-playing game directly, the Harry Potter TCG does have players choose to be a character from the book series. Each choice grants exclusive benefits to the player. As cards are played, spells are cast and damage is done to the opponents’ “magical creatures,” eventually removing them from the game. Players race to accumulate lessons, each increasing their “power.” The game ends when a player runs out of cards, i.e., power and creatures.

Booster packs to the Harry Potter TCG allow players to accumulate special “house” decks identifying with a particular group from Hogwarts School of Wizardry, such as Slytherin or Gryffindor. This feature allows game enthusiasts to identify even more closely with particular characters.

Authority to create a full-blown Harry Potter role-playing game has also been licensed to Hasbro by Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products. That could hit the market anytime before the Christmas holidays, or next summer — coinciding with the release of the second Harry Potter movie.

The Harry Potter TCG is being sold by toy stores and game stores nationwide.

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