RECENT
Batman the Detective
Marvel Civil War HeroClix
Awesome Clix: Silver Samurai
Batman v Superman (extended) review
Superior Foes of Spider-Man HeroClix Spoilers
2016 HeroClix Convention Figures!
Civil War Spoilers
Dawn of Justice: How It Should Have Ended

OTHER
Dawn of Justice 1% Give-away!
Review: Dawn of Justice
Uncanny X-Men HeroClix Spoilers
Deadpool Movie Review
HeroClix 2016 Changes
KC Revisited
Trailer Time
How It Works: ClixFX
Awesome Clix: Karate Kid
Clix Combos: Oberon & Mister Miracle
Worlds Finest HeroClix Spoilers
Monday Memes II
Review: Star Wars Force Awakens
Sininster Six Spoilers
Hiro Clix: Naruto
Clix Craves: Star Wars
Probability and Statistics
Pow! Deadshot
Quintessential Winter Soldier
Pow! Atomic Skull
Awesome Clix: Daredevil
Quintessential Ninjak
Awesome Clix: Iceman
Awesome Clix: Cosmo
Awesome Clix: FCBD Thor
Winter of HeroClix World
Awesome Clix: Rip Hunter
Hiro Clix: Soul Eater
Awesome Clix: Green Arrow
The Quintessential Alien
Quintessential Mad Pierrot
Awesome Clix: Roy Harper Jr
Awesome Clix: Mr. Fantastic
Quintessential Zombie Spider-Man
Captain America '44
Quintessential Zombie Wolverine
Awesome Clix: Dr Voodoo
The Quintessential Leeroy Jenkins
Worst Clix Ever: Thor's Mighty Chariot
Pow! H.E.N.R.Y.
The Quintessential Joker
Awesome Clix: Max Fury
Clix Beat: Cobra
Pow! Rag Doll
Pow! Turbo
Quintessential Iron Patriot
Carded At The Door: Hank Pym
How It Works: ID Cards
Quintessential Flash
2015 HeroClix Set Rotation
Pow! Avalanche
Hiro Clix: Golgo 13
Quintessential Taskmaster
Pow! Ghost Rider
Worst Clix Ever - Avengers Taskmaster
Pow! Felix Faust
Pow! Spider-Ham
The Quintessential Kung Fury
Pow! Superman (MOS 001)
TMNT HeroClix Spoilers
Pow! Wonder Woman (DC10 002)
Pow! Batman (AO 001)
HeroClix Dice Trays!
Awesome Clix: Scarlet Witch
Avengers 2 Movie Review
Whose Clix Is It Anyway?
Hiro Clix: Fifth Kazekage
Monday Memes!
Clix Craves: Teen Titans Go!
The Quintessential Silver Surfer
Fantastic Four Trailer
Dawn of Justice Looks Awful
Avengers Assemble Spoilers
The Quintessential Deadpool
Worst Clix Ever - World's Finest
Honest Trailers: Daredevil
Quintessential Daredevil
Hypersonic Reviews: Age of Ultron Movie Starter
TMNT HeroClix Spoilers
The Quintessential Jimmy Olsen
Hiro Clix: Sokka
Age of Ultron Movie HeroClix
Quintessential Arrow
X-Men Mutant Revolution
Avengers Acedemy HeroClix
Superman / Wonder Woman HeroClix
Hypersonic Reviews: The Irish
Awesome Clix: Tigra
Best of Teen Titans Go!
Awesome Clix: Bug
The Quintessential Superior Iron Man
Spock: Live Long and Prosper
Quintessential Batman Beyond
Quintessential Invisible Woman
Invisible Jet HeroClix
HC MAPS
Convention Exclusives 2015
Awesome Clix: TK Masters
Nick Fury / SHIELD HeroClix Spoilers
Honest Trailers: Man of Steel
The Quintessential Punisher
Critical Miss: Sponsored Teams
Awesome Clix: Green Arrow
Man of Steel: How It Should Have Ended
Hiro Clix: Sailor Scouts
Awesome Clix: Taskmaster
The Quintessential V for Vendetta
Awesome Clix: Thor
ClixCraves: Buffy TVS
15 HeroClix Sets We Want
Marvel vs DC
Quintessential Sunfire
Slade Files: The Flash
Worst Clix Ever - Abomination
Future Batmen
Age of Ultron HeroClix
Spider-Man Symbiotes OP Spoilers
Quintessential Superior Spider-Man MK2
8-Bit Avengers
Hiro Clix: Attack on Titan
Quintessential Deathstroke
Worst Clix Ever - Iron Man Mk 15
Worst Clix Ever - Element Lad
Quintessential Ash Williams
HeroClix World Update!
Quintessential Freddy Krueger
The Flash Unboxing!
Quintessential Jason (Double Feature!)
Identify the Clix!
Monster Month!
Hiro Clix: Goku
GOTG HeroClix Giveaway #2
Quintessential Juggernaut
Guardians of the Galaxy HeroClix GIVE-AWAY
Clix In A Jar!
Worst Clix Ever - Wrecker
HeroClix Pirates - Arrrrrr!
Quintessential Spider-Man
Bystander Party! (Sin Eater)
Quintessential Judge Dredd
Worst Clix Ever - Hound
WK/Alliance Retailer Presentation 2014
Hiro Clix: OROCHIMARU
JL Trinity War HeroClix Spoilers
Top 12 Joker HeroClix
Quintessential Doomsday
Worst Clix Ever - Parasite
Bystander Party! (Colleen Wing)
Quintessential Dr. Doom
Worst Clix Ever - Hawkeye
ClixCraves: D&D
Bystander Party! (Val Cooper)
Quintessential Spawn
Clix Beat: Thanos (IC)
ClixCraves: TMNT
Quintessential Aquaman
Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Review
Hypersonic Reviews: GOTG Movie Starter
Quintessential Hulk
Top 5 DOFP HeroClix
Quintessential Batman
ClixCraves: G.I. Joe
Top 12 Spider-Man HeroClix
ClixCraves: Superman
ClixCraves: Captain America
Guardians of the Galaxy Starter Spoilers
Hypersonic Reviews: Deadpool
ClixCraves: Marvel Team-Up
Clix Addict #2
Batman vs The Terminator
Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Hulk, Oh My!
2014 Set Rotation
Review: X-Men DOFP
Whiners can be Losers
Godzilla Review
ClixCraves: Godzilla
Top 10 Wildcards
Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Flash HeroClix Spoilers
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Convention Exclusives 2014
FCBD 2014
NECA / Hastings Merger
Clix Beat: Flash (HT)
Justice League Strategy
15 Things You Don't Know About HeroClix
Black Manta Origin
Legion of Doom
Yancy HeroClix
Clix Beat: Green Arrow
War of Light HeroClix Spoilers
Guardians of the Galaxy HeroClix Spoilers
12 Days of Clixmas (2013)
Super Cafe
Learn to Sculpt like a Master
Thor: The Dark World (Movie Review)
3D Battle Board!
Mandarin Rings HeroClix
Ex-Men
HeroClix Watchlist
Deadpool HeroClix
Superman / LOSH
Captain America Winter Soldier HeroClix
X-Men Days of Future Past
Batman Arkham Origins
5 Fixes for Spiral
We Need To Talk About Spiral
Superformula Against Cancer
Marvel Dice Masters: AvX
Avengers vs X-Men HeroClix
Terrain Maps!
Top 5 Reasons Ben Affleck Will Suck as Batman
Top 5 X-Men
Zombie T-Shirt Give-Away!
Clix Bits!
Superman Quick-Start
The Wolverine Review
Top 10 Worst Mutant Names
Excalibur (X-Men)
Invincible Iron Man HeroClix
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends
X-Men: The New Mutants
X-Men: Gold Strike Force
Man of Steel Review
Batman Classic HeroClix
X-Men: Blue Strike Force
Blind Bag Review
Mighty Maps Returns!
I Run For Life
Top 5 Modern Age Supermans
Top 10 Iron Man Covers
HeroClix World Evolution
Iron Man 3 Review
FCBD Iron Man (2013)
Fellowship of the Rings HeroClix
HeroTrays!
2013 PAC changes
Justice Leage Team Base (Teen Titans)
Convention Exclusives 2013
Beast Boy (Teen Titans)
Top 5 Modern Age Hulks
Fear Itself (GAMA)
Star Trek: Attack Wing
Gen13 (Teen Titans)
Yu-Gi-Oh! HeroClix
Slade Files: Moon Knight
Clix Beat: Zuvembie
Trigon Dial (Teen Titans)
Slade Files: Dracula
Villains For Hire (Teen Titans)
Slade Files: Spider-Man
Mage Knight HeroClix
Nightmare Before Christmas HeroClix
Pacific Rim HeroClix
Lone Ranger HeroClix
Hello Kitty HeroClix Spoilers
Kick Ass 2 HeroClix
DOTA HeroClix
Man of Steel HeroClix
Slade Files: John Constantine
Bioshock Infinite HeroClix Spoilers
Top 10 Amazing Spider-Man Covers
Top 10 Aquarium HeroClix
Wizkids' 12 Days of Clixmas (2012)
Star Trek HeroClix Tactics II Starter Set
Batman Streets of Gotham Team Packs
Batman OP Kit Spoilers
Batman HeroClix GF Spoilers
Marvel Fear Itself HeroClix
Batman Gotham City Spoilers
Wolverine and the X-Men HeroClix
Shattered Star (Pathfinder)
Amazing Spider-Man HeroClix
Iron Man 3 HeroClix Spoilers
Seasonal Figures Spoilers
Teen Titans HeroClix Spoilers
Star Trek HeroClix Tactics II
10 Best Movie Hero Costumes
Talk Like a Pirate Day
10 Anniversary HeroClix Chase Figures!
The Dark Knight Fails to Rise
GenCon 2012
HeroClix Vehicles Rules
Batman HeroClix Vehicles
Joe Kubert, RIP 08-12-2012
Gen Con: I wish I Was Going
LOTR / Hobbit HeroClix
Batman: Streets of Gotham
HeroClix ID Rings!
Review: The Dark Knight Rises
Super Golden Friends
Review: Amazing Spider-Man
Mage Knight Online
Review: Spider-Man
Review: Spider-Man 2
Review: Spider-Man 3
DC Batman HeroClix Spoilers
Assassin's Creed HeroClix Spoilers
Batman: No Man's Land HeroClix
Comic-Con Combo Pack HeroClix
Chaos War: Hank Pym
What the...?
DC HeroClix 10th Anniversary Spoilers
MARVEL HeroClix 10th Anniversary Spoilers
HEROCLIX TABAPP
Review: The Avengers
HeroClix Podcast: Starting Over
Free Comic Book Day Thor 2012
2012 Convention Exclusives!
Wizkid Interactive's Starship Hero
Clix Beat: Kantus
Justice League HeroClix Spoilers
Chaos War HeroClix Spoilers
Clix Beat: Quasar
The Daly Superhero
Slade Files: Drax
Clix Beat: Dr. Strange
Slade Files: Super Skrull
Figure of the Week
Clix Beat: Skrull Assassin
Review: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Clix Beat: Nick Fury
Slade Files: Black Widow
Clix Beat: S.H.I.E.L.D. Enforcer
Galactic Guardians Fast Forces Spoilers
Team Ability Changes (2012)
Slade Files: DR. DOOM
Tik Tok Star Trek
Star Trek HeroClix: Away Team Spoilers
Marvel Uncanny X-Men FF HeroClix Spoilers
DC War of the Light FF
Galactic Guardians Gravity Feed Spoilers
Dark Knight Rises HeroClix Spoilers
Top 20 in 2012
Doom Week!
HeroClix Supremacy League
Avengers Movie HeroClix Spoilers
Wizkid's 12 days of Clixmas (2011)
Critical Clix: Star Trek Tactics
Hulk Fast Forces Spoilers
Of Dice and Plastic Men: Gandalf and Superman, Rep
Superman Fast Forces Spoilers
Top 5 Hero vs Hero Smackdowns!
Top 5 Zombie Movies
Marvel Galactic Guardians HeroClix Spoilers
Star Trek Tactics HeroClix Spoilers
Of Dice and Plastic Men: The Super-est of Sets
Infinity Gauntlet Spoilers
World's Finest
Superman Special Objects
Fall of HeroClix World 2011
Superman HeroClix Checklist
Review: Thor
Take 'Em Down: Nightcrawler
DC New 52 Poster
Adventure Week!
Of Dice and Plastic Men:Nightcrawler User's Guide
Mighty Maps 5: DOOM VILLAGE!
Karl Confidential: A Wizkids Moment
Top 5 Gears of War Weapons
How to Build a Successful Venue
Of Dice and Plastic Men: Sweet Release
Masterpiece HeroClix
Top 5 Street Fighters
HeroClix World Twitter
Review: Captain America
owlman166's Top 5 DC Wants
Miniature Market: Summer Sizzler
Of Dice and Plastic Men: X Marks the Spot
Captain America Maps
Dr Katz
Take 'Em Down: Spider-Man
Incredible Hulk HeroClix Spoilers
Clix Addict #1
X-Men: Born This Way
Top 5 HeroClix Accessories
Hammer of Thor: Fast Forces
Green Lantern Movie Reviews
Top 5 Superhero Movies
Star Trek: Fleet Captains
Halo HeroClix Spoilers
Top 6 Standard HeroClix Powers
Review: The Doctor's Wife
Watchmen Fast Forces Spoilers
Top 5 Worst Modern Age Sculpts
Blade Runner: A Review Of Sorts
Wizkids Pathfinder!
Top 5 Spider-Man Clix
Green Lantern 2009
5 Worst Modern Age Clix
GsX Toys R Us Exclusive
Top 5 GsX Traits
Miniature Market Super Give-Away!
Superman HeroClix Spoilers
Critical Clix: 2011 Rules
Bin Laden: Dead
Gears of War HeroClix Spoilers
Top 5 Movie-Clix
2011 HeroClix Convention Exclusives!
Critical Clix: PAC Powers
Sucker Punch Analysis
DCU vs Braniac
Top 5 Marvel Tech
Green Lantern HeroClix Spoilers
DC vs Marvel HeroClix
HeroClix 2011 Rules Changes
Spring of HeroClix World
Sucker Punch Review
Dark Knight 1960s
The Borders Effect
Juggernaut Helmet Token
Slade Files: Magneto (GsX)
Happy Pi Day!
Giant Size X-Men Maps!
Nothing Moves The Blob!
Maze of Madness
Grayson
Fixing Superman
SuperHarmony
HeroClix Online Spoilers
Where's Brother Magneto?
Smurfs Spoilers
Captain America Spoilers
Toy Fair 2011
Might Maps #4
Giant Size X-Men Poster Images
HeroClix Oreo Dial
Quarriors
Street Fighter HeroClix Spoilers
LOTR HeroClix Spoilers
MM Extravaganza
NECA needs YOU!
Winter of HeroClix World
Who is ClixKid?
Dr. Manhattan Spoilers
Free Comic Book Day 2011 Spoilers
DC 75th MAPS
Adventurer's Atlas
Where's Seth?
HeroClix and More
DreamClix: Zombie Apocalypse
Web Tokens!
Giant Size X-Men Spoilers
ClixCraves Vol 02
Fall of HeroClix World
Slade Files: Carnage
Mobile Horror
Summer of HeroClixWorld Ends
5 Awesome Justice League Fights
Slade Files: Spider-Man (Black)
Economy, Trolls, & HeroClixs
5 Awesome Spider-Man Fights
Web of Spider-Man Map
Saturday Morning Watchmen
It is Dr. Manhattan
Robert's Dial Maker
Batman and Kato
Rev: Ultimate Cap
Seven Little Superheroes
Slade Files: Superman
Slade Files: Spider-Man
Incredible Hulk 1977
Faces of Eddie
Slade Files: Ultron
Iron Maiden HeroClix Spoilers
DC 75th Spoilers
Watchmen Day 3
Watchmen Day 2
Watchmen Day 1
ClixCraves Vol 01
DreamClix: The Transformers
Batman Beyond: ROTJ
10 Battle Packs (We Want)
A Firestar is Born
Jonah Hex Review
DC Brightest Day Spoilers
Batman: Dead End
Star Trek: Expeditions
Batman on My Baby
Jonah Hex Spoilers
Vegas Odds: B/C/F
Slade Files: Venom
Critical Miss: Injustice League
Pryde of the X-Men
DreamClix: Star Trek
Spider-Man 1977
Accessories: Capital City
FCBD: War Machine
Critical Miss: Giants
Brave and the Bold Prizes
Marvel DisneyClix
HeroClix Batmobile
Web of Spider-Man Spoilers
Wizkids in 2010
Brave & The Bold INFO & SPOILERS
Marvel DUOS You Want
Slade Files: Thor
10 Minutes with Hair10
The Watchmen Info & Spoilers
DC Starter (Blackest Night) Info
HeroClix World Baby!
DC DUOS You Want!
PaC: Smokey Cap
Top 8 Sets We Want
HeroClix World Giveaway
Confessions of a Wizkids Sculpter
Critical Miss: Print and Play
John Byrne Interview
HoT: Mjolnir & Ragnarok
PaC: Red Arrow
22 HeroClix box sets (we want)
Hammer of Thor images!
BroMag Interview
Ben Misenar Interview
Top 10 Signs You're Obsessed with HeroClix
Seth J. Interview (III)
Seth J. Interview (II)
Seth J. Interview (I)
AlphaClix: New Beginning
PaC: Spidey (si)
nbperp Interview (II)
arrownbperp Interview (I)
Rev: Thor's Chariot
PaC: Robin (aa)
Exclusive: Thor's Mighty Chariot Pictures
Rev: Crisis Nightwing
Top 5 Overrated Clix
HeroClix: For Profit
Black History Month
Fixing HeroClix


Norman "nbperp" Barth Interview (Part I)
The Le (07/30/2009)
 Page:  1  2  3   

Related: John Byrne Interview
Related: Jason "Brother Magneto" Mical Interview
Related: Seth Johnson Interview (Part I)
Goto Comments

NBPERP Interview

Norman "nbperp" Barth was selected as the new HeroClix Rules Arbitrator, and remained so until HeroClix went into hiatus in late 2008. I managed to track him down, where we talked about HeroClix, comic books, and more.

The Le:
Tell us a little about how you got involved in HeroClix at home and eventually as the rules Arbitrator for HeroClix.

Norman
: I had played OverPower, the super hero CCG from the late 90s and had been collecting comics since the early 80s. My collection was fairly robust, at least in terms of DC. I saw Infinity [Challenge] when it came out, even had the Spider-Man promo figure but wasn't going to invest in a new collectible game because when I played OverPower, it was something of an obsession. I'd travel around the country to play in major events. All of that was before my kids were born. Now I had 2 kids and while the mechanics seemed interesting, I just wasn't going to let myself go there.

Then Hypertime came out. Superman #380 was my first comic and reading Superman has influenced me in ways I can still see in myself today. So when a DC set came out, I decided I'd buy into it. “But only so that I can have the sculpts” I told my wife. She rolled her eyes at me.

Sure enough, one of each sculpt wasn't enough for the collector in me. I had to have the whole set. I had to have the “Our Worlds at War” limited edition. I had to figure out how to get those cool LEs. So I started to play. I can still remember many of my earliest events. I was able to warrant fellowship of a fairly regular basis, but it took me a while to figure out the strategy of playing the game well. To this day I will never forget how my Darkseid Unique was paralyzed for 6 turns because he kept failing to roll breakaway from an opposing Lackey and then resting (rather than just smacking the Lackey to kingdom come).

Once I started playing, I found a few venues in my area that hosted games. Some were large, like Dream Wizards, in which the people were friendly but competition was fierce. Others were quite small, like Realms of Fantasy, where a typical event had 2 or 3 of us showing up to play. One of the owners of the store was a big MechWarrior player and he was an excellent source for learning core strategies. After a while I was able to hold my own at Realms and was able to finish respectably at Dream Wizards as well.

The judge at Realms told me about how generous WizKids was with its volunteers at conventions, so when the next Wizard World Philly rolled around I signed up as a judge (there were no tests back then, you just needed a sponsor) and volunteered. I had a great time at the con and looked around for a venue needing a judge so that I could keep my status active. I found a nearby store (Other Realms) that had some games on the docket with no judge and within a few weeks I had met with the owner and worked out a plan for building a Heroclix community in the store.

During this time, I spent a lot of time lurking on the internet, particularly in the Judges and Rules forums (at the time, there was one of each of these on both the HCRealms and the WizKids websites). By now, feats were starting to rear their heads so there were a number of debates that raged.

At one of the pre-release events, I had the chance to meet one of the faces behind the name of one of the big posters online. He had a strong grasp of the rules, had a very logical mind, and was a big proponent for rulings that made sense. Often, his posts and those of people arguing with him would go long enough that a relative newbie like me was intimidated to intercede in the discussion, on either side. When I met him, I told him how I respected his opinion and how I nearly always agreed with his view. He asked why I didn't say that online. He felt that he was too often the lone voice in the crowd shouting for consistency and that no one backed him up. I explained as how I had nothing much to say in addition to his opinion. He asked me for a favor – to at least reply with a “Ditto” so that people will know that there was someone who agreed with him.

heroclix hulkI took his advice to heart and started posting. At first it was the simple “ditto” to indicate my agreement, but that started drawing me out. In addition, at this time in my life, in the real world, my job had significantly changed. In short, I was being paid to sit at a cubicle for 8 hours a day. If something came up on my project, I had what to do. But other than an emergency situation like that, there was nothing for me to work on and my employer was contractually obligated to not feed me any other work. So now I had lots of time online, besides hitting “dittos” I would also answer questions. I'd start to say more than just ditto, providing other reasons/sources for why the opinion I was agreeing with was right. I even started to disagree with the guy who had asked me to get more involved and we had some wonderful debates. In short, I got involved.

Meanwhile, my venue was growing nicely. It was not (nor would it ever really be) as large as the big players like Dream Wizards where the Premiere Events were being held. But I had gotten involved there too. Never as a judge, but as a facilitator. For those big events, when 60 plus people would be showing up, they had been using an excel spreadsheet to manage player's records. It took anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes between rounds to gather all the scores, enter the data, deal with oddities, seat the next round, pair up the sheets, etc. I spoke with the head judge about me putting together a simple program that could be used to run events. We talked about the necessary features and I went to work on it. I had it in place for its maiden voyage before the next event (apologies – I don't remember what it was, but I think this was just before summer of 2004). During that event, the time between rounds shrunk to about 15 minutes. People were very vocal in their noticing how smoothly it ran. And there were also suggestions for how to make it better, all of which I noted and incorporated into the next version.

Meanwhile, summer-time was rolling around and the head judge from DW had heard through the grapevine that WK was having issues with its tournament software. He asked me if I was planning on going to Wizard World Philly that year and I explained that I was. Using whatever connections he had, he proposed to WK that they give my software a try. While their initial feedback was not positive, apparently the weekend before Philly, the organizer from WK had been at another convention and the existing software performed so poorly that they were willing to give anything else a try. So 4 days before the con, I get a call from the head judge telling me that I should report to the tournament hall in Philly and bring any/everything I needed to run the tournaments running there. Because of the great reception I got from WK, I made the trip that year to most if not all of the following conventions.

By the time the RA posting became available (November 2006, as I recall) I had a decent reputation online as someone knowledgeable about the rules. I had an excellent reputation with many of the WK staffers, as they had seen me at so many of the conventions through the previous years. I simply submitted an application like anyone else. As I recall, they culled the applications down to 4 individuals that were interviewed over the phone. A few weeks later, they called to tell me that I was the selected person.


 Page:  1  2  3   

Back to Top

Your Comments:
Nice read. It's always interesting to hear from people that are "behind the scenes". Looking forward to part II: "I need closure on that anecdote!"

Posted by: WhoaDirty on 8/1/2009 7:00:29 PM
Nice to hear Norman's thought process. Ditto about the difference between Magic and Heroclix. Both game styles have their own elegance if done properly. Magic has been refined by a very talented group of people at Wizards, but Heroclix has taken many steps back. Refining a Heroclix type game is unmapped territory, but I have a few ideas.

Posted by: lunar on 8/1/2009 9:47:58 AM
OverPower is the best CCG ever. I really miss just being able to throw down with my friends anywhere and kick their butts and run local torunaments. :)

Posted by: Azrael0626 on 7/31/2009 5:37:51 PM
My best recollection of how OverPower died is this: OP was owned by Fleer/Skybox when Marvel was starting to go bankrupt. So selling the card company(s) started happening. The VP of Marvel Interactive saw potential in the game, so he pulled it from F/S over to Marvel Interactive. He was able to save one guy's job from F/S.

As for me, at the time all this was happening, I was helping with some web site stuff, keeping the record of who played against whom and the database that determined people's scores, and so on. When MI took over, they asked me to stay on board, help as I was, and help with other tasks as they came up.

The MI branch of the house saw a LOT of potential in OP. Remember the MegaPower online sale? That was a test run to see how online sales of cards would go, selling direct to the customer. The plan was that they would radically change the CCG business plan. Build small/easy sets to collect (like Mission Control) and then offer an additional 10-40 cards as exclusive online purchases. The profit potential, especially after the MegaPower numbers started coming in was staggering. The OP team was psyched.

But...

At the same time, a new X-Men movie was coming out. From what I understand, Marvel was offered a licensing deal to develop an X-Men CCG, but only if it meant an exclusive license for Marvel CCGs. Well, despite the numbers showing that the OP method would be better in the long run, the business suits decided at the time to go for the guaranteed money that a contract/license offered them. And thus, OP died.

Posted by: NBPerp on 7/30/2009 8:15:53 PM
A wonderful interview so far; can't wait for Part Deux a demain! As for me, I never got into the Heroic CCG like VS and Overpower. I dabbled in Magic a while, then I discovered HeroClix. After that, it was all over, kids! (less than)heh(greater than)

Posted by: muskielodge on 7/30/2009 7:29:58 PM
Great interview!

I bought a bunch of Overpower cards back then. But I never had anyone to play with and eventually got rid of them.

Posted by: flakbait on 7/30/2009 5:14:57 PM
AHHHH! Great read. I can't wait for part II.

Posted by: wintremute on 7/30/2009 12:41:56 PM
great interview, I used to play overpower myself. Don't have them anymore either. I'm not really a card guy though, I just liked marvel. Clix was more my kind of game. Glad too see it's back.

Posted by: thetigerking83 on 7/30/2009 11:58:28 AM
The Spirit: This has been corrected. Thank you for the catch. We'll just refer to it as "Norm's First Mistake". LOL.

Posted by: The Le on 7/30/2009 10:56:06 AM
Might want to change that first paragraph slightly. The first set was Infinity Challenge, not Infinity Gauntlet. Nice interview.

Posted by: TheSpirit on 7/30/2009 10:51:24 AM
I was on HCRealms and saw your post and link to this. Had to check it out! Norm got me into Judging and going to CONs and I remember being really thrilled when he became RA.
There are two things I've observed about Norm over the years that I think made him a perfect choice for RA -
1. He has a very logical mind and typically will make decisions based on facts rather than emotions.
2. He may be the most ethical person I've ever met. Seriously. I've seen him in situations where the "easy" thing to do could even be rationalized as the "right" thing to do and would clearly benefit him to go ahead and do it. Instead he has chosen to do the "right" thing.
I really appreciate the help he has been to me in keeping Heroclix alive and fun in my little corner of Maryland and when I saw you had an interview with him I had to check it out.
Cool site btw, I'll be coming here a lot now!

Posted by: Tom Price on 7/30/2009 10:38:49 AM
Insider information and insight is always cool.
Thanks to Le and Norm.
Can't wait till tomorrow!

Posted by: incredibile on 7/30/2009 10:27:37 AM
I see an OverPower card!!!

heh Norm is a great dude with a lot of passion for the comic industry and their games. Can't wait for my kids to leave me alone for 5 minutes so I can read the article! ;-)

Posted by: SpaceGhost on 7/30/2009 10:17:33 AM
If I remember correctly one of two things happened with Overpower.

The game was not selling well and the card company dropped the game.

and/or

Either the comic license was not renewed or the license was dropped.

I am sorry, but it has been a couple of years since Norm talked about it to me.

Posted by: phantalien on 7/30/2009 10:00:30 AM
excellent interview. keep the past insights coming.

thanks le.

Posted by: psycho69 on 7/30/2009 9:49:16 AM
Interesting interview and really long answers from nbperp. I hope Part II is as good as Part I and even offers more inside details on Heroclix in the past :)

Posted by: triforce13 on 7/30/2009 9:40:21 AM
I wish we could have The LE do a follow-up after learning a little more about the history of Overpower and how it's end (and Norms involvement around the same time) correlates to what happened with Overpower...

Touch of death I say!!

Posted by: lestiff416 on 7/30/2009 9:29:18 AM
Overpower! I played that all the time and I still have all my cards. It was the first collectible game I ever played.

Posted by: srsjuiceman on 7/30/2009 6:49:56 AM