| I just am reminded of the pain of a CCG every time I go to move all my junk and find my old star wars CCG cards. After I spent all of my 8th grade graduation money on those cards everyone who played disappeared. Magic went better overall, though today I have a few friends who, while they play, are not actively collecting. It was a small victory to have roped a friend's fiance into getting into the game and therefore going out and buying new cards.
To me it seems that, while the cost really getting into a CCG seems to high for most, the combined ability of games like Rftg, dominion, and munchkin to both supply cards for everyone as well as be contained completely within their box is immensely appealing. I could easily see myself keeping up with expansions for a RftG style game coming out with the frequency of magic sets (3 expansions a year, 1 core set every 2 years).
It makes me wonder if there is greater potential for such things. Looking at wargames like battletech or ASL it seems like it's possible for a game to have a fairly extensive library of products while still being the type of game you can "share" with your friends, unlike say warhammer where each player most likely must field their own army.
My friend often tries to convince me of the value of playing RftG "Draft style" where each player drafts from parts of the main deck until everyone has built their own deck. It makes me think a game specifically built to be played that way, almost a variation on dominion, would likely garner my dollars. In fact, as a long time MtG drafting enthusiast, a "boxed set" for a given block of expansions that had (perhaps with illegal backs) cards and instructions sufficient to generate a random set of "boosters" would be worth it's weight in gold to me. Obviously it is not likely in wizard's best interest to publish such a product since anyone who bought it would most likely plan on buying it only if they expected it to reduce their overall spending on magic drafts. On the other hand, it would certainly be a cheap way to introduce new players to the glory of draft. |