Incenjucar
Legend
Man I really hope they change their minds on that one.
Fortune Cards: you likey?
- Thread starter TerraDave
- Start date
Man I really hope they change their minds on that one.
OnlineDM
Adventurer
Well, if the Fortune Cards are a total flop (I'm suspecting they might be, as I really don't see anyone I know using them), then they might no longer be in production by September, in which case yes, I imagine WotC would change their minds about requiring them for "lair assault." However, I think that they're trying to make this "lair assault" program into the source of demand for Fortune Card collectors.
With Magic: The Gathering (the most obvious parallel to Fortune Cards), cards have secondary market value because there is demand for them in "constructed" decks, mainly by people who want to play in tournaments. If you need certain cards in order to improve your chances of winning, you may be willing to pay some money to get those cards (assuming that you care about winning).
With Fortune Cards, there is currently no "winning" to motivate secondary market demand, and I'm guessing that this "lair assault" program is supposed to create that "winning" incentive (if I have the right, rare, powerful cards in my deck, I have a better chance of getting through this assault). Higher secondary market demand translates to higher primary market demand (if the "chase" cards are pricey enough in the secondary market, it could be worthwhile to buy random packs instead, in the hopes of getting the right cards).
Thus, I expect that WotC will NOT pull the plug on Fortune Cards before they give this "lair assault" program a try. I expect a huge push for this program at GenCon.
To be clear, I'm not really interested in the "lair assault" myself, but I think min-maxers will be. So, this has a chance of succeeding from a business perspective. Me, I tend to ignore Fortune Cards - I don't use them in my games and I don't plan to. But they might appeal to a certain player psychographic (the "Spike" type of player from Magic: The Gathering parlance).
I'd be bummed if they started focusing all of their new product development on "competitive" D&D players, but I haven't seen evidence of that yet, so I'm not too worried for now. Come September, we shall see.
With Magic: The Gathering (the most obvious parallel to Fortune Cards), cards have secondary market value because there is demand for them in "constructed" decks, mainly by people who want to play in tournaments. If you need certain cards in order to improve your chances of winning, you may be willing to pay some money to get those cards (assuming that you care about winning).
With Fortune Cards, there is currently no "winning" to motivate secondary market demand, and I'm guessing that this "lair assault" program is supposed to create that "winning" incentive (if I have the right, rare, powerful cards in my deck, I have a better chance of getting through this assault). Higher secondary market demand translates to higher primary market demand (if the "chase" cards are pricey enough in the secondary market, it could be worthwhile to buy random packs instead, in the hopes of getting the right cards).
Thus, I expect that WotC will NOT pull the plug on Fortune Cards before they give this "lair assault" program a try. I expect a huge push for this program at GenCon.
To be clear, I'm not really interested in the "lair assault" myself, but I think min-maxers will be. So, this has a chance of succeeding from a business perspective. Me, I tend to ignore Fortune Cards - I don't use them in my games and I don't plan to. But they might appeal to a certain player psychographic (the "Spike" type of player from Magic: The Gathering parlance).
I'd be bummed if they started focusing all of their new product development on "competitive" D&D players, but I haven't seen evidence of that yet, so I'm not too worried for now. Come September, we shall see.
Vicar In A Tutu
Explorer
I'm not sure the comparison with Magic: The Gathering is valid. MtG is a game. D&D Fortune Cards is a prop / accessory. It goes without saying that you have to like the cards in order to like and play Magic. But you absolutely don't have to like the fortune cards in order to play D&D (on the contrary, most people either loathe them or simply aren't interested). This Lair Assault-thing would have to pick up A LOT of steam if they are giving up on making D&D players use them at home or at D&D encounters.
Honestly, I don't understand why they haven't put up a few variant / optional rules up on their web site on how to use the fortune cards, rules that allow for the cards to be a common pool for all players, how to make them a DM reward, etc. This would make at least a few more costumers change their minds with regards to how useful they think the cards are.
The other point when comparing these to magic cards is that unlike in magic, you can turn up to a DnD game and your DM can take a hike (which I would do). When you're playing Magic, well if someone told you not to bring magic cards to play magic that would be more than a little silly don't you agree?
Tony Vargas
Legend
It might win them a few DMs as customers, but it'd lose them a lot of players. The idea of something like fortune cards is to sell to players who feel competative (or game with a player who feels competative, and need to keep up). Not to sell a pack or two at an event, or a deck to a DM, but to sell to all the players who are willing to buy tons of cards to get the handfull of rares they need to build a deck that'll give them a real edge.
At least, that's the theory. The rares don't quite live up to it...
Vicar In A Tutu
Explorer
It could work if they released the variant rules as a free article on their website, emphasising that these rules are optional and only apply to home games, not "official" games at D&D encounters, lair assault, etc. No reason they should lose customers then.
OnlineDM
Adventurer
[MENTION=49255]Vicar[/MENTION] - I was talking about Fortune Cards from a business perspective. From a pure gaming perspective, sure, you could have variant rules and put the power in the DM's hands and have them work like treasure or boons that the DM could hand out, and they could be interesting additions to the game for certain tables who like that kind of thing.
But if THAT was their intended use, WotC would be selling Fortune Cards as a supplement, charging $20 or $30 for a complete set of cards to use at the table. That's not what WotC has done; they've followed the Magic: The Gathering model in terms of rarity and random packaging and pricing. I don't think I'm making a big leap when I say that, from a BUSINESS perspective, WotC would like Fortune Cards to work like Magic cards.
In order for Fortune Cards to be a big seller like Magic cards are, you need that secondary market demand to in turn pump up the primary market demand. Without that, the best you can realistically hope for is that each DM might acquire a complete set to use at their table - but really, they'll be fine if they're missing a handful of cool cards.
With a competitive game based on the cards, you tap into players' desires to WIN, and that desire to win is what drives them to acquire hard-to-get cards even though there's a real financial outlay to doing so. Without that drive to win, I don't think they'll ever get a thriving secondary market, which limits sales.
So to sum up, because Fortune Cards follow Magic's rarity, randomness and pricing models, I believe WotC would like them to have similar sales potential, and I believe their only chance of getting that is for there to be competition with the opportunity to WIN. Hence my feeling that they're looking at the "lair assault" program to drive that competitive urge and to get players to start chasing Fortune Cards as collectibles.
But if THAT was their intended use, WotC would be selling Fortune Cards as a supplement, charging $20 or $30 for a complete set of cards to use at the table. That's not what WotC has done; they've followed the Magic: The Gathering model in terms of rarity and random packaging and pricing. I don't think I'm making a big leap when I say that, from a BUSINESS perspective, WotC would like Fortune Cards to work like Magic cards.
In order for Fortune Cards to be a big seller like Magic cards are, you need that secondary market demand to in turn pump up the primary market demand. Without that, the best you can realistically hope for is that each DM might acquire a complete set to use at their table - but really, they'll be fine if they're missing a handful of cool cards.
With a competitive game based on the cards, you tap into players' desires to WIN, and that desire to win is what drives them to acquire hard-to-get cards even though there's a real financial outlay to doing so. Without that drive to win, I don't think they'll ever get a thriving secondary market, which limits sales.
So to sum up, because Fortune Cards follow Magic's rarity, randomness and pricing models, I believe WotC would like them to have similar sales potential, and I believe their only chance of getting that is for there to be competition with the opportunity to WIN. Hence my feeling that they're looking at the "lair assault" program to drive that competitive urge and to get players to start chasing Fortune Cards as collectibles.
Nikosandros
Golden Procrastinator
For what purpose?
Zaran
Adventurer
What would the reasoning behind this be? Because some Marketing Big-Wig said make it happen but the guy in charge of making them didn't want cards in DnD so they designed the suck into them?
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