Purple Parlay—Card Games

11 Comments

1. Bookseller Bill on 29.09.2010 at 07:14

   I’ve played Magic for 15+ years now, from The Dark onward. For the last 10 years or so, I’ve played limited formats (draft and sealed) almost exclusively; I can’t remember the last time I put together a constructed deck.

   I enjoy CCGs and have played a few others seriously (Decipher’s SWCCG and L5R), while dabbling in a few more, but in the end I found it too difficult to keep up with more than one.

   Am currently enjoying Dominion and its expansions; have yet to try Thunderstone. Or any LCGs for that matter.

2. Tiffany Leigh on 29.09.2010 at 09:07

   I played 1st generation MAGIC then realized that it was going to become a bottomless pit of spending, so stopped. Since then the only other CCG’s I’ve picked up have been due to theme (MYTHOS + FF’s Call to Cthulhu before they repurposed it into an LCG + XXXenophile), or mechanics (Sabretooth’s first Warhammer, Warlord: Saga of the Storm).

   I’m primarily a boardgamer, but several members of our regular gaming group are former Magic experts. So when DOMINION hit the scene it became very popular. I play with them but have never had the stone-cold “mechanics” mind for strategy and combo-seeking that they have wired into their DNA from hours of CCG experience.

   I don’t mind the LCG’s. It’s a small contained universe that gives each player a fair shake, even if there’s an experience gap between me and my friends. The Warhammer themed LCG from Fantasy Flight was very fun and still gave us a varied, customizable feel with the different factions. I may try out the Cthulhu LCG since it’s just a carryover from the initial CCG.

   Although ultimately, over time most LCG’s default as CCG’s with endless expansions, even at a lower ebb. I would rather buy expansions to a boardgame that I enjoy before getting started on another CCG experience – even Dominion is starting to spiral into that Munchkin/Carcassonne territory of endless releases.

3. Ben Clark on 29.09.2010 at 12:27

   I always thought CCG’s were a great idea, but hated the randomness of booster pack purchasing. When Dominion came out, I could finally get the fun parts of deck building without having to deal with being $150 into a game and still not being happy with my card options. With Thunderstone, Ascension and the other deck building games out now, I am even happier.

4. Just Some Guy on 29.09.2010 at 14:40

   I too was introduced to magic in school, back then I counted how many boosters my allowance would get me. I’ve tried AGoT LCG (but haven’t read the books, so I wasn’t drawn in), Cthulhu LCG (but couldn’t win a game), then tried Warhammer LCG and was sucked in.

   While the LCG is nice, its still a money sink. You know what you are getting, but I was still buying multiple packs to get 3 ‘good’ cards. Now the LCG format is 3 of everything period, which is pretty great.

   However, I still buy multiple packs so that I can build multiple decks with 3 of the ‘good’ card. And with monthly expansions, if you aren’t playing every week, I think a new set of cards to learn and integrate every month can be daunting. You buy the packs, then feel guilty about not using them, but still want to keep up. Very similar to the unpainted minitures guilt-cycle.

   But I recently got active with WH:I again due to a weekly group and feel pretty good with the money I have spent/ am spending. But it is way more than I spent on Magic as a kid. I have no idea how much I would have spent on that had I not had limited income. Sheesh.

5. RockyMountainNavy on 29.09.2010 at 20:50

   I was never a CCG player but my daughter and second son collected Pokeman. My first son is into Yu-gi-oh. The funny part is that the Pokeman collection – after years of neglect – has passed down to my youngest (6.5yo) who wants to play all the time! Problem was at 6yo the game was a bit much. Looked around and broke down and got Pokeman Rumble. A god choice as even the little guy can play it!

6. RockyMountainNavy on 29.09.2010 at 20:53

   Another question – where does Fluxx and all its variants/versions/expansions fit in? It’s a CARD game yes but can you really call it non-collectible? Sorta collectible? For the record, in our house we have Family Fluxx because of the younger players.

   1. shadejon on 30.09.2010 at 13:27

      Fluxx was originally a non-CCG, but it could be considered a living (or expandable) card game at this point.

7. Ben Clark on 30.09.2010 at 13:40

   You know, I’ve been struggling with the difference between a “Living Card Game”/Expandable Card game and a CCG lately. At Gamethonic.com, I created a seperate Expandable Card Games category, but you know what? All those Fantasy Flight expansion decks look suspiciously like a CCG. I know – the decks are set and there’s no randomness, but still…

   1. shadejon on 30.09.2010 at 23:48

      The entire point of a living card game (TM by FFG, so often called an expandable card game) is to look exactly like a CCG without the randomness in what you’re buying.

8. Ben Clark on 01.10.2010 at 06:24

   Sorry for not being clear: I think that when the number of expansions gets above 20 (as with Game of Thrones LCG, for instance), one gets the same fiscal problems with LCGs as with CCGs, despite the non-randomness. To field a competitive deck, you still have to spend a lot of money buying cards you don’t want to get cards you do want.

9. JustSomeGuy on 05.10.2010 at 16:20

   Ben: I agree with you. I think that all the fancy terms come down to: blind buy or non-blind buy.

   FFG says that since you know what you get, people will not have to buy packs of cards looking for one. While true, they do not post the card lists on their support page, so how do I know whats in the package? They want people to buy it to see what is inside. So LCG is basically blind buy, but it’s not random across booster packs. Nice, but not enough.

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