To Collect, or not to Collect...
Most games have ways in which to give yourself the advantage to get the
win. That’s part of the fun of playing
games, figuring out the most effective ways to win. With many games, it’s
become a way to make money by selling the cards and pieces that offer the
greatest advantage to those looking to compete.
Of course, for those that don’t compete on a regular basis, such things
become an irrelevancy in short order, if they get one, they get one, if not, no
concern...
But there are other games that don’t feature the collectible aspect,
and while they’re just as popular on general release, they don’t tend to get
the massive following on tournaments and other competitions because what you
have in the set is all you have, and it’s down to the individual player to work
out a strategy with exactly the same moves and options that their opponent
has. At Expo, we have a number of
categories for the awards, and one of them is Abstract games, games which can
be played in very little time, with very little element of chance, but still an
interesting premise to them.
Why would this be so important?
Because games that are collectible by their very nature are designed so
that something in the next set will be better or more powerful than the ones in
the previous set, requiring that you have to continually get the new shiny or
risk being excluded from playing the game at a competitive level. In a number of the games, you can only play
if you’re using the latest versions of the cards, and in a number of games,
particularly miniatures, you can only field the model if it’s appropriate to
the character it represents on the field.
This has led to a good deal of disillusionment and bitterness amongst
those who want to play the game but don’t want to spend a fortune on the game
to be allowed to keep playing it. I love
playing games like X wing and Warhammer 40k, but when I look at the forums and
see the combinations of cards and models out there, together with the amount of
money that player had to spend to get those combinations, it puts me off the
game in a way I previously didn’t think was possible. It’s not like there’s much difference in the
forces that are being fielded, when a new model hits the line up, it either has
something that nothing before it had, or it quickly gets put to the bottom of
the pile and no one pays any further attention to it. Like so many things, when you get to the top
level of it...
It’s not just a game anymore...
So what’s the answer? Is there a way to have a game that’s got enough
pieces/cards/actions in the basic set to keep people interested and playing for
the next ten years, or is the collectible game the only way to go to keep the
game fresh and the fans interested? I
believe that the original set of Magic: The Gathering was enough to keep people
entertained on a regular basis for the rest of their gaming career, but by the
time I’d got to it, they’d already released Arabian Nights (and sold it out)
and so the path was set.
The Living Card games go some way towards redressing the balance of
things, by providing whole sets of cards and not going the route of placing
them in boosters, thereby negating the value of the cards and placing everyone
on a level playing field, but they haven’t set the market alight in the same
way that Magic and games like it have.
The problem is that there’s two different markets for gamers, those who
play and those who play to win, and
between the two camps, the ones who are out for the win won’t play the games
where they can’t get the edge that they want over the opponent.
When you look at other games that have been out there for years, where
people are still playing them at international levels and there’s only one set
of pieces and rules, you’re across to games like Chess and Go, where it’s been
going for so long that everyone knows it and while most people don’t play them
anymore, everyone knows what they are.
Is there a place for games like these now, when there are new games
coming out every week, and even if you bought something new every day of the
year, you’d be more than a decade older before you came to the end of the lists
of games that are available now.
This is the question for today, is there a game that can fill the requirements
of staying competitive through the years without having to buy many boosters
and upgrades, and if so, what do you think it is...
Anyone answering with Chess or Go, someone got there first J
