Thanks Xemo, malkav11 and Orinoco.
Both Star Chamber (with the single-player campaigns) and Montjoie went straight to the top of my list of games to try as soon as I can.
The gameplay of Legends of Norrath is fantastic, especially with the multiple ways of winning. The ability to win free unique cards by completing quests is well thought out and adds a huge amount of replayability to the game. Add in the fact that sealed deck tournaments are an option, and you have me hooked.
What turns me off from the game though is that it seems to have a huge list of rares, and apparently a very aggressive schedule for releasing expansions. Perhaps it is just me, but I don’t know that any CCG that isn’t Magic, can afford to alienate their playerbase by requiring such a huge financial investment to keep up with tourney worthy decks. Also, with their tourneys being unable to be played by anyone outside of the US, there was a lot of resentment and ill will from European players which can only hurt the player base more (I hope I’m wrong though because the game really is that good).
Oh, if you haven’t tried it, I cannot recommend Sanctum highly enough. This to me is the granddaddy of online CCGs. It combines a board game with a ccg, 6 colors of mana, 12 ‘houses’ of magic that comprise of two of those colors, and each house if fairly unique.
The game was created by Digital Addiction long ago, but when they were about to give up on the game, it was taken over by some of the fans who have not only maintained the game, but also have created one, and working on another, expansion. The trade board is easy to use, the gameplay unique, and the artwork very well done. I think I played about 2000 games of it before I got burned out, but I still pop back every now and then.
Oh, and as I look at their online store, it seems that their cards are a lot cheaper than much of their competition. Once you spend $20, you become ‘registered’ and can play in their ranked games and trade cards.
Is Chron X still around?
Bruce
It was picked up by fans too after their company, Genetic Anomalies, and went under or pursued other interests. I know for awhile and has been since picked up by another company. That is another oldie, but the downside to this game is that there were a few cards that were uberly broken. It seems that since their newest acquisition that the are finding themselves again with Chron X2.
Sadly, they also had a wonderful Star Trek miniatures game, ConQuest and a WWE themed CCG, named With Authority I think, both of which were surprisingly fun, but were abandoned went GA went away.
Stainless is making a new M:tG game for XBLA. Could be interesting. There’s also a new one on the way for PC, IIRC.
I like card-based, but I really don’t like buying digital cards. If the XBLA version has multiplayer, I assume they’ll make you buy cards, which would suck.
Has there been any confirmation that the Stainless game is at all CCG-related?
All evidence I’ve seen (none of which is explicit) suggests that this will simply be some kind of game based on M:tG like BattleMage or Battlegrounds.
When the XBLA game was announced, a PC M:tG game was also announced (being developed by Mind Control Software) at the same time. It’s pretty clear the PC version won’t be a pay-per-booster CCG like Magic Online, because Magic Online already exists. And I don’t think the XBLA version will be a Magic Online replacement either. That would almost certainly be handled in-house.
From scuttlebutt I’ve heard, the most likely scenario is that someone at Wizards mocked up a gameplay prototype for some sort of Magic franchise game with different rules in Flash or something, then outsourced it to these two companies for development on the respective platforms. It may or may not be some sort of turn-based strategy, but I’d bet an awful lot of money that it’s not a pay-per-booster onilne CCG.
They will probably use that “platform” they announced some time(year?) ago … i think the new D&D stuff is done there too.
I think they are trying to release a new non-sucky version of MTG-O so Hiro is most likely right.
I checked it out last night and was given a starter deck by someone in the trade lobby. It seems like a good game but I see a problem right away: There were just about 150 players playing… That, to me, is not a good sign. Also, I’m from Canada so it means I won’t be able to play in tournaments? If it’s still true, that’s a good reason for me to stop playing right now :(
Acclaim’s Magic: The Gathering - Battlemage was not a good game but I really loved it.
150 players in a lobby is tremendous by online CCG standards.
I’m sure Magic Online has more and all, but I’ve played most others, some for years, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that many people on.
Ok, it might be because I haven’t played that many online CCGs, I just thought 150 was pretty low… Of course, they might all be busy playing EQ/EQ2 too!
EDIT: I just tried to enter a tournament and it says I can’t since I’m not from the US. I don’t see any point to invest in that game now.
Those are some sad standards. Means they are delivering a weak product and trying to screw players too hard. Paying real money for virtual cards? Faugh I say. Faugh!
I still maintain that a high quality Magic TCG MMORPG on the same pricing structure as WoW could topple WoW.
Agreed.
I have a lot of disdain for pay-per-booster CCG’s, as documented in other threads.
Thankfully, the winds seem to be (gently) blowing in other directions.
Absolutely agree 200%.
I used to be an old Manalink M:tG player. I did not play M:tG real life, but it was a blast o play it online. I was in the beta for M:tGO, and in it rekindled my interest in the game. Then they announced the pricing structure, and I left. Thanks, but no thanks. And that decision has limited the reach of the game ever since.
Now, they made a business decision, and I can understand it. But it’s hard to know if it’s the right one. If the game charged a 10 cents per digital card I think they’d get way more players, but would it be enough to offset the lost revenue? I think so, and I think you would have a better game if it was 10x more popular than it is today.
I think they were also concenred about the online business supplanting the cardboard business. Frankly I think this is short-sighted. They should WANT more people playing it online.
Bruce
[thread hijack] The problem as I see it with with online vs offline MtG is that they can’t run big money tournaments online like they do offline. There’s no easy way to authenticate people. The Pro Tour and the other DC stuff is very profitable for WotC and they aren’t going to let the online MtG stuff try to supplant that.
While I understand that people don’t want to pay for virtual cards or they can get the real cards cheaper, the reality is that online MtG is much better in many ways than offline. For one thing, you can find opponents 24/7. Next thing is that it’s far easier to manage your collection. Third is that they offer tournament types online that would be impossible offline. Lastly is that trading (although somewhat complex) is going on constantly by bots in their chat areas. You can actually get a tournament of extended or even Type I going on there, almost unheard of in a face to face environment. Unfortunately their league set up online is basically broken, and that’s the least expensive way to play. The plans are to fix leagues when MtGO 3.0 comes out, but that’s been delayed nearly a year now, so who knows?
At any rate, while yes, WotC gets more profit on the cards, you as a player can get more value too, so it’s not just a one sided deal.
[thread hijack off]
If they let me bring my offline cards to the online game, I’d maybe be tempted (not that I own Magic cards anymore, but MTGO came out before I ditched my collection, I think.). Impractical, I know, but there you have it. Most people that have been playing Magic long have way too much cash invested in their collection to ditch it all and buy everything all over again in an online environment.
I’m more willing to go with it for something like Star Chamber, which (from what I recall) has a policy where rare cards are more interesting but not necessarily more powerful than common cards, meaning I can just spring for a basic pool of cards (which were cheaper than physical CCGs) and enjoy myself plenty. Also, the playerbase was friendly enough that at one point I had a full set of 4 of each common card I didn’t already have in quantity unloaded on me by some player initiative. Since the cards aren’t physical and there’s a four card limit in decks, you will never need more than four of any given card. Which means the extras can get passed around. I liked that. I dunno if that’s still going. I wasn’t around past the first expansion. (I did download it again. I keep meaning to pick up the campaigns and play those, but always something more tempting around the next corner.)