Is the theme of a CCG important?

by **gnemnij** » 02 Sep 2013, 06:59

forgive my broken english first.

Recently world of warcraft TCG was down,though the tragedy didnt came from its tightly connection with the declining market of world of warcraft, it still led me a question of the importance of the theme of a CCG.

unlike most of the game we can find in the store, MTG has solved this theme problem by its tricky planeswalkers' shameless travel around all over the universe. MTG is no longer fixed to any theme years ago.

But Pokemon?there is no planeswalkers in pokemon and I dont see any chance for those kids jumping to another world with their pokemon. If the story of pokemon has an end someday, what will the game be then?

Game of Throne? We all know that this story must has an end since Martin cannot write another 20years. what will the game be when all the conflict and conspiracy put to an end?

In my country, which is China, there is even some CCG based on some real-happened history. And the game is unbelievablly realistic! I cannot trust myself this game will survive for 1year after all the characters have printed since some had already be printed three times......

I want to discuss this with all you guys. Is the theme of a CCG that important?

by **stassy** » 02 Sep 2013, 13:06

If your CCG from China is based on the Romance of the Three Kingdom, you don't have to worry : just take a peak at the enormous list of officers existing and you have expansions for a dozen years (even in the video games department Koei keep doing their Dynasty Warriors series with recurring chars)

For Pokemon it's the same deal, in either reprint or back to basic theme case, the only limits of the IP are creators imagination (and again take a look at any big IP, mario keep stomping shroom since decades and COD players keep killing themself even if the same game is released every years...)

IP that has a limit are, as you mentioned, licenses with a complete and definite story, but you can also create spin off expansion (for example, for Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings) if their universe are big enough.

IMO the only thing that would kill a CCG would be lack of money benefit (because players are no longer interested or the expansions gameplay are bad) > close CCG

by **gnemnij** » 03 Sep 2013, 01:45

stassy wrote:If your CCG from China is based on the Romance of the Three Kingdom, you don't have to worry : just take a peak at the enormous list of officers existing and you have expansions for a dozen years (even in the video games department Koei keep doing their Dynasty Warriors series with recurring chars)

For Pokemon it's the same deal, in either reprint or back to basic theme case, the only limits of the IP are creators imagination (and again take a look at any big IP, mario keep stomping shroom since decades and COD players keep killing themself even if the same game is released every years...)

IP that has a limit are, as you mentioned, licenses with a complete and definite story, but you can also create spin off expansion (for example, for Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings) if their universe are big enough.

IMO the only thing that would kill a CCG would be lack of money benefit (because players are no longer interested or the expansions gameplay are bad) > close CCG

Thank you Stassy.

The CCG mentioned in my post do about 3 kingdoms, as you say, the charaters can be recur again again and again and make this theme eternal. however, this CCG, namely "wisdom of 3 kingdoms", release their set by Chronicles, or to say, strictly following the history line. that means this game will soon or later come to an end since the history of 3 kingdoms end by the dynasty "Jin".

True, the 3 kingdoms CCG can have expansions like other CCGs you mentioned, harry potter, Lord of the Rings, but this game has a proper sense of reality which would deffinetely hold them back when they want to print something like dragon or Voodoo.

BTW, do you think Game of Thrones 's universe is big enough to support a good LCG?

I totally agree you that the only thing kills a game is its lack of profitability.

by **stassy** » 03 Sep 2013, 06:10

gnemnij wrote:BTW, do you think Game of Thrones 's universe is big enough to support a good LCG?

I totally agree you that the only thing kills a game is its lack of profitability.

I think so, I am not a big fan of GoT but as you can see the author wrote stories for many characters that span on a long timeline, it's also not finished so there is plenty of content for any type of game.