Online CCGs

[Palatinus]

Does anyone play any online ccgs?  I have signed up for a few, years ago, and was disappointed with most of them.  One I really liked was Urban Rivals at http://www.urban-rivals.com/.  Even if you never spend any money you have the opportunity to earn points and credits and have access to all the cards in the game.  The game play is simple with a few different versions to meet different people's taste.  If anyone has any other games that are any good, please post.

[HotDogCart]

Does anyone play any online ccgs?  I have signed up for a few, years ago, and was disappointed with most of them.  One I really liked was Urban Rivals at http://www.urban-rivals.com/.  Even if you never spend any money you have the opportunity to earn points and credits and have access to all the cards in the game.  The game play is simple with a few different versions to meet different people's taste.  If anyone has any other games that are any good, please post.

I liked Urban Rivals!!! Why dont we play that anymore? And Gaia, we never go on Gaia anymore either!

[Palatinus]

I was totally on Urban Rivals today and even made a new deck and bought some new characters with the clintz I won by fighting other people.

[HotDogCart]

I was totally on Urban Rivals today and even made a new deck and bought some new characters with the clintz I won by fighting other people.

Hummm, I wantz clintz.

[CoS]

Check out: GCCG & LackeyCCG. Both allow for server based play of ccgs. I play Lord of the Rings (Decipher) on GCCG and Battletech on LackeyCCG. Plenty of other games can be played as well.

[Palatinus]

I tried playing the Case Closed CCG on Lackey a while back.  I can't remember why but I had lots of problems with it.  It probably works better now though.

[Demacus]

I used to use a program called OCTGN which was basically a generic tabletop.  I used to play M:TG, VS system and WoWtcg using the program, but I have since lost the program, or more acurately, the hard drive it was saved to, and I haven't been able to find a working version of it since.

[CoS]

So I have been busy playing Lord of the Rings CCG (Decipher) online again. I am so impressed with the HtML programming! No downloads required, plays from any smartphone with browser, and fully enforced gameplay... No take backs, chess clock to speed up play, replay videos, spectator mode & chat, log of previously played opponents (including what deck name used and how you won or lost I.E. last surviving fellowship or conceded).

He has implemented a "collection" were you own your "own cards"... Cards are added to your collection by participating in different sealed deck leagues (and by winning matches during your 10 league games each week).

Of course you have access to the entire library of cards and can build and play any format you wish in the "casual" lobby... No prizes though.

If there was someway to implement a system like this for Overpower I would be all over it.

For those of you intetested in Lord of the Rings or Programming an online card game (hint hint) check this out:
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/

[Jack]

If I had all the free time in the world, the site would be much more functional than what it is right now.

But unfortunately, the reality is that I'm in my last year of university and I'm trying to get out with that elusive piece of paper saying I spent 2 years figuring out what I wanted to be and 4 years struggling to become it.

I assure you that the plan to have online OverPower is in my head and is pretty much structured like how the site above features.

My guess is that the site was probably made by at least 3-4 people with much more time than I have.

[CoS]

Actually just one Polish programmer in his early 30s. He has a very cool idea for the economy of the community as well that you may be interested in here:
http://lotrtcgdb.com/forums/index.php/topic,7693.0.html

[Jack]

I can't view the site without registering.

He probably has plenty of free time to be working on the site, something I'm still lacking.

[CoS]

MarcinS
Bowman

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GCCG: MarcinS
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Gemp-LotR economy model
« on: January 15, 2012, 06:18:50 AM »
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(If you plan to comment in this thread, please read this whole post and if you provide a critique, at least provide an alternative idea and impact analysis)

Every economy model has multiple variables. Thing that people often do not understand about economy is, that changing one variable does not impact only one resulting number (for example increasing taxes will not just increase government budget, in fact it might decrease it, in addition to increasing unemployment).

Card acquiring rate
Description:
This number describes how fast an average player will acquire new cards. This number also describes how fast an average player will be able to collect all the cards for his "dream deck-list".

Impact:
If this number is too high, an average player will be able to build "almost" any deck in a very short period of time, rendering the whole collection aspect of the game obsolete, as this players "My cards" will be quickly equal or better than "All cards".

If this number is too low, collecting even one deck will seem like an endless grind. In addition, player A will be collecting Movie block deck, while player B will be collecting Standard deck and they will never meet in tournaments.

Solution:
Slowly build up the contructed formats. This will mitigate the problem with players building decks for different formats. For example we might have "seasons" for different formats, like it's done in MtG, where every 3 months a different format is the one with the most support. Length of "season" might be indeed 3 months. Sealed leagues (formats) will be selected to supply players with cards they need for the upcoming "season". This means that some broaded formats (Movie or Expanded) might take some time to become tournament formats, but you can't have access to all cards without giving access to all cards, which will cause the collection aspect obsolete.

So, to give an idea of how big the card acquiring rate I have in mind is. If you had a FotR block decklist, then with enough effort (playing leagues and doing quite-well in them), and being smart (planning and buying cards from merchant in advance) it should take you 2 months (less than a season) to acquire all the cards for that one deck.

Cash intake
Description:
This number describes how much cash players get. It's already decided that the only way of getting it (other than trading with players) is via the activity bonus. Activity bonus - first time that you log in into the system during each week, you'll be given a set amount of cash (the same for all players).

Tournament and league participation will cost cash. Merchant will sell non-foil cards for cash it will also buy non-promo card from you at a lower rate than it's selling. You may buy boosters (or special card collections) from shop for cash. You may trade your cash for their cards or vice-versa. These are the only ways of getting or spending cash.

Impact:
If this number is too high, players will be able to buy any card from the merchant, which might once again render the collective aspect obsolete.

If this number is too low, players might have trouble accessing the leagues and tournaments they want.

Solution:
Provide enough cash to allow an active player (logging in each week) to participate in every league, plus a bit more to allow him to buy some singles/boosters from merchant if he/she wishes to.

That's all I had time for to write for now.
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Felagund
Goblin

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Formats: Fellowship constructed, Towers constructed, draft formats
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Re: Gemp-LotR economy model
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2012, 08:11:54 AM »
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I have done some thinking about this over the last few days.  It seems to me that there are simply people who want different things out of this, so I want to go back to Marcin's division of players into categories based on what they are looking for.

1) Collector Players -- people who primarily enjoy the PROCESS of collecting.  Since they enjoy the process, it is less likely to feel like a grind for them, although they will still want to feel like they are making regular progress.  In my real life experience, these players really enjoy opening boosters.  Also collecting needs to feel like it has some sort of meaning, so it would be nice to attach certain tournaments or events to your collected cards.  If it is too easy to collect everything, these players will lose interest, although the existence of foils does help this somewhat.

2) Competitive Players -- people who primarily enjoy thinking about what will work best in the game, both in terms of tactics and in terms of deck construction.  They enjoy competitive play since it really highlights this kind of thinking, so leagues and tournaments are good attractions for them.  However, they are easily put off by the collecting process as that is not what they want to put their time and energy into.  (In real life, they put money in instead; the usual argument being that the entertainment value per dollar out of a few boxes of boosters is much better than what you spend going to a movie or a nightclub.)

3) Casual Players -- people who just want to play the game.  They will enjoy leagues, and they will enjoy tournaments too provided there is not too much of a barrier to entry -- they don't want to take forever to get a deck together.  They may also enjoy collecting, again provided the pace is brisk.

4) Testing Players -- people who currently play in real life and use the site primarily to test out decks.  They are pretty easily satisfied by casual play.

As Marcin noted before, Casual games are enough to satisfy group #4, and are also appreciated by the other groups.  League play is appreciated, I think, by all of the groups.  Group #1 wants to be able to collect cards and for that to be meaningful, they need to have tournaments they can use those cards in.  Group #3 may also enjoy collecting cards.  Group #2, however, wants to be able to play competitively without collecting, and some portion of group #3 would prefer that as well.

Additionally, it seems to me that any proposal for collecting cards will have a hard time satisfying groups #2 and #3.  For example, Marcin said above:

Quote from: MarcinS on January 15, 2012, 06:18:50 AM
So, to give an idea of how big the card acquiring rate I have in mind is. If you had a FotR block decklist, then with enough effort (playing leagues and doing quite-well in them), and being smart (planning and buying cards from merchant in advance) it should take you 2 months (less than a season) to acquire all the cards for that one deck.

This means that to put together one constructed deck the way you want, it would require deciding in advance what you want, watching the merchant, and playing 80 league games (in formats you may or may not enjoy) all over a period of two months.  I can see how some people might really enjoy this process, but I think it is also easy to see how much of a grind this would feel like for someone who is not interested in collecting.  Some people will enjoy it, some people will hate it.

THEREFORE, my suggestion is -- rather than trying to make one solution work for both collectors and competitive players -- simply run two types of constructed tournaments.  Run Collector Tournaments where you must own all the cards in your deck, and run Open Tournaments where you can use any cards that are in the format, regardless of ownership.  I think this is the easiest way to make everyone happy.
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MarcinS
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Re: Gemp-LotR economy model
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2012, 08:34:13 AM »
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Thanks Felagund, that was exactly the solution I came to myself today morning, and probably will end up being implemented.

There will be normal tournaments (we can even call them "Collector Tournaments/Leagues" - good name choice), where you are allowed to play only the cards that you have in your "My cards" collection.

There also will be "open" tournaments (bad name choice - have to think of something better, as "open" is already a format), where you are allowed to play any cards in format, without being limited by your collection. These tournaments will showcase the most powerful decks in formats, and most likely influence changes in restricted/banned cards for their formats. These tournaments will have very little (or none) prize support in addition to trophy. Trophy can be in a format of a trophy icon displayed in user's profile, or a "trophy card" which will be a commonly played card (usually common) with a special note, that it was a reward for tournament.

I think my problem before was, that I was not recognizing the 4th group of players, who want to play competitively without being limited by a card pool.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2012, 08:36:52 AM by MarcinS »   Report to moderator     Logged
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Sets 01-16 finished
Set 17 progress - 33%
:11:55 AM »