Actual Email

Ooooh, this is good. From my Inbox:

-----------------------------------------

2nd Notice

Dear evan@misterorange.com <evan@misterorange.com> Evan Erwin

We at Herb Newton Nissan ask that you please remove our trade mark name & link from your website.

Located at http:// http://www.misterorange.com/archive/2004_05_16_archive.html

Please call me if you have any questions only between normal business hours.

Thank you,

Joe Somebody

-----------------------------------------

Here was my reply:

First Amendment - Religion and Expression

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Thanks

Evan

----------------------

Ah, freedom.

Riverwalk

So here I am in the midst of San Antonio. It's a nice place I guess, but when you go on a trip, you generally only get to see one or two parts of any city/area before you have to move on. Particularly for business trips, that is sometimes limited to the hotel you're staying in and (maybe) a few blocks around it. This doesn't take into consideration trams or taxis or any other Alternative Transportation, and of course dining may vary from venue to venue.

Anyway, long story short I'm here and it's pretty neat. I hate dressing up (the looks I got when I arrived from the plane flight with jeans + t-shirt were classic), but if it's what I have to do I'll do it. Hell, today isn't the worst part. Today I'm just taking one of the courses my company creates. It's Wednesday when the real shit hits the (real) fan, because then we're talking about ties and button-ups.

Boy, I can't wait.

So with that said, the plane flight was a cramped, awful affair, and with 40 less pounds on me would've been just about the same. The seat width + knee room was non-existent, and somewhere between Memphis and here I finally got to sleep by leaning my head back and trying my best not to notice the other uncomfortable people around me.

I hadn't flown in the past 4 years. Now I remember why.

What Is A Movie Trailer?

You must check out this new internet-only trailer for the upcoming Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie.

Just brilliant.

Family Update, 2-25-05

Yes ladies and gents, its time for another Weekly Family Update! (Patent pending, hos and hoettes)

Abby

Abby has a new hobby: She's decided to not only climb her way onto things (and not know how to get off them...you should watch her fall off things a few inches from the ground, I don't know whether to laugh or...laugh), but she's also decided to climb up on Annie's bed when we're not around and...

Jump up and down like a rabid monkey! Yes, it's so cute it actually hurts your eyes to bear witness. I cried tears of cuteness.

Anyway, after that little feat we work our way past the baby food and into Regular Food, where Abby too can enjoy the goodness of Ericka's cooking. I seem to be regulated for the rest of my days to cooking Meat during functions and the occassional family outing. It's tough work being a dad, I tell ya.

Annie

You know what's great about Annie? It's that she's slowly but surely catching on to everything. I know that sounds weird and stupid and generic (that's because it was), but in the great scheme of things she's Getting It, and I think that's great.

Also, she has a fondness for me that I find endearing to a fault. What can I say, I love the girl.

Today's conversation:

"Hi daddy."
"Hi booger!"
"I got my lip gloss."
"Oh yeah? That's great baby. I love you."
"I love you too. Bye!"

But that's not the cutest part. This is what Ericka said when she came back:

"She just repeated that conversation to herself."
"What?"
"Yeah, she said 'Hi daddy. Hi booger! I love you, I love you too.' and went into her room."

Too cute peeps, I'm telling you.

Ericka

Ericka officially has her first Dessert Making Job. That's a great thing by any standard, but I think the looming trip to Mississippi will be even more telling. While I wish I could go, work calls and she'll be on her own.

However...she won't be alone.

In a moment of clarity (or insanity), I did the annual Tax Return Splurge where we buy something a little ridiculous and unneccessary. This year it was matching iPod Shuffles for me and the Mrs. Yes, I know. It's insane how much goodness is packed in that little white stick. And the form/function balance is something of an enigma. There have been scientific studies into its brilliance. Results? Inconclusive.

People ask, "Just how sexy are Apple products?"
Allow me to answer: "The iPod Shuffle packaging was the sexiest I have ever felt." Yes, and that's just the paper. I won't rest until I know just how sexy the iPod itself is, but we'll hold off on that one (for awhile).

What's really creepy is how many Apple products I've been using here lately. First I sent my PC off on the caravan to the conference and kept my trusty Powerbook (that I'm writing this post from), partly because the Shuffle/Powerbook combo is so damn sexy it hurts. I also got a Super Sexy Cool carrying bag for the Powerbook. Too sexy for your shirt? Shit...my computer is too sexy for me.

Hell, the accessories are too sexy for me. Its like the whole world went insane and the shuffle stood alone. Man that thing is cool.

Hey, Apple? Love ya.

Shuffle Time

Ugh, don’t have long for a post today, just a quick blurb: iTunes keeping track of the machines you’ve authorized and deauthorized is a pain in my ass.

Buy Ericka a present (I’ll reveal tomorrow), and now I’m stuck with this shit. I can’t buy a single song on iTunes because I’ve apparently shared music with 4 others at ORNL. Seriously, let’s spell this out: I can buy a song I just can’t download it from here.

Does anyone else think that’s totally fucking shithouse rat crazy?

Bleh. More prep work for the big conference next week. Later.

How Bloggishly Cute

Well, okay then, I guess the Oscars producer has his own blog. Complete with “Hey look at me I’m at the computer doing stuff” picture. He laments about Chris Rock’s appearance on the Oscars, the smartest choice this side of Steve Martin (who was fucking brilliant as the host…when they would let him).

Also, god help the poor fool who chose the color scheme for that site. My lord, orange and green? Despite the fact that the former color is in my url, that doesn’t mean I have to like it (note that my name references the movie Reservoir Dogs and has nothing to do with colors or affiliations…that is all).

It’s like the graphics guy took a technicolor shit, shaped it sorta Oscar-like, and then called it the header image.

Actual Conversation

This is an actual conversation I just had with some idiot at CompUSA:

“Hello, this is (unintelligible), how may I help you?” He sounds like Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite. I hear the constant drone of girlish chatter and giggling in the background.

“Yes, I was looking for a PCMCIA wireless card for my G4 Powerbook.”

“You want a PCA…”

“No, a PCMCIA card. It’s a … style of hardware, expansion cards for laptops.”

“Uh, okay. I have here a two port USB hub PCMCIA card…” Giggles, big laugh in the background. I roll my eyes.

“No, I need a wireless card for a G4 Powerbook. PCMCIA.”

“PIA…”

“No…PCMCIA. An Airport wireless card.” I try to give him as much information so he can feed it into his search box. The unstoppable giggling is beginning to get on my nerves.

“Okay, here is one. $39.99, PCMCIA wireless for mac.”

“Okay, great. Is it in Knoxville?”

“No, it’s not in Knoxville.”

“Where’s the closest store other than Knoxville?”

“Uh…one second.” *click, click, clack* “I see it in the Alpharetta store…”

Alpharetta Georgia? “Um, okay. So is it there?” I figure I’ll just get it overnighted or 2–day express.

“No, it’s not there either,” He says. My anger begins to boil.

“So how do I get this? Is it online?”

Classic line coming up. “No, it’s In-Store Pickup only.”

“Which store has it?”

“I don’t know.”

Somebody. Just. Kill me.

He got hung up on shortly after. I then just googled the bastard, and got what I needed from SomewhereThatDoesn’tHireMorons.com.

Just Shopping

it was cold
it was like cold water
my funny whispers
thinking back on past mistakes
holding that candle as the wax burns my fingers
I've often dreamt myself imaginary characters
lived their superb, defrosted lives
and breathed their exciting air
and then returned, back again
like old wool
to lay aimlessly
and look around
but never touch the merchandise
- Anonymous

As you were, I was. As I am, you will be

RIP Hunter S. Thompson.

B-Day Postmortem

Man, I am absolutely exhausted. I’m pretty sure I have the flu from Annie, and of course this is in the middle of me having to prepare for a week-long conference in San Antonio (Brian, this is where I’ll be next week).

Regardless, Abby’s Birthday Party went off like gangbusters. Ericka made a sweet little caterpiller cake (she’s quickly become the dessert baker I knew she could be), and some amazing presents were given via my sisters, friends and family.

I wish I could take back the decision to let Annie spend the night with said sisters, as she was really too sick to go, but I wanted her to spend time with her cousins. Bleh. Hindsight is so 20/20.

Nevertheless, I am sick and all I want to do is crawl in bed and rest. Where’s the medicine? The chicken soup? Warm me up a bowl already. I have a date with a warm bed.

Family Matters, Week of 2-18-05

Hello once again friends, here we go with Friday’s Patented (as everything is patented nowadays) Family Update:

Ericka

My wonderful wife has been doing all of that monotonous crap I hate doing, and that I love and respect her dearly for: This includes the thankless job of taking care of the kids (though I try to rectify that as often as possible), doing laundry, cleaning the house (and after me), and her primary focus this week has been preparing for Abby’s Birthday party this Saturday.

Speaking of, this directly relates into her getting into the Dessert Extraordinaire Mode, which will astound you with her baking prowess. Yes, prowess, she prowls the night in search of the Next Great Sugar Rush and let me tell, that’s a rush you want to be a part of. No Red Bull/Vodka craziness here, I’m talking about good ole fashioned Atkins-Hatin(tm) Carb-Licious Sugar baked, sculpted and displayed in all the ways that make your heart, mind, and waistline melt.

Did I mention I need to go back to the gym?

I’ll try my damndest to get pictures of her birthday creation, hopefully in conjuction with the launch of her blog, which will be up Very Soon Now. This is the part where Ericka bugs me about her birthday being almost a month ago (FYI: Her Birthday is 1/28) and that the domain I bought from her is collecting dust in the most unformidable of fashions.

But, enough of this. This wonderful woman brought to you by the letters I, L, and U. Good luck figuring out my Omega Code there.

Annie

Annie has the flu! Yea, this is followed us usually by the words “Ah, hell.” At least, I know I do. I wish desperately that my little girl didn’t have to suffer with fevers (The highest recorded was 103.5, but who knows if it ever peaked 104) and pain and lack of eating. I mean, the girl is a rail as it is and we have a hard enough time getting her to eat. This just compounds the problem.

Soon, I will be the sole father of an invisible girl. We could do shows and stuff.

I know my sister Rhonda wanted to take her for the weekend, but that’s pretty much been curbed as of now.

One other thing of note: I will be out of town the first week of March for my company’s big once-a-year shindig down in Texas. This means that with Annie getting sick right about now, I should have just enough time to catch it, try and slow it down with cold meds, and then get it with a vengence as soon as my plane leaves for the largest state in the union. Good luck to me, heh.

Abby

Well, Abby is as Abby does, and I’m currently pushing to get her to use Sign Language. One of the worst parts of being a parent is the frustration when your child can’t communicate. While They say (yes, They) toddlers can understand sign language a year before they can actually speak it, I have my doubts. However, these doubts lie in the scope of such understanding, not in the ability itself.

My bud Jeremy has taught his son Lex how to sign, though he does it mostly with his feet (is that right? I don’t want to mis-type or anything). This, to me, is exciting as All Get Out, and you just don’t know the joy of your kids finally getting a clear message sent. Even now Annie has some problems with language that sign language could perhaps overcome, or at the very least we try to teach her how to sign so she can let Abby see by example.

Oh, and she turns one year old tomorrow. That kicks ass.

Speaking of kicking ass and wrapping this up, Ericka picked up the Saw DVD yesterday. Did I mention I love this woman? That movie is the shiznot bizzle-wizzle boom-bah. That’s izzle-speak for “Highly Enjoyable Entertainment.”

The Gates Are Here

Okay, so what in the world is this? I really want to know. While I even listened to an NPR story about it, I fall directly into the category of “this is kinda stupid.”

All of this effort for what would amount to very expansive and expensive decoration.

And this is art. Blah. No my friends, this is art.

Stars Love Their Apples

This Wired News story is pretty interesting. The one thing I keep hearing in my mind is Keifer Southerland saying “Thank you, thank you,” in a hushed Phone Booth-esque voice.

And Announcing...CCGBlog.com!

Yes, find it here! I now have a place where all my CCG thoughts are contained, free of any personal matters. There you’ll find my trials and tribulations in game design, development, and all things CCG.

Expect more casual stuff from me now, including much shorter posts and I will keep my 5–day update schedule both here and on ccgblog.com.

CCG Site - Coming Soon

I know I promised a card layout rundown today (and trust me, these are so fun I can’t wait to do more), but first I’m going to get this new CCG blog up and running, and will debut that card layout review, along with all of my existing CCG posts, on there. Over the weekend I registered a domain name and got some space, so tonight I’ll get it in Publishable shape.

Also, MovableType is a really nice Content Management Tool, and expect me to convert this blog to its advanced interface/features very soon (as they have a working Blogger import that I’ve seen raves about).

Family Matters

Hello everyone, welcome to the Weekly Fam Update. While I’m seriously considering creating a new blog for my CCG postings, for the moment we’ll keep it All In The Blog and see what we can do here.

First up…Ericka, my wife.

She had an awesome birthday party last week, starting with PF Changs (Chinese restaraunt) and ending at Planet Bowl bowling. We went to the latter establishment solely based on their liquor license. And what a license it was. After 2.5 hours of bowling goodness, we headed home. As for the presents, I did register my wife a domain, and do plan on getting her blog up sometime soon. However, due to her recent interest in baking and cake decoration (of which she is The Shiat, rhyming with Fiat, as some may refer to her as), I have postponed its creation and may perhaps build a semi-professional site with a blog, instead of just the latter.

Regardless, she is now my quarter-century old sweetheart, and I love her dearly.

Next up, Annie (my two year old)

She has officially gotten the 2 year old Meanness that strikes every kid. Whether she’s pushing boundaries or, like last night, dipping her entire hand in the vaseline and then smearing it all over the living room, well, them’s the breaks.

What’s really cool about me and Annie is always bedtime. That’s when everything slows down and I get to break out the Shel Silverstein. Where The Sidewalk Ends is a brilliant piece of work, and I’ve made my way through almost all of them. Many of which Annie knows by name.

“I wanna hear about Jimmy Jet and his TV Set,” she’ll say. “Read boo-boo ‘daids,” (ie, Band Aids) she’ll request. “I wanna hear about Captain Hook!”

This is awesome stuff. Unfortunately she’ll be with my mother in law for the greater part of this weekend, and I’ll miss her (and my reading to her) very much.

Lastly, Abby (damn-near 1 year old)

Abby has her birthday party coming up on February 19th, and while many of my and Ericka’s family members will be in attendance, unfortunately no babies will be. Good buds Jeremy and Lesley will be in Nashville, and my cousin Lana and Jim have prior engagements. This doesn’t lessen the fun or anything, but it is something that I wish could be rectified. Regardless, a good time will be had by all and I’ll try to get pictures up here.

Speaking of pictures, allow me to leave you with the following pic of Abby (click on it for a larger image):

CCG Winning Conditions

Note for those who don?t like to read my CCG posts: I?ve reserved Fridays as Family/Personal Blog day. I?ll wrap up personal happenings, the latest with kids, family, events, and other stuff tomorrow.

Now, with that out of the way, I want to finish the week by talking about?

CCG Winning Conditions

Winning conditions are one of the first things you need to figure out as a designer. Between winning conditions and combat, you?ll find no two greater subjects to tackle. Why is a good winning condition important? Well, not to state the obvious, but?

1. The player needs a goal to attain

2. The set needs at least one condition to build around

Before we get into it, that?s the simplest definition I can think of. You want players to know how to win, in easy to follow terms, and you want cards that are on a power curve equal to your winning condition. Allow me to bold here for a second: Your winning condition sets your power curve, and all of the elements in your game are relative toward it.

For example, VS System gives each player 50 Endurance points. When a player takes ?damage? they lose Endurance. Endurance is used both as a method of payment for abilities as well as a relational value by which the characters were designed. This is why you have 8 resource cost 20 attack character, amongst other things.

To counterpoint, Magic gives each player 20 life points. With such a low number, you?ll never see an 8 resource costing character that can do 20 damage (or at least you won?t without significant drawbacks). But that?s fine. The game has regulated itself to work within that 20 life point rule, and as such designs all of their cards with that value in mind (amongst other things).

So with that said, another thing that isn?t crucial, but is important, to your winning condition is flavor. While Magic and VS System don?t really have this in effect, some other games deliver flavor pretty well. The Warlord CCG is a battle between two powerful sorcerers. Your cards are laid out in front of you in an upside-down triangle pattern. This represents the characters you control, and at the bottom of this flipped pyramid is your sorcerer. If that character dies you lose. This is flavorful in that you know where your power base lies (ie, how powerful is my sorcerer in relation to my opponent?s?) and you know how to manipulate your winning condition (if I make my sorcerer stronger, then I?ll live longer and not lose).

Other space-based games have Star Bases to defend, so when that card is destroyed so are you. Etc, etc. These are flavorful ways that games that relate their winning conditions without being an arbitrary number. While I like some of them I generally dislike a one-way-only winning condition. Why? It pigeon-holes strategy onto a one-way street, and does the same to the designers.

So now we get into Alternate Winning Conditions. What are AWC?s? Well, they?re different ways to win the game silly. Most games will either launch with 1?3 winning conditions, and either modify them with cards that do just that, or add additional AWC?s with cards.

Let?s take for instance, this card from VS System:

Normally if you run out of cards from your deck in VS System, nothing happened. You simply didn?t draw cards. Contrast that rule with this card: It simply gives you an alternate winning condition when there wasn?t one, including basing its creation on breaking an existing rule that most players were (perhaps) taking for granted. For example, they didn?t care if they were burning through cards with Genosha (a card that can draw up to 4 cards if you control Magneto), because they weren?t worried about losing via lack of cards to draw.

Magic already has this rule in place (well, almost: If you are forced to draw a card and cannot, you lose). But they also have an AWC called Poison Counters. If you get hit with a creature who gives you a poison counter, you begin to keep a tally. At 10 poison counters, you lose. Pretty simple, right?

Well, sorta. This is where AWC?s go bad: The winning condition, based on game design, is fundamentally flawed. Where the other winning conditions are just fine (decking and going from 20 to 0 life points), with Magic being a mainly creature-based affair, having just two or three creatures who can efficiently create poison counters is a hindrance. Why? Because 10 halves the accepted standard power level and damn near square roots it (sorry, that?s a terrible phrase, but its what came to mind). Why? Because against normal creatures, if you can?t remove them you have the option to gain life and stay alive. But poison counters, unless specifically removed, will stay there forever. This creates an uncomfortable inevitability-like situation for the person who tries their best to stay poison free, but only needs 10 unblocked poison-givers to lose, no matter what happens, for the rest of the game.

Also, trying to embrace this winning condition means having to create an antithesus to it. So suddenly you?re pushing the playerbase to include hosers for a mechanic that, if efficient enough, can kill rather quickly, and you?re also forcing cards to be played because of the power inherently found in it.

To put this in perspective: Artifacts are huge in Magic right now because the designers made a conscious choice to make them a very prevalent part of the metagame. For the reason, lots of artifact destruction is not only used in the Sideboard but is now main-decked. There is nothing wrong with this inherently, because artfacts are means to an end (either your life points or your deck). However, poison counters have no way to be removed, and to create a mass of good poison-providing creatures will shift the metagame towards an entirely different winning condition, something that the designers have never dared to do because it would be akin to a train wreck. Their unremovability and inherent limitations in terms of game design prevent them from being a focus.

Mark Rosewater, the lead dev, has commented on the poison mechanic before, promising that it may be revisited at some point in the future. I seriously doubt it. Unless there are some rule changes (such as you need 20 poison counters to lose) and some really nice efficient constructed-worthy poison givers/removers, you?ll never see a serious magic player within miles of this winning condition. It is, at best, an afterthought to Magic.

The idea is to make your AWC?s prevalent and meaningful, so as to provide a different and useful avenue for your player to travel should they not use the ?normal? method. Join me next week where I?ll take another look at card layouts (with new images from differing CCGs), amongst other thrilling topics.

CCG Design Scale

Hello everyone, today I want to talk about CCG Design Scale. One of the first decisions made in game design, this a short but improtant topic to discuss.

What is CCG Design Scale? Well, to put it simply, it?s the level of detail by which your resources, characters, and entities in your CCG are depicted.

To better illustrate my point, let?s take for instance an idea of mine that has yet to work out: A World War II CCG. Let?s take a look at this idea and how scale may affect its development.

First, the secret to CCG Scale is knowing what is important to control as a player. What is the scale necessary to make this work? And by scale, I mean what kind of intricacy is necessary for each character and/or action?

To put it in simpler terms: What?s the best way to show soldiers in a CCG like this, by squad or by individual?

In my mind, the Individual Soldier is by far more interesting than controlling a squad. However, you can do far more in terms of design if you went up to a squad-based scale. Let me give you an example:

1 ? Individual Soldiers ? Equipped Items such as weapons or armor are easier to use with individual soldiers. The players quickly understand that a rocket launcher needs to be stuck to a single guy instead of a hundred. Pretty simple there.

2 ? Squad-Based ? However, it is more (dare I say) heroic to push against another player with dozens of soldiers fighting tooth and nail alongside dozens of tanks. Squads can be fed via ?Supply Lines? and they can also feature dramatic movements to other locales, suffer casualties (and detrements there-in), and be grouped to form Batallions.

So if we?re leaning the way of Squad-based, which I am as I write this (and I?ve flip-flopped about a dozen times on this issue in my head), you can also have powerful Commanders which may or may not begin in play. These Commanders can give you bonuses and/or abilities that you wouldn?t normally have, and there are gameplay trade-offs made by using powerful Commanders with consequences.

However, with individuals you can really personalize the characters, create relationships within them (such as tying one character to another), along with the more grounded sense of each player trying to take their rag-tag army home to victory.

When you think of scale in terms of CCG, the second secret is simplicity. While this is the first rule of combat, it is the 2nd rule of scale. Once you know what is important to control (secret #1), you need to know how to control them, and you want to keep that simple (secret #2). So by doing both of these, you?ll give yourself a great jumping off point to designing winning conditions, resource control, and combat.

That ends today?s short blurb. Tomorrow we?ll elaborate on some ideas here, and perhaps throw around the importance of good winning conditions.

CCG Mechanics Gone Bad

I can?t help myself. This was just too much not to comment on:

Allegiance: War of Factions

I?m not even going to touch on the layout problems (Go here for that), or the Debate mechanic (whatever that is), but the Investigate mechanic needs some work. Here is how it was explained on the Allegiance homepage:

?Inspector Crowther has the ability Investigate, which can be used to stop a crime in process. Whenever a criminal ability is used, an Investigation can be called. You take the crime strength (the number following the crime on the card), and subtract that from the total Investigate strength, with the minimum being 1. The Investigating lord then rolls a die, and if the result is equal to or less than the required number, the criminal is caught, which results in the crime being negated and the criminal going to the discard pile.? ? (Additional bolding for emphasis.)

Okay, so the idea is to have investigators hanging around to stop crimes and kill crooks. Fair enough. But here?s where it goes right off the rails: This card has Investigate +4. He just said that you take the crime number and subtract it from the Investigate total. So I subtract X from +4? What, are we going to have -4 Investigate for the really clueless sleuths?

Wow guys, that?s just fucking brilliant. No reminder text and the mechanic holds no logic in how it is written on the card.

Dear Allegiance devs: Please know that Reminder Text doesn?t suck and helps your game. Oh, and can I get some more stats per card? I think we need a few more (hopefully color-coded too). Thanks.

CCG Card Layouts

Sorry for the lack of a posting yesterday, I was feeling awful and stayed home from work. However, I think this will make up for it:

Today I?d like to talk about CCG Card Layouts, and the differences in each. Through these examples, you can then learn what makes or breaks a card game in the aesthetics department.

Please note, I haven?t played most of these games, and I?ve tried to just get a nice selection to view. Also, I tried to pick characters from each CCG so we can focus on one area.

Magic

The defacto standard, here is the general breakdown before we begin to look at other CCGs:

• Name in the top left.
• Resource requirements in the top right.
• In the center you have the card type (ie, Creature), and then character type (Cleric?which will soon be Human Cleric when 9th edition is released).
• Power and toughness on the bottom. Not necessarily on the bottom-right.

There is also an expansion symbol, but I wasn?t going to put it down as defacto, because the expansion symbol is sometimes left off of some CCGs (when a basic set is released), or simply aren?t used at all (VS. System uses set names as expansion symbols).

Also, Power and Toughness are listed in that order on almost every other card game, or top to bottom. Players have almost universally adapted to this system.

VS System

I like this layout. It doesn?t get too symbol-happy (limited to just the Flight and Range symbols on the left represented by wings and the aiming circle), and the power and toughness conforms to the top-bottom standard. Resource cost is moved to the top left, but that?s okay because there is nothing on the top right to confuse players. It also looks better when you have a grip full of cards to be able to quickly see (and arrange) cards by resource cost. Character type is moved to the left, but is done so in a classy way.

The only thing wrong with this one is the lack of Mechanic explanation. Allow me to say that sometimes Mechanics are never explained when in ?Expert? expansions, but for any game that has less circulation than Pokemon or Magic, you really need to explain your mechanics, regardless of how often they show up in sets.

Star Trek TCG

Ah, refreshing. An awful card layout. Firstly, I don?t recall if Star Trek actually has a resource system in place. I?m sure if did it would still shit all over this one. Let?s see here. We have a ton of icons (particularly those around the V.I.P. Flavor box), we have even more in the abilities and attributes box. The only thing I really like about this card is the affiliation marker and name position. Otherwise, this is just too busy and a little ridiculous.

Cyberpunk 2020

Ah Cyberpunk, how sad art thou. First, the good things?er, thing: I like the Money cost of the card on the left, as it is easy to see and arrange cards by cost when in hand. And?that?s about it. We have 4 different stats, with defense and power reversed from the accepted standard, and SR and LR (whatever those mean), along with POW/DEF values all in small font and hard to read (and all over the card). Oh, and that cost in the bottom right? What the hell is that? Beats me?

Doom Trooper CCG

You just have no idea how hard it was to find this DoomTrooper CCG card image. A now-defunct CCG (revived to play on CCGWorkshop), there are a few things I like about this one: First, the factions at the top of the card. While I don?t like two differing factions, as it tends to muddle a card?s uniqueness, I do like the fact that you can mix and match to create a diverse amount of characters.

Otherwise, the problems on this one is that CAPS are used instead of altered font and/or positioned keywords that should be bolded or simply better formatted. With attack and defense values in the right top-down order but seperated by a ?bullet value? (whatever that icon stands for), along with some sort of Magic value at the bottom, this one has a lot of problems that could be solved with just a few differing layout options.

Legend of the 5 Rings

Ah, Legend of the 5 Rings. I can?t believe this thing is still around after a decade, yet absolutely no one in my area plays it. L5R has always been the Thinking Man?s CCG, which basically amounts to it being quite a bit more complex than most. First, what I like: The Force and Chi values at the top, flanking the name. This provides an easy to compare context. I also like the Gold cost in the center. This is the generic cost for all cards, not just characters.

What I don?t like: The flanking values next to the Gold amount. I can?t recall which is which, but one is honor and the other is?how many followers the person can have? Anyway, is Soul of Hida Tsuneo really necessary there guys? In the character type? I understand the Crab Clan, and Unique, but defining his mystical origin really doesn?t add anything to the game/character itself.

A Game of Thrones

This is from A Game of Thrones CCG. Let?s see if we can decode this one: Well, it costs 4 Gold, it has 3?banner, allegience, influence? (who knows.) It has an axe icon and a crown icon, and that has to mean some sort of loyalty?to the king? Anyway, he?s a Lord we see, and has Stealth. What is stealth? Who knows, this mechanic isn?t explained. Oh, and all of your Army characters gain stealth (Whatever this is) while attacking during axe challenges. Uh?huh.

Cthuhlu CCG

Here is a character card from the Call of Cthuhlu CCG. As a lot of this game is ?investigating stories,? it has a lot of sleuth-minded attributes for each character. Based on what little I?ve read, characters have a Sanity Value or quotient or something, and I can immediately assign the ?3? over the pages in the middle-left of the card as this value. The other 3 in the top left is its cost, and on the far left we see a magnifying glass and an open book, surely more attributes for ?stories? that must be investigated. I like this layout quite a bit, as the character type is easy to find and the Artifact search text is easy to understand.

Neopets CCG

Okay, hold on to your seats, we?re getting wacky. This is a Neopets CCG character, and all that that implies. Firstly, I haven?t the slightest idea what those stats on the right are. Mag may be Magic, and I believe the red/blue coded numbers are attack and defense, but their 3?character pseudonyms are nothing closely resembling either basic statistic.

What I do like: The character name and types, and I like the fact that the text box still lets you see the rest of the art.

Pokemon

Just when you thought it was safe to finish reading, here comes the Pokemon card! This thing is all over the place. First: Character name -below- character type? Stupid. VS System pulls this off because superheroes have alter egos and vice versa. Here it looks shoddy because of the font positioning. Secondly, having the health points of the character in the top right may be the default layout, but I still feel its bad form. The top half of a card should almost exclusively be reserved for name, cost, and perhaps type/faction icons.

The font fluxuation is jarring, the ?weakness / resistance / retreat cost? nearly hidden by its small font layout?Bleh. Oh, and what does Dark Thunder do? I have no idea. But apparently Apocalypse was important enough to actually explain.

Battletech

Ah, Battletech, that other Richard Garfield game that tanked. I remember playing this game and thinking it was an interesting concept but ultimately too simple to really play on a competitive basis. The ability to have Monster Mechs to Smash Face is always intriguing, and all things considered, they could?ve done a worse job.

First, the cost (2) and power/toughness look just fine. It?s when we get to the bottom where things get iffy. Do you know what that 1?>5 is? Or that 1 in the bottom right hand corner? Me neither. Perhaps a small blurb (ie, 3?letter description) or some sort of image to clue you into to their use would?ve improved its chances of survival.

Netrunner

Though I tried my best to select Character cards for each CCG I speak of, I simply couldn?t find one for Netrunner (I?m not sure right now if there even are character cards in Netrunner). Hell, it?s a miracle I found this one, period. Anyway, I like the layout of this one, very simple and easy to understand. Though the ?Playing double prep cards for two consecutive actions this turn instead of one.? is a bit odd in its placement (is it reminder text or rules text?), the rest is very acceptable and I love the flavorful layout.

And that wraps up my glimpse into card layouts in various ccgs. I hope we?ve all learned something. Class dismissed.

Out of Time

Hello everybody, sorry for the lack of an update today. Monday I'll return with card layout comparisons and opinions. It formulates right now on my hard drive, so the gestation period culminating to Monday's post should be fruitful (in layman's terms, it will kick ass).

CCG Combat and Simplicity

Welcome back dear reader. Today I want to cover not only Combat in a bit more depth, but a few words on combat simplicity and its impact on a game.

CCG Combat and Simplicity

So with the awful definition of avatars comparing stats, let’s take a basic example of how most combat is dealt with:

Joe Bob has 2 strength and 3 defense

Bubba Gump has 5 strength and 1 defense

Now based on these figures, let’s see how different games might handle it:

In Magic, both characters are dead because without any other cards affecting the characters, nor any traits that lets one deal damage first (ie, First Strike).

In VS, both characters would be “Stunned” (that is to say, tapped and then turned upside down). This represents characters that are no longer in play. You also lose life points (called Endurance) equal to the amount of Breakthrough (ie, Trample) damage. For example, Bubba did 2 Breakthrough damage, because Joe Bob’s defense is 3 and Bubba’s power is 5.

In the defunct Doom Trooper CCG, both characters would get a Wound. After the second wound counter is placed, the character dies.

So what does this tell us? One, that I believe a two-stat system is the simplest solution. For example, let’s take a look at this card:

Now, allow me to say here: Goddamn that’s a lot of stats, numbers, abilities, and symbols. There are no less than nine different properties for this character, not counting her abilities!

Now this card comes from the Allegiance: War of Factions CCG, sort of like a moderately tough to learn RPG made into a pretty damn complex card game. Now I’ve not played Allegiance, so I’m not dishing the game, but what I do have issues with is its awful layout and lack of any sort of explanation.

For example: I can see that 3 is this character’s attack value. At least, I think it is, based on the swords behind the graphic. But…what in the hell is the rest of this? What is that weird L symbol that activates the ability? I’m guessing this is their tap symbol. I’ll give them that.

Allow me to show you another card from their upcoming expansion. Just when you thought 9 different stats were too many…

Okay, now this a bit better layout-wise, in that I can definitely see the attack and defense of the character. But damn. The numbers, color-coded, the symbols in the bottom left and bottom right corners (complete with keyword next to them)…its ridiculous. There is a lesson to be learned here.

That lesson, that secret to combat is simplicity. This game lacks it. When you have Joe Bob as a 2/3, and Bubba Gump as a 5/1, you immediately began to compare those stats and can instantly do the math in your head. When I look at an Allegiance card, my eyes glaze over. There is just so much information there. Talk about a newbie killer…

Here’s another simplicity-is-best factoid: When you have new mechanics, such as “Sabotage” on the latter card I have here, for the love of God, Explain them on the card. If you do not, you alienate new players and old ones alike.

This is a rule (ie, explaining mechanics) that Magic adopted a long time ago, yet I find myself hard pressed to find it anywhere else. VS. System is finally adapting something similar in terms of their new Concealement mechanic, but in older sets they have not. This is a mistake. Card games need to be simple with splashes of strategic complexity, not forcing the player to run around the most recent rulebook looking up the latest mechanic that a player may never see again.

Case in point:

Any idea what Cosmic is? What it does, how it works, and did you know it was a counter? Yeah, me neither when I first saw it. Here’s how that card should read:

“Cosmic (This comes into play with a Cosmic counter. While this has one, it has the following ability. If stunned, this character loses its Cosmic counter.): Activate, remove Strange Visitor from the game..”

Etc. Now does it make a bit more sense? I thought so.

CCG Combat Design

Well, to kick things off, Gizoogle is funny as shit. Or would that be shizzle?

Anyway, I would like to welcome you to another topic on card game design: Combat

Combat occurs in virtually every collectable card game ever made. Sure there are plenty of card games that are based around locations and plots and situations, but all of them (that I can think of anyway, or have read about) feature character or avatar-based combat.

Combat can generally be broken down to its barest bones by the following: Combat is when two card-based avatars compare stats. Based on whomever is favored, the loser is then discarded or suffers some ill effect.

God, that was a lame definition.

The point is, whether you?re dueling with superheroes or space machines, combat defines how most of your game will be determined, as a huge chunk of the gameplay itself is just combat. Now combat can be determined as to who ?wins? and who ?loses?, but other games take a different approach. Here is how some games use combat:

? In Bang! you are represented by a character type avatar, such as sherrif, etc, complete with life points. Players directly attack you with effects from cards in their hand.

? In Mechwarrior you attacked your opponent?s deck instead of their characters. The strategy here is not so much destroying an opponent?s characters but shutting them down or out-racing their abilities.

? In Legend of the 5 Rings there are multiple combat steps including challenges/duels along with ?regular? combat. The strategy here is the ability to single out two characters to battle, along with the detractors/benefits of being able to choose whether or not to do so.

? VS System has the ?Initiative? marker to help with its everyone-takes-the-same-turn system, allowing each player to choose what characters to attack with and which to leave behind to use as blockers + special abilities. ?Tapped? characters may block, so it?s not really a question of do they attack or not in regards to not leaving an open alley for your opponent to smash through.

? Magic has your basic turn-based system, and Tapped characters cannot block unless an effect lets them do so. The strategy here is deciding whether an attack is ?worth it? as your opponent may have a trick to let them win thanks to your greed.

So we have multiple combat steps, we have a different way to go about combat (e.g, deck destruction), and we have combat tied into how the game itself is structured. The point is that when creating a combat phase, you want to have more than a single number determining who wins and who loses. I was mired in this just the other day.

You see, there are plenty of stats that you can rely on in terms of combat. One of the reasons I absolutely hated Cyberpunk 2025 was because it had a TON of math in terms of combat. Add these figures. Subtract by X. Multiply by X. Then divide based on mission number. Etc etc. I didn?t play this game to learn algebra, I play to have fun.

Say it with me peeps: Any combat math beyond simple addition and subtraction is no fun.

Doubling/tripling a number is fine (ie, ?Target creature?s power is doubled?), but any division, multiplication, and god forbid fractions, are ridiculous and have no place in a card game beyond Unglued/Unhinged (Magic ?fun? sets that can?t be used competitively).

So with that said, if you wish to design a CCG, one of the first hurdles you must face is combat. Don?t worry so much about creatures or personalities or entities in the game. What you must worry about is combat and/or any phase that requires a lot of back-and-forth involvement from the players of said game. As combat is usually the most involved both players get during a single game (otherwise they?re basically playing Really Tough Solitaire), you want to make sure that it is as enjoyable and interesting as possible.

I learned this lesson the hard way: after hundreds of cards I designed, I still wasn?t 100% on my chosen combat method, and are now forced to rewrite a huge amount because I changed my mind. It is a lesson I will never forget. Combat could be the single biggest design hurdle, after winning conditions, that any card game faces.

Tomorrow: How to approach combat, what some card games have done (beyond those examples shown), and perhaps an exercise in creating a combat system.

On Premium

Welcome again, faithful reader. Today I don’t have tales of CCG creation, I have tails of CCG fandom and its implications.

A long time ago, there was a Magic fansite called The Dojo (see a classic article here). Pros would hang out, write tournament reports and strategy articles, and it got quite a bit of attention. But after a while, Brainburst came into view and began with their own content. Please note that all of this content was free, an important distinction.

Then Brainburst decided to have a Premium Membership which gave you access to the “premium” content on that site and their network of sites (that includes information on World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, VS System, etc). Many people flocked toward the newest kid on the block: Star City Games.

Well, after years of producing nearly ad-free and quality strategy content, Star City Games surprised its entire readership on Monday by announcing Premium Articles. This meant to view certain articles you paid a monthly, quarterly, or yearly fee. The latter is $30, so “for just pennies a day” you can get the same content you were getting for free…for a price.

Now the content itself, I believe, is pretty damn good when it wants to be. There are plenty of times when I’ve read a Star City Games article and thought “Goddamn, this is going to change things.” While I think that the official Magic the Gathering site is even more influential, for obvious reasons, the fact that SCG does have so much pull is one reason they can even attempt Premium Content.

However, the happy tale ends here. Unfortunately, SCG decided to launch with articles by Tim Aten (a hilarious and sometimes brilliant MtG pop culture enthusiast…this is good) and Jim  Ferraiolo (This…is bad). Both are Pros by their own merits, and I have nothing wrong with either of their writing styles, though Jim does tend to be more “cut and dried”, as it were.

The error in SCG’s ways was simply ignorance to the community they have (ie, getting no opinions/feedback before launch), ignorance of the business sense in trying to merge into a pay-to-read site (you have two different logins, the store and the site), and ignorance in the fact that other sites give you other benefits than “Now you can see our cool, interesting text.” This includes discounts and/or network subscriptions, much like Brainburst and (I can’t help the analogy) porn sites often do.

So now they have a bunch of pissed off readers and upset community, with most of them subscribing and the vocal naysayers being, well, pretty damn vocal. Feel free to dive into the 12+ page forum post, but I thought this was interesting, found on pages 8 and 9, respectively. Here is what I posted first (there is more, but this is the gist):

Me? I gave SCG my $30 so fast my bank account could barely see it coming. Aten is pure genius most of the time, and Flores is the deal-sealer. Paskins can laugh at elves and make red decks, that's fine. Jim F is boring and so uncreative it actually hurts my bones to read his articles. Trust me, if there was a worse day to "feature" Jim as a selling point for Premium Content, today was not it. Aten, however, came through once again. Unf.

This is also the point where my wife goes “WTF?!” and will berate me for the charge. Um, let’s move on. Here is what Jim F. himself responded with (relatable parts only):

Man, the hits keep on coming on Kasey's coast to coast... I'm not worth $5 a year? God, what you people have done to my self-esteem today is shameful! Just shameful, I say!

Oh, and misterorange -- if I'm boring to you, you probably aren't reading your own blog very much. For someone who apparently conveys the illusion of being down to Earth and grounded, you sure do come off like a total prick.

To which I responded:

I admit, lamenting about the rarity levels (and explaining them) isn't exactly page-turning stuff, but in the scope of what I was trying to accomplish it was necessary.

Yes, I was harsh as hell. For the most part your articles are informative and decent reads. But today you went over how you made the same deck with the same cards with a few tweaks and how to sideboard against the usual decks.

This may be Pro Tour minutia, but that doesn't stop the fact that it is, in fact, minutia. That whole article was about the small tweak you made to a well known, well-played, well-versed, well-written about deck with just a few small changes.

You know what the worst part is? This is Premium Content! And I mean that in a good way! Yes, this is excellent Pro Tour level stuff. When I'm competing at that level, I -want- to know the things you speak of. What I have an issue with is that they launched the Premium Service on the back of Aten and yourself. You've had better articles man. If they wanted less complaining and more subscriptions, they should've thrown Flores or Osyp for branding power to come into effect. Then post your article later in the week, when it would fit perfectly into a Premium Content range.

And you thought only soap operas held so much drama. It will be interesting to see how SCG follows up all of this comment and criticism. This rebuttal supposed to appear tomorrow. Feel free to take in the thread but be wary…there’s trolls in them there bulletin boards.