The Game's Afoot

Of all of the game types that I have played, none provides an experience that changes as much over time as a collectible card game. Some video games and even a few board games undergo expansions and updates, but in general a single purchase allows one to experience all or most of the content of the game. A collectible card game, on the other hand, has an ever-changing game experience, with a constantly growing collection granting players the ability to build better and more interesting decks. Unfortunately, they don't always work that way. In an effort to sell new sets of cards, companies that manufacture collectible card games will sometimes intentionally place more powerful cards in newer sets than existed in previous ones. In the short term, this makes good business sense; it forces players to buy the latest packs to get cards good enough to beat their friends or win tournaments. Unfortunately, as we shall soon see, it can be massively detrimental to profits and player enjoy...

I would like to start this off by saying, obviously enough, that I am not an industry professional within game design. Every analysis I perform will only be my own opinion, not based on an insider's knowledge of games, and as such I very much welcome disagreement with what I say. That being said, I am a gamer (although I do everything in my power to prevent myself from falling into the negative stereotypes of that label). And by gamer, I do not mean only video games; I play (and have strong opinions about) a number of board games, tabletop role playing games, and card games. This blog will focus on how they are designed, and what those games can teach us about how to or not to design a game. The question remains: to what end, exactly, is the ideal game designed? Without an idea of this, we will not be able to effectively analyze games, because we will be able only to talk about the games and not why such and such a feature is good or bad. So what can we use as criteria...