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What a user friendly TCG might look like
ArcAngel3
Member Posts: 2,931
Just like other TCG's, SWG's could make actual trading cards available that players own. For example with WoW, you can download and print your own demo deck or go the the Upper Deck website and purchase cards packs, booster packs etc..
Why would I like this? Well, I play TCGs. A big part of the fun is collecting the cards and trading them with friends. Owning the cards is important. Blizzard and Upper Deck cannot delete my card deck someday, thereby elimating everything I've spent time and real cash collecting. In the current SWG TCG, you can spend time and money collecting cards and then one day "poof" SOE decides to shut the game down, and all your cards are history.
Why else would I want to own the cards? Well, so I wouldn't have to pay an access fee just to see or use my cards. In SWG's TCG, once you've completed the trial, you need to pay for an SWG sub or a Station access pass to use your cards. Anyone who likes collecting cards now is hooked into paying recurring fees just to see and maintain their collection.
What if I want to own a real card deck and play online? Well, simply make the cards that people purchase also available online in a virtual format. So, each card pack that you own could have a code that would allow you to access virtual representations of the cards it contains. Then you could play with friends in your neighbourhood (real cards) or with online friends (virtual cards).
My kids play Webkinz, and they do something like this with the pets. You purchase an actual pet ("stuffy" my daughter calls them) that you own. You enter a code into the Webkinz site and get a virtual version of your pet on their servers for exactly one year. If you want to add pets, you can. Adding pets also gives you more time on the server. This could work the same for booster packs of cards. You know that you own the actual item (cards or pets), and that you have access to the virtual items for a specific time period. I think that's very cool.
What about loot items for MMOs made available in a TCG tie-in? Well if there are cards with possible loot items I think they should at the very least also serve a function in the TCG. This way if you buy a booster pack and only want to play the TCG, all the cards you get have some value. Right now, if you buy an SWG TCG booster pack and get a loot item, the card is useless to you, unless you also play the MMO. In WoW, cards with MMO loot items also have a function in the TCG. If you don't want to play the MMO, you don't have to, and your card with a loot item is also a playable card in the TCG.
What about the nature of loot items? Well, ideally I think it's much more user friendly if the loot items do not affect gameplay in the MMO. Most of WoW's loot items are cosmetic (aside from the mounts), and some of SWG's are cosmetic. I think these are much better than those that enhance performance or interfere with the gaming in the MMO. If I buy a booster pack of cards I own and can use in a TCG, and I also happen to get a decorative item, emote, or pet that does not give me any bonuses, well that's a nice little perk. It would be fun if I also played the MMO, but it wouldn't give me any advantages over someone who did not play and pay for the TCG.
I think this is especially important in subscription based games. People are already paying a subscription fee, and they want to be on a level playing field with everyone else. Getting performance enhancing loot if you pay for TCG booster packs definitely affects gameplay and unbalances the playing field. Those that pay more, now have an ingame advantage. Those that only pay the subscription fee are placed at a disadvantage. Their gaming experience is being devalued.
Speaking of devalued, TCG loot items should not marginalize ingame crafters. If people are paying a subscription fee to run a virtual business in an MMO, loot items from a TCG should not take business away from them. In SWG's TCG crafters can make vehicles, starships and structures. This is what they pay their subscription fee to be able to do. Now, loot items offer some of the best vehicles and structures. Crafters virtual businesses are suffering as they are replaced by the Sony Online store.
Regarding a random chance of getting MMO loot items via a TCG, I think this should be run by all the rules related to product promotionals. Their should be a "no-purchase necessary" option for getting the perks, and people should be aware of their chances of winning--just like McDonald's monopoly or Tim Horton's roll up the rim to win contest. You don't have to actually pay anything to win these. If you read the fine print, you see that you can win without paying a cent. So, if you're playing an MMO, you should have a chance at these items for free, without having to purchase TCG card packs. I also think that the items you get via this free method should be of the exact same value as those you might get via the TCG--unlike SWG's items that are included with the MMO subscription. These are non-tradeable, unlike the items you can win if you pay for them; these are all tradeable.
So, am I against TCG's that have a tie-in to an MMO? No, not really. But the TCG's and the tie-in could be offered in a user friendly way. Hopefully I've made some suggestions regarding what "user-friendly" might look like. Feel free to add more ^_^.
Comments
Hmm, alot of good suggestions. To me there is one thing and one thing only one should be able to purchase for money for an MMORPG. Game time. Players might be allowed to sell or trade game time for in game credits or loot with other players. Anything else should be seperate from the MMO. TCG's, coffe mugs with your avater..whatever, just no loot, items or credits, or anything for the game itself. Only game time should be sold by the company. Players can do what they want with the game time they purchased. Anything else is sactioned cheating unless its kept seperate. Just my opinion. I know it doesnt offer any suggestions for friendly TCG. As long as they keep it seperate from the game I don't care how they make money within the law.
See you in the dream..
The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
The question is, though, is this worth the development $$$ that it'd require to develop?
Let's face it, SWG's TCG cards are more "scratch off" RMT lottery tickets for exclusive loot than they are playing cards for a game. The fact that there is sort of a game tied to them is really little more than a pretext to call it a game instead of a lottery. When I last tried a trial (after foolishly listening to friends who told me the game was better now) I asked around about TCG and found that no one plays it, they just buy booster packs until they get the loot. Which I found sad.
I contend that the revenue from TCG is basically all that's keeping SWG alive right now, and even at that, the game is likely a short timer anyway given that it's replacement is nearing alpha. I think they continue to use TCG to fund the game's continued existance until it's shuttered.
I'm inclined to agree with you. Honestly, I think that SWG offers lessons on how not to run a live MMO, and on how not to run a TCG.
As you say, the main goal of this TCG seems to be to sucker the remaining players of SWG into playing the loot card lottery. I say this because a lot of the ads for the TCG seem to focus on the loot items. That's no way to set up an entertaining Trading Card Game, virtual or otherwise.
It's almost as if at every turn, they made the wrong decisions about this game:
Should players get actual cards to collect and trade? Should they charge people a fee to access their online card decks? Should they include loot items for the StarWars MMO that affect gameplay? Should they make the cards that are part of the subscription fee no trade? Should they hold tournaments that charge a real money entry fee and offer prizes? Should they marginalize crafters in the MMO by introducing superior loot via the TCG?
On all of these points, SOE decided to do what seems to me to be the opposite of success, if your goal is to create a long-term, cash positive entertainment service that brings in and retains satisfied customers. If SOE was serious about this kind of goal, then I think it might be worth the investment. If they just want to sucker people out of as much cash as they can before SWG shuts down, then no I don't think they'd be inclined to do what it would take to have a successful StarWars TCG over the long term, unfortunately.
Doing it this way would be a helluva lot simpler. Wanna play an MMO? Great, buy some time and have fun. Wanna play a TCG? Great, buy some cards and have fun. I'd prefer this kind of world in all honesty.
However, since MMO companies seem to want to tie their TCGs and their MMOs together (using each product to promote the other) they need to be very careful about how they do this. They need to respect the integrity of each game and the investments of their players in each game. They also need to respect consumer protection legislation around things like games of chance that involve real financial risk. Can they do this? Yes, I think so, but I think it will require them to do their homework.
When I compare SWG's TCG and WoW's, it looks to me like Blizz has done more homework. That's probably why they seem to get less complaints and seem to be more successful with the MMO and the TCG.
One of the greatest ironies is that at every single juncture, after mid-2004 or so, where SOE management made a MAJOR decision regarding SWG, if they'd done the exact opposite of what they decided and actually did, that the game would be on far more solid footing and SOE would have avoided the collossal PR damage they've suffered.
They truly have a midas touch. Only inverse.
I've often wondered what could happen if you hired all the major CUNGE management players as consultants and asked them for ideas regarding how to make a MMO? Would taking their plan and then doing the direct, exact, OPPOSITE result in the fabled "WOW Killer"?