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F2P CCG MMO. Why not?
Jimmy_Scythe
Member CommonPosts: 3,586
It occurs to me that there is a perfect genre out there for the new F2P business model. Actually, there are two, but they amount to the same thing. Those genres are Collectable Card games and Collectable Miniatures games. See also Magic: The Gathering and Mage Knight.
Hell, the structure of the game can be copy pasted from the Pokemon series of games. Decks or Armies could be of a limited size and you could earn cards/troops through playing the game or buying boosters in an item mall. And there wouldn't be all the bullshit about balance since even Mr. Suitcase has to limit his game to X number of cards/troops.
So why haven't we seen more of this? It's a perfect fit for the F2P business model, but I don't think anyone is actually using it.
Comments
Just a note about the balance thing. The same thing would happen in the game as happens in real life CCGs: he with the most money has the best cards. I don't see the online version being any different unless you couldn't buy/trade individual cards, but instead were forced to buy packs; however, that would just slightly lessen the balance issue as you could still pump a ton of money into the game hoping to get the right cards.
I love CCGs but that's my thought.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
It's been done quite a bit actually, though often you're very limited in what you can do while playing for free, or it's not a CCG since everyone has easy access to all the cards. Most online CCGs require you to buy cards in order to do anything other than play with starter decks. The best example of how it can be done well is probably Alteil, which allows you to earn in-game currency to buy cards with, as well as purchase with real cash... however there's no trading between players and you can only buy random cards, or special fixed packs.
I can't say I don't agree with the OP. Hell, if Nintendo wanted they could even make a Pokemon P2P MMO.
I haven't really played any pokemon game since red/blue/yellow back in the day, but I would still fork over my wallet to play Pokemon in a persistent world.
The collectibles cost money though, and in some cases (MTGO) a lot of money. In what way could this be F2P and also a money making machine like this model is now?
Free to play means just that. You can play all you want without paying a dime. That doesn't mean that you get all of the content for free. I can play MTGO as much as I want with the starter decks. If I want to move beyond that, I have to buy some cards. Personally, I'm not big on deck building so I just play Duels of The Planeswalkers and call it day. Difference is that DoTP isn't free to play. You have to fork over cash in order to play it at all. Yes, there is a demo, but you can't play online and you only get one deck. A free to play game gives you access to all of the features, but not all of the content. Does that make sense?
Let's put this in a real world perspective. You can't play M:TG if you don't have any cards. You have to shell out the cash for a deck of cards and a couple of boosters just to get in the door. You can play soccer for free. All you need is something ball like, an old can will do, and some open space. If you want a better soccer experience, you have to buy a ball and travel to an actual soccer field. That's the difference. Wizards of The Coast aren't giving away starter decks for people to play with.
In a true Free to Play game, you are giving away a starter deck and allowing players to earn boosters through playing as well as card trading. The difference is in the rate by which the player accumulates cards. Let's say that you earn five new cards for every victory, but you can buy a $5 booster pack that has 15 cards in it. You either spend time or money. The rest just averages out.
I actually play MTGO (pauper format only hehe), so I get what you're saying.
I guess what I wish is for such games (collectible card games online and miniatures online) to be both F2P and alternatively cheap, as opposed to F2P or alternatively expensive. With Magic the Gathering Online, unless you play pauper like me, it's really B2P for relatively cheap *or* drop hundreds if not thousands into the game to be competitive.
I know some people are okay with being restricted to DotP cards, but that isn't enough for me. That's why I play pauper (commons only) - tons of cards plus still kind of inexpensive.
Out of curiosity, do you mean something like Bakugan online?
You buy the pieces, enter codes and duel them online for free.
Oderint, dum metuant.
Being as I'm over thirty, I have no idea what Bakugan is. But no, I'm talking about buying packs of random cards / figures for money in an item shop, or earning them in play, and using those to play. You would only be able to use so many cards / figures and only so many of the same kind of card / figure per duel.
I've played quite a few. The 2 best ones I've come across are Urban Rivals (little bit different than most, but still good) and Ederon. There's a pretty good asian one out there too, but there's just something about it that never really hooked me. I like the way it's played, I like the artwork, and I like just about everything about.... it just didn't "do it" for me. Can't remember the name, started with an A I think.
I'm pretty big into online TCGs, but there just aren't that many good ones, but there are quite a few out there. Never been a fan of MtG though, I think it's a terrible TCG.
Then Warstorm on Facebook would be really good, except you don't actually play your cards. The strategy comes from building the deck, so I won't play it. If they put in manual control, I'd be all over it.
And if you're into miniatures, there is a good one of those out there too. I think SOE bought them up, but it's a pretty good game. I just never really got into the whole miniature thing. I can't remember the name, I think it started with the phrase "pax", so Google is no help. I just get PAX links.
Over the years, I've probably spent a good $1,000 to $2,000 on Online TCGs. And honestly, the only one I've ever played that wasn't F2P, was MtGO. I think it's pretty retarded of them to not go F2P with buying packs. But, I guess it's a good thing. Keeps the good games fairly populated.
All of them really follow the same format, you buy packs then if you get good cards you don't need, you can trade them for cards you do need. I think that really comes back to keeping the game balanced and keeping the "Rare" and "Ultra Rare" cards living up to their names.
I think the problem that you can't find them, isn't that they don't exist, is that you're calling them CCGs when most people call them TCGs.
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It is possible to play Legends of Norrath, SOE's EQ-related card game, as a stand-alone game. I think they may have a couple of other similar cards games (Pirates and something else?), but I haven't really paid any attention to that side of things, since I kind of hate CCGs.
Considering how crowded the market is with (face-time) CCGs, it is surprising that there aren't more online versions. I do wonder that myself.
poxnora is a tradeable miniatures game. has some deck building aspects. i think the starter deck is free.
http://hardballgaming.blogspot.com/
That's the SOE one I was thinking of.
Thanks.
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That's Alteil, which I mentioned above but forgot to link when I posted. It really does have the F2P model down pretty well, where you can earn cards through playing it over time, but it's much faster to just buy them with cash. It's a pretty unique twist on the genre too, since you have access to your whole deck at all times instead of needing to draw into a hand. Quite a lot more strategy involved, especially with card placement on the field. Definitely worth checking out if you're really into CCG/TCGs. The only real drawback is that you can't trade with other players, which can make it hard to get certain cards.
Might as well throw out my list of online card games I've tried (and decided to not play for whatever reason):
Alteil
Berserk Online
Cardmaster Conflict
http://www.duels.com/
http://www.ederon.com/
Estiah
Fallen Worlds Online
Fantasy Cards RT
Hero Mages
Magic Duel
Pox Nora
Spectromancer
War of Legends
Wizard 101