jhaelen said:

Really?!?! I really loved the look of Overpower and Wildstorms back in the day. You might not remember them.

Which of the old Star Wars CCGs did you play/like?

I think one of the big hurdles for success in any Star Wars game is deciding on the era or movie generation of fans. I'm sure many could argue positive and negative consequences to that choice. I also believe that's a big reason why the upcoming MMO "The Old Republic" chose to build their game around an era that isn't as familiar to most, to promote interest and reduce bias.

In other words, depending on what's selected you can quickly disinterest even hardcore fans that are bias or gravitate towards a given time line. With so many gaming options available it's not as difficult anymore to pass on something.  In some cases the choice can even bring out anger or frustration from those defending their favorite. And, sure, occassionally you'll see the Lucas fanboys that love anything his name is attached to.

Personally, I'd love a Star Wars LCG, but I will admit my interest would be very limited if it weren't heavily centered around Episodes IV-VI.  I can understand though that others that grew up with EI-EIII or really like The Clone Wars animated series may feel otherwise. Doing something similar as "The Old Republic"  could be an interesting option and timely with the upcoming MMO release, but I'm not sure if it would have lasting appeal and something easily promoted to others unfamilar.

My 2 cents.

Madduxx said:

Your 2 cents is well spoken. I totally agree with loving episodes IV, V and VI. I saw (and absolutely loved) all three movies in the theater when they originally released. Guess that dates me   The IV, VI, VI Star Wars games have already been done. I, II, and III were also done in Young Jedi. Yes I played SW:YJ too and really liked it. I'm not sure doing those games again is a great idea. It -might- be, but it might not. Perhaps some fresh Star Wars content will be the ticket as you (and I) suggest. I'm basically a SW fanboy so I'll buy whatever SW game/movie/etc. comes out.

locohost said:

As I said, to me it looked like a fan-project done using the World-of-Warcraft graphics engine.

I have not played any Star Wars CCGs. I have played Magic, Jyhad, Illuminati, NetRunner, and Call of Cthulhu.

And that order represents how much I liked each of them: Magic: not at all -> CoC: a lot.

For a new LCG to interest me it needs a theme/setting and artwork that appeals to me, and game mechanics that are interesting and markedly different from those of any existing LCG/CCGs.

That's why I don't care about the Warcraft LCG (bad art & a setting I dislike).

Game of Thrones at least has good art, but it's just yet another generic fantasy scenario. I might get interested if I eventually got around to read the novels and happened to like them. Then I'll investigate the game rules and if I like them, too, I may start buying into the game.

jhaelen said:

I cannot overstate how absolutely FANTASTIC George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series is!!! I'm anxiously awaiting "A Dance with Dragons". GRRM is -the best- character creator/developer I've ever read. You'll find yourself supporting and cheering some characters while begging and praying for the horrible death of others in every chapter. This is something you really have to experience to understand how truly gifted GRRM is.

Yeah, not only is A Song of Ice and Fire the best fantasy book series I've ever read (and re-read, and relistened to on audio book) but the Game of Thrones card game is my absolute favorite ccg/lcg of all time. Saying GoT is just another generic fantsy setting is liek saying Star Wars is just another generic sci-fi.

If you like epic fantasy, read the books. If you like challenging card games with lots of options (and your set of likes/dislikes gives me that impression of you) try the card game. And if you like the books, definitely try the card game, as it will then become even more appealing to you.

JerusalemJones said:

And the crux is that I generally _don't_ like epic fantasy. I'm more into 'realistic' fantasy or sci-fi. To me, it's a good sign, though, that AGoT focuses on humans rather than relying on fantastic races. That's why the book is on my list of things I have to read at some point.

It's a bit off-topic, but it would help me, if you could point out other fantasy novels that you liked to judge if our tastes are similar or not.

E.g. books I like are:

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.

 JJ calls "A Song of Ice and Fire" -epic- fantasy which might be confusing you a bit. ASoIaF is a very big story with lots of interwoven characters and stories of deception, intrigue, cheating, stealing, love, hatred, murdering and adventure and touch of magic here and there. The characters aren't just along for the ride in the stories, the characters -are- the stories. It's really not much like anything Tolkien ever wrote. I'm not disagreeing with you JJ, just clarifying a bit 

Thanks. To me, epic is scale, whereas the term High Fantasy would be something more like Tolkein, and Dark Fantasy for, say, Elric. Game of Thrones is not high fantasy the magic that exists is not blatant, nor abundant. The series has also been called historic fantasy, which can confuse folks for sure. A Game of Thrones (well, A Song of Ice and Fire, I'm going to get more exact about this) does have it's fantasy elements, and it's overaching story, but it is truly the characters that make this series, the detail tht Martin gives them and their world, and the plots within plots that abound in this series. The first time I read it I was enthralled by the story itself. Then as I talked about it with friends, and we tossed ideas and theories back and forth, I reread it and learned just how much deeper the actually story goes. And now I am absolutely hooked on the books. The only book series I love as much as these are David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series, and those are currently out of print.

The other thing about the card game is that it is not so much about beating down your opponent, but rather gaining power for yourself in order to win the game. The LCG also has what is, to me, the greatest concept ever in a card game, the Plot Deck. This is a separate deck of cards that you reveal one (your choice) every round, and it gives you your base resources, inititative and claim for the round, as well as providing a special ability for the turn. And the game has so many levels of strategy that it can appeal to any serious gamer, if they are into card games.

And, I'll give you that Star Wars is fantasy, but it is space fantasy.

Well, here are some of the fantasy books I like:

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (and pretty much any of his novels)

Neil Gaiman anything. Started with Sandman, and have enjoyed the rest of his work.

Steven Brust's Jherig and the Vlad Taltos novels, but more for fun than serious reading. Doesn't hurt that we're both from Minnesota.

Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire

Sheri S Tepper The True Game books (Kings' Blood Nine, Mavin Manyshapes, Jinian Farseerer, etc). Actaully, I'll read anything of Tepper's, she's an amazing author.

Martha Wells Element of Fire, Death of the Necromancer and the Fall of Il-Rein series.

Sharon Shinn Archangel books (which could be argued are sci-fi, but actually are closer to fantasy-romance, yet incredibly good). 

I'm really not much of a fantasy fan. Tolkein to me is word heavy, and the glut of Dragaonlance style fantasy in the late 80s-early 90s turned me off of fantasy for a long time. I'me more of a sci-fi fan, and really into cyberpunk (Gibson, Walter Jon Williams, etc), though lately I've been reading different genres of stories, and tend to like particular authors more than, say, a setting. Jonathan Carroll is one of my favorites, and I'm really enjoying Richard Powers, who books I guess would actually be defined as literature as opposed to a specific genre.

Thanks for the explanations and the book list!

So, yes, it actually sounds like I might enjoy the 'A Game of Thrones' novels (and thus maybe the LCG, as well).

Sorry for the threadjack!

Hey, I've been known to hijack my own thread. It's thread-volution!

Besides, if it gets someone to read A Song of Ice and Fire, it is totally worth it.

I will alway and forever love Tolkien. I won't apologize for that!  I like Terry Brooks a lot. I sorta liked the Eragon books by Chris Paolini. They were Ok. I've read a little Terry Pratchett. My latest favorite author (other than Martin) is Bernard Cornwell. I'm on the 5th book in the Saxon series. I'm -really- enjoying these books. I'm also anxiously awaiting Patrick Rothfuss' follow up to "The Name of the Wind". Rothfuss has a super intelligent way of phrasing that I just can't get enough of. He could write a cookbook that would be impossible to put down 

jhaelen, I also encourage you to read A Song of Ice and Fire books. Also, remember, that you can try AGOT LCG for free by printing demo deck.

My best ever story is The Witcher saga by Andrzej Sapkowski. If you happen to find translation check it out. Although I'm not sure if translation don't spoil this wonderful piece of art.

Regarding SW LCG I don't believe it can happen, but who knows? Decipher's SWCCG was the best game ever created in my humble opinion. And it's hard to believe that someone will create as good game as it was - but on the other hand, FFG created AGOT LCG, so maybe they can surprise me.

Rogue30 said:

Thanks for pointing this out, I'll have a look at it!

What I'd really like them to do with a new LCG is two opposing factions (or two kinds of factions) that have completely different goals, use different kinds of cards and play different from each other. I'm imagining something like the NetRunner CCG:

In Netrunner the Corporation faction is trying to develop it's hidden agendas, hiding them behind ICE software, distributed over several nodes. The Runners try to hack into these nodes and steal the agendas before this happens.

I could imagine a similar setup for a Star Wars LCG. The rebels (-> runners) should work quite differently from the Imperium (-> corporation).

Alternatively, I would really enjoy a new LCG that is designed to be played by more than two people. While most CCGs/LCGs have multi-player rules, they usually have a 'tacked-on' feeling, imho. One example for a game that works better with more than two players would be the Illuminati CCG.