After the release of Shadows, the game lost players in gobs. Decipher had some issues with interal thievery and such so the game went down hill and turned quite a few people off. Many people, including myself, still play it, but after the movies were over they really dropped the ball on the game.

 That, and a lot of retailers have abandoned Decipher products after how they mishandled the LotR property and botched things up internally.  They peaked high back in the day, but now they just churn out mediocre liscensed material that attempts to present itself as part of the hobby market.

Janus said:

Such as?

 Beyblade and .hack were financial fiascos that were horrible in design and play.  The Star Treck CCG underwent so many changes and revisions during it's life, hardly any fans remained towards the end, and most that I knew bought it did so out of either a loyalty to the source franchise or so the could dominate in what organized play remained (and the latter only bought the product when it got discounted so a brick and mortar store could at least get back some of the product cost).

The Fight Klub game that they have been promising since 2007 is an ill-conceived attempt to cash in on multiple film franchises, many of which are old and stale by now.  It's a display of how they cannot create anything that stands well on it's own.

I feel bad that so much was stolen from the company, likely promoting them to abandon more creative work back then.  But really…  the company may like gaming, but that doesn't mean they make good games anymore.

 Summoner Wars also does fixed distribution to great success.

The state of Decipher is sad.  I liked Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Wars, and Young Jedi.  Fight Klub looks awful, but I haven't tried it.

I think LCGs may be a hard sell because stores eventually have too many SKUs to stock if the game is going to pick up, whereas for a CCG they just need a booster box and some starters to get a game going.  Not that I know anything about selling games.

I like the new model for Cthulhu and would like to see other games (FFG's or other's) give it a whirl.

As someone that worked games retail for 7 years, that's not a problem.  Usually it's all about the money it takes to stock things, and in that area LCG distribution is much much easier on retail business.

Adam said:

Is Summoner Wars a deck construction game?  I haven't played it, but I thought the setups you could get were more fixed.

PWBrian said:

With the expansion packs, it's now a deck construction game, and not just fixed sets.

Summoner Wars isn't a game where you can design a deck, it's more like one where you can customize your deck a little bit by swapping out a few cards.  Still a good game though.

Shadowfist is now moving to fixed sets with starters and fixed expansions. They call it a Dynamic Card Game.

 Someone mentioned summoner wars, I would add Mage wars--same idea, roughly, but much more so a deck construction game.

gdotbat said:

I don't think this is correct. My understanding is that FFG didn't take any risk. They had two CCGs at the time, Game of Thrones and Call of Cthulhu. Both were failing miserably despite devoted fans. They didn't so much take a risk developing a new game with a new distribution model as they came up with a model to save a dying game. That model worked and then they started releasing new games directly to that model.

I think LCG's are the way of the future for collectible card gaming just as Free To Play has become the way of the future for MMORPG's. While the kings of those game types (Magic and World of Warcraft) will likely stay the way they are for a good while longer, the competition is learning that adopting new, less greedy business models can allow them to still be successful. I think the key is getting the playerbase to realize that they can play a top grade customizable card game without having to pay hundreds of dollars every few months on new cards. I'm hoping Netrunner (which is one of the best CCGs ever made) brings more attention to LCGs from dedicated CCG players.

"I'm hoping Netrunner (which is one of the best CCGs ever made) brings more attention to LCGs from dedicated CCG players."

Maybe, but it's not going to be easy.  The more someone has invested in a lifestyle game:

1.  The less money they have to try out other games

2.  The harder it is to overcome their resistance to try something else

#2 is especially important I've noticed.  I'm mainly going by tabletop minis games experience here, but there's a very strong tendency in some people to cling to their existing game they've spent a lot of money on even if better games exist.  In their mind, playing and enjoying another game is effectively admitting that they wasted all that money on their current game (yes, I know it's a stupid way to think but it exists) and some people can't deal with that.

If Shadowfist and Magewars succeed over time, we may see other games follow, and if multiple companies are following an LCG-like model that will lend legitimacy to the idea that will help convince more people.  Note that I say "succeed over time" because one of the important characteristics of these games it that the company gives a long term commitment to keep supporting the game and to continue doing a good job with balance and correcting any flaws that arise.  If the players don't trust them to do that then they're not going to want to invest.  So for instance, Magewars is doing well now but they haven't really been tested as to their ongoing support yet.

I think it will just take time for LCG to influence other companies.

yeah FFG has done lots of success with their LCG. But I guess it is not as successful as the start of TCG

If the Competitor for Magic only took a year, I guss the Competitor for FFG's LCG is going to be a bit longer….

Let's see…. probably 5 years? then some company will know the possibility of LCG and start to use it one by one