Its like literally the bottom of the list of things to sort out if society began to transition to a new type of economy/society, but I spend way too much time thinking about it.
Would physical TCGs even exist at all? Would it be like Triple Triad shit where every community has its own fucked up version of the rules? Who makes new cards, and how do we agree what is and isn't legit? Do we like, go on the internet and elect the Secretary of Yugioh?
Fuck, man. A lot of my hobbies are hard to imagine outside of a capitalist system because I have no real idea how hobbies work outside of the one economic system I've ever existed in.
Get rid of loot boxes and do living card games where you get all of the cards in a single box without any randomness.
Yeah, but...people like the loot box mechanic. It is pure gambling. They lose every time...but that's gambling for you. There's a reason why it's banned in so many places. Certain of us humans are vulnerable to this exploit and can't stop themselves . That's why adults have to step in and take their toys away.
Gosh, the whole point of these things was to turbocharge consumerism by making people want things they don't have. Not only do they have to buy dozens of booster packs every time there's a new expansion, but they have to pay hundreds of dollars to make a deck with the chase cards. Every expansion only has a couple of cards that are actually good.
Card games yes, collectible card games no. Buy a box and it's got everything you need in it to play the game. Basically gaming before 1993.
I feel like you could have digital trading card games with the fun of unlocking and trading except it doesn't cost money, just as a gameplay mechanic. Like the Yu Gi Oh games of the PS1 era or something
Comrade, let me introduce you to the People's card game .
Android Netrunner will be the tcg played post-revolution, and will double as an educational tool for teaching children about the dangers of unchecked late-stage capitalism.
Edit: Polygon article giving a rundown, plus showing off cards like "Wildcat Strike"
Drilrunner is probably the greatest confluence of genius in our time.
Somebody creates a card game and distributes it. This might be a guy or some friends or a collective or a state design bureau for board games. The guy (or whatever) designs the cards and writes the rules. This game is now distributed through the means of production and you can pick it up at a bookstore, library, or community center.
Booster packs are almost certainly gone, that's a relic of capitalism encouraging gambling. You just get the full starter kit and create your deck from that, it might come with 2 pre-made decks suitable for beginners and all the cards you could reasonably need to customize your decks. Eventually the design bureau comes out with an expansion with new cards that probably include a new theme of some sort, they would also maintain the rulings and errata online.
House rules and tournament rules would work as they do now. House rules are agreed upon by the people playing, tournament rules are set by the organizer. The game designer would have recommendations for what the tournaments rules should be and can deem a tournament "official" and "unofficial". So you might only be able to use the newest set's cards or only classic era cards or all cards but with certain combos banned.
Want all those little endorphins spikes of opening booster packs, but don't want to be placed in the ethically compromising position of paying money to support a corporation that'll send the Pinkertons to your house? Make your own boosters, and draft those! Fun for the whole family!
maybe you want formats like draft and sealed deck to still exist and you can preserve that randomness without the basic commercial unit being a lootbox. see cube draft.
also physical card games are probably on the way out anyway and temporary artificial scarcity is trivial in a computer game. I just hope the UI is better
true artificial scarcity gets you the wall
physical card games are probably on the way out anyway
not if i have anything to say about it. fortunately i dont sink my money into the trading card stuff, it's all 52-card fr*nch decks or hanafuda decks. ive also got a really sick deck that combines the two
oh yeah i expect standard playing cards to outlive rules-based proprietary card games by a few centuries
They're most likely just going to be board games. You're missing out on the collection aspect, but that's kinda the point here. I've heard that one of the editions of Netrunner has an active fan-made expansion creation community that might serve as an interesting model for a post-scarcity card game.
Polygon article here if y'all want to read about what their deal is.
Personally I consider netrunner the greatest card game ever created, so the fact that no large corporation is profiting off of the game just fills me with so much joy.
It's not surprising, netrunner somehow managed to get killed twice, and even at it's peak it didn't exactly have the largest marketing budget, much less right now as a volunteer run project.
Also it's rules complexity (relative to magic) always made it kinda a hard sell, although I will maintain that it's Richard Garfield's magnum opus.
yeah collecting products that are manufactured for the purpose of collecting is a fucked up social construct.
Firstly, early TCGs had tournament rules largely organised by fans, since the makers didnt give a shit about unbalanced cards etc, they were making money sinks for children. The global community is quite capable of establishing global leagues for even very niche pastimes.
Secondly, i can imagine a TCG where you subscribe and everyone gets say 2 booster packs a month.
Don't. Don't suggest the TCG subscription box. I'm too weak. I kicked the habit years ago. My Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, and MTG cards are all packed up in storage. Don't tempt me with this .
Everyone gets the same amount of cards. Card numbers and quality are tweaked for balance and enjoyment rather than profit!
The newest Deprogram episode discusses this, you'll be able to listen in a week but I'm on their Patreon, but basically the pay to win gambling will probably be gotten rid of in favor of genuine skill and deck creativity. As for organization and distribution many companies and factories will likely still exist just under proletarian ownership so not much will change in that regard I'm assuming
In the original 1993-1994 MTG we played for ante. Yes, that's right, every game had cards on the line. It was a different experience.
Also, you had to make decks with the cards you had on hand. There was none of this "spending $284 from the online vendor to complete my deck with playsets of the best cards." You played with what you had or traded to the few friends who also played, and that was it.
But then the internet happened and, kaboom. Cards skyrocketed in price. I remember shaking my head when the Black Lotus hit $300. Who had that kind of money to spend on a game that nobody would play in a few years? The Dutch tulip craze all over again.
Would it be like Triple Triad shit where every community has its own fucked up version of the rules?
If the social value of these games lies in their potential to encourage IRL social interaction, would it really be that bad if every local club had its own rules?
It is fine unless a community uses roulette rules, in which case they need to stop.
it would encourage regionalism and factionalism if the game wasn't standard. no one likes going to a different place and all the card games having different, worse rules.
I do like the collectable aspect and fun of opening packs, trading is cool too. Maybe shinys randomly thrown in with your base set. That way everyone has the same cards but you can still trade and collect things.
Physical tcgs are just the org posting cards and everytlone who wants to play printing the cards they want
Draft is relegated to digital only
