3 ms·

I always thought that this was the worst aspect of TCGs! People complain about "pay to win" business models in PC games, but it's 100x worse in dead-tree games.

I always thought that this was the worst aspect of TCGs! People complain about "pay to win" business models in PC games, but it's 100x worse in dead-tree games. Maybe you spend a few bucks here and there on some kind of premium subscription, whatever, things cost money. But having to physically buy cards always really sucked, especially as a young person without a lot of money, and it was one thing that kept me away from getting more into games like Magic: The Gathering. There was some thrill in collecting, sure, but I would rather have the collecting be an optional side activity, not an essential part of the game. I do see what you are saying about micro transactions though, and about the player's ability to re-capture some of their investment after they are done with the game or ingame item.

exdsq 5y ago
Yeah TCG's get really expensive. Not as bad as Warhammer, but definitely up there! My only real point is that it's a use case where I'm going to probably buy packs anyway, but now I can buy specific cards & sell cards I get that I don't want to recoup some money. I think I'm actually $7 positive which is pretty weird, I don't know any other game I've played before where I'm cashflow positive. As another commenter said this is all perfectly possible without NFTs and blockchains and stuff, it's just nice to get web stores, payment processing, and creator fee percentages on resale all for free with very little coding/cost.
- LargeWu 5y ago
  The reason you're positive, probably, is that the marketplace is P2P and you're getting fair value when you sell, rather than the typical "Sell to a gaming store at a discount". YMMV.
  - exdsq 5y ago
    Or I get a pack of cards I don't want and my only option is to "convert them to dust" or whatever the game allows. At least here I can sell them to the community in case someone else wants one!
anon23anon 5y ago
100% agree w/ this. Started playing Hearthstone years ago. I like getting cool cards but would rather that be a fun/collecting part and not tied to winning the actual game.
adamsmith143 5y ago
Having played the game at a somewhat high level it definitely feels pay to win adjacent at minimum. There are websites out there where you can see estimates of an opponent's deck cost and it's disheartening losing to multi thousand $ decks. I also had the same experience as a kid playing a tcg in tournaments and losing to adults who were buying 50 packs at a time.
dfxm12 5y ago
TCGs being expensive is overblown. Certain formats might be, I think this is expected when the prize pool for official tournaments can be $250k... Just like pro level whatevers need to spend big bucks on training or gear, part of the reason most of these cards cost money is because they can make money. But there's a ton of ways to play these games. Of course, you can always play limited. $10-15 for 4-5 hours of entertainment is a great deal. Get enough cards and you have a cube you can draft whenever.

exdsq 5y ago

Yeah TCG's get really expensive. Not as bad as Warhammer, but definitely up there! My only real point is that it's a use case where I'm going to probably buy packs anyway, but now I can buy specific cards & sell cards I get that I don't want to recoup some money. I think I'm actually $7 positive which is pretty weird, I don't know any other game I've played before where I'm cashflow positive. As another commenter said this is all perfectly possible without NFTs and blockchains and stuff, it's just nice to get web stores, payment processing, and creator fee percentages on resale all for free with very little coding/cost.

LargeWu 5y ago
The reason you're positive, probably, is that the marketplace is P2P and you're getting fair value when you sell, rather than the typical "Sell to a gaming store at a discount". YMMV.
- exdsq 5y ago
  Or I get a pack of cards I don't want and my only option is to "convert them to dust" or whatever the game allows. At least here I can sell them to the community in case someone else wants one!

anon23anon 5y ago

100% agree w/ this. Started playing Hearthstone years ago. I like getting cool cards but would rather that be a fun/collecting part and not tied to winning the actual game.

adamsmith143 5y ago

Having played the game at a somewhat high level it definitely feels pay to win adjacent at minimum. There are websites out there where you can see estimates of an opponent's deck cost and it's disheartening losing to multi thousand $ decks. I also had the same experience as a kid playing a tcg in tournaments and losing to adults who were buying 50 packs at a time.

dfxm12 5y ago

TCGs being expensive is overblown. Certain formats might be, I think this is expected when the prize pool for official tournaments can be $250k... Just like pro level whatevers need to spend big bucks on training or gear, part of the reason most of these cards cost money is because they can make money. But there's a ton of ways to play these games. Of course, you can always play limited. $10-15 for 4-5 hours of entertainment is a great deal. Get enough cards and you have a cube you can draft whenever.