Hon, I’m actually a bigger geek I think. Log in to see images!

Opinion on the original post? Different reasons. I owned a game shop for about three years. (Great job, zero profit.) I watched Dragon BallZ surge and fail, YuYu Hakusho fail – most anime based games failed after a few sets because the kids switched TV channels.

Games based on other media, such as the X-Files game have a very limited market. When the popularity of whatever they were based on wanes, interest in the game shifts to the next thing.

For other big games, really, I believe they fail primarily due to money and alpha gamers. Random people pick up a game for fun and the majority of players are casual. They tell their friends and you have a group of a few people playing. When it stays at this level or has a decent youth following, it does fairly well. When it jumps into the competitive arena with prizes/money on the line, a different animal comes out to play. Alpha gamers purchase or trade for complete sets of cards, they test winning decks from major tournaments and have no problem steam rolling over the other local players. After a certain point the casual players get sick of always having to play against “that deck” and they drift into some other game or quit playing CCG/TCGs.

It’s a rough thing, but it’s a reality. Why it impacts the games to the point where they fail? Your typical alpha gamer is savvy enough and wins enough that after their initial investment they are able to win or trade for the cards they need. This leaves a situation where the primary participants in a game are investing very little in it, while taking away all the rewards. The casual gamers are the ones who finance the production of the game and when they bail the game collapses.

It happened pretty seriously with the VS System games recently. The game is still limping along, but I really don’t see it making a full recovery, since most of the players game jumped to the World of Warcraft TCG or MTG.

Looking for something solid that won’t go away? You seem to like Sci-fi/fantasy based games and there really isn’t one out there that has had a huge lifespan. Best options if you don’t want your card cash to be worthless in a year?

– MTG – it surges and falls, and attracts a ton of unpleasant smelling alpha gamers, but it’s the big granddaddy and will stick around. It is expensive as hell to play on any sort of competitive level though.

– L5R (Legend of the Five Rings) – storyline based, more about gaming than prize money and generally is play tested more extensively than most of the big games, resulting in better balance and less “there is no point in playing if I’m not playing that deck” situations.

– Game of Thrones – based on the novels. Interesting mechanics, but I haven’t played it in awhile, so I can’t say whether it’s still being done well.

See, way bigger geek. Log in to see images!