Tag: Magic the Gathering

  • Player Psychographics in Warhammer 40k

    Player Psychographics in Warhammer 40k

    Everyone is different. Thankfully, tabletop wargames offer a great case study of the various player psychographics that help designers categorize different types of players and what makes them tick. Timmy, Jimmy, Spike, and Vorthos are all equally valid and developers should be cognisant of their wants, needs, and turn-offs.

    The Tau Empire is well known for its devastating ranged firepower and not much else. This polarizing design offers players who are drawn to that play style a comfortable and familiar place to get into Warhammer while leaving a sour taste in other players’ mouths who prefer meeting their opponents in face-to-face combat. It is often more effective to create a game that some people love and some people dislike than a game that everyone thinks is so-so. Focusing on the various types of players your game will attract will help you create unique experiences that will resonate with different types of people.

    Orkz are as simple as it gets: march forward, charge, and clobber your opponent. Timmy prefers showing up to the game table with a few beers and a bowl of peanuts and appreciates the lack of complexity, while Johnny would be bored before the game even started.

    Johnny wants to express something about themselves, and thankfully, tabletop gaming offers plenty of opportunities. Not only does the act of hobbying create a sense of ownership, but the Johnny will also be happy as a clam with a list building app or a codex with all of the options and combos they have at their disposal laid bare.

    Spike isn’t looking for a specific aesthetic or style as much as they enjoy the experience of learning and perfecting their gameplay to be the best that they can be. Skill expression isn’t as much of a concern, as long as they have the best chance at winning. This player will be more focused on the minutae of gameplay rather than anything else and pushing specific values in certain areas will give them plenty of clues to discover.

    Vorthos are often more difficult to design for, given they are specifically drawn to the storylines, characters, and background lore. Tabletop wargaming offers a unique look into potential gameplay hooks for these types of players; fundamentally tabletop gaming is about shared storytelling and these players will be most drawn to that aspect of the game. Artwork, stories, and the miniatures themselves will do wonders towards catching a Vorthos’ eye.

    These basic player psychographics extend far past tabletop wargaming, but they can be especially useful when designing a multifaceted miniatures strategy game. No player will love every aspect of your project, but when each feature is designed to be loved by someone, you’re bound to have left a memorable expression.

  • Magic Lessons for Fighting Game Developers

    Magic: the Gathering’s most prized treasure, Mark Rosewater, presented a panel at CDC called “20 Lessons from 20 Years of Magic.” His speech focused on various aspects of game design lessons that he had learned over his tenure at Wizards of the Coast, but many can apply to fighting games as well. Please excuse me as I loosely paraphrase Mr. Rosewater and cherrypick his lessons that I find specifically valuable. There’s a chance I may have also heard of these on his podcast, Drive to Work.

    Player Psychographics

    Take the player psychographics that Rosewater so often references when discussing the audience for Magic: the Gathering for example. The spectrum of Timmy, Johnny, Spike, and Vorthos is a lens through which you can view anyone, not just card game players. To paraphrase Mr. Rosewater, a Timmy plays to experience something spectacular, a Johnny plays to prove something about themselves, a Spike plays to win, and a Vorthos plays to experience the story. 

    The fighting game community includes more specific player archetypes, but I would argue that we all have a little bit of Timmy, Johnny, Vorthos, and Spike in each of us. Keeping these hypothetical players in mind when designing your fighter will ensure that you’ve done your due diligence to include a wide variety of player perspectives into your work (or not, if that’s more your style!)

    Don’t Fight Human Nature

    At the end of the day, game design is all about conveying and in many ways teaching players complex concepts without ever being able to sit down with them individually. Part of that journey is doing one’s best to pack as much information up-front as possible by utilizing ideas and concepts that the player is already familiar with to ease them into learning about whatever it is that makes your game unique.

    The first step on that path is to acknowledge that you cannot and should not try to fight human nature unless that is the expressed purpose of what you are trying to pull off. Otherwise, it’s best to stick to the familiar when necessary and use that to expect certain responses in return.

    Players have a finite amount of time and a near-infinite inventory of great fighting games to enjoy. Don’t expect a player to want to learn how to ride a pogo stick when they already know how to ride a bicycle, for lack of a suitable metaphor. Only spend those precious mental resources on teaching your players about what makes your game cool!

    Look at this selection of vampire colors!

    Discovery & Self Expression Are Vital

    Although it differs among players, a key component to analyzing the player psychographics mentioned above is that each player is, in some part, in it for themselves. That isn’t to say that they don’t care about the other players, but they do ultimately want to express or discover something about themselves. 

    Providing that player agency can be as simple as a variety of color palette choices at character select or as complex as an in-depth combo system that requires years to truly master. Whatever avenue for self expression your game eventually utilizes, being cognizant of what you are providing your audience to discover will make for a more compelling player experience.

    If Your Theme Isn’t At Common, It’s Not Your Theme

    I’ve left this for last simply because it deserves more explanation than the others. Magic: the Gathering separates its cards into a variety of rarities: common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare. These have differing rates of occurrence in a booster pack, meaning that most players who purchase products from Wizards of the Coast will run into commons way more often than rare or mythic rares.

    These categories offer designers a chance to throttle the player experience and leave more complex concepts or mechanics for rare or mythic rare cards. If a new player runs into a complex mythic rare, that’s okay because it is only one of potentially hundreds of other cards they own, most of which are simple enough to grok without years of experience playing the game at a high level.

    Fighting games are similar, except instead of gating mechanics behind card rarities, fighters have normals, command normals, target combos, specials, ex specials, super arts, super desperation moves, and too many more to list here. Most of a character’s moves are going to be normals—their punches, kicks, and basic martial art attacks. Street Fighter’s Ryu, for example, has plenty of normal moves (Street Fighter is traditionally a six-button fighter), but only three or four special moves, and one to three super arts in his arsenal. Throwing a fireball requires a unique joystick notation as well, leaving some new players left mashing buttons rather than trying to do a 623 motion.

    “Grok?”

    Mr. Rosewater emphasizes in his lessons on card game design that whatever one’s theme is, it should be readily apparent to a new player after confronting their first booster pack of cards. Given that only 3/15 of the cards in any normal pack will be uncommon and 1/15 of them will be rare or mythic rare (although they’ve changed the specific numbers and types of booster packs since I quit playing), that means that 11 of the 15 cards that a new player purchases will be common and, therefore, limited to being relatively simple compared to others.

    In the same way that a Magic set’s theme should be apparent at common, so too should a fighting game’s theme be apparent to players who simply mash buttons and don’t wait long enough to learn how to do a hadouken. If you don’t want players to have to worry about links or precise timing between normals, make your basic attacks chain into one another. If you want to focus on aerial combat, give some fighters grounded normals that leave them airborne. Conversely, if you want a fighter to focus on grounded combat, provide them opportunities to keep their opponent where they are most effective and limit their options to jump. 

    This applies to both universal mechanics and character-specific themes; if your most inexperienced players can’t “get it” after hitting a few buttons, it needs to be better baked into the foundation of the player experience.

    Thanks for reading!

  • Top 10 Guilds of Ravnica Cards

    Top 10 Guilds of Ravnica Cards

    If Jace is the face of Magic: the Gathering, then the city-plane of Ravnica is its home, despite what veterans of the game may argue. The third and triumphant return to the familiar setting was destined to be a success from the get-go, but it seems that Wizards have outdone themselves this time. Not only does Guilds of Ravnica feel like the two blocks that came before it, but it exemplifies some of the most interests aspects of Magic’s design: the color wheel. Without further adieu, here are some of my favorite cards from the set for both constructed and limited in no particular order.

    10. Disinformation Campaign


    Although the theme of Ravnica heavily implies that players should choose a side and stick with a particular guild, I’ve always found myself drawn to each color combination individually, depending on my mood. Of all of Ravnica’s guilds, however, Dimir is easily my least favorite. Like most Magic players, I love the color blue only through the lens of what it can do for me as a player. Playing against a blue mage, on the other hand, can be a daunting, often frustrating experience. Add in a little black mana and the Dimir’s newest mechanic, surveil, and you’ve got a recipe for a one-sided match.
    Disinformation Campaign is a perfect example of the kind of grindy, resource denial strategy that Dimir is known for. It can take a bit to get going (keeping in mind that you need to survive until turn 4-5 in the first place), but once you start your “lock”, it can be difficult for an opponent to escape your grasps. Is it fun to play without any cards while your opponent has a full hand of 7? Hell no. Is it fun to keep your opponent from playing cards while you durdle around doing nothing, confident that you’ll win by turn 34 eventually? Hell yes! Welcome to the paradox that is blue mana.

    9. Sunholme Stalwart


    Although it’s become almost the norm as of late, a 2/2 creature for two mana with upside is never going to be a bad card in limited. It could even see play in constructed as a curve filler for a Boros or white weenie strategy. The first strike allows you to attack much more freely, and therefore trigger Mentor on your weaker attacking creatures, but also provides a strong defensive line for the investment as well. Boros Challenger may end up being a better card, but at [W/R] it’s a little more restrictive for my tastes.

    8. Murmuring Mystic


    Monastery Mentor, this card is not. But with a thicc behind (remember that 4 damage is the magic number for this set) and a potentially game-ending ability tacked on, I don’t know if this mystic needs to be. Murmuring Mystic blocks for days and can completely shut down certain wienie strategies, but should only really be considered if you have enough instants and sorceries to trigger the activated ability. Once you’ve mucked up ground combat enough and have an army of flying illusionary birds at your disposal, it shouldn’t take much to finish off your opponent in limited, even if this creature doesn’t see much play in constructed due to its {3U} mana cost.

    7. Thoughtbound Phantasm


    Remember when I said that Dimir wasn’t really my thing before Guilds of Ravnica? Well, here’s the third Dimir card to hit this list. At 1 mana, you can’t really go wrong with a 2/2 with defender in blue. Once you start surveilling, this little guy can become a destructive force, often swinging in for 5+ damage as soon as turn 3 or 4. That’s one helluva investment, even if you don’t particularly like the more durdly strategy of Dimir. I’ve won enough matches by playing one of these guys on turn one and another on turn two, followed by a surveil spell, to know that Thoughtbound Phantasm has legs in limited and (at least casual) constructed.

    6. Creeping Chill


    Another Dimir card? How dare you, you might say. Here me out! While Creeping Chill works very well with surveil, I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is strictly a Dimir card. In fact, I’d venture to say that it’s more of a Golgari card in practice. For 4 mana, dealing 3 damage and healing for 3 isn’t a great rate. For the low-low cost of milling yourself (or being milled by an opponent), you can play this spell for free and, since it’s a triggered ability, it will resolve unattested in limited and standard. While this seems like a great way to keep yourself alive while also milling through your deck, I’m much more interested in developing a black/red burn strategy, utilizing surveil and self-milling, to surprise my opponents with free, uncounterable lightning helixes.

    5. Erratic Cyclops


    While the price may be limiting, Erratic Cyclops is a ticking time bomb waiting for you to play a big, disruptive spell to provide the gas it needs to smash into your opponent’s health total. With a big butt, it’s not going to die anytime soon, which may provide you enough time to cast your spells and swing in for lethal before your opponent knows what hit em’. Maybe I have a thing for big blockers that eventually smack my opponent for a billion. Who knows?

    4. Lava Coil


    Whenever a graveyard set releases, it’s good practice to look through the red instants and sorceries for the keyword “exile.” If you find one cheap enough, that deals with enough corner cases, you may be onto something. At 2 mana for 4 damage and an exile clause, Lava Coil checks all the boxes for a limited all-star removal spell. Having a toughness of 5 or greater is a clue that any specific creature will survive longer than most, simply because it won’t die immediately to Lava Coil. These kinds of format warping removal spells are important to keep in mind when drafting, but will also see plenty of sideboard play in Standard to deny graveyard strategies and keep the board clean of those pesky creatures your opponent controls.

    3. Risk Factor


    I’m a huge fan of the punisher mechanic (i.e. cards that offer your opponent a choice, rather than yourself), but Wizards has proven in the past that punisher-styled cards can be very hit or miss. The general rule of thumb is that if your opponent has a choice, they will always choose the option that is worse for you. Why pay mana for the worst possible iteration of a card when you could just play blue and win the game like a normal person? Well, Risk Factor has the answer: what if both options were great? Ding your opponent for 4 or draw 3 cards! Who could ask for more? For 3 mana at Instant speed, that’s a deal either way you slice it. Now, any seasoned player will see this as {2R} → Deal 4 damage to target player, because allowing a burn deck to draw 3 cards could be much more deadly, but when your opponent is at 4 life, what choice do they really have? Ding ding ding! We have a winner.

    2. Pelt Collector


    Historically, the problem with 1 mana creatures is that they often do not offer enough value to compensate for them taking up a card slot in your deck, unless you specifically aim to play a lot of them early and win before your opponent can offer a rebuttal. Pelt Collector flips this on its head by offering early game potential without the normal late-game uselessness aftertaste. Even on turn 4 or 5, Pelt Collector can still come onto the battlefield and grow into a relevant size quickly enough, as long as other creatures are dying.
    Protip: When evaluating new Magic cards, look for those that benefit you for what some describe as “playing the game of Magic.” That means, if a card offers benefits for behavior that you would be performing anyway (creatures dying, spells going to the graveyard, lands being played/tapped, etc) then it’s not actually much of a hoop to jump through in the first place.

    1. Hypothesizzle


    In a game where card advantage and value are key, flexibility quickly becomes a commodity. Hypothesizzle lets you draw two cards for five mana. At that rate, it’s a pretty bad Divination. What Divination can’t do, however, is allow you to deal 4 damage to a creature for the cost of a nonland card in your hand. Now, five mana to deal 4 damage to a creature and draw a card isn’t actually that bad. Factor in that the nonland card you discard could have been otherwise useless in your hand (too much mana, too conditional for the situation, etc), meaning that the cost could potentially be very low. While this is just a common in the set (when did commons get so complicated?), it’s also a great example of how deceiving some card designs can be. On its face, Hypothesizzle looks like a bad card draw spell, but in reality, it’s a good removal spell that can also act like a bad Divination if you don’t have a target. Now that’s cooking with gas.