By Nita McKinney


Collectible card games are normally played through the use of cards that are specifically designed. Generally, CCG games make use of a combination of the appeal of collection and strategically planned game-play. Also known as trading or customizable card game, the CCG game was Magic: The Gathering. It is its amazing success that in a great way contributed to success of future versions. Since then, there has been design of thousands of others.

It is very important to understand the game-play. Each CCG system comes with a set of instructions that serve to describe player aims and the different card categories to be made use of. There is description of fundamental regulations which oversee how various cards interact as well. For every card also, there are additional texts that outline how that particular card affects game-play. The different cards signify specific elements such as the setting, genre or source material of the game. Naming of cards is governed by these elements.

Magic: The Gathering for instance is based on fantasy as a genre. As such, most cards used are representative of creatures and magical spells. In this game, there is illustration of the dragon as a reptilian beast that has the ability to fly. It has formidable statistics during the game in comparison to small creatures.

A good number of collectible card games are designed with resource systems that govern the pace of each and every game. The resources are represented by cards. How frequently cards move to the play area or to a player from the deck is very much restricted. The relative strength of cards balancing is made possible by number of resources needed to play the given card.

The resources being mentioned can be represented by several components. They can be represented by the cards, tokens in resource pools, marks on the cards among others. A player is required to choose cards that will compose his deck from the pool. This is contrary to traditional card games in which deck content is not only limited but also pre-determined.

By being in a position to choose their cards, CCG players are able to strategically customize their deck, thereby taking advantage of card interactions that are favorable. They can also take advantage of statistics and combinations. Deck size, theoretically, could be of any size but this would affect playability a great deal. To avoid this, the arbitrary standard deck size is taken to be sixty.

With technological advancements over a number of years, physical play has ceased to be the only way to access collectible card games. There is internet play that enables players to play over the internet without the need for physical cards. There are virtual collections to facilitate play, through a central database system. To avoid relying on central databases, one may opt for software programs. They would not need to buy real or virtual cards.

Not all internet CCG games are purchased however. There are free versions that are mostly done by card game creators and volunteer staff. A number of CCG players however prefer physical to internet play in terms of reality and fun.




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