Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

By Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor

Without a doubt, the MapleStory MMOG is one of the most popular and profitable online games on the planet. Time and time again, industry journalists have been amazed at the awe-inspiring numbers that MapleStory produces, and the company is always on the lookout for new and innovative ideas to increase the popularity of their games. From Target gift cards to hilarious commercials, Nexon America is willing to pull out all the stops in an effort to attain the attention of MMO gamers.

When the MapleStory iTCG emerged from the Wizards of the Coast development studios last November, I knew I had to investigate what this latest product was all about. Just over a week ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Wizards of the Coast development studios in Washington State, and I got a first hand look at the MapleStoryiTCG.

MapleStory is one of the most popular MMOGs in the world.

My tour guide for my introduction to the game was Henry Stern, Sr. Game Developer / Designer for the Research and Development sector of WotC. The MapleStory iTCG is currently on its third expansion, with each expansion numbering around 60-80 cards apiece. The most recent release, which just debuted in May, is named P3TS and focuses on the use of pet cards in the iTCG.

So what's the "i" stand for you might ask? That was the first question I asked when Henry told me that that was the name of his product. "We really left that up to people's own interpretation,” Henry answered. “You really never see the 'i' defined anywhere, but it means a lot of things to a lot of different people. Integrative, Internet, Item Code...."

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between the MapleStory iTCG and other trading card games is the number of item codes that are available to players as the open up their card packs. It was perhaps the biggest selling point I received from Henry concerning the MapleStory iTCG, aside from the game's unique play mechanics.

"We really wanted to take the item code process to the next level by making it really integrated," Henry continued. “Virtual prizes aren’t just vanity items. First of all, there’s a lot more item codes available through our product then you might see in traditional offerings. Not only that, but they also actually impact the player’s game. There are different prize categories involved – pets, consumables, and quest starters – and involvement with other NPCs in the game that help you generate even better prizes.”

“For example, in the World of Warcraft TCG, you’ll have to go through a box of boosters to get a mount,” Henry said. “All the mount does though is look different than your other mounts. However, with our card game every single pack has a code card in it. Each of the codes we have actually is going to help you become more powerful in the game."

As I busted open my first pack of the MapleStory iTCG card game, I did a quick analysis with my eyes. Apparently I had received several commons and uncommons, but the items that caught my eye the most were the foil card and the two code cards I’d received in the deck.

“Currently every single card in the set comes in a standard version and a coded version and a foil version,” Henry added. “There are lots of different levels, currently. But in basic terms, you get a least one code card in every single pack. You’ve gotten two, but you could get up to nine. It’s not that infrequent that you get multiple codes in a pack.”

“Some of the items you can type in off of our code cards are selling for millions of Mesos (Editor’s Note: The in-game currency.) in MapleStory,” Henry continued. “Nexon has been pretty good to us in supporting our goals and the having desirable stuff in the game.”

As Henry was explaining this portion of the game to me, I was able to view a list of all the items that are available in each of the different MapleStory sets. He was definitely telling the truth, each of the items that a player can turn in via the TCG has a fairly high in-game value. But I also noticed that there were particular differences to each of the item sets.

“With trading card games, we change the theme every set,” Henry noted. “We really try to match our virtual prizes to the theme of whatever set that we’re pulling from. Since our last set focused on pets – and we know pets are extremely popular with MMO players – we centered most of the virtual prize offerings in the last set around pets as well. There’s a lot of integration on a number of levels that we think appeals to trading card game players as well as MMO players.”

“And for those collectors out there, all of the MapleStory cards are done by actual Nexon artists,” Henry noted. “The card game is really one of the only places that you’d be able to find this real, hand-drawn MapleStory art. Fans of the MMO are always eager to nab these cards simply to have a collectable piece of the game that they can own. “

A depiction of a character card from the MapleStory iTCG tutorial.

Of course, nothing was more important than actually getting a chance to sit down and play through a quick session of the MapleStory iTCG with Henry. Just like Magic: The Gathering or the World of Warcraft TCG, you initially begin the MapleStory game by creating a deck and selecting a character that you want to play. There are four different character classes you can choose from that are synchronized with the four classes from the MMOG: Bowman, Magician, Thief, and Warrior. Once you’ve selected your class, the goal is to typically construct your deck around that particular class, or a combination of two of the listed classes. Any more than that, and the game would start to become almost unplayable.

While the previous paragraph may sound like the initial set-up period for any TCG, the MapleStory game has a few unique nuances that really set it apart from Wizards’ previous products and any other MMO TCG that’s on the market right now. Henry made sure to point out the biggest difference to me as we played.

“The main thing that’s different about MapleStory iTCG is that every turn you ‘level up’ your character,” Henry said, taking a card from his hand as he said this. “You put a card from your hand underneath the character, which increases his level.” As we continued playing, the cards that you’d ‘level up’ your character with count towards your character’s overall level, boosting him from 10 to 20 to 30 and so on.

According to Henry, each time a character levels up they gain 20 hit points to add to their hit point total. On top of that, each of the character cards also has a list of character actions that they can perform once their character attains a particular level. Take the displayed Warrior character for example, once he attains level 10 and has at least one Warrior card underneath him, he can perform a “Bash” action against another character or monster.