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Along with the character actions listed, each of the cards in the game also has their own “level up” text underneath their standard card game text. As these actions pile up, the players’ turns continue to get longer and longer until one of the players succeeds in lowering their opponents hit points to zero. This is made possible by either hurting an opposing player with character actions, or they’d need to unleash enough monsters against the opposing character to decimate them.

“I think this is one of the parts of the game that is so popular with MMO players,” Henry said. “Players love to level up in the game, but this allows you to feel that experience of leveling up much more frequently. You’re doing it on every turn.”

The monster, item, and tactic cards in the MapleStory iTCG.

Putting monsters out on the battlefield is also included as one of the level up character actions, with the Knight being the most proficient monster spawner of the four character classes. Since I was playing a Warrior with Henry, I used my Spawn X character ability to put a Ribbon Pig out on the table. Although not a hard-hitting card, any monster a player puts out onto the field automatically absorbs 10 points of damage from a character’s attack. Get enough monsters out on the field, and you’re virtually invulnerable!

Characters can also equip items and play tactics with their character actions, depending upon their game text on their character actions. Each of the classes seems to excel at their own particular mechanic in the game, with the Magician being an excellent user of Tactics to exert direct damage while the Bowman seems to have plenty of items and annoying monsters with which to decimate his opponents.

Ironically, while I was sitting across the table from Henry, I could almost imagine the game as being a PvP battle with another player, which is something that Henry echoed. “It’s really a different form of PvP,” he said. “It’s something you can’t do in the game with other players, so it’s definitely more interesting in the real world.”

And you don’t necessarily have to stay with a 1v1 format with this card game either. According to Henry, it can expand to a free-for-all type game or even stranger configurations. “It’s kinda like the Magic early days,” he said. “It’s definitely designed for 1v1, but people can have fun with it.”

Obviously, since Henry and I didn’t have time to play an entire game, I wondered how long the average play time was for an iTCG session. “It’s typically 15 to 20 minutes to play a game,” Henry said. “And what your character does really helps to define what your deck is going to be. Different characters are good at different things. They all have their own theme.”

Although the idea of a card game based around an MMO for a younger audience may seem like a failed effort to some, I actually had a tremendous amount of fun with the trading card game. After the play demo was finished, I asked Henry how Wizards originally got in contact with Nexon to produce this game. “We ran into them at the Game Developers Conference where they gave a speech about their game and how it works from an economic standpoint,” Henry explained. “Our ears perked up because what they were saying sounded very similar to Magic: The Gathering. Technically you can play Magic all day long and it doesn’t cost you a dime, but you have to pay to buy the cards.”

“When we heard that we said ‘Wow, these guys really understand the economics of how people like to buy things.’ We began talking to them about doing a partnership deal and do a card version of their game,” Henry said. “After that it just all came together.”

While discussing the development of a trading card game is easy, actually developing that product to meet the demands of an IP licensor is another matter altogether. I wondered what sort of process Wizards and Nexon took with the development of the iTCG.

“It was - and still is - very much a partnership,” Henry said. “We pitched them four different game designs, from the one they selected to ones that were more like Magic. We worked with them to pick the style they liked the best and have worked very closely since then to formulate ideas for future product.”

“The game’s definitely not trying to be Magic,” Henry said. “There’s a lot of depth and strategy, but it’s aimed for the same market that MapleStory is aimed at. It’s all fast action and go. As you get higher level, you really start to feel some major swings in momentum.”

So what did the folks from Nexon think of the game when they finally got to play it? “They loved it,” Henry said. “They actually decided to publish our game over in Korea. They licensed the iTCG from us to do it over there. It uses all the same things, and it’s super exciting for us to see our card game really take off.”

To me, Wizards of the Coast represents the epitome of tabletop gaming. Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and a score of other products have solidified their hold on the market, but very few of them are aimed at the age level that MapleStory was aimed at. Creating a TCG for that age group – on top of making it competitive for older games - seems like a hard product to develop, and I asked Henry if it was a challenge for the creative staff at WotC.

“It was a challenge, but we are who we are,” Henry said. “While we want to make it fast playing and simple, we also like to make games that we have fun playing. We definitely had to simplify the game, but the reactions we’re getting are very positive to the product.”

As long as new content keeps getting produced for MapleStory, the iTCG will continue to have new ideas for cards.

As my final question, I had to wonder about the longevity of the MapleStory card game. Although the size of each set is fairly small, it’s always a struggle for TCG creators to continually develop cards without falling into the notorious “cardflation” or simply running out of quality ideas. Although Magic fights this trend using their “X Edition” sets, I wondered if MapleStory would ever see a similar sort of procedure arise.

“That’s a good question,” Henry said. He paused for a moment in thought. “There isn’t infinite content in MapleStory. Magic has infinite content because we invent it all the time. With MapleStory, we’re actually taking content from within the game to make into a set of cards. There are Ribbon Pigs and Crows inside the game; they’re all real. Eventually we’re going to need to get creative with what we’re doing or reuse the content we have in a new way.”

“However, we are on set five right now and we haven’t had to do that yet,” Henry said. “Nexon is also coming out with new content all the time, and they are constantly patching in new content. When they do that, we get new content too.”

With that, Henry and I concluded our interview and initial demonstration of the game. Of course, there are more intricacies involved with the MapleStory iTCG than what I’ve described in these paragraphs, but due to the time we were allotted Henry couldn’t explore every in-depth detail with me. However, make sure you check back in with Ten Ton Hammer to read our review of the iTCG and it’s latest expansion, which should be live in about a week!