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.”
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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
style="font-style: italic;">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.
style="font-style: italic;">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
style="font-style: italic;">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.”
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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
style="font-style: italic;">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
style="font-style: italic;">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
style="font-style: italic;">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!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our MapleStory Game Page.
