Hello and welcome to The Casual Chat!

Today I wanted to delve into an interesting aspect of the card game sphere and that is talking about expandable card games, or what most people may know as living card games.

Now the reason why I’m going to talk about these sort of games as expandable card games rather than living card games is because it is the more generic term used for these games since living card game is trademarked by Fantasy Flight Games.

I wanted to talk about what an expandable card game is, the benefits of the genre, and the hurdles these types of games often have.

Let’s get started!

What is an Expandable Card Game?

When comparing a collectible/trading card game to an expandable card game, there is a massive difference between them.

That difference is that rather than opening randomized booster packs of a collectible/trading card game, you open a set box of cards that are usually set up in premade decks or from the entire available set of cards meaning that one box is all that is needed to start playing.

The way that an expandable card game makes money is by selling expansion packs, usually more decks, and having them be compatible with the original set of cards or adding a new mechanic to keep game play fresh.

The company that has popularized expandable card games is in fact Fantasy Flight Games (under the term living card games) and they have had success with their games Marvel Champions, Arkham Horror, Android: Netrunner, and Legend of the Five Rings to name a few of the many games they have made.

The Pros

The interesting thing that makes expandable card games more appealing than collectible/trading card games is the fact that players can just buy the one box and have a majority of the cards available without having to hunt them down.

This makes the games affordable to many people, and can also help grab a wider audience since people don’t need to put down more than what the box is worth in order to teach people how to play the game.

If people do want to add more cards to their collection then they can buy the expansions, which cost more than a collectible/trading card game booster pack but not nearly as much as buying a whole collection or booster box of the newest set of a collectible/trading card game.

Another interesting aspect of an expandable card game is that the designers of the game can make new cards with the knowledge that players will have the base game and can expand on that. A designer doesn’t have to imagine hypotheticals on how a random card that no one played before would interact with a new card.

They know what cards most players will have and can build off of that, while being much more aware of what cards to put in expansion packs in order to make a balanced play experience.

The Cons

Now what the expandable card game has in terms of accessibility is what it loses in collectability.

Since a majority of cards will be available in the base set, not everyone may be interested in buying more cards if they are fine with the cards that are in the base set. In a way it’s treated more like a board game and less like a card game, where most people buy one version of a board game and only changes it out if it gets lost, given away, or destroyed.

Also, like a board game, sometimes people don’t play the game as often because it may be treated as something to play when you have company over. This can prevent people from being actively aware that new expansions are released because they aren’t playing the game as often and made aware that new cards are coming.

The thing that collectible/trading cards have over expandable card games is the addition of new sets every couple of months that have brand new cards that may be valuable on the secondary market.

Sure, some expandable card games can become valuable, but not to the extent that a shiny, hard to obtain card from a collectible/trading card game is.

Then comes the most dreaded aspect of an expandable card game; people may just get bored of your game. Players have access to a large number of cards, meaning that they see the same cards over and over and over again, and unless they buy new expansion packs, that isn’t going to change.

Even if they do buy new expansion packs, they will still see a bunch of old cards that they may have played with dozens of times and not even bother with new cards.

Personal Thoughts

I think that expandable card games are a great idea that has some difficulties maintaining long term interest.

Sure some expandable card games have been able to last more than a couple years, but it needs a steady audience who is willing to stick with the game in the long term in order for a game to go longer than two years.

Even Fantasy Flight Games can’t keep up and have limited the number of living card games they are producing, only sticking with the most popular ones while selling off some of the older ones or just stopping production on some of them.

Expandable card games act as a great entry point for people who love card games but don’t want to get a mortgage in order to get some cards. You can buy the base set of a game and have fun with that or add expansions to change the game, but designers need to let their audience be more aware of expansions as well as do what they can to make sure players don’t get bored.

As a personal anecdote, I have attempted to make all sorts of trading card games to poor results because I have done so under the mind set of having the traditional booster pack model. While I do enjoy opening booster packs as much as the next guy, I do understand that competition in that space is rough and I need to do a lot more work in getting the game noticed.

Recently I have had the inklings of trying to design a game as an expandable card game because it eases some design issues I typically run into when trying to make a collectible/trading card game, I can focus on the design of the game knowing that people have all the cards, and competition is comparatively lighter when compared to collectible/trading card games.

It is still a long ways away from even having a concept, but the idea is intriguing enough for me to consider trying it out, and who knows maybe in two or three years something will come of it.

Only time will tell.

Thank you for reading, see you all next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

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