Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah yeah. TCG is just a quick way to explain it to people so they get what I'm going for. I personally dislike the whole "rarity" aspect of TCGs, though it was fun when I was a kid. Living Card Games like Netrunner are more fun to play IMO. My elevator pitch usually goes something like: MTG meets Yu-gi-oh meets Pokemon (the RPG) meets Tamagotchi.
Consider Button Men ( https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/226312/button-men-beat-p... and the original https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17/button-men https://web.archive.org/web/20050205124221/http://beatpeople... ) These were originally implemented as buttons that you could pin on your shirt. There was a game convention long ago where sometimes you'd find two random people wearing them have a "hey! Let's play a g…
Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
111–120 of 144 posts
Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds more like a legacy style board game than an actual trading card game. Which seems to me like the better implementation of this technology, anything else due to its digital nature just feels like it is going to be exploited making any value disappear completely. I think this would be an amazing idea for a legacy style game, especially since it opens up the possibility of resetting the game and it really si…
Leave it to the capitalists to insinuate that something that doesn't make you money has no value, no matter how much fun and entertainment it provides to people.
But "value" is critical to a TCG when the first word is "trading". Otherwise what are you trading?
Otherwise, you just have a board game with cards (which exists). Which is fine! But that isn't a TCG.
Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
#113I really hope the Bay Area keeps this attitude, and that other places adopt it if they haven't already: "I live in the Bay Area. I'm biased, but this place is full of awesome engineers building things and you can just walk up to them and ask them to explain everything about their project and they will." Edit to add: It reminds me of Jobs calling up Bill Hewlett at his home as a teen and asking him questions, and Hewl…
I live here too. I'm biased, but 1) this place is not full of awesome engineers, it's mostly full of overworked contractors and newbies with eighth grader syndrome. And 2) you can't just walk up to them and ask them to explain everything about their project. That's a huge security issue and if it were true it would be a lot easier to social engineer places today. Not to say that it isn't possible, but this comment pa…
Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
#114I really hope the Bay Area keeps this attitude, and that other places adopt it if they haven't already: "I live in the Bay Area. I'm biased, but this place is full of awesome engineers building things and you can just walk up to them and ask them to explain everything about their project and they will." Edit to add: It reminds me of Jobs calling up Bill Hewlett at his home as a teen and asking him questions, and Hewl…
I live here too. I'm biased, but 1) this place is not full of awesome engineers, it's mostly full of overworked contractors and newbies with eighth grader syndrome. And 2) you can't just walk up to them and ask them to explain everything about their project. That's a huge security issue and if it were true it would be a lot easier to social engineer places today. Not to say that it isn't possible, but this comment pa…
Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
#115https://i.pinimg.com/474x/52/db/70/52db70262ac28239669a45d88...
He doesn't mention it in TFA
Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah yeah. TCG is just a quick way to explain it to people so they get what I'm going for. I personally dislike the whole "rarity" aspect of TCGs, though it was fun when I was a kid. Living Card Games like Netrunner are more fun to play IMO. My elevator pitch usually goes something like: MTG meets Yu-gi-oh meets Pokemon (the RPG) meets Tamagotchi.
Tamagotchi is the best metaphor. Take a look at this old school BBS game "The Pit" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK69uCBtI18 Could you do a janky version of "Street Fighter" where your dude (and assistant/second character) both had permanent stats + inventory + needing to "rest" or "heal over time" to recover after the battle? Same, but it's more of an RPG "character card + inventory card" vs. "opponent character…
One of the ideas I’ve been chasing for a decade as a personal project is a set of figures, not unlike SkyLanders or the Disney Infinity figures. They would operate in a Pokémon-like game but retain memories of their interactions I haven’t ever quite gotten it done, but it remains one of my favorite projects to tackle.
Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live here too. I'm biased, but 1) this place is not full of awesome engineers, it's mostly full of overworked contractors and newbies with eighth grader syndrome. And 2) you can't just walk up to them and ask them to explain everything about their project. That's a huge security issue and if it were true it would be a lot easier to social engineer places today. Not to say that it isn't possible, but this comment pa…
What is "eighth grader syndrome?"
https://theotakubox.com/blogs/articles/chuunibyou-eighth-gra...
I'm reading it as developing a level of capability which may (or may not) be genuinely accomplished but lacks requisite perspective and humility regarding its limits. Young teens (as in the 8th grade range) are famous for displaying this, and of course capable adults find it an easy mistake to make at many points in life.
Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
#118It just seems like a bit much for not enough. You are asking each player to carry around this "plinth" and however many cards would be necessary to play the game in question. Do the cards start on the plinth, then go to a common area? Are games played with connected plinths? You say "MTG meets Yu-gi-oh meets Pokemon meets Tamagotchi" but I don't really see that here. You're putting pictures on plastic cards. And with…
Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't really matter why, does it?
i mean you're publicly stating your opinion in a comments section, which is designed for conversation. it's sort of weird to state something so strongly and then not want to elaborate more on why.
Re: Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
in what way would that loss of control be complete? the contract developer would still have knobs and levers for adjusting rarity, issuing new cards, etc. they wouldn't control the secondary market, but that's no different from Magic The Gathering or Pokemon or good old fashioned baseball cards.
If you, exclusively, can control the rarity and issue new cards then it's hardly a decentralized market and there's no reason not do just make it a centralized system.
I've personally never been drawn to the rare collectible genre of game, but they're quite popular, one of the services offered is balancing rarity and power. People who like these games enjoy the lottery aspect of buying a sight-unseen pack, opening it, and hoping to score a rare card, they like participating in an aftermarket, and they like putting together decks which other people don't have. All of which can be auditably provided using a blockchain, without having to check for counterfeits, and with players able to confirm that a card is actually scarce just by examining the state of the contract.
There are two reasons not to just make it a centralized system. One I addressed in another comment, the other is that with a decentralized system, it's possible to get the same properties as a physical collectible playing card game.
Namely: the creators control the properties of cards, how many are issued, and enjoy the profits of the first sale. But after that sale, the cards/token belong to whomever purchased them, and that person can sell them to whomever they like.
It's also possible to attach royalties to additional sales, or even retain the right to destroy tokens, but I would advise against this on business grounds, since those decisions would be unpopular ones for customers and players.
Of course, a centralized system would allow the issuers to confiscate the assets at any time, or forbid their transfer, or change the arrangement so that people are lured in with the premise that they can freely resell their cards, and then impose some cut of the resale price ex post facto. Plus if the company goes out of business, and shuts down the database and servers, that's the end of all that, your supposedly scarce bits are now useless.
So if your definition of losing control involves not being able to abuse your customers in that way, I can see why a centralized database might be preferable.
If it doesn't, then a centralized database is clearly inferior in every way that matters, for this application. Of course, someone starting with a thesis that blockchains are useless by definition, is going to begin with the conclusion, and work their way backward looking for reasons that conclusion is true.