First of all, I've officially decided the name of my game is Rift. Although this might seem like an allusion to "Summoner's Rift" which is a location in League of Legends, I'd like to be clear it is not. I like the word because it aptly describes the setting for a 2 player battle game.
a difference in opinion, belief, or interest that causes a break in friendly relations
I also want to state that I no longer view the game as a CCG or TCG. I love the idea of a collectible card game or trading card game, however, I find the paradigm a little too limiting for what the game could become. This is mostly due to min/max tendencies. Unfortunately, this also limits the potential audience of the game, but I must live with that reality. I can, after all, only make the game that I can make.
The dark side of CCG/TCG games is that the "lesser" players who can only afford to purchase the occasional card pack or only a starter set are always going to be outclassed by the "greater" players who are willing and/or able to sink money into finding and collecting the better cards. There's a few reasons why I veiw this as a dark side:
1) The game is pay to play. And whether anyone is willing to pay the price depends on the popularity and "coolness" factor of the game itself. That's a lot of financial stress on the audience and a lot of stress on the artists and designers to live up to the perceived value or proposed value. It's also a trap in which most visionary CCG/TCG games fail and die.
2) The best cards become the only cards and everything else falls by the wayside. Slightly worse card that does something different? Ignore it, not worth spending to acquire and not worth fielding at the expense of something better.
3) Power creep. CCG/TCG live and die by their new and interesting content. However, because everything about the game has been subverted by the concept of expense and min/max power, there is no new content which can be anything other than more powerful content. This means new content invalidates old content. New systems relace old systems. Power levels must, by necessity, rise with the new content, making the game bloat into eventual ridiculousness.
It is for these reasons and others that I think Rift is better served by becoming a boxed set. Expansions can be introduced, certainly. The core idea of the game, though, is that both sides come to the table on equal footing. Nobody puchased victory and the players can trust that they are both at the table for the same reasons: to enjoy a game.
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