True or False? Cards are used in the manner the card designers intended.

Ashur wrote:

My question "How do you mean?" refers to the question in the poll. Some cards are used as intended, some are not. I guess the cards that differ the most from the designers idea are those that wasn´t playtested enough, or those when the playtesters comments were ignored (Ashur Tablets? Anthelios? Villein? Wallpaper cards?)

The complete card list, taken as a whole, I guess.

I believe "Bewitching Oration" is used as intended and "Pulled Fangs" is not. So what should I answer?

Ashur wrote:

How do you mean?

Good question. I mean are cards used in ways that the designers foresaw and planned for.

brandonsantacruz wrote:

Ashur wrote:

How do you mean?

Good question. I mean are cards used in ways that the designers foresaw and planned for.

How would that even work? Do you think a card designer in 1994 anticipated Gehenna events, Laibon, Conviction and the Research area being created, and planned for his or her cards to work with them? Could LSJ have foreseen Resist Earth's Grasp interacting with Spoils of War?

brandonsantacruz wrote:

I mean are cards used in ways that the designers foresaw and planned for.

CCGs (I have come to appreciate how CCG is an acronym for customizable card games as well as collectible card games) aren't really CCGs if designers can predict how players will use the cards. They would just be boardgames with a lot of interactions.

What was revolutionary about Magic compared to competitive games it might compete with was that it lived outside the box. Today, you will often see Magic's lead designer or lead developer note how internal playtesting will never solve the environment for sets they release nor would they ever wish such a thing. If a couple hundred people can solve an environment in a year, a million players will solve it in a month. Obviously, V:TES is on a different scale, but the concept holds - a known environment is a stale environment, which makes for a boring CCG.

Now, one can distinguish between unforeseen rules interactions and unforeseen use of cards. The former doesn't really add to fun, except that there will be unforeseen rules interactions because of unforeseen uses of cards.

But, discovery is a prime driver for the play of CCGs.