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Dear CoE members... here is my humble opinion

Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 8:25 pm
by thenamelessthing
Hi dear members of the council, with the lockdown we have played much more than the last 10 years! Bringing back old players and new one. As an player and a collector. I enjoy every aspect of the game and product which concern this game. Even some awesome fan- made thing.

Let's dream together a little, I see several individual initiatives or small teams. Like the "improved" middle-earth map. A superior digitization of all the cards in the game including the errata, sets of dice with the symbol of each avatar, a rule book bringing together all of the errata, regulations which have evolved over the course of expansion. Often projects that come together and that result in duplicate projects. Wasted energy. Why not coordinate all these projects in one place, define what we want, create working groups, create a roadmap, and finally succeed in bringing this game to maturity as we wish?

I want to bring together several individual projects and link them together.

For example cardnum:
Make the content a little more homogeneous and improve the visual signature.
- Use the content of this project (https://github.com/usmcgeek/MECCGRemastered) to replace the cards currently used on cardnum.
-Revamp the dice with avatar set dice
-Use only one style of map of the regions (use a single large map including the standard regions is the DC, if the DC are used then the regions are "unlocked" and the additional sites displayed
-Integrate discord chat instead of the current one
-Add a highlight on the map when the mouse hovers over it. This would help to know if we are selecting the right card.

For the CoE:
Add more visibility to the main current project on the main page like these one:
Add an official region map
Add the universal rules document as the reference for the future and keep original rules in the archives
Add in the main page the meccg cheat sheet as quick reference
Add meccg youtube game tutorial for beginner for physical game
Add cardnum as THE online game experience reference and remove outdated gccg
Add meccg youtube game tutorial for cardnum
Add cardnum interface tutorial
Add a shop option or link in web resources section for some "custom" product (including informations / files to provide) for people which want order custom thing like:
-Playmat printing
-Map printing
- Avatar dices set

-Cards sleeves with meccg back?
others goodies
-Wooden box like (https://www.facebook.com/mtgcustomdeckboxes/)


I hope you will consider my sugestion, and stay safe during these hard days. Keep continuing your great work.

If you need volunteer, you can count on me!

Re: Dear CoE members... here is my humble opinion

Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 9:55 pm
by CDavis7M
thenamelessthing wrote: Mon May 04, 2020 8:25 pm others goodies
-Wooden box like (https://www.facebook.com/mtgcustomdeckboxes/)
If you need volunteer, you can count on me!
What a cool idea. I'll take one. Thanks for offering to set this up. I like the boxes with the cut-outs to show the front card. It would be nice to get a 100+ card box to hold larger DC decks.

Image

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But back to the main point -- isn't everyone on the Council already overloaded with work? They are either maintaining this website, developing CardNum, moderating the FB group, designing and printing DC cards and books, organizing the ARV, and I think the others are (or were) hosting their own local play groups and meets. So it's not like nothing is being done. There is a lot being done to maintain MECCG's players.

People have been asking for some of these things since 1995. It's the age old problem: Saving the Game Letter - Problems & Possible Solutions

I think the discord is a great idea because people are already using it, especially younger people who might be looking to start playing this game. And I do think there could be better advertisement of the CoE's successes. I understand why the Dream Cards are "if you know, you know." But things like Cardnum updates and GCCG server address changes should be easier to find. The Facebook group is OK but even FB has been dated for a while now. Maybe Twitter is a better option but honestly I don't use it so I don't know.

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Part of the problem with hosting files is receiving proper permissions. And many items are derivative works from something found on the internet. It's not so easy to be "in the clear." Still, I agree that this is an area that could be improved.

But hosting a shop is a huge headache and there's no way that it would be worth the money that people would pay.

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One thing that I think would be helpful would be to have dedicated contact people on the main webpage. List which countries/areas they are in, give their email (so no forum login is required), and state "Yes, this people is still playing the game in 2020." MECCG google hits are so full of dead links that I would guess most people just dismiss everything they see after 2 fails.

I recently talked to a "potential new player" online just this week. He said that he picked up some Challenge Decks and odd cards a few years ago but never really got into the game. He even found the local playgroup at a gaming convention and went. I'm not exactly sure what happened but it seemed like the players were not expecting him and so games were already in progress, and maybe he had other games he wanted to play at the convention, and it just didn't work out. I don't know how to solve this problem, but I have a feeling that there would be more players trickling in if it were easier to find a local point of contact.

Another thing that I think would interest new players is sealed starter decks. There's nothing more fun than cracking open a relic of the past. Of course this costs money, and they are getting harder to find, and then someone in the playgroup has to carry them around. So it's not ideal. But I just have the feeling that if someone had cards to build a deck, they would be more likely to come to the play group to test their deck.

Re: Dear CoE members... here is my humble opinion

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 4:27 pm
by Thorsten the Traveller
Is this forum itself difficult to navigate, or are forums archaic nowadays and shunned by people? It is indeed a pity that there is another Council of Elrond (.com).

Well, the name discord for the discussion platform is aptly chosen, as people in general tend to disagree with each other on things (though discord is very negative and inspired by the Black Enemy).

So, a definite or all encompassing regions map, it just does not exist. Nor a single online gaming platform, nor even the perfect deck builder. Different people with different ideas and preferences, or simply several people want to take their own shot at it. Could be that it leads to a bit of chaos and duplication, or might be that it leads to more choices and potentially wonderful stuff, who knows? But I wouldn't just call that wasted energy, that's a simplification.

Some people would like to have the cards with errata printed on them, others wouldn't. Universal Rules Document, another perfect example. It is under construction, but there are so many controversial rules issues, you could make a dozen different URD's.

And wat should this end goal or roadmap be that you seem to imply? Even that would lead to discussion. Do we want meccg to have a community the size of MtG? If that were possible, many would not like it.

In short, it's good to coordinate and to discuss, but do not fixate too much on wrapping things up neatly in a package.


btw. A shop, you mean a section on the board where people with projects can take stock of whoever would be interested? Because I did check the option of custom cardsleeves a few years ago, and to make that happen such large numbers were required that I discarded the idea. But perhaps if you let a kickstarter run for 3 or 4 years, you could gather enough support :-)