Community Game: Themes

[aardvark]

Hello and Welcome to the LackeyCCG Community Game Theme Poll! (whoa, that's a mouthful.)

You have 3 votes to be used for 1 of each category, use them wisely. ;P
The poll will run for until Saturday evening (01/23/10 2200hrs) after which the votes will be tallied and a theme chosen.

The themes are: OverTheme, the Primary, and Secondary (or Specific).

OverTheme: Themes that are all-encompassing. While the actual game play may focus on fighting, diplomacy, espionage or just making money the big picture takes place there. For example: Cyrus' spoke of the Gas Station, a space theme; this could be translated to fantasy as the Trading Grounds, or what have you.

Primary: The principal theme of the game. While the overall theme of the game might be scifi, fantasy, etc. this is what the game will focus on: building resources, spying, warmongering, etc.

Secondary (or Specifics): The top of the pyramid. While you may be playing a fighting game in a fantasy land, how are you going to fight? By summoning monsters? By building golems? By undermining your opponents stocks in fairy dust? etc, etc.
While the Primary can exist independent of the OverTheme, the Specifics of the game will (usually) depend on the primary. Example: Bounty Hunting, Hunting, Dueling, Skirmishing would fall under War/Combat while Civ Building would be more appropriate for an Economic Primary.


OverTheme:

• Historical
• Sci-Fi
• Traditional Fantasy
• SteamPunk
• Sci-Fantasy

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Primary:

• War/Combat
• Economic
• Espionage
• Political
• Novel Based

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Secondary (Specifics):

• Character Emphasis
• Space Cowboy-Ninjas on Rhinos
• Bounty Hunting
• Cyberpunk
• Crack-the-Code
• Dueling
• Exploration

I've added a point that GnKoichi made concerning a community game.

The biggest thing I have to warn to everyone involved is not to let your ego get in the way. Someone has to be the decision maker, even if that "someone" is a majority vote. This means not all of your ideas will get into the game. In the last project, people started losing interest as they saw some of their ideas falling away, or they simply went off on their own and didn't consult with the group before adding things. Consensus and collaboration or the most important things. If you aren't interested in those aspects of the project, you're better off working on something by yourself.

Well said. I've seen this happen on projects past. One person didn't get in that uber-kool effect that they wanted and lost interest because of it. Heads may butt, however, we should remember the point of this is to have fun making something that we can all enjoy. If an idea that you submitted is passed over, don't take it personally (I've been guilty of this myself in the past  ) but rather, add it to your own bag of ideas to be used at a later time. I've done this as well. I mentioned an idea to another person in a brainstorm session that just wasn't used. It happens. I kept it, though, and decided to build my own game with the idea. Something I'm quite content with, btw. So, while an idea that you submit here may not make the grade, you can still draw inspiration from it in your own personal endeavors. Silver lining and all that.

Above all, just remember to have fun! 

[Ripplez]

i dont agree that its about ego. well partly, but in my experience, what hurts people the most is when the decision to leave in or remove a mecahnic is arbitrary and boils down to "i dont think it should go in". thats is a valid response but its also completely unbeatable. why shouldnt it go in, can it be changed to fit, will there be a player solution (which im going to call PS cos of how mch i refer to it)  to it that will make it more/less playable?

none of these can be answered if the decision to do it is simply arbitrary or done by a blind vote. sure 5 people out of 6 didnt like it but why? it didnt feel right? that again is a valid response but it doesnt help defend or dismiss the problem.

thats why id feel more comfortable doing this if people would guarantee that for every idea that didnt make the cut, your allowed to defend it at least once. maybe with a day or so to arrange your ideas and thoughts but at least once, that should be enough before shelving it

there are also other problems. designing is usually an effort of the mind - you might see something that the others just didnt. not to brag or anything but this has happened alot with me. for example, people were in general saying that a deckless + unique tcg wouldnt work. id like to think i managed it partly due to the fact that i didnt dismiss it without THOROUGHLY going over everything i could think of. some problems are similar, you might see a problem with a card being broken but everyone says that another card will counter it and dump your argument. this might not be personal but the person suggesting a look at the problem has a reason for saying it and rejection of it often feels like a rejection of his reasoning and his commitment. the reason for the rejection is not always fully explored. saying its for the good of the game or the group has decided is fine and dandy but without justification, it just becomes a smaller version of mob rule. thats the difference between a republic and a democracy after all, one protects the right of the individual AS WELL AS making sure the group as a whole gets through. a democracy just cuts out the smallest guy, regardless of how reasonable he might be

if clarity of thought is promised (not to be insulting, i just know it isnt always the case), id like to join, as long as the project moves with some speed (i dont like sitting around for 2 weeks with no progress :S). if not, then ill help out when i can, bouncing ideas off of, playtesting, offering mechanics but id give no certainty to my help. still, some help is better than none right? you could always ignore it as a safeguard

[legend zero]

I voted Steampunk / Espionage, but like I said in the other thread, different "Missions" (Decode/Duel/Explore) might work well for it.

[GnKoichi]

I know there's some time left, but I'm really excited by the prospects implied in the current leading votes.

[aardvark]

Indeed. I had not expected the primary leader as it stands. The overtheme was never I contest methinks. The Specifics are still anyones game it seems.

This will be interesting.

[Tokimo]

I've abstained from voting because I consider my participation to fickle, as such I can't see the votes. How is it leaning?

[legend zero]

Steampunk / Enspionage / Character Emphasis is the current leader.

[Ripplez]

ugh. character emphasis. come onnnn exploration/crack-the-code!

[GnKoichi]

The first part is actually tied between Steampunk & Traditional Fantasy. When I made my comment it was Traditional Fantasy/Espionage/Tie(Character Emphasis, Exploration, Bounty Hunting). All that together sounded like a really cool game. Hard to comment now with a harder to compromise tie in place.

[Ripplez]

eh. itll be possible. i just hapen to not like combat. character specifics can of course be done without a combat heavy focus, im sure of it. id just like not to have to sit and muddle through an incarnation of it to pitch that will most likely fail, given that combat heavy is the most traditional way to deal with such things (duel masters, l5r). yugioh beat that but much much later.

[GnKoichi]

That's a pretty pessimistic point of view. If you don't want to put in the effort of potential failure, how will we possibly succeed? You may not like the way this vote turns out, but how people should respond to that has been discussed to death already. Also, there's nothing to say that "Character Emphasis" means "Combat". When I proposed the idea, I explained that it referred to a game/fiction where the characters were the main thing. In Magic, even if you have a legendary character on the board, they aren't really an "important character". In SWCCG, you can have a Jedi character go through Jedi Training cards to give them more abilities. This is one example of how a character card can be treated like an important character, as opposed to just another war-monster in your deck. There are tons of ways to do it, and if it wins the vote I'll be really excited to see the ways people work with it.

[Ripplez]

i meant it will be possible to pull through a compromise tie regardless of what the tie actually is, i have full faith in that

i said that i know it wouldnt need to be combat-orientated but that its tiring to do it noncombat orientated since thats the most straightforward way to do it

i also never said i wouldnt do it. regardless of if i like it or not, i will always put in my effort. i just might not be jumping with joy. but ill always give it everything i can, i already promised to when i signed up for it. i never said i wouldnt put in the effort, the whole group is counting on me when i said i would do my part

[aardvark]

And the polls are closed!

The results were (on my part) a bit unexpected but far from unwelcome!


The winner for Overtheme is... a tie! (Steampunk & Traditional Fantasy)*

The winner for Primary is... Espionage!

The winner for Secondary is... Character Emphasis!

Thanks a lot to all those who voiced their opinions!


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*I've set up a tiebreaker for the Overtheme here.