CCG, TCG & LCG

There has been some discussion about the future of VtES in the past few weeks. One aspect of the discussion was if VtES could be continued to a Living Card Game. I have put up a poll regarding this question (see sidebar). For a basic understanding of the terms here are the definitions for both Trading/Collectible Card Game vs. Living Card Game.

• Living Card Game (LCG)
  
  n. A Fantasy Flight Games trademark for Collectible Card Games (CCGs) sold in non-random booster packs.


• Collectible Card Game (CCG)
  
  n. Also known as Trading Card Game (TCG). This type of game uses a basic rule structure and a large assortment of cards which each have characteristics that contradict or supplement the basic rules. Each player selects a number of cards that they own to create a deck which they use in the game. This allows players to predetermine their strategies. The game rules define how many cards must be used and how many copies of each single card are allowed. Cards are sold in "booster packs". Packs contain a fixed number of cards and usually include one "rare" card, some "uncommon" cards, and the bulk of the pack contains "common" cards. Rare cards are generally more powerful or efficient than uncommons or commons, which can lead to the problem that the person who has spent the most money on cards wins. The original collectible card game was Magic: The Gathering. Its incredible success spawned dozens of copycat games. Some were good; many were awful. Other examples are Middle-earth CCG, Pokemon and Netrunner.

Definitions derived from the Board Game Geek Glossary.

Fantasy Flight Games have summarized the reasoning for the introduction of Living Card Games on their "A Game of Thrones" website (which is the first LCG) in late 2008.