A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

that mixes strategic deck building elements with features of

trading cards A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other t ...

. The genre was introduced with '' Magic: The Gathering'' in 1993. Cards in CCGs are specially designed sets of

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...

s. Each card represents an element of the theme and rules of the game, and each can fall in categories such as creatures, enhancements, events, resources, and locations. All cards within the CCG typically share the same common backside

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

, while the front has a combination of

proprietary {{Short pages monitor Meanwhile, strong sales continued with the three top CCGs of ''Pokémon'', ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', and ''Magic: the Gathering''. The Warhammer series ''Dark Millennium'' ended its run in 2007. ''Magic: the Gathering'' saw a large player boom in 2009, with the release of the '' Zendikar'' expansion. The spike in the number of ''Magic'' players continued for a few years and leveled off by 2015. Interest also developed with their multiplayer format called

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

. This increase in the player base created a ''Magic'' subculture based on finance speculation. New players entering the market from 2009 to 2015 desired cards that were printed before 2009 and with smaller print runs. Demand outstripped quantity and prices of certain cards increased and speculators started to directly manipulate the ''Magic'' card market to their advantage. This eventually attracted the interest of the controversial figure Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, for a brief period of time. Prices of cards from previous sets increased dramatically and the American market saw an influx of Chinese

counterfeit A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...

s capitalizing on the demand. This created a unique situation where the most desirable and expensive cards could be printed by counterfeiters, but not by the brand owner, due to a promise made with collectors in 1996 and refined in 2011. In 2015, Wizards of the Coast implemented more anti-counterfeit measures by introducing a holographic foil onto cards with specific rarities, in addition to creating a proprietary font. Between the time period of 2008 to 2016, Magic: the Gathering sold over 20 billion cards. A rise in tie-in collectible card games continued with the introduction of the '' My Little Pony Collectible Card Game''. It was licensed to Enterplay LLC by Hasbro and published on 13 December 2013. The collectible cards, according to president Dean Irwin, proved to be moderately successful, so Enterplay reprinted the premiere release set mid-February 2014. Other tie-in games released included the '' Final Fantasy Trading Card Game'' and '' Star Wars: Destiny''; which had collectible cards and

dice A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...

which after a 3-year run ended production in early 2020. '' Force of Will'' was released in 2012 in Japan and in 2013 in English, but as an original intellectual property. One of the longest running CCGs, ''Legend of the Five Rings'', released its final set ''Evil Portents'' for free in 2015. After a 20-year run, the brand was sold to Fantasy Flight Games and released as an LCG. In March 2018, it was announced that PlayFusion and

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...

would team up to create a new Warhammer trading card game. Forbes reported that the global Trading Card Game market size in 2022 was valued at $2.99 billion and it is expected to reach $4.2 billion by 2028.

Reception

In 1996, Luke Peterschmidt, designer of Guardians, remarked that unlike board game and

RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

players, CCG players seem to assume they can only play one CCG at a time. Often, the less popular CCGs will have localized sales success; in some cities a CCG will be a hit, but in many others it will be a flop.

Concerns about gambling

Like lootboxes in

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

, there are concerns about the random and sealed booster packs. However, challenges to whether booster packs are equivalent to gambling have failed to hold up in court, as CCGs typically follow similar rules established for baseball card distribution. These include that the publisher states what the rarity expectations are for a booster pack, and that all cards they sell have equal value; it is only the secondary market that assigns speculative value to rarer cards that elevates their price. Since the publisher has no interaction with the secondary market, this helps to insulate their from gambling concerns. A survey among users of Reddit's online message boards found little evidence of the need to regulate collectible card games. This concern for gambling plays a big part of the brand messaging for Living Card Games with fixed non-randomized distribution of cards.

Bibliography

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collectible Card Game Card games introduced in 1993 Games of mental skill Card game terminology