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Author Topic: Interview with Donald X.  (Read 2127007 times)

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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1050 on: March 19, 2014, 04:04:31 am »
+5

Are you happy about those particular expansions selling the best? Knowing that this effect probably based on order, would you have wanted to reorder anything?

Would you ever consider changing which cards are in which sets, or even in the game at all for later editions down the line?
You get better as you go along. If I'd decided to do Prosperity as the first expansion and Intrigue 3rd, Intrigue would be the better expansion. It's not like any particular theme had to be consigned to when I wasn't as good or whatever. It's not like I need people to buy more of one thing than another.

Kingdom Builder has the same deal as Dominion here; put the expansions in order from the one I like the best to the one I like the least, and that's the reverse order of publication. There's no solution; you get better as you go along.

Future changes aren't just up to me; I think Jay is mostly against them. If we released a slightly better version of Hinterlands, people who bought the old one would feel ripped off. If any cards were errata'd, one group might be used to the new version and then play at someone's house with the old version and an argument would ensue that we can avoid by not making those changes.

I don't think changing which cards are in existing sets is really on the table. Having completely new groupings is fine but mostly only makes sense for rethemes, like the Hobby Japan ones.
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SirPeebles

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1051 on: March 19, 2014, 09:34:51 am »
+3

It seems to me that while there may be room left for new Actions and Treasures, it is much harder to come up with new meaningful alt-VP cards.  I mean, there are only so many variables one can assess at the end of the game.  I don't think there are all that many more alt-VP cards to publish without them getting redundant or substantially more complex.  And to be clear, I'm talking about cards like Gardens or Fairgrounds which can really give Province a run for its money, not cards like Overgrown Estate or Nobles.  And new expansions would need to continue presenting such cards, or else full random games would have smaller and smaller odds of having alt-VP.  Which would be a shame, in my opinion.  I think the built in alt-VP aspect of Kingdom Builder is my favorite part of that game.
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Polk5440

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1052 on: March 19, 2014, 10:13:11 am »
+2

And new expansions would need to continue presenting such cards, or else full random games would have smaller and smaller odds of having alt-VP.  Which would be a shame, in my opinion. 

Even with the 200+ cards we have, I don't think full random across all expansions is the best way to generate kingdoms.
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allanfieldhouse

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1053 on: March 19, 2014, 12:22:22 pm »
+1

Even with the 200+ cards we have, I don't think full random across all expansions is the best way to generate kingdoms.

Obviously. King's Court, Black Market, Random is the best way to select a kingdom.  :)
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Witherweaver

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1054 on: March 19, 2014, 12:30:55 pm »
0

Even with the 200+ cards we have, I don't think full random across all expansions is the best way to generate kingdoms.

Obviously. King's Court, Scout, Random is the best way to select a kingdom.  :)

Fixed that for you.
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AJD

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1055 on: March 19, 2014, 12:43:03 pm »
+2

Even with the 200+ cards we have, I don't think full random across all expansions is the best way to generate kingdoms.

Obviously. King's Court, Black Market, Random is the best way to select a kingdom.  :)

The idea being, King's Court–Black Market selects nine cards for you, and then you pick the tenth randomly, I guess?
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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1056 on: March 19, 2014, 12:43:43 pm »
0

The tenth is always King Kurt.
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pst

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1057 on: March 19, 2014, 01:10:59 pm »
0

I don't think there are all that many more alt-VP cards to publish without them getting redundant or substantially more complex.  And to be clear, I'm talking about cards like Gardens or Fairgrounds which can really give Province a run for its money, not cards like Overgrown Estate or Nobles.

In that hypothetical world where there would be new cards all the time, I think we wouldn't demand the same amount of difference for a card to be seen as not redundant. If the set "Summer special 2029" contains a variant of Garden that differs in that you have to have at least one Copper in play to buy it, or that it is trash safe like Fortress, or that it only counts cards costing at least $3 in your deck, or any other change that wouldn't have been different enough for a new card now, I think that would be fine. ("The oldtimers who have played with the original '08 set will recognize this as a variant of a card there.")

(But all of that is moot since that is not the direction Donald X. is aiming for anyway.)
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Polk5440

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1058 on: March 19, 2014, 01:13:46 pm »
0

The number of people who get suckered into buying redundant Magic cards must be staggering.
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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1059 on: March 19, 2014, 01:44:50 pm »
0

The number of people who get suckered into buying redundant Magic cards must be staggering.

That's the beauty of random packs of cards, I guess.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1060 on: March 19, 2014, 04:04:19 pm »
+1

It seems to me that while there may be room left for new Actions and Treasures, it is much harder to come up with new meaningful alt-VP cards.  I mean, there are only so many variables one can assess at the end of the game.  I don't think there are all that many more alt-VP cards to publish without them getting redundant or substantially more complex.  And to be clear, I'm talking about cards like Gardens or Fairgrounds which can really give Province a run for its money, not cards like Overgrown Estate or Nobles.  And new expansions would need to continue presenting such cards, or else full random games would have smaller and smaller odds of having alt-VP.  Which would be a shame, in my opinion.  I think the built in alt-VP aspect of Kingdom Builder is my favorite part of that game.
Post on future VP cards: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=8559.0

David desJardins then said he thought anti-Gardens could be different enough, and I said yes I guess if it's cheap that could play sufficiently differently. So anti-Gardens and min would be among the first things I tried if I wanted to make another one.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1061 on: March 19, 2014, 04:07:35 pm »
0

In that hypothetical world where there would be new cards all the time, I think we wouldn't demand the same amount of difference for a card to be seen as not redundant. If the set "Summer special 2029" contains a variant of Garden that differs in that you have to have at least one Copper in play to buy it, or that it is trash safe like Fortress, or that it only counts cards costing at least $3 in your deck, or any other change that wouldn't have been different enough for a new card now, I think that would be fine. ("The oldtimers who have played with the original '08 set will recognize this as a variant of a card there.")

(But all of that is moot since that is not the direction Donald X. is aiming for anyway.)
I think, as long as possible, it's best to avoid just making near analogues, like the various Gardens-like things I tested and didn't do. There are a few and people do complain about them. If you wanted to make 20 expansions then for sure you would have to give up on that.
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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1062 on: March 19, 2014, 04:12:45 pm »
0

I don't think I'd be mega-sad if there were no more (or few more) scaling alt-VP cards. They're definitely the easiest way to say, "build this kind of deck", but there are others. If more sets were to be released, it would be nice to see more Kingdom Victory cards, even if they just give a flat X VP.
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ConMan

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1063 on: March 19, 2014, 05:55:03 pm »
+1

As a Magic player/designer, how do you feel about the less-serious expansions Unglued and Unhinged? If there were a huge demand for such a set for Dominion, what kind of direction do you think you'd take it?
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1064 on: March 19, 2014, 06:33:14 pm »
+5

As a Magic player/designer, how do you feel about the less-serious expansions Unglued and Unhinged? If there were a huge demand for such a set for Dominion, what kind of direction do you think you'd take it?
The central problem of Un- cards is that you can't play with them. And I don't just mean in tournaments. You build a deck with some Un- cards, you take it to your local game night. People are playing Standard-legal decks, they are not interested in playing against your decks. You can maybe talk someone into playing two of your decks against each other, but uh people tend to play established formats, and those formats don't allow Un- cards. This is at least how things went back when I was playing at local game nights, which was you know in the 90s. I bought a box of Unglued, people were interested in that for maybe a week, then, you know, I have Standard / Type II decks here, those cards are not legal in that format. These days they do make some supplemental products that are not legal in Standard, so they must see a sufficient demand there.

However. For many years the main way I played was cubes. You can put Un- cards in your cube, everyone's playing with cards from that cube, what's not to like there. Wait, we have to look at the specific cards you're talking about. Let's divide up Un- cards into uh ones that care too much about the physical world and everything else. Some cards care about what words you say, what you touch, your clothing, you know. All that stuff. And then others just do game-type things you can't do on normal Magic cards - die-rolling, caring about words in the text box in a way that wouldn't work in a game translated into multiple languages, caring about parts of a card that they don't want you to have to worry about in tournaments (artist, card name, rarity), fractions, stuff like that. Well caring about what I say or my clothing or whatever, those cards are good for a laugh once ever and then man I am sick of them. The other stuff is great; some things like caring about artist may not hold up because man I don't want to have to pay attention to this all the time, but there are cards that stay fun. It's uh not as large a fraction of the sets as I would like but they're there.

So anyway. For Magic, I would do another Un- set, but focus it on the stuff like caring about card text, and stay away from stuff like talking in funny voices. I bet it would go over better.

For Dominion I would never consider stuff like the funny voices; I personally have to like the set and so much for that. Caring about card names/text has the same issue for Dominion that it does for Magic: it doesn't translate. And if I were going to do die-rolling or something, I wouldn't think of it as an Un- set, just a theme that would be less popular. Making a funny set but having normal cards seems pointless. I mean a couple popular game brands are based around selling humor, and I should get in on that, but I dunno, I could just be sending off my screenplays if I wanted to pursue humor over gaming.

So, 1) I think future Magic Un- sets should focus on the cool stuff you can't do in normal sets, rather than wacky real-world stuff, and 2) I do not expect to ever make a Dominion Un- set.
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Ozle

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1065 on: March 19, 2014, 06:34:57 pm »
0

As a Magic player/designer, how do you feel about the less-serious expansions Unglued and Unhinged? If there were a huge demand for such a set for Dominion, what kind of direction do you think you'd take it?
The central problem of Un- cards is that you can't play with them. And I don't just mean in tournaments. You build a deck with some Un- cards, you take it to your local game night. People are playing Standard-legal decks, they are not interested in playing against your decks. You can maybe talk someone into playing two of your decks against each other, but uh people tend to play established formats, and those formats don't allow Un- cards. This is at least how things went back when I was playing at local game nights, which was you know in the 90s. I bought a box of Unglued, people were interested in that for maybe a week, then, you know, I have Standard / Type II decks here, those cards are not legal in that format. These days they do make some supplemental products that are not legal in Standard, so they must see a sufficient demand there.

However. For many years the main way I played was cubes. You can put Un- cards in your cube, everyone's playing with cards from that cube, what's not to like there. Wait, we have to look at the specific cards you're talking about. Let's divide up Un- cards into uh ones that care too much about the physical world and everything else. Some cards care about what words you say, what you touch, your clothing, you know. All that stuff. And then others just do game-type things you can't do on normal Magic cards - die-rolling, caring about words in the text box in a way that wouldn't work in a game translated into multiple languages, caring about parts of a card that they don't want you to have to worry about in tournaments (artist, card name, rarity), fractions, stuff like that. Well caring about what I say or my clothing or whatever, those cards are good for a laugh once ever and then man I am sick of them. The other stuff is great; some things like caring about artist may not hold up because man I don't want to have to pay attention to this all the time, but there are cards that stay fun. It's uh not as large a fraction of the sets as I would like but they're there.

So anyway. For Magic, I would do another Un- set, but focus it on the stuff like caring about card text, and stay away from stuff like talking in funny voices. I bet it would go over better.

For Dominion I would never consider stuff like the funny voices; I personally have to like the set and so much for that. Caring about card names/text has the same issue for Dominion that it does for Magic: it doesn't translate. And if I were going to do die-rolling or something, I wouldn't think of it as an Un- set, just a theme that would be less popular. Making a funny set but having normal cards seems pointless. I mean a couple popular game brands are based around selling humor, and I should get in on that, but I dunno, I could just be sending off my screenplays if I wanted to pursue humor over gaming.

So, 1) I think future Magic Un- sets should focus on the cool stuff you can't do in normal sets, rather than wacky real-world stuff, and 2) I do not expect to ever make a Dominion Un- set.


I made some Un- sets for Dominion, would you come and look at them for me?

(They are basically the original cards...just completely upside down!!)
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SirPeebles

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1066 on: March 19, 2014, 06:52:51 pm »
+1

How unsettling.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1067 on: March 19, 2014, 07:22:58 pm »
+5

I made some Un- sets for Dominion, would you come and look at them for me?

(They are basically the original cards...just completely upside down!!)
You guys could make a community joke set and post it for April Fools'. Not to try to trick anyone, just to be hilarious.
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NoMoreFun

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1068 on: March 19, 2014, 07:47:50 pm »
+1

I made some Un- sets for Dominion, would you come and look at them for me?

(They are basically the original cards...just completely upside down!!)
You guys could make a community joke set and post it for April Fools'. Not to try to trick anyone, just to be hilarious.

There's a thread of candidates ("Really Bad Card Ideas"), but that would mean coming over to the Variants and Fan Cards page. Perhaps we should get to work compiling a top 25.
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Tables

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1069 on: March 19, 2014, 07:58:12 pm »
+4

I made some Un- sets for Dominion, would you come and look at them for me?

(They are basically the original cards...just completely upside down!!)
You guys could make a community joke set and post it for April Fools'. Not to try to trick anyone, just to be hilarious.

There's a thread of candidates ("Really Bad Card Ideas"), but that would mean coming over to the Variants and Fan Cards page. Perhaps we should get to work compiling a top 25.

The top 25 would just be scout variants, of course. Everyone loves Scout jokes.
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...spin-offs are still better for all of the previously cited reasons.
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Axxle

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1070 on: March 19, 2014, 08:09:32 pm »
0

I made some Un- sets for Dominion, would you come and look at them for me?

(They are basically the original cards...just completely upside down!!)
You guys could make a community joke set and post it for April Fools'. Not to try to trick anyone, just to be hilarious.

There's a thread of candidates ("Really Bad Card Ideas"), but that would mean coming over to the Variants and Fan Cards page. Perhaps we should get to work compiling a top 25.

The top 25 would just be scout variants, of course. Everyone loves Scout jokes.
Reminds me of the From the Vault: Squire set that Magic Lampoon came up with a few years back. (it's down now otherwise I'd link it)
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SirPeebles

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1071 on: March 19, 2014, 08:43:38 pm »
+9

I made some Un- sets for Dominion, would you come and look at them for me?

(They are basically the original cards...just completely upside down!!)
You guys could make a community joke set and post it for April Fools'. Not to try to trick anyone, just to be hilarious.

There's a thread of candidates ("Really Bad Card Ideas"), but that would mean coming over to the Variants and Fan Cards page. Perhaps we should get to work compiling a top 25.

The top 25 would just be scout variants, of course. Everyone loves Scout jokes.

Aww.  I was already working on Scoutpost, which gave you a bonus turn with a three Scout hand.

Edit:  Oh god, was this really my 2500th post?  A scout joke?
« Last Edit: March 19, 2014, 08:48:52 pm by SirPeebles »
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Kirian

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1072 on: March 19, 2014, 09:04:29 pm »
0

I made some Un- sets for Dominion, would you come and look at them for me?

(They are basically the original cards...just completely upside down!!)
You guys could make a community joke set and post it for April Fools'. Not to try to trick anyone, just to be hilarious.


Didn't theory do that, like, three years back?
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Kirian

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1073 on: March 19, 2014, 09:05:57 pm »
0

I made some Un- sets for Dominion, would you come and look at them for me?

(They are basically the original cards...just completely upside down!!)
You guys could make a community joke set and post it for April Fools'. Not to try to trick anyone, just to be hilarious.

There's a thread of candidates ("Really Bad Card Ideas"), but that would mean coming over to the Variants and Fan Cards page. Perhaps we should get to work compiling a top 25.

The top 25 would just be scout variants, of course. Everyone loves Scout jokes.

Aww.  I was already working on Scoutpost, which gave you a bonus turn with a three Scout hand.

Edit:  Oh god, was this really my 2500th post?  A scout joke?

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=114.msg158761#msg158761

Scoutpost has been done at least once.
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Axxle

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #1074 on: March 19, 2014, 09:08:16 pm »
0

I made some Un- sets for Dominion, would you come and look at them for me?

(They are basically the original cards...just completely upside down!!)
You guys could make a community joke set and post it for April Fools'. Not to try to trick anyone, just to be hilarious.


Didn't theory do that, like, three years back?
There was this last year:
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=7642.0
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