"R.I.P. Academy Format 2010-2011"
Academy Format was a collaboration of myself and a local player, Ed Kime, last year when we were sitting around trying to come up with a new fun limited format. At first it was great, a format without any b.s. like OT Kirk or Tragic Turn. Just a fun, clean, simple format. Sadly, yesterday I watched it die. I realized that with every new virtual expansion including a team that Academy doesn't exist anymore, it's now "Teams Format". A non-team build has almost no chance against a team. It's not a terrible thing, it's still an alright format to play, but it's not what I envisioned Academy to be. I envisioned something along the lines of a 'No Rares' format where people would play cards they normally wouldn't play. Now it's just pick a team, grab what they need, and go. On top of all that, the "85 point Kressari Monster" can be played in this format, and that just isn't right. There should be no easy two mission win in any limited format (Two mission win where you can solve both missions with 4 personnel no less). I brought my 8 year old daughter to play Academy (she blew up a ship, which was epic), thinking it'd be a simple format. All she saw was complicated team nonsense that she didn't understand. I've made no secret about my distaste for teams. I think it's the path of least resistance when designing new sets. It hampers the creative process of design, deckbuilding and gameplay. As a father wanting to bring his kids into this game in the near future I see bad things on the horizon. If we keep making every expansion built around complicated teams, how are we suppossed to bring new players into this game? No new entry point = slow death. We learned that from 1E, at least I thought we did. We forgotten who we were when we started playing this game, young people. Now we're men in our 30's designing a game for people in their 30's. A very SW:CCG-like game (where every person has a 3-line ability), that has too many moving parts. And if you think you can give a young person a 'team' and try to explain this game to them you're sadly mistaking. You try to give a kid an Equinox deck and explain the ship's ability and Nucleogenic crap to them. Jesus, that would be borderline child abuse. The current Design Team (and previous ones) have forgotten the roots of this game. Which each set they try to do more and more, cards with walls of texts and clunky interactions. The last in turn leads to tougher and tougher rules questions. M'Pella is a good example of Design not understanding the game itself. Her ability, and similar cards in the set, turns out didn't even work until somebody brought up a rules questions (Which then lead to a new ruling, then the infamous "2E Keller Dilemma Resolution Guide"). There's always been a disconnect between Design and how the game is actually played. I just ask them, remember who you were when you began playing Trek, and try to think of that person trying to learn this game, when you design new sets.
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