Konami Launches 'Star Wars Force Collection' Card Game for iOS

This is in obvious competition to Hearthstone soon to be released for iOS and PC/Mac.

(Note well: this is a Blizzard soon™)

I can see it now. The "free" game will just give you some clone troopers, ewoks, and protocol droids. If you want to compete, you will have to make some massive in app purchases.

I would rather pay for a game up front then have to make in app purchases.

The game's free but to remove ads and Jar Jar costs $14.99

Plutonius said:

I can see it now. The "free" game will just give you some clone troopers, ewoks, and protocol droids. If you want to compete, you will have to make some massive in app purchases.

I would rather pay for a game up front then have to make in app purchases.

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IAPs are, single-handedly, the worst thing that has ever happened to iOS gaming; what an annoying POS driven by greedy developers and sanctioned by Apple. At the very least, let me SEARCH for apps and games NOT infected by IAP - that would be a great thing already.

BRLawyer said:

IAPs are, single-handedly, the worst thing that has ever happened to iOS gaming

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I would say that the way in which most games use IAPs are what make the model seem so terrible. I don't think the concept is in and of itself bad at all. But Pay-to-Win, Pay-Walls, and the like just feel like greedy, artificial barriers to fun. IAPs for purely cosmetic extras are fine though; you can still enjoy a game in its entirety, but for a fun, non-relevant customization, you can donate some money to a dev you like. Or maybe a game has several hero classes, all balanced and fair, and you pay for another that plays differently, letting you get another angle of enjoyment from the game, but is specifically not "more powerful" than the default choices (otherwise it becomes pay-to-win). Content expansions seem ok too, so long as the original game is fun and worth the original price, paying extra for a new campaign/etc seems reasonable. And that concept has been around a lot longer than IAPs.

BRLawyer said:

IAPs are, single-handedly, the worst thing that has ever happened to iOS gaming; what an annoying POS driven by greedy developers and sanctioned by Apple. At the very least, let me SEARCH for apps and games NOT infected by IAP - that would be a great thing already.

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I alway check the "available in-app purchases" on an app before I download. If I see a special currency listed, I usually won't bother.

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IAP do have a place. Even for game changing content. For example I am generally OK with unlocking characters and levels, but I absolutely refuse to buy consumable items like in game money. I think of it as one time unlocks to open up the full experience.
That said, it can be trickier with competitive games where unlocking cards give you a significant edge.

err404 said:

I absolutely refuse to buy consumable items like in game money

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Yeah, that IAP model might be profitable, but it's also very alienating to mature gamers. It takes advantage of people who are irresponsible with money (children), and caters to those with an excess of disposable income (whales). It's just in bad taste, and I can't imagine any reputable game designer sleeps well at night when his managers/marketers force him to implement this.

it can be trickier with competitive games where unlocking cards give you a significant edge.

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There is nothing tricky about that at all. More money equals more winning. It's also crap design, and not in fact competitive. Competition is based on fairness. Winner is determined by skill. When factors outside of a game, like your wallet, give you an indisputable advantage, the game is no longer fair, and no longer competitive.

The only way you make a fair and competitive game that also has something like card unlocking for money is by ensuring two things: non-paying players have a reasonable way, in game, to acquire those same cards (spending money might just save you some time), or the paid cards are equally as powerful as the free cards, and they merely open up additional, though not technically better, strategies.

BRLawyer said:

IAPs are, single-handedly, the worst thing that has ever happened to iOS gaming; what an annoying POS driven by greedy developers and sanctioned by Apple. At the very least, let me SEARCH for apps and games NOT infected by IAP - that would be a great thing already.

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The way I see it, there should be at the most 3 types of IAPs: (1) full content unlock, (2) entirely optional cheat pack, and (3) subsequent extra level/episode expansion packs.

And Apple should show past IAP history for each title, so users are aware how much money they have sunk into each title.

TRying it out but can't really see much... Crashing after the tutorial, and browsing the reviews in the App Store - I'm not the only one.

Plutonius said:

I can see it now. The "free" game will just give you some clone troopers, ewoks, and protocol droids. If you want to compete, you will have to make some massive in app purchases.

I would rather pay for a game up front then have to make in app purchases.

Click to expand...

If the game is basically useless without in app purchases there is little point to the same. I would also rather just buy a game outright at a normal low price. I'm used to buying games like Tomb Raider or Arkham City for the ten dollar or less range so game apps are going to have to be insanely cheap. As so many stand now one would have to pay far too much just to get any kind of play out of it.

BRLawyer said:

IAPs are, single-handedly, the worst thing that has ever happened to iOS gaming; what an annoying POS driven by greedy developers and sanctioned by Apple. At the very least, let me SEARCH for apps and games NOT infected by IAP - that would be a great thing already.

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But...this essentially emulates a collectable card game. Like Pokemon or Magic. Of course in those cases the physical cards have intrinsic "value" to collectors. In order to be truly competitive in those games you have to spend money and get the rare cards (often multiple copies.)

The odds of getting good cards are entirely fabricated in both cases, digital or physical.

nutmac said:

The way I see it, there should be at the most 3 types of IAPs: (1) full content unlock, (2) entirely optional cheat pack, and (3) subsequent extra level/episode expansion packs.

And Apple should show past IAP history for each title, so users are aware how much money they have sunk into each title.

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When games were still fun to play and not DRM-infected, cheats used to be free. So were updates with content, cosmetical stuff was not separated from other content. The Sims 2's development team was altered significantly to get the The Sims 3 DRM/DLC running and designed to get a streamlined money flow from an unreasonable spammy amount of addons. Just naming some examples of a great PC gaming era: Freelancer, Warcraft 3, SW:KotOR (now on Mac and iPad), NFS:Most Wanted or the likes. Those were standalone masterpieces, and the user really felt that the product was his, and his way of using it was his choice. No manipulated difficulties, paywalls, cheats to pay for, alienated content fragmentation which most users cannot understand or a strange feeling when it comes to pricing.

Guess those times are just over, and it's up to the indie devs to deliver the ultimate gaming experience. There are just too few dev studios around who also feel like gamers, and even the most successful ones are replaced by marketing pawns (Batman Arkham #3 game's devs got replaced with an inhouse dev team, and the original voice actors who voiced the characters way before the games were also replaced with totally unrelated ones).

Put too much marketing guys into a product and they will just destroy everything good about it... >.>

Its not much different than other card battle apps for iOS, they all make you pay for the good cards or chance.

It seems like right now they are a little more lose to attract players but that will change. Blastron was lose at first and now it is very hard to get good stuff unless you $ the game.

makitango said:

When games were still fun to play and not DRM-infected, cheats used to be free.

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Actually, cheats existed for a long time. I remember calling or buying cheat book for Sierra On-Line's quest titles as well as dungeons RPG such as Bard's Tale. And some of these were insanely difficult to solve without cheats.

Of course, the Internet changed all that with free walkthrough for just about anything. But I think the publisher charging a nominal fee for cheat guide is acceptable, provided it isn't the only way to solve the level and reasonably intelligent person can figure it out without cheats.

Pass

Welcome to America, B!tches!

I didn't realize you all grew up in communist Soviet Union. Here in America, those with money always win over those without money. IAP is the American way. Ha!

BRLawyer said:

IAPs are, single-handedly, the worst thing that has ever happened to iOS gaming; what an annoying POS driven by greedy developers and sanctioned by Apple. At the very least, let me SEARCH for apps and games NOT infected by IAP - that would be a great thing already.

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I may suggest you
http://appstore.com/DeepSpaceRace

I know it is my game and this is shameless to point you to it.
But i made it because i HATE iAp ...
The game itself is a 2.5d race through an ever denser asteroid field.
(3d rendering, 2d plane).
You control by tilting your device, using afterburner or brake.

Besides that ...
you have 6 ships you can fly. An old spacetaxi, a space dragster, a super sport space vehicle, an old fighter, and the famous cobra mkIII and a flying delorean.

And soon there will be a big event where you can win the NovaSR1 as a 3d printed Modell.

JarJarThomas said:

I may suggest you
http://appstore.com/DeepSpaceRace

I know it is my game and this is shameless to point you to it.
But i made it because i HATE iAp ...
The game itself is a 2.5d race through an ever denser asteroid field.
(3d rendering, 2d plane).
You control by tilting your device, using afterburner or brake.

Besides that ...
you have 6 ships you can fly. An old spacetaxi, a space dragster, a super sport space vehicle, an old fighter, and the famous cobra mkIII and a flying delorean.

And soon there will be a big event where you can win the NovaSR1 as a 3d printed Modell.

Click to expand...

Sorry buddy, but your name is far more offensive than your self-promotion.

JPark said:

Sorry buddy, but your name is far more offensive than your self-promotion.

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GG can't argue against it.
But to tell the truth, i like it.
I was always a little bit clumsy. After going out of the cinema after episode 1 with friends a friend of mine said "Well sometimes i think you were the inspiration for JarJar". I turned, asked why and banged my head against the glas door.

In the beginning i didn't liked it, but in the end ... now i am even in the imdb with this nick, so its great for me. I like it