History of card games

EXCURSION INTO THE HISTORY OF CARDS

 Nobody knows where and when cards and card games appeared. The earliest references to maps date back to the 12th century and are associated with Asian countries. China is mentioned, where cards were played with some long strips, India, where the cards were round (!), and Korea. According to other sources, cards allegedly existed in China as early as the 8th century, when some stick games were invented, which were later replaced by the predecessors of modern cards - strips of paper with symbols printed on them. There is another version according to which cards appeared in Ancient Egypt.

 It is reliably known that maps reached Europe before 1367. More precisely, they appeared in Europe, probably before that, and by 1367 they had become quite widespread, because it was in this year that card games were banned in the city of Bern. Little is known about the history of card games in Russia. Cards entered our country somewhere in the middle of the last millennium, and in 1817 industrial production was established in St. Petersburg at the Imperial Card Factory.

 Card games are usually divided into commercial and gambling. Commercial include games that require more or less significant intellectual effort from players  ("bridge", "preference", "whist", etc.), and gambling includes games where chance plays a decisive role ("blackjack", "storm" ») ). There are other classifications of card games, for example, there are games for discarding cards ("witch"), games for knockback ("fool"), games for collecting bribes ("splash"), games for collecting points on bribes ("thousand"), games for seniority of combinations ("poker").

 All these are so-called traditional card games, known to probably everyone. After all, literally the whole country plays "fool", "witch" and "drunkard" in our country (I wonder why the most popular games in our country have exclusively negative names?). But, of course, we are more interested in other card games - board games.

 Actually, board games (sometimes called board-printed games) in Russia also include traditional games with fields, chips and cards, which are denoted in the West by the term Board Games (literally - "games with a field"), and games consisting entirely of cards - Card Games (card games). However, recently the terms "board game" and "board game" can be found more and more often in our country.

 Several varieties can also be distinguished among board games. These are collectible card games, live card games, regular board games, deck building card games, and card games where cards replace figures.

COLLECTIBLE CARD GAMES

 Collectible card games (Collectible Card Games or ККИ) are probably the most famous subtype of card games. The name of the most successful and popular KKI game in our country is Magic: The Gathering. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, because there are a lot of collectible games.

 The history of KKI originated in the United States of America and goes back to the 19th century. At that time, a new hobby appeared in the United States, which later became traditional - collecting baseball cards. The cards were a piece of cardboard about the size of a standard playing card with a photo of a famous baseball player accompanied by a small text about him. The main feature was the method of distribution of the cards - they were packed in opaque bags in small quantities and sold in this form. The buyer had only to open the package and find out which cards he got. However, there was one trick here - some cards were printed more and some less. Accordingly, some cards were considered more valuable because of their rarity, some less valuable because there were so many of them. These cards were collected, traded, sold and hunted. In 1904, the Allegheny Card Company issued a special set of 112 baseball cards that included not only the cards but also the rules for playing them. This game did not become famous and did not gain popularity, but, in fact, it was a prototype of modern KKI.

 The history of KKI began again in 1993, when a little-known mathematician Richard Garfield invented the game Magic: The Gathering, and his friend Peter Adkison's small company called Wizards of the Coast published it. Magic: The Gathering (aka "Magic") is a card game in which each player plays with his own deck. The cards in the deck are territories, creatures, events, and spells. The game is built on the fact that players introduce territory cards into the game that act as resources, and then use them to pay for the draw of other cards, mostly creatures and spells. The goal of the game is to defeat your opponent by attacking them with magic or your creatures.

 The lion's share of the appeal of "Magic" is that each player has his own deck of cards, which is drawn up in advance. In fact, it allows you to play "Magic" even before meeting with an opponent, choosing cards that combine with each other and allow you to implement one or another strategy. Thanks to the talent of the developers, MtG allows you to play completely different games and, very importantly, the variety of cards always leaves the opportunity to surprise your opponent by playing a card or combination of cards that he is completely unprepared for.

 And, of course, the game distribution model played its role. The cards were sold in starter sets, which presented a certain list of cards, and in so-called "boosters" - opaque bags containing 15 random cards (just as baseball cards were distributed a hundred years before). This decision turned out to be beneficial both for the publishers, who thus increased sales, and for the players. Fans of "Magic" could not only play the game, but also collect cards from a certain issue, exchange them with friends, and simply satisfy their passion for learning the unknown, revealing new and new boosters.

 The success of the game was overwhelming. Within six weeks, 2.5 million cards were sold, although the publishers believed that this circulation would last six months. Immediately after, WotC printed another 7.5 million cards, while Richard Garfield designed the next set of cards, released in late 1993, called Arabian Nights. Since then, new issues of "Magic" have been released every year, and every year 600-700 new cards appear. The game takes the world by storm, regional tournaments and world championships are held, Richard Garfield gains worldwide popularity, and Wizards of the Coast says goodbye to the status of a "small publisher" forever.

 After MtG, other collectible games appear on the market: Babylon-5, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, Legend of the Five Rings, Naruto. CCIs were even published based on the A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Harry Potter books, the works of Howard Lovecraft, and the computer game Heroes of Might & Magic IV. KKI appeared in Russia as well: "War", "Heavens", "Kozyablo", "Commander's Way", and the most famous domestic KKI - "Berserk". Unfortunately, repeating the success of "Magic" turned out to be within the power of few. Today in our country, World of Warcraft TCG, Berserk, and of course MtG itself are popular.

LIVE CARD GAMES

 Over time, traditional methods of spreading "Magic" have been criticized. Someone gives up the game, realizing that they are firmly "hooked" on buying new and new cards, someone understands that the pursuit of boosters and rare cards requires too much financial investment, and someone is simply tired of endlessly exchanging cards with friends. All this led to the appearance in 2008 of a new type of game called "living card games".

 In essence, ZHCI are still those collectible card games with different editions and sets of cards, but the method of distribution of cards in ZHCI is fundamentally different from KKI. There are no boosters and there is no random distribution of cards in the housing complex. When buying a set of RKI, the buyer always knows which cards he will get. For the game, it is enough to purchase the basic set, which contains all the cards of the basic edition. Then, if you wish, you can purchase an additional edition of cards that also includes all the cards in that edition. Do you understand? No more randomness, no more boosters, no more rare and ultra-rare cards.

 We owe the appearance of the term "Living Card Game" to the publisher Fantasy Flight Games.

TABLE CARD GAMES

 Well, now it's time to move on to board games with cards, which are called Card Games abroad. The history of these games is inseparable from the general history of board games, which begins in the fourth millennium BC, when the Senet game appeared in Ancient Egypt.

 The exact appearance of board card games is unknown, so we will consider the same game with collectible baseball cards from 1904 (it was called the Allegheny Game, by the way) as one of the first games. Then the history of board games froze to be revived again in 1996, when three years after MtG took off, the Settlers of Catan toy appeared in our country under the name "Colonizers". Since then, board games and board card games have also experienced their heyday.

 There are many such games today. There are easy company games (Uno), fast-paced dueling games (Blue Moon), complex multiplayer games (Caylus Magna Carta). There are games that practically do not require mastering (No Thanks!), Difficult games (Race for the Galaxy), in short, there are no number of them. A separate type of card games are games where cards actually replace chips or tokens. For example, in the same KKI "Berserk" or in "Black Prince" miniatures could be used instead of cards. There are games where the playing field is actually formed from the cards (Dungeoneer, Meuterer).

 In my opinion, it is possible to make the following classification of board card games: original and derivatives. Original - these are all card games that were conceived and created precisely as games (Saboteur). Derivatives are card versions of traditional board games (Board Games), such as San Juan (card version of Puerto Rico) or Railways of the World Card Game (card version of Railways of the World). Typically, the card version retains some of the mechanics used in the base game, or the general theme and objectives. For example, in Card Colonizers, players mine resources and build cities and settlements, just like in the tabletop version. It happens, however, and vice versa, that a board game is created based on a card game (Coloretto and Zooloretto).

BLOCK-BUILDING GAMES

 Recently, a new type of card game has appeared - deck building games. If when playing in KKI, the player was engaged in creating a deck before the game, then the deck is built right during the game. Such games begin with the fact that each player is dealt a small deck consisting of literally ten cards, and then during the game the player fills it with new cards that allow you to perform various actions. The first and perhaps the most prominent example of such games is Dominion, a game developed by Donald Vaccarino.

 There are only three types of cards in Dominion: Actions, Money, and Victory Points. The player's turn consists of three phases: first we draw five cards into the hand, then we can play one action card, and then buy any of the available cards in the deck, based on the money in hand. The goal of the game is to collect as many victory points cards as possible in the deck, but this can only be done by buying money and action cards. By competently selecting and purchasing them, you can (and should) ensure that at the beginning of the turn, five cards come into your hand, which make up profitable combinations. Experienced players have ways to build a deck that allows you to scroll through all the cards in one turn and buy several victory point cards at once. It sounds very simple, and it really is. The game is mastered literally on the fly and is suitable for everyone, from newcomers to the board world to seasoned players.

 Dominion appeared in 2008 and in two years managed to grow with four additions. The following year, after its release, two additional sets were released: Intrigue and Seaside. In 2010, two more additions appeared: Alchemy and Prosperity. There's no doubt that the release of new sets will stop there, and as a result, some players are asking if Dominion is turning into a new MtG.

 The success of Dominion could not help but attract other game developers, and based on the same principle of "deck building", several more decks are released. As early as 2009, Arcana (a game about the clash of guilds) and Thunderstone (a card "rogue") appeared, and in 2010 - Resident Evil Deck Building Game, Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer and Heroes of Graxia. So far, though, no one has managed to repeat the success of the original Dominion, but publishers do not despair and release more and more deck building games.

 Card board games do not stand still, and their development continues. Most recently, the innovative game Prodigy was announced, where the properties of the cards are determined by erasing the protective layer (just like on lottery tickets), and Phase, where all cards will be double-sided, without shirts. So, who knows, maybe in the near future, in addition to Magic: The Gathering and Dominion, we will get another original and, most importantly, interesting game.