Many times I have heard game fans or reviewers incorrectly refer to Filsinger Games products like Champions of the Galaxy as collectible card games.  I don’t think my games fit the bill unless the term is defined very broadly.

And yet lately we’re moving slightly closer.

I looked up the definition of a CCG at wiki and here’s what it said: “A collectible card game  is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards. CCGs combine the appeal of collecting with strategic gameplay.”

The examples usually provided for CCGs use Magic: The Gathering as the prototype for these kinds of games.

As for Filsinger Games, our products broadly meet the first criteria or don’t depending on how the terms are defined. Filsinger Games players use specially designed sets of playing cards but the sets aren’t created by one player to battle the sets of another player. With FG (I was going to use the initials FU to stand for Filsinger Universe but reconsidered) a person often plays alone rather than against other people. Consequently the player doesn’t use the game cards to attain a personal victory so much as to see how a particular contest between two (or more) wrestlers plays out in an ongoing storyline they are creating.

The goal with FG is to create interesting scenarios and then allow the game battles to play themselves out, leading to the creation of new game scenarios based on the match results. FG is an organic, creative game system, leaving much to the imagination of the players.

Further, wiki states:  “The bulk of CCGs are designed around a resource system by which the pace of each game is controlled. “This concept does not apply to FG  in any way.

The goal of a CCG according to wiki is, “for players to select which cards will compose their deck from the available pool of cards.” Again, this does not apply to FG.

Outside of the broad criteria of FG as a card game it cannot be considered a CCG except that a new trend is emerging among our games that overlaps with CCGs and that is the card games have the appeal of being collectible.

I used to play Vs. System games (Marvel and DC) and one of the main appeals for me was collecting game cards for my favorite characters like Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, and the Hulk.  There would be several Sub-Mariner cards, some that could be used for a Defenders deck and others for an Illuminati deck and for good measure there could be a Namor card just about anywhere including a card to be played with a Fantastic Four deck or Dr. Doom deck. Lots of cards, lots of unique card stats,  lots to collect. And I loved it.

With the number of  brands in the FG universe expanding all the time the same things is happening in our games.

We released a playing card for Bryan Danielson several years ago for our Legends of Wrestling game. Subsequently we released new versions for Bryan such as a card that could be played with the Chikara game and then a new Legends card that reflected changes in Bryan’s career. (By the way, for those that don’t know, Bryan is a huge fan of FG games and Champions of the Galaxy in particular.)

If you’re a fan of a wrestler, collecting different versions of his FG cards is a fun way to follow his career and a hobby unto itself. It may sound like I’m trying to sell more game cards and make more money for my company but anyone who knows me knows I love games and I love collecting. Creating different versions of cards meets the demands of game fans who want different versions to play in their game federations.

Plus we need to produce different versions of some wrestlers for game fans that are loyal to one particular game brand. For example say someone is a Chikara fan and for some unfathomable reason does not play our other games. They won’t want a Legends version of Bryan, they’ll want a Chikara card that reflects Bryan’s time in Chikara and the moves he used in that promotion.

Another example: we released UltraMantis Black as a wrestler in Chikara, but we also released a sci-fi version for Champions of the Galaxy. That was wild and fun and it makes the CotG version quite collectible for game fans with the unique card art and game stats.

We just introduced 2 Cold Scorpio in our National Pro Wrestling Day game pack but we may also release a younger, classic version of 2 Cold Scorpio for our Legends game.

In the end FG is a game system that straddles many categories, transcending several of them to become a unique entity of its own. There are qualities of sports action games, CCGs, and yet fitting comfortably in no particular category.

Hey, that’s us…we mark our own territory!  The bottom line is we’re having fun and that’s the only category that our fans care about…