L5R online could support tournaments or events that also integrated into the story. I think anything that let players interact with ongoing lore would be a big enough draw to entice people to purchase a product. Kotei-level tournaments being hosted online as another venue would definitely interest people, especially if there were story-choice outcomes.

I think that allowing players to represent clans in gameplay to earn loyalty rewards like extended-art cards in-faction would probably make for a compelling experience. Basically, I think they could put enough polish on it that people would buy-in.

mAgix thrives with online clients, no reason why l5r wouldn't. If they make a good job, they are sure to succeed. Play few games in the morning, roll around the block in the evening to play with real cards, yes please.

This post wasn’t dead, merely sleeping! Totally not maho! We Phoenix would never indulge in such things! *Stop it! Bad Tadaka! Bad!*

So FF Interactive had a short interview here .

While is mostly self-promotion and interesting for those playing LotR:LCG, there’s a bit at the end:

“ What’s the future look like for FFI? Any hints about upcoming titles?

We have an embarrassment of riches from Fantasy Flight Games to choose from. With so many great games and limited time and resources, the biggest challenge has been picking which games to pursue next. We have two games planned for release in the next eighteen months , in addition to The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game , but you’ll just have to stay tuned to see what they are.”

At the very least, releasing 3 games in 2 years period means that FFG is taking the video game market seriously. Also, they said that “ Our studio was formed to explore the digital design space—not just crank out ports from tabletop to digital. ”, meaning that a L5R game will not be just a port of the card game to play exactly the same.

So, do you think L5R can be one of those games? Certainly is one of FFGs flagships right now, they cannot release Star Wars videogames, and Netrunner is out of the equation too. Key forge is just releasing and a digital variant seems unlikely so soon. They got Cthulhu covered with the Mansion of Madness video game (developed by other studio), although is possible they decide to make a digital version of Arkham Horror.

But all in all, I think L5R is definitely one of the possibilities for FFI to focus on!

15 minutes ago, Tabris2k said:

Key forge is just releasing and a digital variant seems unlikely so soon.

I'm sure it will be Key Forge. I even suspect that scanning individual cardback will automatically put your analog deck into digital library. It could help to keep selling analog version as well like it works in Warhammer Age of Sigmar Champions .

It was already said Keyforge would have a digital component. Unless I'm mistaken I thought they confirmed that included a way to play the game online (Like Champions as Kempy pointed out). That's the future of CCGs. They'd be fools not to jump onboard now.

That said I don't know if FFI was handling the app for Keyforge. They already had people doing apps in house at FFG prior to FFI's inception and still do for games like MoM and Descent. Not sure if a Keyforge digital app falls under FFI's mission statement.

If FFI handles the app for Keyforge it would only be as a means to use resources...it definitely wouldn't be one of their hinted at products. Even the Lord of the Rings LCG they're working on is different from the paper game (though I've sadly never played the paper version so not sure on what exactly the differences are). Like @Tabris2k mentioned, FFI has made it pretty clear that their games aren't going to be straight ports of existing physical titles.

My guess is that if they're releasing 2 additional games within 18 months, we're probably going to see something in the Call of Cthulhu family (because yay public domain) and something in the Android universe (because boo Netrunner died).

I think it is a very key point that the one interactive game we have so far is not a clone of the card game.

That is an exceptionally important point that negates all of the comments about how to transfer one's physical card collection into the game.

If it is a totally different game with totally different rules, then there is nothing to import.

Moreover, there are things that a digital card game does better than a physical card game and things it does worse. For example, anything that has to do with random elements is better handled by a digital card game. Hearthstone has done a good job handling that.

Of course, there is no reason that a digital card game need by a Hearthstone clone.

What one should be looking for from a L5R Digital card game should not be a import of the physical card game (besides, apparently 3 other fan communities have already done that) but an online L5R game that does something uniquely different.

For example, maybe this is the preferable route to making an L5R model game. Or an L5R RTS lite game. Or maybe an Adventure Game or RPG set in the L5R world. Maybe a Storytelling Game in the vein that TellTale was doing.

The two novels released for the setting so far each would have made a pretty good adventure or storytelling game. Both involved mysteries and characters making stark choices. Of course, given that the L5R fanbase is segmented so much, maybe it will be difficult to get everyone to buy such a game unless it had like 7-9 short stories each focusing on a character from a different faction. Or maybe it could be an intrigue game taking place at a Winter Court and while there is one over-arching narrative, you could choose to play as one of several different characters and get to view the events from a different point of view with different information being revealed or hidden from you as you progress through the story which can affect how the story plays out, and only once you play through as each character will you get a full picture of what actually transpired.

And each time you play through the scenario, you get different endings depending on what choices you made. Maybe it would even be possible so that when you play through as other characters, the behavior of the characters you played as previously is altered a bit when they appear in the scenarios of other characters so as to reasonably match how you played them. And then the challenge would be to puzzle things out and play through each character's point of view, having them make the "right" choices for the scenario to play out ideally. But there could also be fun in seeing just how horrendously badly you can make the whole thing turn out.

It'd be ambitious to come up with a good enough story and plan out exactly how it would all come together.

Obviously it is a small studio and the sky isn't the limit, whatever is made is probably going to be graphically a decade behind any "serious" game and very likely with no voice acting and such.

But, nonetheless, I think it is short-sighted to say that the only thing they could do for L5R would be a direct port of the existing LCG.

Even if it was a direct port of the game and the did charge money, it would be for far less than the physical version and a one time purchase as well. Like the core set being $5 dollars. And dynasty packs being $2. I can’t see why they would do it differently than Ascension does between the physical and digital ports.

And seriously guys the digital department doesn’t run on rainbows and unicorn farts. They need to have sales to justify keeping it going.

2 hours ago, Hyperjayman said:

Even if it was a direct port of the game and the did charge money, it would be for far less than the physical version and a one time purchase as well. Like the core set being $5 dollars. And dynasty packs being $2. I can’t see why they would do it differently than Ascension does between the physical and digital ports.

And seriously guys the digital department doesn’t run on rainbows and unicorn farts. They need to have sales to justify keeping it going.

It’s not gonna be a direct port, because they already said they don’t want to do direct ports.

LotR:LCG is free, but has founders packs, and presumably you will be able to buy in-game currency with money, so yeah, they’re gonna do money with it.

That being said, I don’t mind full paying for a good game and forgot about micro transactions

15 minutes ago, Tabris2k said:

LotR:LCG is free, but has founders packs, and presumably you will be able to buy in-game currency with money, so yeah, they’re gonna do money with it.

Used to be... Now it is more like true LCG with some reward / special cards that use in game currency.

2 hours ago, Hannibal_pjv said:

Used to be... Now it is more like true LCG with some reward / special cards that use in game currency.

Been weeks since I last played, but if they’re ditching micro transactions in favor of in-game rewards, that’s a good change.

2 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Been weeks since I last played, but if they’re ditching micro transactions in favor of in-game rewards, that’s a good change.

Oh really? I'll have to check it out again, the starter deck I had when I initially tried was impossible facing off against the 1st non-tutorial mission. They do a decent enough job giving you basics on how you play, but not much deck building support from what I saw.

20 minutes ago, Kaito Kikaze said:

Oh really? I'll have to check it out again, the starter deck I had when I initially tried was impossible facing off against the 1st non-tutorial mission. They do a decent enough job giving you basics on how you play, but not much deck building support from what I saw.

Actually, once you find a good deck, the game is too easy, even in hard. That’s why stopped playing.

8 hours ago, Tabris2k said:

Actually, once you find a good deck, the game is too easy, even in hard. That’s why stopped playing.

So true... I have now 10+ decks and win all scenarios with them all... the game just is quite easy at this moment.