Anyone else wonder why this is? The art on the cards seems leagues beyond the thrones cards, but the cards themselves feel very cheaply made to me. I wonder if they saved money by using lesser stock.

I disagree. the cards are pretty cool. it is a preference I guess. I put all my cards in card sleeves so I don't really care about the stock.

i can not speak for thrones, but the cards seam identical to coc, though coc has better art

At a minimum, I felt like the Encounter cards were thinner in feeling than the Hero deck cards. Maybe I'm wrong though.

I am thinking that since you do not put Encounter cards into your hand, the stock quality was less important.

Since this is my first FFG product I don't know about aGoT but compared to Magic: the Gathering cards LotR cards are of lesser quality so I sleeved them all.

I can only second the notion about art, it is way better than other ffg games, in my opinion. Especially because the theme is so much more attractive.

lleimmoen said:

despite not playing any of the others i have ,due to my curiosty, checked them out

This game still tops by far- though that could be my tolkien obsession talking, but im still pretty sure FFG are really pushing the limits of theme with this one, and doing a great job of it

dh098017 said:

I play Thrones, I play LOTR. I notice no difference in quality.

Yesterday I had Trial by Combat and The Redhorn Gate delivered, and made a point of comparing them after seeing this threat here. I noticed no difference, either.

I play AGoT and LoTR, and don't really notice a difference. In fact, my first thought was that the LoTR cards were better quality than the AGoT cards. I sleeve my decks regardless of any differences that might exist, however.

I am going to take pics tonight and post the evidence that proves my hypothesis

dh098017 said:

yeah be interesting to see.. people say some wired stuff, like I always hear how print on demand cards are lower quality than official cards, and I have print on demand for this game as well as death angle and mansion of madness and I can not tell the difference. I think people just like to complain. Like they are all made at the same factories using the same printers. Sure Death Angle print on demand is slightly different.. I mean it was years latter it isn't uprising there is a different.. but slightly different doesn't equate to lower quality. All these cards come form the exact same place... IF there is a difference.. and I am curious to see your photos, then my guess is that you got a bad run.. it happens in pressing.

I was told NA and EU use different printers.

Ok, so I was actually bored enough tonight to do a complete investigation of this issue tonight and have come to a few conclusions.

1. The cards are identical, or near enough as make no difference, in composition. I closed my eyes and had my wife hand me one of each, and I could not tell the difference, and neither could she.

2. I believe now that the difference in quality is perceived because of two reasons:

A) The LotR cards have no border, making for a less neat appearance than the aGoT cards. There is nothing wrong with this, but it plays tricks on the eyes, making the cards appear thinner.

B) aGoT cards all have the same symmetrical curvature to them (whether this is how they are pressed or packaged I do not know). By this I mean if you place them flat on a surface, all four corners of the card will actually be off the table, and the only part of the card actually making contact with the surface is a line down the center of the card. The LotR cards do not have this. The curvature to these cards is more diagonal, where if you place them on a flat surface, two opposite corners of the card actually make contact with the table. This is demonstrated in the oversized image below. You can see the two different cards, both unplayed and taken right out of the plastic for this image. The result of this is the appearance that the card succumbed to moisture and warped, when in reality it is probably just from the printing/packaging.

So in conclusion, I was wrong, the cards are the same, and optical illusions are @ssholes

(note: I did not test any encounter cards)

PIC: http://i43.tinypic.com/r790zl.jpg

you now you might be onto something concerning the white boarders. Black boarders really show chips a lot more, this could make the cards look kinda more beat up faster.

dh098017 said:

is this true? is there a difference between us and uk cards?

dcdennis said:

Very interesting. And I have a lot of respect for an empirical study of the debate instead of everyone just blowing smoke. Props sir!