Alteil vs Urban Rivals

[piratipper]

http://www.playbbg.com/features/top-10- ... nline.html

Just read the above and found it amusing.
Urban Rivals is the number 1 online TCG, Alteil is number 2.
Has anyone else actually played Urban Rivals?
I have, and I think its beyond terrible.

[Peralisc2]

Who ever wrote that, dosn't understand entirely what he says. Check the title:

Game Title: Top 10 TCG Collectible Trading Card Game

Also i don't see too much of a comment about Alteil. I would request a change in it and have some more detail, because it lacks way too much. He wrote more about Urban Rivals. >_>

As for Urban Rivals, it's the second worst CG i've found, worst is Warstorm (congrats to them again for that achievement).


Is that review by any chance just a big troll post or something? Might try when i have time to waste, any of the ones after number 5. Anyone played Ederon? Seemed to be ok at first sight, but it might be even great?

[piratipper]

I'm sure you just pay to be number one or something.
To give Urban Rival's its credit, it's a great way to learn multiplication...
Must try Warstorm now out of curiosity...

[piratipper]

And actually, the first thing I'd say about Alteil isn't the fact that it's 'story driven' :/

[Peralisc2]

And actually, the first thing I'd say about Alteil isn't the fact that it's 'story driven' :/

Ya seriously. People that just join in don't first of all check the story and those story chapters are a bit hard to read through since they are bad formated, it's not really fun reading them. Seen some papers about boring topics at school that were made actually interesting and here somehow they managed to do the oposite with those chapters. I just say this because i hope they will improve one day / change to better.

The flavor text for the units seems a lot better than in quite many games. But that's just flavor text, right?

[DanTheTimid]

Urban Rivals is being underrated by some of the posters here, but make no mistake, Alteil is a VASTLY superior game. The key reason its seen so much success (and was infact the first online card game I ever actually paid money toward) is because is so freaking cheap and accessible. Aside from giving plenty of free goodies and letting you earn their form of gran through playing the game, with just the minimum expenditure, I think it was a dollar and 50 cents, you gain access to the public market that basically uses their form of fight money to buy and sell cards. Once you have access to that, with a little playing of the game to start up your funds and some smart early investments, its very possible to get gobs upon gobs of cards and make tons and tons of competitive decks with out ever spending a dime more. If even a handful of those players get really into the game odds are they spend more, but even if they don't, if a thousand players sign up and 800 of them pay a buck 50, thats 1,200 dollars just off the low spending moocher players. Inevitably, as with any card game, you'll get the big spending rare chasers, and they'll be the ones who give you your big pay days, but all those small little hits from low spenders continue to add up, and the vast player base you amass by allowing low spenders to complete only serves to help keep your big spenders satisfied that they're investing in something with a future.

So all in all, gameplay wise:

Alteil >>> Urban Rivals

Business Model Wise:

Urban Rivals > Alteil

So if its true UR has a larger player base and makes more money that really doesn't come as a surprise to me. The american business market shows us every day that you can have a great product but if you charge too much for it, it aint going to sell, and you can have a junk product, but if you price it well, the american public will eat it up. I believe Urban Rivals is a world game though so it seems players the world over are eating it up, or at least apparently more so then alteil.

---

In case anyone's curious why I quite Urban Rivals, I quit when Alteil came out. Now that I've semi-quit alteil do to my disastification with its cost to content ratio I've been tempted many times to return to Urban Rivals... but I guess is a case of having being spoiled by alteils superior gameplay, just can't get myself up for Urban Rivals overly simplistic game play again. I suppose its true what they say, once you use an alteil starter pack, you can never ever go back.

[garcia1000]

Have you tried Spectromancer? It's not a CCG and there's no deckbuilding, so don't go in there expecting that. But it was designed by Richard Garfield and I think it is the best game I have ever played.

Also the cost/content ratio is a bargain.

[Peralisc2]

and I think it is the best game I have ever played.

Out what list of games do you consider that one the best?

[piratipper]

Dan the Timid:

You make some interesting points about the business model vs gameplay, but seriously I hate the gamplay of Urban Rivals with a passion.
You're right though, the business model is more sophisticated than Alteils.
I'm strongly in favour of a model based around regular micropayments rather than a model where a small percentage of bigger spenders mostly support the game. This would create a larger, more even and active playerbase in my opinion. And also in the long-term I reckon this would be a more stable way for Alteil to run as a business. Or maybe I'm wrong.

It would be a BIG change for Alteil to implement though.

[harvest4god]

I'm sure you just pay to be number one or something.
To give Urban Rival's its credit, it's a great way to learn multiplication...
Must try Warstorm now out of curiosity...

Warstorm is just about luck, plain and simple, you only get to choose your deck and then it plays your cards automatically. So boring.