Dominion: The CCG For the Modern Era

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Dominion: The CCG For the Modern Era



Most CCGs revolve around the principle of building your deck first, then playing the game. The smash hit Dominion, on the other hand, reverses this - and that's why it's the perfect card game for the YouTube era.

If you've ever played a Collectible Card Game like Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or any of the myriad others that have popped up over the years, you know that part of the battle is won or lost before the first cards are ever laid on the field - you need to build your deck first. For many, constructing a deck is a veritable minigame in and of itself.

Which might explain why Donald X. Vaccarino's Dominion, which revolves entirely around the process of building a deck in-game, is so entertaining. As Allen Varney argues in this week's issue of The Escapist, perhaps it's even more compelling because it touches into an idea central to the age of YouTube and digital media: People have grown accustomed to constructing their own entertainment instead of having it fed to them in a complete package.

[blockquote]Dominion's approach plays to one of the major cultural forces of our time: unbundling. The newspaper, a patchwork of content with only a few articles that interest any given reader, has given way to aggregator sites and build-your-own RSS feeds. TV networks are weakening against on-demand viewing and ... YouTube. The act of unbundling, of fine-tuning your engagement with the material, encourages a unique, involving, creative experience.[/blockquote]

Dominion seems to have taken the tabletop world by storm, and, Varney argues, the best thing to do in order to understand the phenomenon is to watch a video review [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ENsEhRbVIM] (on YouTube, natch), and then go out and buy the game yourself. That is, of course, as long as you can stand a game that might wear thin "after a mere 230 plays."

Though really, is it honestly that surprising? Base-building in RTS can be entertaining all on its own, and that's practically the same thing.

Read all about the conception of Dominion in Allen Varney's "Dominion Over All [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_213/6338-Dominion-Over-All]," in Issue 213 of The Escapist.

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Frizzle

New member
Nov 11, 2008
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This does sound interesting. Now if they can just fix the problem about not knowing anyone that plays card games....

Also, Mr. Funk, you and your peers are getting much better on the 'referencing other site content' thing. I for one appreciate it greatly.
 

LaBambaMan

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Jul 13, 2009
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There's several copies of this at my local gaming shop where I play Warhammer, but none of us knew what it was. Thanks CantFakeTheFunk for posting this. Maybe now we can play it at the store sometime.
 

ghalkhsdkssakgh

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Jul 16, 2009
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I might look into this, but i have my doubts for two reasons:
- No-one else I know plays CCGs any more.
- I'm a fussy individual who can't play CCGs if they don't involve dragons, monsters, or psychotic killer bunnies.
 

freetup

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Sep 11, 2007
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You don't need to have CCG players, anyone can play this game. The game is simple to play and doesn't take very long. You essentially are trying to build the best combo deck but, and a very important but, the people you play with can buy your combo cards up before you get the super combo so it can lead to some interesting games. Plus there are numerous different decks that come with the box so you can have a whole new game every time. I didn't like the expansion as much though as it seemed to add a level of complexity that in my opinion wasn't needed.

Dominion is one of the better sit down games that I have played in a while and I play a lot of CCG, tabletop and boardgames.