RIOT Games has officially released their trading card game, Riftbound: League of Legends Trading Card Game, formerly kept under wraps as Project K. This TCG takes everything you love about your favorite League champions and prints them out on cardboard.
After the grief I felt with Legends of Runeterra shutting down, I am reasonably worried. On the other end of the card game spectrum, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel has been heralded as the best online card game simulator.
For that reason, here are some things that I wish RIOT would take note of if they ever want to copy Master Duel’s success.
Online Client
First off, the online client is a non-negotiable. I get the appeal of in-person TCG games. I love the face-to-face interactions you get with players, but that comes requires a lot of trust from your players to dip their toes into a very expensive hobby. Cardboard doesn’t come cheap, and I can infer that Riftbound being TCG only is RIOT’s attempt at cashing in on the card market the same way Lorcana and Pokemon TCG are. I’m here to tell you that, like Yu-Gi-Oh! And with Magic: The Gathering, you can have the best of both worlds. The game can be fun to play while also generating significant revenue from the unboxing collector crowd. The best way to attract this new audience is by having an online client.
Master Duel shines at being an online client because it provides accurate mechanics that hold your hand through the complicated mechanics of the card game. This automation is exactly what will get your players invested enough in the card game to start buying cardboard. One thing I hope RIOT doesn’t copy from Master Duel’s success is separating online and offline formats. If RIOT wants to see any success, I highly suggest their online client be accurate to actual play. Because I believe online clients should be treated more as testing grounds, not their own thing.
Bells and Whistles
If RIOT truly wants to entice players into using their online client, then they shouldn’t hold back on any of the bells and whistles. If you grew up watching any of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime, then you’ve definitely oggled at all the cool monsters being summoned onto the field. Master Duel does well enough to emulate this by having specific important or powerful cards have their own specific summoning or effect animations. Legends of Runeterra actually did a better job at this than Master Duel did at its release, having each card be summoned with its own line of dialogue or animation.
But while cards are important, they’re not the only thing on the field when you’re playing. Master Duel recognized this by having high-quality eye candy on the field while you duel. It’s these small cosmetic collectibles that make an online client more enticing to play, especially when it has a monetization structure like Master Duel. Cosmetics can be bought using currency you can earn through playing, and some of the prettier cosmetics require you to level up your battle pass. Both of which have a strong focus on motivating the player to play more duels. Because the more time you spend dueling, the more time you spend considering if you want to buy gems.
It’s Okay to Whale
When RIOT released Legends of Runeterra, they were very adamant on one thing: Legends of Runeterra will be a game where you do not have to pray to RNJesus to get your deck staples. LOR made sure that you could get the cards you needed to build your deck for free by simply playing the game, and it’s because of this monetization structure that the game eventually dipped into the negatives. Sure, there were the necessary bells and whistles, but the real money in any card game is the booster pack opening. Which is a shame, considering the card and game design of LOR was already amazing.
Master Duel especially did an amazing job at monetization because the in-game currency needed to start opening packs was easy enough to earn by just playing the game. The packs and crafting system in the game were also very forgiving, especially in a game where you only ever needed one pet deck and a few staples to climb the ranks. Having packs be purchaseable with real and in-game currency also lets players do satisfying unboxings, leading to a whole different breed of player. So, for Riftbound’s (hopefully) upcoming online client, I hope they consider simply letting players throw their cash at the packs. Either way, I’m just glad RIOT is taking another chance at TCGs. Rest in power, Legends of Runeterra.
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