Okay, game geek friends...

[naomikritzer]

I mentioned back in September that I'd dusted off my Magic: The Gathering cards and taught Molly to play. She LOVES it and now wants to play any day that we've got time.

Today, we were at Uncle Hugo's and she spotted some Harry Potter CCG starter boxes. She is obsessed with all things Harry Potter; I told her I'd check into the game to find out if it was any good. (The Harry Potter board game that Molly bought at a rummage sale sometime back was awful. Worse than awful. It was literally un-playable. There is no way that this game was play-tested even for five minutes because they'd have noticed that some of the segments simply don't work. The ones that do work are incredibly tedious. It's just an awful game, which is why, should you for some reason want one, you should have no problem finding it for $1 at your nearest thrift shop or rummage sale.)

Anyway, the Harry Potter CCG is apparently pretty good, though it's out of print. (You can still find it on Ebay and at specialty stores without too much trouble.) Reviews generally say that it's fun, reasonably well designed, and captures the feel of the books, all of which are good things.

So here's my question. If I'm going to spend some money on games for Molly for the holidays, which would be a better option:

1. Buy her a Harry Potter starter set (or two) plus enough booster packs to make for a decent family set, so that we can learn the Harry Potter game and play it as a family.

2. Buy her some current-vintage Magic cards, so that if I take her to MarsCon (or to some other place where she could meet other kids who are also game geeks) she could play MTG. (All our in-house cards are from before 1995. It seems to be a very different game now.)

3. Buy her some other game entirely. I'll note that she really does like the CCG aspect; she likes that there are so many cards and you can make it such a different game by changing your deck. In some ways the logical game to get her is Pokemon, but nearly everyone agrees that their kids don't play the game, they just collect the cards, and I think Molly would have zero interest in collecting the cards for their own sake; she's all about competition. It might be nice to find a game that she could fairly easily teach to friends her age; Harry Potter looks much simpler than MTG and might be a lot better for that. I don't know.

Speaking of Harry Potter themed games, there was an article in today's Star Tribune about Muggle Quidditch at Carleton. Molly spotted the headline and tried to steal the newspaper from Ed to read the article. I have to say, of all the fan activities that have come out of the Harry Potter series, I think Muggle Quidditch (which is an actual intermural sport at some eastern colleges!) has got to be one of the weirdest. (Not that I disapprove. It looks fun. But it's really weird.)

Comments

[shaylasolo.livejournal.com]

HP is out of PRINT? but but...I used to collect them...and play them. We have a TON. Its a fun game. Any CCG game is.
Go with the HP...HP is so much coller than MTG! (and I started with that game first...then moved on to SW CCG, then HP...)
Good to know CCGs are still out there...
Laters
Kristen

[naomikritzer]

OK, since you play it I have a couple of questions.

1. Can you play it with more than two people?
2. Would one starter set be enough (with boosters) or should I pick up a couple of starter sets?

[shaylasolo.livejournal.com]

I have never played HP with more than 1 person. Most CCGs are 2 player games with winner plays the next person, etc.
Starter decks are good to start but the better cards are in boosters so try to get more of those than starters.
Hope that helps!
Laters
Kristen

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I started compiling a wizard rock compendium--some of my favorite songs, in the order of the plot lines of the seven books. I'd promised you, and I'm going to be sending it off to flourish, too. I'm just waiting for one more song I want to add from a CD I ordered, but it's been taking longer than I expected to arrive. Once it's here, I'll burn a few CDs and get 'em off to the two of you. I think Molly will find them to be a lot of fun.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

We bought the two-player starter for the HP CCG and it seems like a good game, but we never got into it. I might be persuaded to part with ours, if you go the HP route.

[wordswoman.livejournal.com]

Heh...this is quintessentially Carleton. Although I have to say the weirdest Carleton event I've heard about lately is Silent Dance Party.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

On last.fm (http://last.fm), there's music by a group called Harry and the Potters which apparently does songs related to the Harry Potter books.

[naomikritzer]

Muggle Quidditch is way weirder than Wizard Rock. Way.

[tjalorak.livejournal.com]

I think there are actually Pokemon tournaments at least as of a year ago or so. I'm unsure how big they are in your area though or whether they have continued.

That being said, I'd suggest MTG. It's got broader appeal and popularity and what with not being out of print, it'd probably have more variety in cards and tactics.

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

If you decide to go with another game (I am not more than name-familiar with MTG or the Harry Potter CCG) my husband really enjoys the Yu-Gi-Oh card game. He goes to local "tournaments" on weekends sometimes and says that there are people of all ages there, kids, teens, adults. We've also moved several times and no matter where we are he's never had much trouble finding someplace that had tournaments. It's based on the tv shows, and people definitely play the game instead of just collecting. You get to form your deck from different cards that you have, and there are tons of cards to pick from - which you said she liked about the Harry Potter game.

[katana-girl.livejournal.com]

Gotta love Carleton.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Aside from convention gaming, there's a weekly Friday Night Game party hosted by Richard Tatge and Sharon Kahn (who also bring a lot of games to MiniCon). There are usually a couple Magic players who show up there - and all kinds of other games to sample.

[kelly-swails.livejournal.com]

I consulted my geek-husband and he votes MTG. ("It's the greatest game ever created," he said, so he might be biased.)

He mentioned that the Game of Thrones CCG is supposed to be good.

[imponderabilias.livejournal.com]

My dh has taken our 11 y.o. son to a couple of Pokemon tournaments. There were different ranges of ages there, and I think Dan was at the very bottom of the middle age class. The main problem was how incredibly boring it was for dh (silly man didn't take a book with him either time).

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

I saw that article. I TOTALLY want to play Quiddich.

[redbird]

Btw, in case you aren't looking at Tor.com, there was a link to a giveaway of free Magic decks. You'd have to ask for them in your name, because they have an age check.