Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Why Chaotic (and other games) Are Important

"Games are important. Games matter. When you play a game - any game - you’re using your imagination to bring a world to life, and that’s truly special, because while all destruction is essentially the same, when you create something, it’s different every single time. When you create something together, you’re building bonds with your fellow gamers that could last for your entire lives." -Wil Wheaton (click here for a link to his blog post)

I started this blog post off by stealing a quote from Wil Wheaton, a famous actor who starred in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Although he was talking about role-playing games, it still holds a lot of weight when you use it to talk about trading card games like Chaotic. When people not familiar with trading card games looks at Maxxor card, to them, it looks no different from a Chaor or even Bodal. But to us, we not only see the words printed in the card, but we also see how cards interact with one another in the giant exchange of ideas that we call the metagame.

Most people don't bother to understand trading card games, and often lump them together with a standard 52 card deck which already has that connection to gambling. And for that reason, most school ban cards from class without understanding what they really are.

Chaotic Inspires Creativity
When you build your own deck, or come up with your own combos, you are being creative. Einstein was a firm believer that creativity is more important than knowledge. It doesn't matter if you know every card, if you have no imagination, you will never be able to make your own deck, or even put your own twist on existing decks. Imagination is the ability to think or something that no one else has thought of before. Education focuses so much on learning that they forget that creativity and imagination are just as important for whatever you choose to do with your life after you finish school. Chaotic not only encourages this, but teaches it to you as well.

Chaotic Teaches Problem Solving
The game of Chaotic is a huge game of tactics. In the beginning of the game, you are given a very fixed amount of resources (Creatures, battlegear, mugic and a 20 build point attack deck). The winner of the game is the person who can best utilize their own resources while, at the same time, remove the resources of their opponent. In order to master the game, players need to looks at every situation and determine whether or not casting a mugic now will benefit them more than if they save it for later. Do you want to cast Song of Resurgence to save your Tangath Toborn, or do you want to save it so you can heal your Maxxor for a bigger fight in hopes that the mugic will give you the win.

Chaotic Helps You Become More Adaptive
One very important and trademark quality of trading card games is the adaption of random chance in game play. Things change. Often. If you have this great and amazing strategy that you think is unbeatable, but your opponent plays a move that you weren't expecting at all, if you want to still salvage a win out of the game, you need to be ready to make quick and tough decisions on the fly. If I've learned anything from playing chaotic, it's that players will often think of things that you aren't ready for. Even if you are surprised, it isn't the end of the game. You can think of a way to win. There is always a way to win if you look hard enough.

Chaotic Encourages Players to Interact with One Another
Do you know how many people became friends because of this game? How people, separated by hundreds of miles and sometimes sharing nothing other than this game have come together and become friends. Do you know how many facebook friends invites I have received? (Sorry, but I'm not accepting anyone else right now) The chaotic forums has so many posts each and every day of people talking in open discussion about this game. That is interaction. People are sharing ideas and improving on one another strategies. I suppose I could have also labeled this section 'Chaotic Encourages Teamwork'.

Final Thoughts
I have thought about writing a small piece like this (rough and unedited as it my be) about a game that does mean a good deal to me. People see games and disregards them without much though. In reality, they should see games and understand their value. There is a lot to say about the importance of games as a whole, and Chaotic is a very big part of that.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great article and a fun read into some of your thoughts regarding the factors involved in gaming. I also agree that gaming encourages so much more than what the uninformed think of it.

XiXaX said...

FINALLY SOMEONE AGREES WITH ME XD!!!

Dacat said...

Great article and great quotes, if only schools that ban cards would unban trading cards, it's not gambling and it teaches them to find clever solutions to problems.

Michaelnono said...

hmmm I have mixed feelings about this... on one hand there where allot of good points and its well thought out... but on the other hand it opens with a quote from will wheton which according to the big bang theory is evil... so yeah :P

any way one thing I'd like to throw out there is it also teach's sportsmanship and how to lose just saying

Occasus said...

I mentioned a couple creatures, but I hyperlinked maxxor twice. What could possible be going on...?

Anonymous said...

More hints? Well, let's just see where this leads.

Anonymous said...

To add, Chaotic is dead.

And has been for 8 to 9 months. But all the noobs will still wait another 8 to 9 months, even though nothing is happening.

Fools.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand why people who don't like Chaotic post on things Chaotic related (this pertains to any thing or subject for that matter, unless it's actually opinion oriented). I mean, maybe you do still like it but you clearly no longer think it has a chance, and if that's the case why not move on? If you believe that the game is dead don't bother posting on Chaotic related sites, whether it be the official site or fan blogs. The best thing to do in your position would be to find a new hobby and stick to that and have fun with it. If you no longer care about Chaotic just leave it.

Anonymous said...

No i am the type of person, that if I cant enjoy something, why should anyone else.

I just curious as too why you fools are still sticking with this game even though it has been dead for months, and isnt coming back to life.

-X

Occasus said...

...if you think it's dead, how did you find this post?

Jwcool said...

he was bored and wanted to look at some dead things. XD

and Occasus, amen to ur post.

~Jwcool