ImTheCook 👾

a honest breakdown of @origins_tcg i've seen a lot of posts about Origins, many of which are lacking some context so i'll try to write a sober breakdown 1. just play the game bro ok this is obvious but even moreso with Origins. Before you judge the game, team, monetization, marketing strategies or whatever you have in mind just try the game. The whole thing of the game is to be 100% free (maybe it's a stupid idea who knows but it's player friendly and we're running with it) you can download the game on Steam right now and just play, you'll eventually get all the cards in the game (yes very single base card) for free after completing a few missions right now the game is averaging something between 500-1000 concurrent players and has 600+ reviews with 89% being positive for context... not bad 2. we need a bit of time since we're talking about a video game here, not everyone will enjoy the game, it's just whatever suits you. So there is not much to be said about someone saying "wow this game is 10/10 i love this" or "meh 4/10 i prefer Snap/HS/*insert other tcg/game* one small addition before i talk more about the state of the game: the game has continously been the one thing that gets positive reactions, ever since we started showcasing it. I think the current review rate goes to show that, clearly Origins has something going for it ok let's talk about the state of the game... i've seen many people criticize the game for different reasons, like a stale meta, lack of archetypes, not enough player engagement and more in my opinion takes like that don't do the game any justice: one thing that people shouldn’t do is dismiss the game in its early access state because they lack features or progression, or they think the meta is stale obviously the game is far from complete and lacks a lot of features, some things that come to mind: - proper elo system - all kinds of metagame stuff - actual trading - packs - battle/season pass - more events & tournaments - a complete set of cards fun fact: you couldn't even spend money in the game if you wanted to since monetization is not live yet it's a bit disappointing when creators make posts about how the game is lacking depth, or how the meta is one-sided, when the first proper balance patch is around the corner and we only have like 60-70% of the first set in cards available right now if you’re a competitive player, or if you’re just bored by the current meta and the fact that you’re running into the same decks over and over again, you just need a bit of patience for now to wrap up this section: IP & artstyle are 2 additional aspects of the game that you either like or don't (or don't care much about)... we have many talented artists on the team that craft our cards and visual assets and we're trying something unique with the IP - of course that IP is inferior to games like Hearthstone or Snap when they started out 3. the gamble there are a lot of takes about the economy which are actually all fair it’s a huge gamble, we dont sell power and have an open economy driven by collectibles which not everyone is into the bet is simple: more players drive more desire for our collectibles, more interest in collectibles makes collectors happy, more collectors power the economy, a thriving economy brings more players.... aaand repeat if this works out, it can be huge. if not, it goes to zero and whether you like it or not, speculators play a part in this and it's fair that many people have a distaste for speculators physical TCGs are full of scalpers, counter-strike skins get manipulated all the time and industries like crypto where open economies are the standard are known for scammers but we still believe a true TCG deserves trading and open markets. TCGs wouldn’t experience the same boom they have been for years with closed ecosystems, so let's dare to fly of course there are many speculators that buy cards & packs cause they hope to make a profit, but our monetization is also much less opressive spending money in other digital TCGs means sending that money into the void, but in Origins you get to keep something of value and the beautiful thing about Origins is: you DO NOT need to engage in the economy you can play, get all cards, buy a seasonal pass and just enjoy the game you can win the world championship without ever spending money on a card or open a pack this is not possible in other TCGs and a unique aspect of Origins which we believe is a great growth engine /end so enough rambling, if you like TCGs, there is a good chance you will like Origins too, as it seems that 9/10 players enjoy the game we're a "small" and humble team that is working hard every single day to improve the game, whether you see it or not... some updates that are being worked on are - faster animation (saw a demo of this today, WOW it's so sick) - more tournaments - balance patch - cards cards cards - bring the collector pass into the game - next ranked season - and a lot of polish of basically everything see you ingame (if you play obliterate i'll take away all your VP)