CCG Importance Dissonance: Difference between revisions

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So they've made a Customizable Card Game about your favorite work of fiction, sweet! Now let's see what's in the first booster pack... huh? Weird, why is [[Red Shirt|Crimson Cuirass]] more powerful than [[The Hero|Heroicus Maximus?]] And why does [[Hufflepuff House|that guy who was only there for like two scenes]] get ten cards?

You've just run into CCG Importance Dissonance. This can crop up in other types of games, but basically it consists of an adaptation applying [[Power Creep, Power Seep]] to the protagonists and extras to make the [[Competitive Balance|game balanced,]] as well as giving just about everyone and everything on screen a card (or more than one) because they need a sizable amount of cards for a set. This can also manifest as [[De Power|De Powering]] (or at times [[Nerf|Nerfing]]) main characters/ships/items into "okay" cards, while elevating several minor character in terms of power.

You've just run into CCG Importance Dissonance. This can crop up in other types of games, but basically it consists of an adaptation applying [[Power Creep, Power Seep]] to the protagonists and extras to make the [[Competitive Balance|game balanced,]] as well as giving just about everyone and everything on screen a card (or more than one) because they need a sizable amount of cards for a set. This can also manifest as [[De-Power|De Powering]] (or at times [[Nerf|Nerfing]]) main characters/ships/items into "okay" cards, while elevating several minor character in terms of power.

If the main characters ''are'' more powerful than the [[Ascended Extra|extras]] who managed to rate cards, expect them to be [[Power Equals Rarity|rare cards]], leading to a gaming community in which everyone has a dozen [[Innocent Bystander|Bystander]] [[Something Person|Lad]] cards but most people have never even seen a [[The Good Captain|Captain]] Protagonist card. If on the other hand the protagonists are rare but useless, they're probably [[Junk Rare|Junk Rares]].

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== CCG ==

* In ''[[Magic the Gathering|Magic: The Gathering's]]'' this trope is literally the reason planeswalker cards exist at all. The devs basically said, "You know, it's really stupid that once a character gets important enough we can't print them on cards anymore."[[hottip:*:The in story reason Planeswalkers could be a card type without being incredibly broken or insanely hard to cast is that they're ''much'' weaker than the Planeswalkers of old. This has to do with the "Time Spiral" [[Story Arc]], which ends with {{spoiler|numerous Planeswalkers sacrificing their Planeswalker sparks (the phenomenon that made a sentient being a Planeswalker) to heal the fractures in time and space that could've unmade all realities if not taken care of.}}

** And then there is [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Gerrard_Capashen~~ Gerrard Capashen]. Plot-wise, he is a pinnacle of ages-long eugenics plan formulated by Urza, a powerful and very intelligent Planeswalker. Gerrard was specially engineered as a "Super-Soldier", to fight the denizens of Phyrexia, also known as ''The Nine Hells''. Gerrard also receives several whole sets of cards dedicated to his (and his skyship's) crew: Weatherlight Adventures (Which is the name of one of the expansions). His card? [http://magiccards.info/ap/en/11.html Utterly unremarkable]. Bonus points for the card flat-out losing to every other card representing opponents that Gerrard defeated or overcame in the novels.

** And then there is [[wikipedia:Gerrard Capashen|Gerrard Capashen]]. Plot-wise, he is a pinnacle of ages-long eugenics plan formulated by Urza, a powerful and very intelligent Planeswalker. Gerrard was specially engineered as a "Super-Soldier", to fight the denizens of Phyrexia, also known as ''The Nine Hells''. Gerrard also receives several whole sets of cards dedicated to his (and his skyship's) crew: Weatherlight Adventures (Which is the name of one of the expansions). His card? [http://magiccards.info/ap/en/11.html Utterly unremarkable]. Bonus points for the card flat-out losing to every other card representing opponents that Gerrard defeated or overcame in the novels.

** Karona, who emerges in Onslaught block as a [[Physical God|physical manifestation of Dominaria's mana]] formed from the [[Fusion Dance|fusion]] of the powerful and iconic legends Phage the Untouchable and Akroma, Angel of Wrath, is far less useful than she has any right to be as well--so much so that head designer Mark Rosewater [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr232 publicly apologized] for how lame she was:

{{quote| That card is an embarrassment to card design. I actually had zero to do with the card and I'm still embarrassed. We took two iconic beloved cool legends and combined them into a pile of, well a word I'm not allowed to use on this site. Of all the balls dropped with the design of legendary characters, this is one near the top of the list. My humblest apologies.}}

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== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* The ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'' Top Trumps (original series) was mocked because the historical characters had to be beefed up for play balance, so you ended up with Joan of Arc being able to defeat a Sea Devil or suchlike.

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' Top Trumps (original series) was mocked because the historical characters had to be beefed up for play balance, so you ended up with Joan of Arc being able to defeat a Sea Devil or suchlike.

** The actual ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'' CCG kind of inverted this; virtually all common cards were absolute unplayable rubbish and uncommons weren't much better. Most recognizable characters were rares, and the Fourth Doctor -- at the time the most recognizable and iconic version -- was an ''ultra-rare.''

** The actual ''[[Doctor Who]]'' CCG kind of inverted this; virtually all common cards were absolute unplayable rubbish and uncommons weren't much better. Most recognizable characters were rares, and the Fourth Doctor -- at the time the most recognizable and iconic version -- was an ''ultra-rare.''

** The latest incarnation -- ''Doctor Who: Monster Invasion'' -- has a number of oddities. It helps if you reflect that the "Loyalty" statistic doesn't specify who they're loyal ''to'', so while it's surprising that Rory's is higher than Amy's, maybe it reflects his loyalty to ''her''. The fact Amy has a "Bravery" stat of 300, more in line with the average panicky extra than Martha's 600 or Sarah Jane's 750, is harder to explain. And there are a ''lot'' of cards devoted to panicky extras.

* The ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' CCG by Decipher actually cycled into and out of this trope. At first players only used named characters since the no-name Starfleet [[Red Shirt|Red Shirts]] had usually only one skill and mediocre stats. To balance this out, they made cards called "Lower Decks" and "Assign Mission Specialist" so that these cards would see use. Also, since the game was premised on all the Star Trek races competing, every on-screen Romulan, Klingon and several other characters eventually got cards with skills and high ability scores never demonstrated on screen so that their faction had a viable chance at solving missions. Oh, and Riker's card sucked.<ref>His [[Cloning Blues|clone's, moreso.]]</ref>

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[[Category:Collectible Card Game]]

[[Category:CCG Importance Dissonance]]

[[Category:~~Trope~~]]

[[Category:Hottip markup]]