A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE EYE OF JUDGMENT’S PROBLEMS

I'd like to take a moment to talk about the situation surrounding Sony's The Eye of Judgment and the use of photocopied cards in online play. A lot has been said on the internet about how the "pirating" of cards could well kill any chance for future expansion sets for Eye.

I'm going to take a bit of a counter-point stance here. I'm not saying the photocopying of cards is acceptable – it's not. Part of the balance of a game like The Eye of Judgment is that not every card is available to every player. You can make the argument that the game then winds up catering to the "rich kid", but I'd bet that even that rich kid doesn't have every single card.

You see, while the problem of card copying is certainly real and a concern, what I want to talk about is how much of this entire issue is due to a lack of thought and follow through on the part of Sony and it's partners. While there would always be a percentage of users who would try to find a way to beat the system, the problem certainly wouldn't be as prevalent if not for the following points.

1. Security: 
1. For all the times Sony went on record as saying the card coding was secure and there would be no way to "copy" cards, the fact that on the very first day of release, a photocopy of a low-resolution scan of a card proved to work just as well as an original shows that, like so many other games in the current generation, no one really tested anything. Seriously, how much testing went into the security of this game when scans, photocopies and even hand-drawn copies of cards are working just as well as the originals. What did you think was going to happen when you price your cards at a premium and then make bootlegging this easy? This leads us into my second point…
2. Greed: 
1. In many ways, Sony, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are now reaping the "rewards" of their greed. To begin with, the cards are priced at $3.99 for a booster pack of 8 cards or $14.99 for a pre-built "Starter-Deck" of 30 cards. That's well over the cost of other collectible card games, and when combined with the next fact, is actually quite a bit appalling. You see, if my data is correct, of the 110 cards available in the initial EoJ set, 50 cards are Rare, Ultra-Rare or Phantom cards. Fifty… 45 percent. This ranks right up there with the worst examples of greed we're seeing in the downloadable content arena. For those of you unfamiliar with the way the packaging for the cards works, that means that in every $3.99 booster pack of cards, you're going to get ONE of those 50 cards. Normally, that's an acceptable thing – except when there are only 60 cards that don't fall into that category. Hell, remove the 30 uncommon cards in the set from the equation and we're left with only 30 "common" cards. If you're a little lost at this point, here's what I'm trying to say – there are more "rare/ultra-rare/phantom" cards in the set than there are "common" cards. That's just ridiculous.
3. Supply Issues:
1. As if that wasn't enough, Sony and friends can claim that bootlegging is killing card sales all they want – however, those of us trying to legitimately buy the cards know another truth… the cards just aren't available. Whether there was some problem with printing or the demand for the game was just far more than anyone expected, you would have to look for a long time to find a steady supply of cards. If you look at online retailers, they have messages like "expected in stock in 1 or 2 months" listed for any of the card packs. eBay is almost barren of any card sales beyond individual commons and uncommons. Shortages like this can push even the most honest player into being tempted by those copied cards because they can't play the game they bought online competitively without a variety of cards. Then only people in good shape right now are those that grabbed cards on day one in anticipation of a shortage or fear that should the game bomb, no more would be forthcoming. (For the record, I've managed to grab all 5 starter decks as well as 5 booster packs, with all but the Wood Swarm booster being bought on the day the game came out. Beyond that one additional starter, I haven't seen packs available anywhere since launch. I've got more booster packs on order, but even online sellers are stating that WoTC is far behind in their shipments.) Here's a fact – if you want to sell cards, you have to have cards to sell.

So there you have it. Whether any of these issues can be solved before irreparable harm befalls The Eye of Judgment's card sales is really anyone's guess right now – probably because there would have to be cards freely available on the market to see if anyone is buying them.

Bottom line? People can claim bootlegging is the biggest danger to the game all they want, but in my opinion, it's the ineptitude and greed being shown on the part of the parties behind Eye that are the biggest problems.

• The Eye of Judgment – Official website 

DIGITALLIFE ‘07 HANDS-ON: THE EYE OF JUDGMENT

After much procrastinating, I’ve finally gotten around to posting my hands-on experience with Sony’s The Eye of Judgment, a hybrid collectible card game developed with the assistance of Wizards of the Coast, for the PlayStation 3.

Since the article is pretty long and somewhat image heavy, I’ve set up the full article on another page so that those of you who have no interest in the game don’t have to deal with seeing the whole story every time you visit the site.

Just a taste of what you’ll find in the full article – you know you want to read it!

• DigitalLife ’07 Hands-On: The Eye of Judgment – nylatenite.com
• The Eye of Judgment – Official website
• The Eye of Judgment Tutorial Trailer – GameTrailers.com