KINGMAN — At one time, the only Trading Card Game (TCG) shop in Kingman was Card Command. Now, there are two more similar shops. It marks a trend away from video games, at least with post teen players. One of the major card style games, Magic: The Gathering, recently released a new edition and that necessitated a special event at Card Command.
John Calderwood is the operator and one third owner of the shop and he talked about “Magic”.
“Specifically, we play the Commander format almost exclusively here. It’s just a way for two to four people to sit around and sling spells, control monsters, and try to lower each other’s life points to zero.”
John went on to say that slowly a number of people are turning away from video games to Magic: The Gathering, because in many cases video games are a one person show with little personal contact, plus there’s another specific reason.
“They’ve tried to go digital so many times. There’re even digital competitors. There’s a digital version of the game, but, honestly, the collector’s market is too big. People can’t “grade” a digital card. People can’t collect one-of-a-kind cards if it’s offered to everyone digitally. And so having the collecting market behind it, is what really drives use of the game and cards.”
Long time gamer, Devin Bomngard, points out how Magic: The Gathering is different from many other card games.
“The way it’s different is it adds more of a complex aspect to it. You have to think how are you going to spend properly, how you are going to attack properly. It adds all sorts of different aspects that most card games don’t have. It’s just, you play a card (in other card games) and that’s done. In this, you have to figure it out.”
There are other games offered at Card Command. A couple of guys were playing “War Hammer 40K”, a game more elaborate than “Risk”, and there are evenings when Monopoly and other common board games are offered.
Camaraderie and happy chatting was going on before the announcement of the start of play. And then, suddenly, the concentration level went through the roof and a busy hush came over the room.
