Card games. Not something you’d think has a natural connection to the electronic gaming generation. Traditionally the act of playing cards is a social one but technology has improved and allows millions of gamers to play Uno via Xbox Live! or gamble your life away playing poker online. The digital age removed the physical requirements of needing friends and opponents in the same space but it introduced card players to a world of challengers.

One area of the card game industry that’s exploded in the last 15 years is the collectible card game (CCG) market. Comprised of brightly colored cards usually with gorgeous illustrations or photos and a semi-random distribution mechanism like old Baseball card packs, players build entire decks of cards to battle with other like-minded players in casual play and at tournaments for cash prizes. While the concept of a CCG dates as far back as the turn of the 20th century, the modern CCG really came to prominence with the advent of Magic: The Gathering.

Magic: The Gathering originally was designed as a short, quick card game for gamers at traditional tabletop conventions to play in between matches or tournaments. Richard Garfield and his team at Wizards of the Coast developed the core system concepts that are used in most commercial CCG’s today and marketed Magic to the gamer crowd with great success. Soon, Magic pushed traditional gaming off to the side. The game designed as a fun activity between other games became the game that filled convention halls and comic stores and really signaled the kick off of the CCG craze.
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“The commander saw victory in his grasp, the greenskins had been pushed back and he knew the tactical elements of the Imperium would, Emperor willing, capture and rally with the help of the newly arrived Blood Angels. Five units. Five simple units of Cadian Imperial Guard had held against the green horde, the rampaging onslaught of Gretchin and Orks with their bloodlust flowing. Not even a regiment of defenders stood between them and the settlement of Cleric’s Hollow. The Cadian’s had held before the brunt of the overwhelming numbers. Today this bastion of the empire would not succumb. Today, the greenskins had been taught that even trying to take an insignificant clerical outpost would cost them dearly.”

How can you not enjoy a futuristic Gothic fantasy game? Littered with all the conceits of fantasy races, mystic forces and mankind corrupted by alien influences? Warhammer 40,000 (40k) is now a property well known in the PC gaming circles thanks to Relic Entertainment and THQ. A real-time strategy game where players build and command the forces of the Empire in a galactic future. A dark future in fact, where mankind faces constant war against all comers – from the green skin Orks to the mysterious Eldar. Years of backstory go into informing this rich and expansive universe with tomes and tomes of story enlightening gamers about each and every faction in the setting.

Warhammer 40k, and it’s partner series – Warhammer began life as simple fantasy miniature games. Tabletop titles where players purchased and built up massive armies of metal miniatures and simulated squad and even army scale combats using elaborate tables and charts and a couple of dice. While Warhammer might not be the 1st such game of this nature it is probably one of the most universally recognized tabletop wargames available today.

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Video games are an evolutionary entertainment form. They didn’t sprout spontaneously like Athena from the skull of Zeus into maturity. Instead we’ve seen ages upon ages of recreation evolve through technology to the form we discuss on a daily basis here at Gaming Today.

The Analog Gamer is a new feature we’ve decided to delve into, a break from the GPU comparisons or the latest GTA IV gossip with a look at gaming of a non-digital sort be that board games or pen-n-paper wargamers or RPGs. Some editions will include game recommendations or rules conversions of digital weapons, settings or characters for various tabletop games and even discussions of how tabletop games influence the games we play online or on our consoles from design to practice.

The inaugural edition of this column has to be devoted to the analog game that has spawned so many great titles over the years (and a few stinkers as well): Dungeons & Dragons. Originally a fantasy miniature ruleset, the game we now know as Dungeons & Dragons has seen four major versions and with another due next year it holds a place in the heart of the video game industry that few cross-over properties claim.
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