So you may have found me, and even people other than me (I'm sure Trakis has quoted him before, and Catarin) talking about Sirlin and Playing to Win. A little while ago (I don't check his site that often) he announced the release by Kongregate, some gaming website, of a free TCG designed and developed by himself, based on yomi - which is the kind of mindgames you might play when doing something like rock paper scissors, to simplify it. Or imbalanced rock paper scissors where winning with rock gets you £10, scissors £3 and paper £1. Just think about that for a moment.

Anyway, naturally I decided to check the game out and it seems pretty fun. The tutorial is kind of confusing as it just dumps you in it, so I thought I'd try and explain how to play while advertising it.

You play "decks" with 3 characters, which are cards. You start with 1 on the field and 2 in reserve. They each have "mana" (regenerates 20/turn) and health.

Each turn, you choose to either get into close range, long range, or stay where you are. Moving costs 50 energy, not moving costs 0. Some moves only work at long or short range.

After moving or not, you can either do one of your character's 4 attacks/techs, switch out with a benched character, stop other people from switching out and do damage, or rest. The moves have mana cost (yellow thing), do damage (red thing), and have a speed that gives them "priority" - a 9 speed move happens before an 8 speed one. Most of the moves have special effects and most of the characters have an inherent passive.

Most of the complexity of the game comes from the mind games you play with it, trying to predict what your opponent is going to do and counteract it. Since moves are declared simultaneously this can get quite tricky.

Also, moves have a chance to hit and a chance to "proc" their special affliction or whatever. And there's a status bar for each character on the far left and right, mousing over it shows you what status they have like bleeding or hamstrung or a self-buff of some kind.


Playing:
Shiri (Shiri)
Furien (Alianna)
Shadow_the_third (Aesyra)
Heihu (Anonymous)
gazbac (Arix)
Silferras (Silferras)
Balizar (Balizar)
Shujiro (Shuyin)
RonnyHo (Melville)
TripleSquares (Aramel)
RikaTalnara (Rika)
LustyShrimp (Dinoniel)
brsav9 (Bashara)
Oromyn (Rauros)
Sintor (Desitrus)
Xthel (Xthel)
Shamarah (Shamarah)

Come to room 33!

Come play! Destroying Shiri is loads of fun.

Whatever, my win ratio is better than yours

I have an account now, just trying to get somewhat decent at it now.

Oh, let's have a match. You need to go to browse games, host game, put my name (Shiri) in the bottom, 3-card, and then wait for me to notice/join it.

I'm on t here as Gazbac. the person with the Arix screen name is NOT me

Yeah but you always lose against me. :smug:

So playing so far:
Shiri
RikaTalnara
Gazbac
shadow_the_third
Heihu
Furien
Shujiro

I'm learning to play right now :]

Tip: Don't play against the computer too much. Humans act differently. I've found the AI to be somewhat lacking.

The AI is terrible with intercept.

Shiri couldn't beat me.

You mean, Shiri whiffed on two seperate stun attacks (the hit, not the proc) AND an eye of the tiger and you could STILL only pull out a draw.

Shiri, are you in a game right now?

No, I'll challenge you. Also how did you friend me, Heihu and I can't find the button.

go to your profile, friend management is near the bottom

I think I'm terrible at this game.

Just gotta get the hang of the ol' RTFC technique

EDIT: and whoring intercept

I played one game of Kongai and then immediately wandered off to rack up points elsewhere. I just got the 30-point badge for beating 3-D Logic, and a few minor ones also

He did whore it, just at the wrong times. XD

You just have to consider what I will do next. There are often situations where there is only one move available to me (or when I'm very likely to do a certain action) and then you can plan ahead to whack me in some way. You'll get the hang of it.

EDIT: For example if Shiri moves his bloody Doom guy into close mode I know he's going to Doom me if he has the energy for it. So I either switch or try to get at far range or try to kill his guy first.