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Valve had a closed-doors presentation on their new card game Artifact that will release this year, here's a few details. First of all, it's being made in collaboration with Magic creator Richard Garfield, like how Valve worked with IceFrog on Dota 2. It will be on Source 2 and it will also release by the end of this year, with mobile platforms sometime next year.

From what I understand, it will not be a free to play title and it will use the Steam Marketplace to allow people to sell their cards. I think we all could have gathered it would have some form of Marketplace, but the fact that it's a pay to play game is surprising. It will start with 280 cards and 44 heroes.

It will have no single-player campaign, but you will get an AI tutorial to walk you through it. For those thinking it will be like Hearthstone, think again. It will have three lanes of play, with you being required to take down towers in two out of three to win, however if you take down one an Ancient will spawn with more health, if you take down that you also win. This makes it sound vastly different to other card battling games currently around, it actually sounds a little like a MOBA turned into a card game.

Here's some screenshots of the game (source):

For more info, there's a reddit dedicated to the game already with a post gathering info.

I've sent off some mail to Valve to ask about Linux support, just to be sure. I've no doubt it will be on Linux, like all of their stuff nowadays, but it doesn't hurt to check. Will update on any reply when I get it. Update: Valve replied to my email to confirm Linux support.

As a trading card game fan, I can't wait to get my hands on it.

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Asu Mar 9, 2018
I'm not into card games but I hope there will be free weekends to try it.
tonR Mar 9, 2018
If they wants gone full Blizzard at least launch the game together with action figures. :P
RossBC Mar 9, 2018
Could be a good game, but buying the game then buying cards/boosters as well... Hard pass.
Liam Dawe Mar 9, 2018
Valve actually just replied to my email to confirm Linux support :)
etonbears Mar 9, 2018
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoI'm 40 years old and I can tell you that Vr was a commercial failure, is a commercial failure and will be a commercial failure, because of the high price of the hardware needed, and because the human is an animal of habits...

About the game... bleh.. Just what We need! Another digital card game.... ¬¬

I'm a little older at 56, but I remember looking at the 1990s VR while working for an "advanced technology group" in a UK financial services company. Everyone wanted it to be great, but it really wasn't. Most of the issues were to do with physical effects of VR unit weight and the inability of many people to adjust to visual input that does not match what they expect when moving their head.

The issues of price and weight still exist, but I guess will eventually be solved. I think the issue of perception problems will persist for a long time, as our understanding of how the brain works ( and whether any two brains actually work the same ) is far from perfect.

The people most positive about VR are, of course, those that don't experience problems. I would say VR is here to stay this time, at the least as a specialist market segment - if not for games, then perhaps for "adult" entertainment.

Having tried VR before, I know that I won't bother until they pay proper attention to being able to configure headsets to individual eye requirements ( to the standards of correction that opticians use ) and fully eliminate lag and jitter.

Even then, relatively few of the games I like would actually benefit from VR, in the same way that Artifact and other card games are not a natural fit. You cetainly CAN make card games and grand strategy games as VR games... but just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Smoke39 Mar 9, 2018
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoI'm 40 years old and I can tell you that Vr was a commercial failure, is a commercial failure and will be a commercial failure, because of the high price of the hardware needed, and because the human is an animal of habits...

Are you from an alternate reality where personal computing never happened? Where smart phones never happened?
Comandante Ñoñardo Mar 10, 2018
Quoting: etonbearsI would say VR is here to stay this time, at the least as a specialist market segment - if not for games, then perhaps for "adult" entertainment.


I 100% agree with that.
Spoiler, click me
Porn industry was in part the responsible for the VHS format success, so if VR become a commercial success, will be because of porn, and not because of videogames.

Quoting: Smoke39
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoI'm 40 years old and I can tell you that Vr was a commercial failure, is a commercial failure and will be a commercial failure, because of the high price of the hardware needed, and because the human is an animal of habits...

Are you from an alternate reality where personal computing never happened? Where smart phones never happened?

No. I'm from a country with 25% of inflation per year and Hardware prices literally 100% more expensive than USA or Europe.
ison111 Mar 10, 2018
Am I the only one who doesn't like "heroes" in card games? I wonder if it has to do with the fact that in other card games I grew up playing it was just left up to my imagination to decide what type of person I was playing as.
Grimfist Mar 12, 2018
Hmm, this game seems like it will be very hardcore gameplay wise, and is targeted at a mainstream market. I wonder if that will work out, especially as it will not be F2P.
I will stay with Hearthstone, don't have the time nor the money to play two cash grabs :D
etonbears Mar 14, 2018
Quoting: ison111Am I the only one who doesn't like "heroes" in card games? I wonder if it has to do with the fact that in other card games I grew up playing it was just left up to my imagination to decide what type of person I was playing as.
No. Gaming, in general, used to be a niche pastime that tended to attract the imaginative and intellectually curious.

But the money is in the mainstream, and video games are definitely mainstream now. That audience wants Hollywood-style entertainment.
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