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TRUE BLUE POWER GAMER

Rizandro Napone shares his love for gaming

By Francis Lloyd Sauza

* "My playgroup and I are looking for more players for our Legends of the Five Rings group"

HE is one of the contributory writers of the Iloilo Yearbook for two years in a row and currently the school director of Hanbit English Learning Center International. Rizandro Napone shares his utmost pastime and interests.

Francis Lloyd Sauza (FLS): How did you get in to collecting horror novels, samurai epics, L5R card games as well as playing Warcraft with your buddies?

Rizandro Napone (RN): It started way back in my high school days. Back then, we still had two comic book stores here in Iloilo --- Filbar's and Arden. I used to get my monthly comic book fixes from those stores. I also bought comic books whenever I get the chance to vacation with my uncle in Manila.

Fast forward to my college years in SPCI when I was taking up Mass Communications. I was introduced to Magic: the Gathering CCG (collectible card game) by my schoolmate Milan, but I didn't really bite. It was when my classmate and best friend Edy and his arcade playing friends started buying M:TG that I started to get hooked into the game, and consequently, I got inducted into a the world of gaming.

Afterwards, I got introduced into Dungeons and Dragons RPG (role-playing game) from my Argumentation and Debate teacher Leomel (during his off-time!) and theater mentor Edward D, and have met many wonderful friends over the years.

However, M:tG, while being the most successful CCG game in the industry, did not hold my interest for long. Primarily because it was an expensive game, and the shoestring allowance that I had back then didn't allow me to purchase the new sets that are required to make a player competitive.

FLS: Thus far, how many bits and pieces do you have in your collection of these various literatures?

RN: That would be pretty hard to say without giving some pointers as to what gaming really is. Many people tend to overuse this term. First off, there is an assortment of games out there; chess and poker are among them. But what defines gaming is that it is an ongoing industry that churns out an overwhelming amount of new games every year.

So what does a gamer play? What games are available out there? Take computer games for instance. What kind of computer are we talking about? Console computers? Personal computers? There are several kinds of console computers: the Playstation, Xbox, the defunct Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, the Game Cube, Sony Wii, etc, etc.

Now if you play PC games, what kind of games are you playing? Is it a computer RPG? Is it FPS (first person shooter)? RTS (real-time strategy)? MMORPG? (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games). Now what kind of MMORPG do you play? Free to Play like RF Online? (Well, I heard it was free). Top-up games like Ragnarok or Khan Online? Subscription games like World of Warcraft? Or buy-per-expansion pack like Guildwars?

And that's just computer gaming. I haven't even touched on the topic of CCG's and Miniature Wargaming, Role-Playing Games, etc.

FLS: Um, I got lost.

RN: Therefore, to answer your question, I have a massive collection of CCG games that I have played over the years, such M:tG, Legends of the Five Rings and Vampire: the Eternal Struggle and collectible figures from my foray into miniature war gaming, namely Mage Knight. My various books and modules for RPG do not count, as pen-and-paper RPG are non-competitive in nature. I was never really into PC or Console gaming, myself.

FLS: Among these assorted items in your collection, do you have your favorite one?

RN: No, I consider them all to be equally wonderful.

FLS: Do you collect each of the set of these narratives and card games?

RN: Ok, here's a little basic on CCGs (collectible card games). There are about 200+ CCGs ever published. They mostly share the same nature: they are Collectible, and Competitive. Unlike the Baseball and Basketball cards my friends had in high school, CCG's just don't sit in your desk and look pretty. You can actually play with it. In fact, if I were in the States or Europe, and if I play M:tG (the most commercially well funded of all CCG's) very well, I can most probably send myself to college and/or raise a small family, just by winning tournaments for Magic the Gathering, in the same way that some Koreans actually earn a living by playing Starcraft (a PC game) very well on TV.

Another nature of a CCG: it has a set rotation. Which means that it must continually publish more cards as time goes by. Why? To keep the industry commercially viable, and as an entrypoint for new gamers.

If I were an interested person who wants to play M:tG, I would want to occasionally win the games I play. Older players have access to cards that are already out of print. I, being a new player, cannot hope to compete with these older players because they have the cool, powerful and hard to find cards. Hence, CCG company has what they call a "rotation", where older cards are no longer "legal" to play in "competitive tournaments." Oh, the older cards can still be played with, no problems there. It's just that if I want to play in a "currently legal" tournament, I must acquire these new sets of cards.

M:tG rotates their cards every 3-6 months. It's actually a good thing for new players, because they can jump in the game and not be alienated by the older cards they're never going to have. And of course, M:tG also reprints its older cards occasionally in the newer sets, so long as these reprints doesn't create too much of a negative game experience.

Now, CCG wise, I play Legends of the Five Rings CCG and is the second oldest CCG game in the industry (Magic being the oldest of them all). It's actually a little more complex to play with, but it's more strategic in nature compared to the other CCG's I've tried before (and I've tried more CCG's than the average player). The set rotation for L5R is every two and a half years; which means I can play in a "legal tournament" with the cards I bought for two years before it "rotates" out, or gets reprinted again for future expansions.

So yes, in order to be competitive in the current environment, I have to buy the new sets when they come out.

FLS: How time-consuming do you occupy yourself in playing Warcraft with you pals?

RN: I play Warcraft 3, the PC game, with my friends at the now-legendary Project XXA1 when it was still open. When it closed down, I just play very rarely. I remember way back when I just finished college, and jobless, though, that I would play Counterstrike with Edy and our barkada's every single night, Monday to Sunday, for the entire duration of my unemployed life.

FLS: Why is that among other RPG games, you opt for Warcraft?

RN: As far as RPG goes, I actually went for Dungeons and Dragons and Vampire: the Masquerade. Now these are the real-deal RPGs, and not the brainless "RPG" that kids call nowadays when they play mindlessly repetitive, level gaining games that the MMORPG industry has spawned. To be fair, even the vastly globally popular World of Warcraft (which is entirely different game from Warcraft 3, though of the same proprietors) is not RPG. In real RPG, you create your characters from the toes up, and you talk and interact with the other players and your environment as if you are the character itself. It's a bit of improvised theater, so to speak, only less academic and theoretical. So yes, when you choose to play a lumbering Half-Orc Warrior, you have to dumb down your speech, ("Raar! I smash your head in, stooped Wizard!") even if you're a Magna Cum Laude.

FLS: What message can you convey to the readers of this news magazine that also has a collection or would like to get underway of their own collection?

RN: Number one would be: enjoy the game, whatever game you choose to play, and whatever other non-gamers would think of you. Wait, I think number one would be: exercise restraint. You can't start off a collection of miniatures if you've got a shoestring high school allowance, or if you're sending your little kid sister to school, or if you have to study for your Medical Board Exam. Gaming, like most recreational hobbies, is very relaxing and stress-draining and boatloads of fun, but never overdo it and set realistic financial and time boundaries.

Oh, and before I forget: can I plug? My playgroup and I are looking for more players for our Legends of the Five Rings group, (preferably college or working professional) you can reach me (and my playgroup) at http://iloilogamers.freeforums.org. We have a wonderful community support, and we'll give you support and teach you the ropes in playing-in my experience as a cross-genre gamer-the most balances CCG in existence. Or just mail me at vampiregrail@yahoo.com.