I am a gaming slut.

I will game anywhere, at any time, with anybody.

I have gamed with complete strangers in airports. I have gamed with my best friend's girlfriend behind his back. I have gamed in public.

I will try any game once. Heck I still have decks for Dr. Who CCG, James Bond CCG, Hyborean Gates CCG, Spellfire... I've played a lot of CCGs, and I've liked a lot of them.

Overpower was a good game, but the balance was wrong, and Superman the character sucked ass. I played X-files CCG; an amazingly good game, except that it was impossible to get the cards you need to play, and about 85% of the cards were worse than useless. Middle Earth CCG (the iron crown one) was great, but it collapsed under the weight of too many rules.

I've played a lot of CCGs. More than I have time to describe here.

About two years ago, I declared "This is enough! I have had it! I will never get into another new CCG!" after the collapse of Highlander CCG.

See, I was sick and tired of getting into games, loving them and having them die on me. Having tons of cards and never again using them. Knowing the strategy, getting good deck ideas and never getting to test them out.

Then LotR came along.

Now, I resisted the urge to buy some. I really didn't want to get drawn in.

My friend Bryan Hons, who occasionally plays STCCG taught me the game one afternoon when I had nothing better to do. I really couldn't be bothered to play it again though, till the TOC, when I arrived at the venue expecting to play BuffyCCG. The Buffy tournament had been cancelled. To boost their numbers, I borrowed a deck from Maxim Dion (who some may remember from my "trip to Seattle" story some time ago) and went 3 and 2 over 5 rounds. More importantly, I had fun at that tourney.

It was then that I realized why I will end up playing LotR and any future Decipher TCGs; they are stable.

When you get into a CCG made by a company other than Decipher, it is a gamble whether or not it will last more than 8 months. Will there be people to play against in a year's time for BuffyCCG? I simply don't know. With LotR, I know that in two or three years, I will still be looking at new sets, playing sanctioned tourneys and seeing some sort of prize support system.

Decipher has a good track record at this; Star Trek and Star Wars are two of the longest running CCGs of all time. Even Wizards can't boast that sort of track record; Unlimited/Alpha/Beta magic isn't played anymore, I would hardly count "Only cards printed in the last 2 years can be played" as supporting the old game... they don't even have remotely the same rules as they once did.

Decipher games have a track record of a player base and a community. Over the last five years, I have found many friends through the various Decipher games.

So in the future, when new decipher CCGs come out, I intend to give them a try, as I have had luck with them in the past.