Not commenting on the social impact, but just talking about the content of the article, there is a one-sidedness of "only watching thieves eat meat, not watching thieves being beaten". Whether it's the Ultraman cards mentioned in the article, or the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" mentioned in the article. Neither "Magic: The Gathering" nor "Pokémon" is simply sold at a high price for 1 cent, and only after huge creative and operating costs were invested in card design and 1P creation in the early stage can "monetization" be achieved at the card level. "Only analyzing the "card drawing" at the card level and the inability of primary school students to control themselves can only see part of the problem.
This is the first version of the "Black Lotus" card in "Magic: The Gathering", which is "famous". If we only talk about "cost" and "auction price", the gap is much larger than that of "Ultraman" cards. There are more. The reason is not how much the cards themselves cost, or what mode they are sold in (supplement pack-style opening or pre-assembled), but because "Magic: The Gathering" itself has become "bigger" and its audience has grown. The market has risen, and the demand for collections has increased.
Ultraman too. "Similarly": Ultraman Card is a card product of Card Game Company, which is divided into two types: collectible card and competitive card. As we all know, Ultraman is Japan's animation 1P, and Card Game's business model only buys the IP, and then Print it on the card and then sell it. Let’s not worry about the author’s opinion that “Ultraman is a Japanese anime IP”. Let’s sort out the timeline of Ultraman as “Tokusatsu 1P”. Next, Ultraman How much effort was put into the early "1P investment":
Ultraman has been around for more than 50 years now. Ultraman has produced dozens of special photography works, many of which are full of realistic concerns in their themes. , the content is not low (even some single episodes are meaningful) and have created very good ratings. Ultraman himself has more than ten spin-off novels, and more than twenty spin-off comics. Ultraman's own games have continued since the SFC period. Even in China, the "Ultraman" series has become a "regular importer" and a "veteran of national distribution". Before 2008, several groups of people had "Ultraman" in their childhood, and they were all available for free. The kind that comes.
These deep IP foundations are one of the cores of purchasing power. However, no matter how you analyze the "blind box economic model" itself, these are all early investments. , your analysis of "a dime of production cost" only saw a small part of the cost, and authorization and 1P were completely ignored... The article mentioned "social needs" and the "identity" of primary school students, but it seemed that they never I have thought about why other works, how "innovative" the business model of Fang Fo Blind Box is, no one else has thought of it, only "Ultraman" has thought of it, why other works have not become social needs and identity.
The "big money trappers" mentioned in the article are basically the same - the cost of production is definitely only a fraction, and the author selectively ignores the cost of the cards themselves/P early investment: compared with the domestic Ultra Compared with Manka cards, Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon and even star cards are the biggest money-makers in the world of card games. The card game not only has a tradition of auction trading, but also has recently become popular for issuing cards through crowdfunding. It is said that Ultraman cards are spent money to buy cards, and the act of crowdfunding to open cards is almost the same as knowing how to protect the powerful A soldiers
The article mentioned "Pokémon", " Magic: The Gathering" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!" are recognized as the "three major CGs (trading cards)" in the world. They all have "low production costs", but "the operating costs are really not low." They are all considered Ignore: Authenticity is not low", all ignored: Magic: The Gathering is the pioneer of "trading cards", its "original advantage" will not be considered by the author at all, the author will only consider how much it costs to produce a Magic card Ink and paper. Magic: The Gathering was designed by mathematician Richard Garfield. The author does not consider its "intellectual cost" at all, but only considers its printing cost
Some Magic: The Gathering illustrations are valuable in themselves, but the author only looks at them. When it comes to the production cost of each card after large-scale photocopying, every time Magic updates a supplementary pack, the balance and game mechanics are not mentioned here. We just see the idea of ??"launching new card packs during the holidays". On the surface, it just looks like a thief eating meat.
The blind box Q set, at least before the popularity of smartphones, was basically "badly played" in physical card games. This set of gameplay is not even a secret, but now it really takes over There are only a few companies at the top of the TCG market, for no other reason than each has its own unique abilities: "Pokémon" has 1P, the right time and place, and the right people. They have their own games, their own content, their own movies, and their own Manga has its own business empire, and only its own cards can play "blind box" and "sell at high prices" at the same time.
"Belief Group" exists "Magic: The Gathering" is a pioneer. It has competitions, numerical design, and a strong product team. The model is not innovative (how many gold, how many silver, and how many irons in a pack), but the early design cost is high. Later, a background story was added
To be fair, this game was played quite well in China - as mentioned in the article, "Water Margin Card", "Three Kingdoms Card", etc., but they were all "short-lived" "Even in China, it is just childhood of a certain age group. The reason why it has not become a world-famous trading card game is that except for blind boxes, there is no other so-called "blind box" that has become big. "Cards" either have their own P, or have their own original gameplay, or have competitions, and follow-up operations and maintenance. However, without these resources, the above-mentioned ones can only "disappear from the crowd" as time goes by and be submerged in the history. In the trend, it has become a symbol of the culture of a specific era.
Returning to "Ultraman" has its own blessing. Catching up with the current policy and regulatory environment, we are ushering in? - Good things, really. is a normal situation, but the sad thing is that the author only sees the blind box model that has been rampant in the industry, as well as the difference in cost and profit, but completely ignores the value accumulated in these 50 years of IP. It can only be said that it is blinding and missing. Tarzan!
First of all, domestic toy manufacturers represented by Audi have given up on toys for teenagers and focused their efforts on preschool children. If you go to the school store a few times, you will find that there are no such toys anymore. In the past, there were phenomenal toys such as four-wheel drive vehicles and tops that could attract students for a long time.
Secondly, the quality of domestic animation and tokusatsu products was not good, and there was also a lack of long-term IP suitable for toy peripherals like Ultraman and Gundam. , card games also released cards of "Douluo Dalu" and "Ye Luoli", but the sales were obviously not as good as Ultraman cards.
Finally, students have less spare time and the pace of life has become faster. Ultraman cards take advantage of the fact that parents don’t allow students to play on mobile phones and computers, and students don’t have time to play other games. They have to practice skills and level up to play serious video games. It’s all about showing off, Ultraman. The card saves the time of leveling up and directly enters the stage of social pretense, directly addressing the pain points of children's needs.
In fact, Ultraman cards are not completely brainless. The most common one is "X-Files Q". The series has a simple gameplay based on battle maps. There is also a "Hero Duel" series under Dayou Q that focuses on board game battles. However, most children only like to use rare cards to show off.
Especially in the "Hero Duel" series, although the quality of the cards is better, because the painting style is different and there are no high-level rare cards, ordinary small stores and supermarkets are afraid to buy them if they are more about gameplay. Ultraman cards are roughly equivalent to "Playful Blue Moon" for middle-aged people.