In the World Auto Racing CCG, the Chase Is Just for Fun

Currently seeking funding via Kickstarter, World Auto Racing, or WAR—not to be confused with the mid-2000s trading card game WARS, or the classic playing-card game War—is a two- to five-player collectible card game about street racing in which drivers compete to be the first to collect 100 points, representing progress toward the finish line. The gameplay looks to be as quick-paced as one would expect from the theme, with drivers taking turns performing actions and playing cards, in order of progress (the driver furthest in the lead takes the first action, followed by the next driver, and so on). There are no costs to keep track of; players are instead limited to playing up to one of each card type, per round, and draw up to their hand size once everyone passes. This encourages a style of play that executes on the theme well, rewarding careful timing and sequence of plays, rather than acquiring card and/or resource advantage as with many popular CCGs.

World Auto Racing

One concern I have is the difficulty for new games to achieve longevity in the CCG market. Many would-be players are understandably reluctant to sink money into a game that might not last, even if it’s a quality game in all respects. Even games with fixed product and no card chasing are no guarantee, as shown by the near extinction of the competitive Living Card Games by Fantasy Flight Games, one of the pioneers of the product model (of the LCGs still supported, most are cooperative). What’s more, fixed-product games eliminate the collector side of the market completely. WAR attempts to strike a balance here: for players who solely want access to the card pool, each release will contain a fixed set of cards; however, for collectors, as well as players who want to show off a little more style with their decks, WAR will also offer randomized booster packs that contain foils, art variants, and other standout versions of the same cards that appear in the fixed sets. With these being pursuable but at the discretion of the player, fans who like the “chase” and the thrill of opening random packs can have that and build their collection entirely from packs and trades, while others who are less interested in that experience can opt out of it. I am not sure whether there is precedent for a release model like this, but at first glance it sounds like something that could sustain the game by appeasing both types of players.

Condition cards shake up the race in various ways. World Auto Racing

The other challenge WAR faces is that while the Big Three—Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!—and Flesh and Blood, a game that has recently been making its mark on the CCG industry, are all fantasy themed in various ways, WAR takes place in a fictionalized version of the real, present-day world. This raises the question of whether such a thing is marketable. Magic, the progenitor of the CCG genre, was originally designed as a game to be played between sessions of D&D and therefore drew upon the same European fantasy settings for its inspiration. But Magic has become more and more willing to explore technology and even futurism, with much success. Players responded well to Kaladesh, an optimistic, forward-thinking variation on steampunk, and the next year of the game features more of the same—from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, a cyberpunk version of the ancient plane of Japanese folklore, to Streets of New Capenna, a gang-ruled city with an art deco aesthetic. All of these are still fantasy, but to me they suggest that there is demand for a game set on Earth and that such a thing can still offer the same escapism.

Still, is there enough overlap between car lovers, fans of The Fast and the Furious, and card gamers? Speaking as someone more interested in the game itself than its inspirations, perhaps there doesn’t need to be, especially given its rich art style with manga influences that come through on the cards. Manga- and anime-inspired games often do well, with Force of Will and Dragon Ball Super presently commanding a strong following.

Each of the base game’s five premade decks features a unique play style designed around its featured car. World Auto Racing

Fans have responded enthusiastically on Kickstarter: the campaign launched on November 2, and WAR has already reached more than four times its initial funding goal of $20,000 at the time of this writing. The eponymous team behind World Auto Racing has set compelling stretch goals, including a manga, an anime pilot, and even a video game (this last at the lofty $300,000,000 mark). While it’s unclear at this point whether these multimedia goals will be met, it’s already apparent that there is interest in WAR. Maybe it’s enough for it to join the market permanently.

The Kickstarter campaign for WAR ends December 1, 2021.