TezTalks Live #48: Interpop Founder Brian David-Marshall on What Makes Emergents TCG Special
TezTalks Live this week featured a conversation with Interpop founder Brian David-Marshall.
550 words, 3 minute read
As part of several days of promotional activity surrounding the public beta launch of new trading card game Emergents TCG, TezTalks live this week featured a conversation with founder and legend in the games community Brian David-Marshall.
Interpop is a Web3 comic book and games company, building on Tezos. In this interview with Stu Elmes of , founder Brian David-Marshall explains how Interpop came into being, and why he thinks that games like Emergents TCG represent the best combination of physical with virtual gaming environments. He also addresses the negativity that often surrounds conversations about NFTs in gaming, and explains why so-called ‘free-to-play’ games are often nothing of the kind.
You’ll find extracts from the interview with Brian David-Marshall below, and the full TezTalks live episode can be viewed at the top of this page.
On trading card games versus conventional video games:
Trading card games don’t have that fluid, constant action that you’ll see in a video game. It’s never going to keep up with a first person shooter. What we’ve tried to so is streamline the gameplay, come up with some new, cool resource mechanics that can lead to some really wild game-states […] We’re constantly working on improving the visual fidelity of the game, and making it exciting - who doesn’t love a bunch of superheroes crashing into each other and knocking themselves silly?
The value proposition of Emergents TCG:
This is really a trans-media project. We have five ongoing comics set in the emergents superhero universe, done by creators like New York Times best-selling authors, authors for Marvel and DC comics, and new talent that we’ve sourced coming from other parts of publishing and television […] this is a superhero universe that I think is very comparable to what you would see from ‘The Big Two’ in terms of quality, fidelity and story. […] Even if you have no interest in NFTs, Emergents is worth playing for the strong gameplay. You can play right now in the public beta and there’s no purchase necessary.
On addressing the negativity about NFTs:
There’s a lot of negativity around the idea of NFTs and gaming and NFTs in comics. But I would really like there to be more negativity around free-to-play games - paying money for things that you don’t own. It’s important to me because I think there’s just a better way to do things than what we’ve currently accepted.
When I’m talking to people about NFTs, let’s say they’re a comic book fan, I’ll ask ‘oh do you own any comics on ComiXology?’ And they say ‘yeah, I do’ and I say ‘no you don’t!’ It’s like owning a house but not owning the land it’s on. You have the right to read the comic on that platform, but can you sell it? Can you trade it? You can’t do anything with it. And honestly, I just think there’s a better way. As we educate people about NFTs we’re going to see more and more people coming into this space, and finding it a more rewarding digital experience.
Emergents TCG is available to play now as a public beta, for free. Interpop is running a ‘Super Booster Drop’ on August 18th, which will feature exclusive cards and a chance to win unique original artwork from the Emergents universe.