The Game Heard 'Round the World
By Brian Weeks

¡Buenas díaz! Bonjour ! Dobry dzien! Guten Tag!

A little over a year ago, Star Wars TCG players on the Rebelbasers.com forums decided to fill the void left by Wizards of the Coast's "hiatus" of the game. Thus the Independent Development Committee (IDC) was created. After two sucessful expansions and a third one on the way, we felt it was necessary to evaluate how we've done so far, how we can improve and how we can take the game to new heights. Therefore, I traveled the world to see how the IDC and its fan created expansions have been received.

Word of Mouth
If you were to search the web for any number of words, such as 'Independent Development Committee', ' Star Wars TCG IDC', 'skywlkr.net' or 'Fall of the Republic', you might be surprised how many results are found. When the third IDC expansion, the Battle of Endor, was announced last week, word spread across the globe. Just as when Fall of the Republic and Scum and Villainy were announced and subsequently released, TCG forums and websites were ablaze with discussion.

Here's a brief list of websites and forums in which the IDC and its expansions are being discussed. In addition to Rebelbasers.com and Wizards of the Coast forums, you can also look at: Review Star Wars, Theforceperu.net or Polskie Forum Star Wars .

Though many of these sites are in other languages, with the power of the internet, the world has come closer together. Since I'm not multilingual, I usually use Worldlingo (for almost all "common" languages) or Poltran (for Polish to English translation). There are many more sites you can check out. Just search the internet, check out the links and see what other players have been saying about us. Almost all of it has been positive and are anxious to see more.

The Public Affairs committee receives emails on a weekly basis. Whether with deck suggestions, rules questions or just a "pat on the back", I try to personally answer all of them or foward them to the appropriate committee. One comment on a question I receive at least once a week. None of the expansions that the IDC produces are available in stores. They are free, through the IDC website, to download, print and play. As stated above and in our charter, "The IDC is a player-elected body representing the Star Wars Trading Card Game community. Neither this website, nor the information contained herein is in any way produced for a profit to the IDC or any of its members."

Improving the Game
Through a well-developed, yet constantly improving charter, the IDC has consistently tried to provide a better game experience with each expansion. We have big plans for this game we love. Though we will not be changing the game play itself, we are continually trying to provide players with more balance, better abilities and new strategies.

By introducing expanded universe characters, ships and custom images (such as Nym (A), Havok (A) and Prince Xizor (B)), we are able to expand the game in a way that Wizards of the Coast never did. In addition to creating custom images for new cards, in the near future, there may be the possibility of an expansion which will "animate" everyone's hopes for the continuation of this game.

Looking to the Future
The IDC has big plans on the horizon. In addition to continued expansion development and new abilities, we have currently decided to support a player-run tournament setting called Organized Players (OP for short). OP, though run and organized by players not in the IDC, tournament rankings and up-to-date tournament info will soon be supported on the IDC site. We should have an article up within the next few weeks detailing the OP.

The IDC website is also under re-construction. After about four months in development, it should also be "live" in a few weeks. The site is being developed in ASP, which allows us to use Server Side Includes (SSI's), databases and dhtml menu coding. While this may not be evident to the user, it makes the site much easier to maintain. The new site will also have a new look, with easier to navigate menus, a site map and a site search engine. I look foward to revealing it to the TCG community.

The IDC has also discussed the possibility of producing multi-lingual cards, but this is still in the discussion phase. We are currently weighing the viability of producing these cards, both regarding translation, time-constraints and feasibility. If you would like to speak up on this topic, please post in the Rebelbasers article topic (link below). If you are multi-lingual and think you would like to be a part of this, let us know. Any responses on this subject would be helpful.

Because we love the game as much as you do, we want the IDC to succeed. With your continued support and our continued, dedicated development of quality expansions, the IDC will succeed. By listening to your comments on what expansions you want to see, the IDC will succeed. Thanks for your continued support.

Thoughts or comments? Visit the message board thread for this article here.

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About the Author

Brian Weeks (aka Skywlkr) has been playing the Star Wars TCG since its introduction at Celebration 2 in 2002. After playing the demo game and introducing it to RedneckJedi and Darthwalls, Team 'Dude Where's My Card' was created. He competed in three qualifiers, yet the closest he ever ranked was eighth. As a member on Rebelbasers, SWDuelist and a writer for the now defunct Diehard Online, he has tried to promote the game through information and interaction.

He is married, has a three year old son, is an architect, has been the Treasurer and Newsletter Editor for five years for JediOKC (an Oklahoma City based Star Wars Fan Club), was the IDC Card Development Chairperson for Fall of the Republic and is now the IDC Public Affairs Chairperson. Despite all that, he still has time to introduce the game to new players…KEEP THE GAME ALIVE!