Why Walt Disney Would Have Loved the Disney Lorcana TCG
Walt Disney is one of my biggest heroes. His can do attitude, commitment to big thinking, and innovation despite adversity is a huge inspiration to any creative person, entrepreneur or dreamer. And yet, Disney himself wasn’t all about big enterprises, despite founding one of the most influential business in the world. Sometimes, he just wanted to have a little bit of fun.
He would have totally understood the appeal of a game like Disney Lorcana, even if the idea of trading card games was years and years ahead of him. Here’s why.
Walt Disney was a dedicated hobbyist
Trading card games are more than just games. They are entire hobbies. People get really, really into these things. They love collecting the cards, picking out binders for them, going to events to meet other hobbyists, trading and you name it.
Walt Disney was no stranger to hobbies. In fact, during something of a personal and artistic slump in his life, he turned to a new hobby to help energize his creativity.
What was that hobby?
Well, it was model trains. A lot of people then and now have model trains as a hobby. Of course, Walt Disney wasn’t a normal person, and his hobby kept getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger!
Eventually, it would turn into the inspiration for Disneyland – there’s a reason the whole park is surrounded by a train track and circled by an authentic steam engine!
Someone as committed to hobbies as he was would have loved seeing his creations and characters turned into something people could really get into and enjoy as a hobby, the same way he loved his trains.
Trading card games change all the time
In many ways, trading card games have a similar appeal as did the theme park that Walt built to him. Unlike the films he became famous for making, what Walt loved more than anything about Disneyland was that the park itself was a work in constant flux. He was always adding onto it, dreaming up new rides and attractions for, and improving. It was a never ending project, and to this day it seems the park isn’t complete with new lands being added, along with adjacent theme parks and hotels.
Trading card games aren’t so different. New sets are released multiple times a year, the game is constantly changing, and constantly being improved. Trading card games become something that is alive to the people who play them. New releases are cause for anticipation and excitement equaling almost that of a religious zeal.
Walt Disney would have loved this spirit of constant innovation in a medium that is never fully complete.
Trading card games are forward looking and nostalgic
Lastly, Walt Disney would have loved the duality of the concept of Disney Lorcana. Like most other trading card games that are really successful, Lorcana combines the excitement of something new – “will I get a rare card from that pack I’m about to open” or “what new card will come out in this next set” – with the emotional appeal and catharsis of nostalgia. Cards, after all, are little more than pieces of paper with something print on them. And yet, it’s being able to hold these antiquated things with ever new artwork and game mechanics printed into them that the strength of nostalgia emerges.
Partly what gave Walt his strength as a creative entreprenuer was his love for technology and innovation and his deep need for nostalgia. He loved old things just as much as he loved new things, and these two loves are what gave birth to Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean, and cutting edge films about ancient fairytales.
In themselves, trading card games are both new and old. They are new in that they break new grounds, involve online game play so that players can face off against one another at any time against anyone around the world. They invovle constant innovation to stay relevant. And yet, they invoke in us a feeling of nostalgia not only for the characters depicted on them, but for the thing itself.
We remember collecting these simple pieces of cardboard from our childhood. And that’s where their greatest market value comes from.
