Issue #2: A Deep-Dive with Giovanniland
Interviewer: @Provian Bee
Interviewee: @Giovanniland
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Other Contributors: @Gem, @upc
Gio is most certainly an authoritative figure on the subject, but before we begin, we'd like you to know that this is the second interview in an ongoing program run by the ministries of Gameside and Communications, wherein we connect up-and-coming interviewers with notable card collectors like Gio, help with questions and formatting, and publish the results both here on the forums, and gameside via dispatch! If you'd like to read the first interview in the series, you can check out Cards on the Table: A Brief Interview with UPC; and if you're interested in running a Cards on the Table interview yourself, you can signify interest in this thread here, or contact Minister of Gameside @Gem for more details!
Now, without further ado, let us begin!
Prov
Could you please introduce yourself, and some of your card-related accomplishments?
Gio
Of course! I'm Giovanniland, also known as Gio, and have been active in the trading cards community since late 2019, so that's almost 4 years now.
My involvement in the community started with collecting Season 1 cards of The West Pacific, after realizing that no one had a complete collection. So I started working my way up, getting advice from other traders, and completed it a few months after, the first (and still the only, even today) S1 feeder collection fully complete. At the same time, I also collected S2 TWP cards, a far bigger collection, and created some other collections that I still have today, such as Brazilian flags and flags with wreaths.
Then I started setting my eyes on the deck value leaderboard, deciding to inflate cards' market value instead of the usual legendary hoarding method a lot of people do. By the end of the year, I had surpassed Noah to take the second place, and in early 2021 Koem and myself fought for the first place, and I also completed the TWP S2 collection. In August of that year, I briefly took first place, before Mike took it from me.
2022 was a year of less activity for me because I was TWP Delegate at the time, so I mostly defended my second place at the time. Until November 3rd, when I decided to put my plan into action of inflating several of my puppets' cards that I had hoarded to the maximum value, 10k, which set the record of 26 million deck value, the most ever seen in the game. Then changes to MV were introduced and now I've decided to just stay at a comfortable 3rd place.
During S3 my main activities have been completing the TWP S3 collection and expanding my other ones, as well as turning a greater focus to card organization management - I've led the TWP Card Club since 2020 where I've held a lot of monthly collection contests, and the Card Gardens since 2021 which is the largest non-regional organization, running giveaways and competitions, as well as publishing the monthly Gardener's Gazette there.
Prov
How big of a role do cards play in your enjoyment of the game? And what role do they serve in NationStates?
Gio
Cards are one of the two communities I'm the most active in, the other being my region TWP, so I'd say they play a big role in my enjoyment of the game!
As for the second question, comparing when I started and now, I think cards have established themselves as a key part of NS - when it was still new a lot of people dismissed it for the April Fools game it once was, but especially after regional cards organizations started springing in 2020 onwards and SC resolutions about cards (KK, Noah, r3n's second, and mine just to name a few) started being written, cards' importance has risen. It also helps that cards are easily accessible to new players when they answer issues and get packs, which helps maintain an influx of new players joining the community.
Prov
You maintain a bunch of collection compendiums—notably the regional collection leaderboard dispatch and the collection collection v2 thread. What is it like to manage those, and what criteria do you use for collection submissions?
Gio
It's something I do for the community, which is nice. I took over the collection collection thread after Ponderosa became inactive in early 2020 and the regional collection leaderboard was my creation also that same year.
For the former, I use elaborate criteria to determine whether a collection is unique enough for the thread, meaning that it shouldn't be too similar to an existing one, and sufficiently large (this varies depending on how many cards might exist for the theme). For the latter I'll simply add most regional collections at or above 10 cards, only denying in very specific cases.
Prov
You're in charge of the Card Gardens, a cards organization that anyone can join, regardless of regional affiliations. What does it take to maintain such an organization, and why should up-and-coming card collectors become members?
Gio
It takes a fair amount of work, such as running a regular giveaway schedule (in recent times I've also invited Fauzjhia, another notable card collector, to host their giveaways there too), planning monthly contests and Gazette editions, as well as other things to keep the activity going there.
As for why one should join, it offers you chances to win free legendary cards from giveaways, participate in competitions with good prizes, and also protect you from being heisted by many other people! Also, the fact the Gardens aren't aligned to any region means entry is easy (one should just inform us of their nation name), there isn't a need to keep a nation anywhere, and we only have a requirement of not being inactive in the server for 2 months or more.
Prov
In your opinion, what's the easiest way to collect cards, and what's the best way to thrive in the cards market?
Gio
It depends on one's goals, for example, whether one wants to rise in the deck value leaderboard, focus more on collections, and so on. Of course, these different plans ultimately need bank and cards, so creating a decently-sized card farm helps a lot in that.
Prov
If you could tell your past self one thing to make your journey through card collecting smoother, what would it be?
Gio
Honestly, not much - maybe to start using scripts and create more farms sooner after I started since I was slow on that, but in the end, I don't think it would change a lot.
Prov
And now for our final question. What's your favorite thing about NS cards? And why should anyone reading this interview get involved with them?
Gio
Firstly, the breadth of ways one can choose how to get involved: different paths such as focusing on collections, hoarding one's own or other cards, pursuing the DV leaderboard rankings, and much more! Also, they can be more casual or commit their resources to it, it's up to their goals and available time of course.
And secondly, definitely the community, a lot of people will be friendly and willing to help one thrive in their goals! So long as one doesn't go out of their way to annoy people, it's easy to get people's goodwill and that can go a long way within cards.
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