The first Yu-Gi-Oh videogame I played was Power of Chaos: Yugi The Destiny. I didn't understand the rules and my English was so bad at the time, so I struggled to learn them. This game is what taught me the rules of the actual Card Game.
Then, around a year or two later, I played Kaiba The Revenge, and I spent months playing it with my brother and cousins (probably more than 500 hours.) It was so much later that I played Joey The Passion and became part of the online community of that game. As my English improved by then.
Kaiba The Revenge!
The three games above often referred to as Power of Chaos Trilogy. Yugi's game had an ancient feel graphic. kaiba's futuristic, and Joey's had a modern-day urban feel. Combined, they feature 771 cards, which was mind-blowing at the time but felt too few as soon as Yu-Gi-Oh GX games started to release.
Power of Chaos Online Community
One day, I learned about an online community in which you can battle online using Joey's The Passion. The game only has Local Multiplayer support but we used some software to create a remote local network.
Every day I would open the game, and join the community chat, enjoying conversations and waiting for someone to duel. Then confirming the result of my duel on the community's website, effectively going up in the ladder.
Joey The Passion's Field
I remember enjoying these days even though I was losing most of the time. Other players were using overpowered cards and strategies (probably the best these 770+ cards could do.) And I didn't have all the cards in the game.
My Tendency To Collect
You see, most other players either unlocked all the powerful cards while dueling joey (taking hundreds of hours,) or hacked the game to unlock all the cards which was very easy to do.
For me, the joy of Yu-Gi-Oh games isn't about winning battles or making the best decks. I enjoy those too, but my biggest motivation is to obtain a new card I didn't have before, or to be more specific: to complete a deck by working to get all missing cards.
I played many Yu-Gi-Oh games and I found myself losing interest once I collect all or most of the cards in the game. As Yu-Gi-Oh games grown bigger the cards were given more easily to the players which contributed to making my playtime the same for each.
Yugi The Destiny's Deck Construction
So, when I played Yu-Gi-Oh Trilogy especially Joey the Passion, I made sure to not use the "get all the cards" hack. That what made me enjoy playing the game. Each win felt special because I worked for it and got a reward for it.
The other players might have found the best decks that could be built in the game. But I enjoyed building the best decks I could afford with my playstyle.
The Card Game I Keep Coming Back To
I don't know when I stopped playing this Trilogy. But I played many Yu-Gi-Oh games since. I played more games for the original series, GX, and 5Ds than I could count. I stop playing Yu-Gi-Oh for months/years then I return to play a new game for a while.
Currently, the Yu-Gi-Oh game I'm sinking into is Duel Links. I already wrote a post about it. I play it with the same "collecting mindset" I played the trilogy years ago~
Yup! Yu-Gi-Oh is one franchise that I keep coming back to.