RE: TCG ONE - full featured online pokemon TCG simulator [Neo Series Live]
Hello TCGONE players, and Axpendix.
I am here to give thoughtful feedback of my experiences with the game over the past couple of days. I have played the Pokemon TCG for several years, and have won and/or topped several events including FL regionals, US nats, and many cities. I'm also friends with some of the top recognizable players in the game, who I'm sure will gladly support the program if it gets smoothed out.
Let me begin by thanking Axpendix for dedicating so much time and effort to this program. His efforts are fantastic, and the program is very promising. In fact, I can see potential for it growing into the largest pokemon TCG simulator in the world.
Now, those things said, I'll share my experiences with you, (especially for you, Axpendix) because you are in charge, and care greatly for this game. Today, in the chat room, Admin really scolded the players: "[admin](21:27:35): i've tweaked scoring system, it's based on keeping 2nd accounts at bay. psi is not only one who does that, please do some comparisons to other tcg games when you're discussing rewarding system. i believe its already VERY generous."
[admin](21:29:03): i'm also disappointed to release neo series, players are too selfish
[admin](21:29:59): it seems gaining bits is the only real thing in this game.
[admin](21:30:12): that's all i got to say today,"
Well, first off, the Neo series is great! I've got a personal history and attachment with the Neo sets, so I'm extremely hyped to see them up for quickplay! Me and Psiqueatog played a couple of randomly generated decks against each other, and they were a lot of fun. Very minimal bugs (we reported the only one we came across). Even Slowking worked perfectly! (uh-oh.. is that a good thing?!) ;D
Now then, about the bits. Let me share this macro perspective.
Right now, there is a problem with the program. From Admin's chat messages, I can see he senses it, too. I know that others have been making suggestions such as "better decks for the new players," and "cracking down on farmers" or even banning certain player(s). None of those things are the answer.
As a person who is in love with these formats, I am surprised and sad to say that over the past couple days of playing on this program, I am feeling drained and demoralized. If I was a regular player (and not so in love with the old formats), I would log out, never come back, and stick with playtcg and PTCGO. The reason for this, is that it's too difficult to get good cards.
Axpendix's vision was to combine the best of both playtcg and ptcgo, and in many aspects, he's done that. However, when it comes to obtaining cards, the program is only utilizing the WORST aspects of those games, currently. It is very time consuming to earn enough bits to actually buy competitive cards. Since the player base is so small, competitive cards rarely even enter the market. What this means is that players are forced to buy packs with their hard earned bits, which makes it EXCEEDINGLY difficult to get playsets of competitive cards.
Axpendix is right in saying that his reward system is very generous compared to other online tcg games. However, there is something important to note, and that is: those other games have another way of obtaining cards, which is real life currency. I would MUCH rather drop 40$ for a good online deck than grind out 50 games at 15 minutes apiece with 2nd (or 3rd) rate cards, earning between 5 and 70 bits (with an average of probably 30 or so, or less depending on the decks faced), and then STILL not even having the cards I need to have a truly competitive deck.
The answer is not better decks for new players (though that is probably definitely needed too), nor is it charging money for bits, or banning the bit farmers. The answer is clearly balance, and MAKING THE BITS EASIER TO OBTAIN, all-around. Inflation will be kept at bay by the stationary pack prices. With a higher influx of bits, it would not be surprising to see high-demand cards like Rocket's Zapdos reach prices of 1,500 bits. But that is the way the game has always been, the high demand cards cost way more than the others. And if you consider Mewtwo EX and Yanmega Prime on PTCGO, at the height of their popularity they were both 12-15 packs each.
Targeting the farming is not the answer, AT ALL. Grinding for xp is a common theme in video games, and why anyone would want to make it any MORE difficult to obtain the sacred bits is beyond me. If someone wants to grind for 20 hours and earn 30,000 bits, who cares? Good for them! Also, this would help newer players a lot, if they decided to grind out a few levels to get reasonably competitive. Set pack prices would keep people who grind for many hours from monopolizing the market too much. Daily buy limits could also help if it became a problem, but I don't think it would. Also, private trades would all but make monopolies impossible, if and when private trading arrives.
Another issue is this:
"[Tash](20:16:40): there are only 12 blastoise in 1000 packs"
If this is true or ever close to true, that's not good for a program like this. That means that only THREE or FOUR players (at most!) will have a decent playset of Blastoise for every One-Hundred Thousand bits spent on Base Set packs. To put that in perspective, if the entire top 10 All Time high scores bought ONLY Base Set, odds are they would only have around 22 Blastoise in circulation. 22 Blastoise (or Rocket's Zapdos, or Slowking, or whatever) between even just 10 competitive players is simply not going to cut it if this program is going to take off. The game would need 3-4x that many AT LEAST (and probably more), in order to support a growing community, because whether it's actually 12 or 16 or even 20 per 1000, they'll come in at a slow trickle, and probably stay in peoples' hands for a long time (or forever).
One option is making the bits easier to obtain, and that's a necessity in my opinion no matter what.
Another option is putting single cards up for sale in the store. (especially competitive ones)
And yet another option still, is something experimental that came to me: making the competitive cards more common than non-competitive cards, in the packs. This would be good for both the players and the collectors. For collectors, their collection will be worth more (no longer would things like Nidoking just be a total junk rare), while the competitive player would be able to get the cards they need to play more easily. Just a thought.
The other suggestions I have heard will not fix the problem: better decks for new players, reducing the amount of bits players get from games, and targeting down bit farmers (who honestly would help the game right now if they bought packs and got more competitive cards in circulation). All those suggestions will only be a temporary solution AT BEST. At worst, such measures will deplete the energy of old players, and discourage new players from setting out on the long journey to getting good cards. Most people will not commit to a game that calls for 50+ hours of (let's be honest, occasionally dry and repetitive) gameplay, before they even have a chance (not guaranteed by any means) of having a truly competitive deck. That just sounds awful.
The simple truth is, nobody wants to get bogged down for hours on end with trying to earn painfully small amounts of bits. If this tcgone program is to combine the best of both PTCGO and playtcg, it's going to have to be easier to get bits.