Just to clarify:
A wild accusation would have been, 'Erick promised you sexual favors so you would post in support of him.' or 'Your support of Erick is supporting terrorism.' The accusation posted was just a normal run of the mill accusation.

Ugh. Are erick and stu at it again? I mean, seriously though, is this all necessary in every thread?

So, just try it, if it kills the game ... well at least they tried.

People skeptical to change have about as much of an impact on what ends up happening as the people suggesting the changes ... I'm not sure [don't want to put words in your mouth] but didn't you protest that when people complained about your threads of how to save the game ... that none of what you suggested is necessarily going to happen. Well ... just because people protest the changes doesn't mean it ISN'T going to happen.

Just as much as people should be able to complain about UDE and Vs. and try to find ways to make it better ... people should ALSO look for improvement in the suggested improvements.

Doing NOTHING is not an option ... but doing anything just for the sake of doing something isn't much better.

So, the process of devil's advocacy and going back and forth makes sure that we don't take a step you can't go back from. You make a change ... just changing it back will NOT return things to the status quo. You piss off a ton of people WITHOUT bringing in more people than you leave, and you've hurt the game. People don't want to see that happen.

Do we "need" to increase our player base? That ALONE is debatable ... and even if we agree that increasing the player base is necessary [not just something that 'would be nice'] then that doesn't mean everyone is going to agree HOW to do it. And if you don't choose the RIGHT ways to do it, you will make things worse ... not only would you reduce the number of players, that reduces sales, and reduces the money being invested, etc, etc, etc ... You also make the 'need' for new players into a desperation ... and because we didn't take the time to make careful decisions when we COULD ... we now HAVE to make snap and desperate decisions that are just as likely to finish the game off as save it.

Again, it comes back to ... just because change is necessary ... doesn't mean ANY AND ALL change should be accepted, and even if it's inevitable, you can still question it.

Or people can just roll over and accept it, which is, I believe, exactly what they are NOT supposed to do when people tell them to accept the status quo right? So, why shouldn't they question the suggestions for change just as much as they question the status quo?

It's the same people every single time? They always resist and never say "that is a good idea?" When changes are ACTUALLY implemented they contine to begroan the changes and refuse to adapt to the new status quo?

So, if something is easy it should be popular?

You want more people to play the game ... consider the number of games with more players, and the number of games with less. It isn't that there is something that Vs. is doing WRONG ... so much that there are other things it can do to get better. Looking at it from the perspective of Vs. should INHERENTLY have more players than anything else ... and that anything short of that implies a failure ... is not the right way to look at things.

It's not a matter of 'fixing' Vs ... it's finding ways to make it more accessible, etc ... WITHOUT losing those on the wagon already. You can't please ALL the people ALL the time ... so any grab for more is going to risk losing some.

Do they need to take risks? Yes.

Do they need to take EVERY risk? No.

Should they just blindly try everything and damn the consequences? No.

We are not in a desperation position YET.

The one thing you have been saying is the 'biggest problem' ... is BEING ADDRESSED IN THE NEW SETS.

Sets that haven't come out yet.

Sets that haven't had a chance to make changes yet.

Some people aren't open to change... however you don't seem to be able to wait for the MANY changes already being implemented to see if they work. They aren't working yet, so we have to make MORE changes.

Change isn't going to work overnight ... there is such a thing as over correcting.

I'll ignore the hate:
Excuse me for asking for your opinion but I do think that some people here do want to know your stance.

Can you tell us why you love alternate formats?

Do you think it brings in more players or does it cause a higher barrier of entry?

So ignorance is an excuse now? [EDIT: just to clarify ... this isn't calling anyone ignorant ... using it in the sense of "ignorance of the law is no excuse". I didn't know that stabbing that guy would hurt him officer, I couldn't know until after I did it].

If you don't know what is going to hurt before you try than you should try it and find out? Or shouldn't you at least try to find out what could go wrong? It think they call it risk management. I've done some university work with case studies ... you don't just TRY things until something works. You weigh the pros and cons of multiple courses of action. You still consider the pros and cons of the status quo, even if the status quo is unacceptable. You decide the BEST course of action ... you don't just go with ANY course of action, and THEN find out what the harm is.

It's not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It's tossing out the bathwater and then LATER finding out the baby was in there.

Some people are just saying ... "Hey, check the bathwater before you throw that out".

My God, it never ends.

You're only just now starting to realize this?

If this is what you think I or anyone else is saying then you should know that hyperbole as a basis for counter-discussion is not very productive.

I'm going to go out of a limb here and guess "because they are fun."

Just because something might actually NOT be good for recruiting new players to the game ... doesn't mean it can't be good for the people that are in the game.

UDE doesn't just have to find a way to get new people, they also have to keep the existing players happy. If nothing else, having the existing players happy makes them better ambassadors for the game, especially if they are happily playing at the hobby league store.

That's what she said!



Yes! I'm bringing it back! Out of the 90's welcome to 2000 baby.

Tune into the Office, it's already huge again.(That's what she said)

Aren't you the person saying there are people completely against change?

Or that we need change?

I am pointing out that something that HURTS the game is worse than something that has a null effect on the game. Just because SOMETHING has to be done, doesn't mean that it's a good idea to do something harmful in the name of it being 'better than nothing'.

Lack of good ideas isn't an excuse for implementing a bad one. And, the whole concept of people being skeptical of changes is because not ALL changes are inherently good. We'd rather consider the pros AND cons of the changes ... not just being told we have to try something.

It's really pointless to say stuff like this. The only moderator who's really active in General Discussion (WaKo) participates in these threads.

This is what VSrealms is, like it or not (after all, you can't change things on an internet message board, right?). If not, bail on the thread.

No offense Walter but that can't be proven true... It can't be proven false either with the data we currently have. Companies always want to sell more, but they may not 'need' to sell more. There is a huge difference between attempting brand expansion and milking a successful buisness model. We have no idea which phase UDE is in right now. What we do know is that disassembled the Pro Tour as we knew it, we don't know how much that will actually impact the bottom line or how it will effect sales. Sure I occasionally get PM'ed talk of secret conversations with developers and the like, however strangely this is never confirmed.

Wild accusations really do exist on the thread, it's just not as obvious as some people would like to think.

Alternate formats allow me to play with my cards in a different way and take the game further away from competitive netdeck culture.

I don't think I am qualified to answer the second one. It would all be speculation and at this moment it doesn't seem that it would matter either way what I think. It wouldn't be fun for me, right now, to make something up out of thin air. Sorry.