First off, I would have never posted info about a store if I had not personally been told the information. I was in Coolstuff on Sunday (I frequent the store and send them a lot of business... they are basically my LHS even though they are an hour away in Orlando) with 3 other people who heard the store clerk tell me what I posted here.

My advice to Shane and TJ would be to train your employees better and maybe ask the lady who was running the store that day why she would say such a thing.

If they are not closing, I am extremely happy. I wasn't looking forward to not having a local PCQ/Prerelease venue.

I'm not a "corporate hitman". I have no reason to lie about anything regarding Coolstuffinc. Matter of fact, I dropped over $200 on product while I was in the store on Sunday (thanks for the UR NTZ, guys).

Cram it, Fike. You've got a lot of nerve, you know that? If anything, YOU'RE the one getting paid to troll the boards. Whenever bad news breaks or doubts are voiced about the future of the game, you jump right in and proceed to shout down anyone who thinks things aren't completely awesome. First you did it with rational argumentation, which was fine, but then later you degraded to distracting people useless, off-topic crap about unicorns and stuff whenever complaints were raised. Now you're strategy seems to be mean sarcasm and casting doubt upon the playskill, maturity and honesty of the people who raise doubts, and it never occurs to you to actually ADDRESS those issues anymore.

In fact, you're so slavish in your devotion to the idea that the game is awesome and UDE is doing a great job that I wonder if you DO have some financial stake. What's the story, Ryan? Do you get a nice fat paycheck for hanging out here and constantly demeaning people and ideas? Did UDE give you shares of stock and instruct you how to make them worth a lot? Seriously, what's your angle?

#### it. Whatever it is, I'm sick of your antics. I propose we, the loyal posters of VSRealms, start a petition to the site admins to have Mr. Fike banned for life. He's doing nothing lately but put people down and provoke falmewars over the quality of the game. He needs to get KICKED OUT. NOW.

Even though I don't order from Coolstuffinc that much, a lot of friends I know do so this is good news.

Wait until you get to 12.5% off.

Maybe. I mean, if Realms members who are on UDE's payroll can post about how great UDE is doing every given chance, anything's possible.

I think this is the key point whenever anyone wonders at the prevalence of the haters. It's always easier to bet on the game's demise because, well, yeah, Vs will die someday. Instead of gently accepting this truism, enjoying the game while they have it in the splendid state it currently inhabits, they do want appear to be the big man in front of the kids and proclaim loudly every frickin' chink in the armor.

Guess what? UDE will make mistakes. It's a given. There will even be decisions you do not agree with that aren't necessarily mistakes. And, yes, there will come a time long after Stu's grandkids' grandkids' have passed on that Vs will no longer be published, no matter how amazingly awesome MTU and WF are. You are not special for pointing this out. You are not a seer for stating the obvious, however bluntly or wittily or cheerily you do it. Rather than slowly rot in your own bile trying to outsmart and condemn designers and developers and entire marketing teams who are actually paid to figure this stuff out, enjoy the game while you have it.

(By the by, if you're ever in doubt as to whether or not you are actually a designer or developer or on UDE's marketing team, here's a hint: you are typing mad rants into a keyboard about pretendy funtime superhero cards at 2:00 in the morning after eating two bowls of Lucky Charms and tabbing over from a Google Image search for Taylor Rain; UDE's team gets paid for what they do and can hold down a job because of their skills in whatever area you are now suddenly an expert in. Just speaking from personal experience.)

A healthy concern for the state of the game (see Profparm's recent thread) and mind-numbing cynicism (see anything thugmotivationwhatever posts) are two very, very different things. It would behoove both the forums and for everyone's personal sake to discern the difference. If Vs does collapse next week, and you called it with your 37 threads warning that the endtimes are nigh, what do you gain? You were right. If you spend that same week brainstorming ways to team up Legion and JLA or to exploit a fun interaction of mechanics, you had fun. And really, that's what I ask for from the game, because I'm not a pro; I can't speak to that level.

Everything ends. People #### up. The only chance we have for satisfaction from any endeavor is to enjoy what we have when we have it. And what I have, at least, is a fascinating game with limitless possibilities based on a bunch of imaginary friends from my childhood. As far as regressive time-wasters go, that's not half bad.

All that said, corporate hitmen aimed at bashing Vs is a pretty ludicrous idea.

Way to be the pot to his kettle.

That's always an effective way to get a point across.....

Ouch. I can't argue that Stu's battle for optimism has been totally cool, given the occasional bashing that's arisen, but seriously, this is a bit extreme. He gets paid to write for Metagame, I'm sure, but I really don't believe he is getting paid to be a lackey (they'd demand better results... lol). He's seemed to volunteer for that, defending a game he loves. I don't enjoy reading the kvetching some others spew on the boards regularly.

That said, it would be nice if everyone was able to be civil, or at least pretend to be a bit better. What's funny about me is that I'm the opposite of the stereotype of Internet posters; I'm actually more polite on here than IRL. Trust me, if I knew some of the people here in reality, they'd have gotten a verbal savage beatdown by now. lol Presumed anonymity or popular power are not valid reasons to be a dick. In fact, if we want to support a dickery-free game, then allowing it on a site, if not one of the biggest sites, that supports that game is tantamount to Bizarro World. I doubt anyone would admit to thinking, "Yay! Me am posting mean things! Me am best enemy of game!" Or do I need to start sneaking chunks of Blue K into envelopes?

On a more Cheat Commando related note, everyone ought to take a lesson from Gunhaver about making good Peer-2-Teen Choice Behaviors. For realz.

I can't say I ever mentioned "the sky was falling" in my post regarding coolstuff. The only "speculation" involved in the post was to why they were dropping the game. I wondered out loud if they were pricing their singles too high to realize an expected profit to create some discussion on that point. I even followed that up with a statement that expressed my opinion on the system: F'n capitalism.

I know exactly how he feels. I get to be spit on as a heretic on the Raw Deal boards because I dare to defend the next set of Raw Deal [which I always did ANYWAY against people throwing out random reasons to hate it] because now I'm a playtester. A position I don't get paid for, although I think I may be getting a box of cards in the mail soon ... not sure though.

But yeah, someone that does work for a company they are defending, they OBVIOUSLY have to be getting paid the mad money to defend them. I mean it's not like anyone else feels the same way without holding that position.

Oh wait. There are TONS of people that agree [well, not entirely, but to a certain extent] with Stu who have no ties to UDE other than buying and playing with their product.

Well, then again, I do get paid by UDE. I mean, I've got a check in the mail for a PCQ I won in LA. So I guess I am bought and paid for too.

Word! I hate reading flame-mail. It's a waste of everyone's time...including the author's. Cuz once I realize that the email is just a pointless tirade, I stop reading, I say a silent prayer for the author's social life, and then I move on.

The story is this. I spell my name with an "i" instead of a "y".

(You covered the rest pretty well, I sure hope you got paid for it.)

- Rian

Mr. B, you rock! :)

Check your PM, stu. I'd appreciate a reply.

I think some of these guys really think it's cool to hate the game. You can hate the game all you want but will you please quit playing it and go post somewhere for a game that you love?

I hate hippies as much as anyone. I don't even like Aquarian. Having said that I don't think Stu is a shill. He really believes what he's saying paid or not.

Quoted for the ####ing God's honest truth. Thanks.