They do it this way because if people hold hobby league in their houses, etc then they aren't likely to buy any new product while they're there, whereas in hobby stores they are much more likely to walk out of the store with more packs of VS.

Re-contract out the points store to a competent company. Seriously. 6 month wait's? Im sitting on $800 worth of UDE points but im not gonna use them if I gotta wait that long for delivery.

They should offer multi level events on a more regular basis.

Regular Weekly Hobby League (Store Level)

Monthly Marque Events (Store Level)

Bi-Monthly Elite Series (Limited Store Level)

Quarterly Mega Weekends (TO Level)

Bring back Sneak Peaks (TO Level)

Release Events (Store Level)

Possible Simi-annually Nationals (TO Level)

Annual World championships (TO Level)

Heck they're able to offer similar structures for their other games why not implement them (on a more consistent basis) for VS as well.

All right well Erick got me back in the pool so here goes I’m gonna start splashin’ and maybe makin’ some waves.

As I stated somewhere somewhen in one of my rants proposing prizing and payouts w/o knowing what kind of budget we’re looking at is a little pointless, without a budget I vote for 12 $1million dollar events a year.

A second and often overlooked issue that ties directly into budgeting is the cost of running actual events. A $10,000 event doesn’t cost $10,000 to run it costs 10k+ location fees, staffing, shipping, ad ifinitum. Folks used to say well give us five 10’s instead of a 50, but the costs are not the same. Each individual event adds to your overhead, so consolidation makes sense fiscally, as long as the limited venues are still accessible to a sufficient number of vs. players to make it…you guessed it financially viable. Someone suggested that UDE could use UDE numbers and logs of those numbers activity to best determine event locations for the future and I agree this would be a good gauge if skewed by the availability in those areas of events.

Well that was a lot of nothing, so onto something.

I like the local monthly event structure that’s been put in place even if I don’t like every format or every event (go figure not every single thing UDE does for vs. is for me - bastards). Quarterly City Championships seems to be working out well, at least here where we have so much shop support. I’m not sure what happened with the Elite Series it seems a bit poorly defined and I would like to know more about the perceived structure / timing for these events.

Now onto the points of improvement. It would be a boon to UDE and VS. if UDE could work on their organization, UDE should be able to arrange events and make decisions regarding them in a timely fashion. No hobby league should be without product because of something UDE did, no policy or procedure should be in place at UDE that makes it more difficult for shops/leagues that want to support the game to do so. It can be done with proper organization and the right people doing the job. It seems small but it only takes a few untimely hiccups to kill an emerging hobby league. I know a lot has gone into improving some of these issues, but I still here some of these complaints and maintain that they are a point that UDE can and should address, and that a great deal can be accomplished through proper organization. Next the web site seems almost an afterthought, product isn’t updated in a timely fashion, event information seems sketchy at times, heck there was a time the DC link took me to marvel product, this is your front room guys if your dogs are crapin’ in it and you aint cleaning it up people are going to think you stink, so at least do what you can to clean your front room, perhaps we could set up a thread to help you locate areas of inconsistency on the web page, one that we felt was actually viewed by UDE, and whose issues were then addressed again in a timely fashion.

Next something important and completely blown over in today’s society. You know a bunch of folks don’t have the internet? No really, a bunch of people do not have the internet, they have very limited (like a job where they can’t type out page long posts), or no access at all. It’s true. Maybe those are people you don’t want playing your game, or maybe they are your best bet since they are not on-line gaming. UDE should find a way to address these players. (wait for it) I don’t know what this way is as I’m just pondering it now, but they are legion, and they should be giving us their money. Yup and a lot more folks than you think don’t have Cable TV either myself included. A strategy should be devised to help reach out to them, and that strategy likely might include a greater role for local shops, rules and tournament issues are the two biggest areas where these players become distanced from the rest of us.

Last for now because I’m wrapping up the work day and you’re likely all sick of reading my long post. I think a unifying story for VS would help define the role of players as it relates to the game.

In Yugio you become a duelist summoning your creatures into battle in an attempt to beat down and/or outwit your opponent that you might become the world’s greatest duelist.

In VS. you are?
A schmuck for having spent so much on cards.
An old comic nerd hanging out with young boys.
A professional card shark bent on making big bucks (oops no more room for you).
A guy sitting around wasting valuable time playing what should be a kid’s game.
A master strategist attempting to prove himself on the field of cardboard combat.
Just having a good time flipping cardboard.

None of these seem to empower me like becoming the world’s greatest duelist; heck Yugi cartoons actually hype me up to play vs. games.

Why doesn’t vs. have a hype, why aren’t I,

One of many chosen by celestial beings to gathers the heroes (villains) necessary to save the multiverse, to save my universe/galaxy/world from the ultimate destruction.

A young boy/man/woman/girl given the power to bring forth the Myths of our time to determine who is the greatest for the sake of…

I mean sure I can make it up in my head, but when the company makes it up for you, its their insanity and not yours. If this is and I believe it is one of the best card games available where is the prestige that should be associated with winning at the highest levels, the best chess players are considered men / women of great intellect and eventually revered in their society.

There is a chance to create this culture still in MUB, it should be done now. Make them know that the fate of the Marvel Universe depends upon the outcome of their battles, make the games matter as more than just games, or as ways to gain prizes.

Anyway gotta go if I can think of any more constructive comments I will make them.

Oh and the title 'City Champion' in my mind is a good step down that road, it just needs to be expounded upon.

They COULD set up a system where they charge people that want to run their own hobby leagues a little more, or if nothing else, they DON'T give them price breaks but require them to purchase at least 6 boxes of product or something like that. That allows UDE to get what it wants $$ and the players to get what THEY want. More or less.

Players in regions suffering under-motivated shop-keepers will not be able to maintain high interest in VS while other companies GLADLY throw out their support on a rapidly increasing regular basis. UFS doesn't charge anything for their prize support kits, they offer fewer amounts of prizes for their tournaments, true, but even their hobby league kits are free.

UFS isn't the same thing as VS, this is true, too. But man, that's a little harsh when the shops can't move product because it costs 5.00 a pack for them to sell and make anything from selling, and then have to pay another 20.00 a month for a hobby league kit that is STILL going to show up late any way.

I can see that being a drag, so some changes are definitely in order I feel.

But since everything is already moving in a positive direction, it's just a matter of time before things get to that happy place in the sky :)

EDITED::::::::::::::::

Damn you Ken, you and your fast posting fingers!

Your post makes a lot of great points. The costs are back to what I said about "Sharing the burden" but the "Hype" is definitely what is missing over all. Great point. I know it's been brought up before, but it is always worth mentioning.

Elite Series
- Would like to see Golden here - it would justify people playing 'broke' decks, since it is Elite.
- I'd like to see it with some type of more stable scheduling. 3-4 times a month. Perhaps even: Golden, Modern, Silver, Limited.

Marquee Events
- Can we give Marquee events their own banned lists? GA punks is actually pretty good barring ratcatcher.
- Formats that enable us to play with new cards with the old cards.
* Mono Team Constructed - Single team, please let us have generic cards so we can Mobilize.
* Build a Legend in Golden
* Limited Marquee events perhaps - ala SuperCrossover?

MegaWeekend
- Sealed/constructed tournament. Galactus raids were awesome because we want to play their with our friends. MUN team draft seems like it would be a lot of fun, unless you're playing with pubbies in which case qq more nerd. Best to be held on day two to combat burnout from day 1 by providing a more casual atmosphere.
- Pre-releases at MegaWeekends?

Release Celebration
- UFS allows stores to hold pre-releases. Why can't we? If certain stores have proved themselves with a given track record are willing to commit to a purchase of X amount of product, UDE will allow them to run a pre-release with said product two weeks ahead of time and help prize it with mats.

Screenshot!

Seriously... if the store owner paid for it and has an order number... he should be getting something from UDE.

I've heard this claim multiple times from various posters but when I actually had them investigate it and follow-up with UDE, it turns out that the owner NEVER even ordered it.

I have to agree, heck when there is ever a problem with our order, we get a call from our TR informing us of the problem and helping it get resolved.

before ANYTHING is done, this game desperately NEEDS starter decks, theme decks, precons!
This game is hard enough for people to learn - why make them go through the trouble of making a deck too?
example, a friend of mine tells me a few days ago that she is building her first vs deck. I ask how it's going, and she is trying to cut some of the 76 plot twists she has in there right now.
76!
If new players could buy a starter (that is legal for pretty much every event, btw), that would make things easier. I'm not talking those 30-card decks. I'm talking something you can play with at an event straight from the box. There's never been anything like that.

Then, mail out promos to hobby league stores. Preferably alt arts; NOT exclusives. The subsets were neat, but anything that RESTRICTS who can get it is basically a yugioh approach. Oh whats that, I have cyber-stein? no one else does? Nice! Lame. It is a deterrent for new players to have exclusives. It's not like you could build the Horsemen deck without spending ridiculous effort anyways. Am I right?
The stores pony up some packs / cred, and that is how you build a player base. Teaching a player a game is one thing. Having them be interested enough in the game to buy product is one thing. Having them build a deck is another. UDE sets the bar for entree too high, and is most likely the leading cause as to the decline of the majority of hobby leagues. Introducing theme decks would go a long way, and they are easier to mass-market than packs, at least that is what experience has shown me.

in a nut-shell, pro-theme decks and anti-exclusives for new players interests.
edit: for the purpose of this post, essential collections do not count as starters. Plus, outside of comic buffs who knew hellboy anyways?

Some kind of tournament in the Southeast. Doesn't have to be as big as a mega-weekend but we need something that's not way up North or on the west coast..

I would like to see supercrossovers become part of the rotation along side marquess and elite series and such...

I would like to see regular support for VS online: gas prices will obviously impede many from traveling large distances... Vs online should have more support than it does/did for all the obvious reasons.

Exclusives are not deterrents for new players as a whole. They are also incentives for some new players. Making "exclusives" only exclusive for a limited time and then offering them through another venue a short while later is a GREAT thing for VS to be doing.

UFS offers free promo cards. I only played UFS because they had Ken from Street Fighter 2 in it. I got whipped on pretty badly at my first tournament. I owned about 1 Starter and 4 boosters or so roughly. I don't care for Soul Caliber nor it's characters nor it's video games in general. However, some of the best cards in the game came from Soul Caliber. Over time, I developed a bunch of solid deck building theories and plans and won a LOT of tournaments, securing my first pick of promos while the people I was beating were a mix of netdeckers and half hearted players as well as some friends that weren't grabbing hold as fast as I was. This meant I could choose which of the 6 different promo cards for the week I wanted. When players complained that my deck was "cheesy" I switched to a different character and play style. I continued to win. Once I had the characters I wanted, I still wanted to play, and since I still was winning, I still got first pick. Instead of always taking the "best" characters, I switched over to taking only reprinted characters, leaving the complainer to have to contend with the other players he couldn't beat. The drive for the exclusive cards encouraged the existing players to up their games and to become better players. The competitive minded players that learned that there were cards only available if you got good enough LOVED that idea and jumped in with both feet and eventually got pretty good at the game as well. The exclusives are not the inherent deterrent. If anything they can help regions.

Poor community minded playing/players can have a negative impact, on the other hand. When I was made more aware of the fact that some players were feeling like they had no chance to beat me, I didn't feel that was my fault, but I didn't want to not have people to play against/with either. And, since I already had the majority of the cards I'd want from packs, I elected to pursue the cards the others had been complaining about getting "stuck" with.

Of course they eventually decided they wanted those, too.

See the problem? They were going to complain no matter what. They weren't winning. Discard is cheesy as all hell. But UFS had the intense problem that if you didn't play with it you were going to lose to it. People that say otherwise have no idea what they are talking about, sadly. What can you do when you have no cards in your hand during the opponent's turn? You can't block attacks, and you can't respond to much at all. And when you are able to set that up from turn 1, well, the opponent had little chance at all, did they?

That's a lot of words to say that the game balance is MUCH more important than the proposed lack of exclusive cards that might prove to be a deterrent to people on the fence about playing. Realize that there are also people that didn't want to go to a Hobby League to get "fancier" versions of cards that they already had.

I'd like to see Megaweekend Las Vegas. There are certain times of the year that it is cheaper to be in Las Vegas and if UDE considers us as a spot I could probably set up a group discount at the Casino I work at for anyone who attends.

Tim

i want to see DC sets and more people playing the game.

I wish we had a regionals system. sure call the mega weekends what you want but a real regionals would be nice, maybe followed by a nationals, followed by worlds. Basicly i wish we had more events that were MORE then just a gloryfied hobbie league in the area. Mega wekend was great and i was happy for it. Its just that the Marquee events, Elite series, and other things were just basicly the same kids from hobbie league and Nothing was special about the tournaments.

maybe more product released then 2 sets a year. i Know the hellboy set probabbaly tanked any future releases of a EC but something like another raid deck or something would be nice.

This is a great idea!

I really liked the old gotham knight & spiderman starters. I would love to see those flushed out in an essential collection. Both 7 drop spidey from msm & 7 drop bats from dor were the coolest cards. Both those cards sucked me in the game.

Would anyone agree with me that they would like these cards reprinted in a better 60 card starters/essential collection?