Off-topic but speaking of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GobZeOifUT4

No need to apologize... your explanation was reasonable and accepted. And it's not that I'm irritated, I just think that with what has happened to the cut of OP and UDE's efforts to grow the game at the Hobby Level, it's difficult for me to understand why some people don't want things to change.
Merely to point out that he panders to whatever suits him at a given point in time. I know for a fact he loves alternate formats and yet he can't defend that fact here only because I am a proponent of them and other posters are disagreeing with me. Notice how his other posts are instantaneous yet he still hasn't answered my original question.
And this is what I agreed with somewhat. Whether it's too much or too fast is hard to gauge but I don't think UDE plans to have these as standard formats... just ways to mix up the game a little bit.
Very good question. I think that it deserves its own thread.

True Story.

As a new player, I think I can give a little insight as to what dragged me in and what might have made my transition from curious to player a bit easier and faster.

I'm a longtime comic reader and CCG player, a definite member of the target audience. When the VS System debuted, I had little disposable income, all of which was being spent on Yu-Gi-Oh, Heroclix or comics. I was curious, but not enough to check it out, especially since I knew no one else who was interested.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Friends of mine opened a gaming store. They accidentally misordered too many Hellboy Essential Collections. After a few weeks of seeing them sit there, plus a couple of customers coming in and babbling about the game, one of the owners decided to open a Hellboy box and try to game out. I was his guinea pig.

I liked the way the pre-constructed BPRD deck worked. Things went together quite nicely. There was a definite theme in the "if this is your only character" plot twists, which were numerous. I won every game I played against the owner, who was using the precon Thule Society deck.

Over the next couple of weeks, the owner decided to open more and more packs, which eventually led to me buying a few packs of Avengers and trading with him to build a Thunderbolts deck... in addition to buying a Hellboy Essential Collection.


Things I feel would help with all of this:

1) More Essential Collections. Someone mentioned this earlier in the thread, and I feel its a great idea. Whether its something popular like an X-Men/Brotherhood essential or something else Independant like maybe an Invincible essential collection, either one could draw in more players [the former would draw from the general populace who have heard of the popular characters, the latter would draw from people into comics but not into the Big Two as much].

2) A better rulebook. The rulebook included in the Hellboy Essential Collection works just fine... if you never buy a single booster pack. It does explain everything necissary to play a game of the BPRD vs the Thule Society, but the rules end there.

From the moment my friend started opening boosters we were confused. Cosmic? Loyalty? Replacement? What did these things mean in the context of the game? We had no idea. One friend of mine has had to remove a number of characters from his Underworld/Brotherhood deck because he didn't know what Dual Loyalty meant when he built it.

The rulebooks should include a list of all keywords and what their gameplay effect is. There should be no major rule left out of the rulebooks. One shouldn't need to go online and peruse something that reads like a book of legal documentation to find out what "Dual Loyalty" or "Cosmic" mean. Simple things like this would add what, 4-5 pages to the printed rulebooks, if that?

3) UDE should look toward Wizkids as far as Organized Play is concerned. There are very clear links on the Wizkids site to sign up as a venue and/or envoy for their game lines. Setting up tournaments and events through Wizkids is simple.

I've scoured the UDE sites without a single hint as to what we can try to do to set up running tournaments from my friends' store. We'd like to run both Yu-Gi-Oh and VS tourneys, but it seems that UDE only wants us to attend events at other stores.

If they make it easier to run such things, more places will run them. If more events are run at more stores, more local VS communities will be built. More local VS communities means more product sold, more word-of-mouth advertising, a healthier overall community for the game.

Good story. The game suffers from a lack of a decent lead in product. Hellboy is the best available imho, but it would be nice if each set released a starter that highlighted different keywords/teams/concepts and came with a decent rulebook that explained the keywords.

That's a different question, but seeing how you want to ignore the fact that you posted six times about some misguided notion that we didn't want any change at all... I will humor you.

I love Random Punks and I love Alter Egos. All I can give you is my own personal opinion however, and since you seem hell-bent on being the catalyst for a million-dollar salvation of all things Vs. System I don't know if it will help your cause.

Good luck anyway.

What, the fact that erick pays you to support his crusade against me? Agreed.

I say two words and you go making wild accusations.

Considering your personal history with him, and the fact that at least 30% of your posts have supported his attacks against me, I jumped to conclusions. Sorry.

Stop tapping the feet and answer the question:

So are more formats bad for VS?

Attacks? Who is has miguided notions now?

We have a saying at the store for this:

"Cry more."

Stop flaring your nostrils and listen.

I only know what I like. Even you, Mr. King of Global Improvements, cannot answer what is good or bad for Vs. System. Please get some humility and come down from that soapbox. It is driving us all crazy.

I personally like alternate formats for Hobby League. I love Random Punks and Alter Egos. I could not care less about your arguement with SeventhSoldier, and I really believe you are losing your credibility by insisting that we can solve things by arguing incessantly on the message boards.

That's my answer. I apologize if it did not satisfy your agenda.

I only agree with what he says. Nothing's wrong with Erick's arguments, but you come and throw personal attacks at me and others like it means something.

What happens at Edgeworld should stay at Edgeworld.

But that would not feed the attention ##### now would it?

Taught two new players our wonderful game this weekend and gave away several hundred commons and uncommons to give them a "jump" on things.

Student "A" picked up Skrulls after watching me play two games and proceeded to smash my RP Morlocks deck into the ground. He asked two questions the entire game: 1. "Can I choose my opponent's teams with Act of Defiance" and 2. "When does the game check for END totals". The guy is a long time MTG player (among his many CCG "conquests") and said that Vs. is "easier to learn than a lot of the other games out there". He said "the hardest thing is remembering that both players get to build and attack each turn".

Student "B" took a little longer to pick up on the game phases... suffering from what he called "the Magic mentality". I gave him Morlocks (a lot tougher deck to play, decision-wise, than Skrulls) and after three games, he had a grasp on Evasion and resource conservation. The fourth game he played, he managed to defeat Skrulls by utilizing proper timing in regards to Evasion and how to maximize both DEF and ATK boosts on his characters. Student "B" is from a Yu-gi and Heroclix background. He said the game engine is "complex, but fun" and that he's sure he'd be a lot better at the game "once he's familiar with the cardpool". I asked if he had any problems with the game and he said "Evasion is a bit counter-intuitive ... you have to take damage to preserve board advantage and to build up stat bonuses, but I like the fact that you have to think outside the proverbial box."

Small time, I know... but I think it shows a bit of something. My playgroup is now two players larger. That's a 20% increase in one afternoon...