They exist in the DC universe so they are ok. So I'll expand my definition of VS as being about the superhero genre and the characters found in continuities populated by superheroes.

Here's why I'm not excited by it. I never want to go to a 10K with my deck, be it Gotham, TNB, GLEE, whatever, and face off against someone playing an Inuyasha/Sonic the Hedgehog deck. It's completely not why I got into Vs.

If UDE wants to license their game engine out like WOTC did with the D20 system, that's their call. But make the card backs different, don't allow them in tourneys, whatever it takes to keep Vs as Vs, rather than the "Any character in any medium ever that anyone anywhere has ever thought was awesome" CCG.

Do you really wanna have this conversation at a tournament?

"You win?"
"Nah, I got schooled. Third freaking Master Shake/Buffy/Lord Soth combo cheese in a row."

It's the tournament legal part that sinks your theory, Curtis.

If the starters are tourney legal, and they offer any advantage to playing those teams, then there is going be a need for a competitive player to invest in these boutique products (or even worse, multiple starters to geta necessary playset) or feel like they can not compete. That's going to tick your core audience off.

Then it gets to the whole "feel" issue. It's just not going to be the same staring across the field to see that you are taking on a bunch of BESMs (Big Eyes Small Mouth) or Gi Joe (The cards are still cheap on e-bay!) or Sailor Moon or whatever.

If you made the goofball sets using the vs. system and kept them from entering the tourney scene, it wouldn't ruffle my feathers. I don't think that it would sell either.

I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE anime its stupid, uninteresting, and it comes up with the stupidest stories ever, believe ive tried a couple of times but it is just WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too stupid and boring for me. i Hate it so much, i mean i dont know but everyting about it i hate. i hate the nerds, goths, punk poseurs who read/watch it, i hate the pervs who watch that stuff, i hate everthing about anime, i even hate the name, its awaste of time, money, and mostly a waste of life.

if they wanna pimp the engine fine, but don't interupt my sets, i don't want UDe to touch anything not for marvel/DC/insert other comic line.

let score use the engine, let decipher use it- god knows deciphers needs something, of course they won't be able to afford it though.

as long as it does not affect me and my tounrments i will be fine.

wow we were almost having a civil debate.

Well that was mature.

Last I checked goths/punks aren't really into anime.

I could also say that whatever you are into is "awaste of time, money, and mostly a waste of life. "

just wondering, why do you play VS?

i dont know becus its something to do when i get tired of Halo, but its better than anime, but yeah goths, nerds, and punk poseurs are into and it annoys the hell out of me.

I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE Halo its stupid, uninteresting, and it comes up with the stupidest stories ever, believe ive tried a couple of times but it is just WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too stupid and boring for me. i Hate it so much, i mean i dont know but everyting about it i hate. i hate the nerds, goths, punk poseurs who play it, i hate the pervs who play that stuff, i hate everthing about Halo, i even hate the name, its awaste of time, money, and mostly a waste of life.

Sound familiar?

See how dumb it sounds too?

And you have no right to be calling anyone posers. For all I know YOU'RE a poser.

I'm with spid3rm4n on this. First a little background on me: I have always been a big fan of XMen, Spiderman, Superman and Batman. I grew up on the animated series of the 90's on Fox for XMen, Spiderman, and Batman, and various shows featuring Superman including the ABC drama/comedy. I "own" the entire Fox XMen series and WB XMen Unlimited series on "DVD" that I got at WW Texas, and am looking to get the Batman and Spiderman Fox cartoons this year at WW Texas also. I also started watching Teen Titans and Justice League. Before the GL set, the only Green Lantern I knew was John Stewart. I was also unaware there was a JLA comic, and I thought the founding members of JL were John Stewart, Wonder Woman, Superman, Hawkgirl, Batman, Flash, and the Martian.

The comic market for the VS card game is almost dried up for new VS material IMO. Now with Avengers and JLA coming out in the last half of this year. Almost all of the MAJOR Marvel/DC Licenses have had a turn in a VS set. We already have it almost confirmed the first set next year with be an XMen/Hellfire Club/Morlocks/another Mutant team set.

I'm not a comic book historian by any means, but I can't see where any new teams that are not as obscure or more obscure than X-Statix will be printed on the Marvel or DC sides that is going to draw any new players. You can only reprint/repackage teams for so long without the dreaded banning of older sets. I'm tired of my local store having 4-5 Yugi sanctioned tourneys per week and MLB Showdown getting more players than VS in the STL area.

I've tried everything I can to get more players involved, but the weak Spiderman and Superman sets did a lot more harm than good to get new players into the game. Like it or not, a lot of people are not into comic book superheroes anymore and are more into anime or older groups like Transformers, GI Joe, Voltron, etc.

I remember in the early days of my participation in VS Realms threads about dream teams being included like FF, Capcom characters, GI Joe, etc. Now the hardcore comic book fans here attack you like Rafael Palmerio if you even suggest the idea of a set that's not Marvel, DC, or the independent comics. The only indy comic I know is Spawn, and the only connection I have with that is seeing the HBO animated series in the mid-90's a few times.

It's not like UDE has to license itself into oblivion here, just a couple of outside games would be great. You're not going to get DBZ, GI Joe, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Inyuasha, or Transformers right now because those properties are already licensed for CCG's. How about a Thundercats, Voltron, TMNT, Masters of the Universe 80's set? Or a video game set with the Square-Enix properties? Maybe a Buffy or Yu Yu Hakusho set?

You don't even have to disturb the balance for Marvel/DC. 1 Marvel set, 1 DC set, and 1 independent set per year. Like it or not, the amount of players UDE is going to be able to squeeze out of comic book fans is reaching an apex. UDE must start exploring other avenues soon to get more players into the game. Not everywhere in the country is getting 40-100 players for a pre-release like many areas in the country are starting to get.

A lot of areas are needing some help attracting new VS players, and new source material outside of the comic book realm would be great. The comic book well is about to run dry, it's time to look at additional sources before everything dries up.

yeah, 50 years from both companies and all the good teams have been used.

you people have an amazing knowledge of comic lore.

i am quite tired of this debate, it is not worth my time and effort.

you guys have fun dreaming things up. i am sure you will have more fun with out me around raining on your parade.

and if what you want happens then fine, i will eat my words, but until then, i am going to play with my comic inspired cards and have a hell of a time.

cyke out.

Nicely put.

Cyke- He did say he had little knowledge of comics....

Halo is sooooooo much better than anime its beyond comparison, anywayz i dont want to fight with u spiderman id rather be friends, ne wayz i have my own opinions so from now on ill keep my feelings of anime to myself, unless the situation call for it. any wayz i dont want vs to die, i want there to be new teams so how will they keep going after u run out of teams? will they try new comics i dont know, will they go with Dark horse and make Starwars, will they go with spawn, i dont know, will they be like Yugioh and make up chars i dont know, but i dont like the idea of vs. ending.

Another note on this for me:

Growing up in southern Illinois, they are no places to get comic books. I pretty much never saw a comic book until I went to college and they were in the college book store, so it's a little hard to have knowledge of comics when I couldn't buy them growing up.

It's pretty much the same for a lot of areas. STL area has one comic book chain that owns 5-7 stores (Fantasy Shop) but other than that, comics are only available on EBay or something like that.

FYI my favorite XMan is Cyclops.

Just a thought here, Fonzie "Jumped the Shark" when Happy Days was nearing it's end. The show had already peaked and it's veiwership was flagging. The stunt was a last ditch effort to attract a younger audience and it failed. The Jumping the Shark episode wasn't the first nail in the show's coffin it was the last.

The Majority of people in this country have very little knowledge about comic books. Many would be hard pressed to name a single character that was never in a movie. There are currently more people familiar with Sin City then the Defenders, the New Warriors, and Excalibur combined.

DBZ and the other anime inspired CCGs named in this thread have fans that don't get support from the company that makes their games.

As for as the fan base not supporting a game with their favorite theme and great mechanics, how do explain the current well being of The Vs. System? The only thing this game is currently lacking is more players. After JLA, UDE has blown their wad. Any other Marvel/DC sets released are going to need a revamp of a current team and a trio of obscure teams. Otherwise they may only sell to people "trying to stay competitive" That might be where you are in this game but I only played in 1 GL draft and haven't bought a single pack outside of that because quite frankly I don't know a thing about The Green Lanterns past Alan Scott.

Most people could likely name "most" of the DC universe's heroes but that is because DC recycles their gimmicks. Only 4 heroes have the same secret identity as when they were created, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. The Flash, The Green Lantern, The Spectre, The Sandman, have all been replaced by former sidekicks, even Wonder Woman and Aquaman were replaced breifly. Batman and Superman were replaced by people that had little to do with their major day to day business. (Superman met the person that became the cyborg and saved John Henry Irons) So even if you knew the characters name you still don't know what version/s are being released. After JLA most of these should be out as they are all members.

Marvel had the same problem as most of their more well known characters that never appeared in a movie were members of the Avengers. And that group was flanked in the set by teams the average Vs. Player never really heard of before the set came out.

Not all Vs. Players are Comic Book Geeks, Hell I wish the comics crash of the 90s hadn't turned me off of them for so long. (I'm only glad I haven't gotten back into them to much because it is happening again)

Side note: Anime in Japan is marketed toward the 18-25 audience. 4Kids and a few other distributors in the U.S. Water it down and market it towards 8-16 audience. Don't judge a manga based on the Americanized Anime that is broad cast on the cartoon network. Pick up a Shonen Jump or TokyoPop and read it for yourself. The only thing that they censor is nudity. (Shonen Jump also censors the more vulgar language in their monthly magazine but not in the graphic novels. Check out Akira, Hellsing, and X on the Star and Encore networks they are some of the best Anime on in the U.S.) Manga and Anime are just as superhero related as Comics and Cartoons they just focus on martial arts and mysticism more.