So, casual play is at an all time low. I can't find a pick up game to save my life. I think part of the reason for this is the fact that the only organized level of play is super competitive. I personally believe if they started supporting various organized formats that encouraged casual play, the game could start a massive comeback...so, without further ado, here are some ideas that I had...hopefully someone from UDE will read these, and see that there is some support for or even against these concepts:

Triple Threat Formats: Did anyone see the WOW tournaments over the weekend? I played in the Thursday ones and we had 19 teams, which was 57 players. Not that many, but considering the prizes were relatively small, I thought it was a great turnout. Tim, John Hall, and myself decided to give it another go on saturday...over 40 teams...now thats what i am talking about. These would would rock with Vs. All you get with Vs. is PCQ's that qualify you for the PC. They need to realize that for some people, playing with friends for fun and cards is all the incentive they need. I honestly think that if they included this kind of format with the same prize pay out that WOW offerred that a good turnout would be found.

Vs. Raid decks: I had a blast just watching people play against the WOW raid decks. Why not try something like this for Vs? It inspires casual play, as people would start building decks not for the PC, but to beat potential raid decks. Need ideas? How about an Attack of the Sentinels deck? Obviously it would need to be tweaked from the Onexyia raid decks, but it could be done and it would be a blast. Another potential topic could be Onslaught. You could make it fun, and actually maintain story lines out of the comics, whcih is what inspires a lot of peeps to pick up this great game in the first place. I REALLY hope UDE sees this and considers this options.

Hobby League: many stores buy the hobby leagues, and then just give out the promos as they see fit. There needs to be some more structure here. In theory, Hobby League is fine. If those that particpate in Hobby League run it according to UDE rules, I think it would be fine, as it does encourage in store play, which in turn, markets the game to walk ins who see us playing with super heroes. But when stores by the Hobby League to suppliment their normal scheduled tourneys, things just don't work as well.

Advertisement: I know, I know, many individuals gripe about this. But seriously, other than articles in Inquest, how do we expect to get the word out? UDE timed the release of Legion of Superheroes with the new TV show on the WB/CW...how about a commercial saying, the fun doesn't end here? Like random Legion character? Then play in the Vs. System where the only limit on fun is your imagination. Just do something to generate some buzz, I think it could work. I would love to talk to UDE about these ideas or others that I have.

Different Prizes: Magic did it. WOW just had a tourney to do it. How about tourneys that give prizes to have your image immortalized on a card? Or how about bringing pack comic tourneys? I know these were offered in the begginning, but I am unsure as to what happened to them. Not everything has to be about money in this game, and if the focus is shifted away from that, maybe it will bring in those players who share that assessment. Getting a limit edition comic book that is next to impossible to get could arguably mean more to a player than 2500 dollars. How about prizes like Ipods and stuff like that for lower calibre tournaments. If UDE can do it for WOW, why not show some of that love to Vs. I understand that computers tie right into WOW, which is why they offer those, but I mean, they were giving away ipods as like sportsmanship awards at GENCON. If you give those kinds of prizes away in the Vs. side tourneys, you would see a spike in attendance, and, hopefully, a great attitude to boot.

Lazy Peon, commons and uncommons: Casual players gripe about things that they cant have, and there is some merit to that. Playign against 4x Enemy of my Enemy all day when they don't have those cards is very frustrating. How about having a tournament, with prize support, where the field is more even, i.e. Lazy Peon? The prizes would still encourage pro type players, and the format would enable those casual players to compete and know that it would be worth playing cause they won't be playing against cards they can't get there hands on. (I want to note that I don't attribute the lack of casual play solely to availability of cards, but it is a factor).

Well, those are just a few of my ideas on how to improve the casual experience. I would love to hear feedback from everyone on realms. Give your ideas, or feel free to explore aspects that are negative about my ideas. I just want to generate a discussion about and hopefully encourage casual play in general....

In my experience the biggest thing holding VS back is it's growing complexity; keywords in particular. It's hard enough to teach someone the core game mechanics, but to have to explain a never ending supply of keywords is asking alot in terms of patience from an aspiring player.

But on the flip side, if the development team doesn't introduce new key words then it becomes difficult to keep the game fresh.

I wouldn't mind if the keywords were slowed down a bit, maybe 1 or 2 every other set instead of every set.

Peace.

Casual Play is dead? That's all we have in my neck o' the woods. Liveliest card table in Daytona Beach is in my living room.

I agree that it would be nice for UDE to spread some of the love to VS that WoW is garnering now from the tourney player's prospective. Not sure it would affect the casual game so much. The swings I've noticed locally are based around the "new set" excitement... IF it happens. Casual players here don't buy product if it doesn't feature characters that they recognize and/or like. Heralds was a ho-hum set for the casual player. No chase legacy cards of note (outside of the Doom/FF stuff). My LHS just got in a box of Heralds THIS WEEK. One box. The only packs missing are the five I bought the other day. I know that if I don't buy it, I probably won't see a box of Legions on the shelf (another ho-hum set for casual players). Hopefully, this will change with the back-to-back release of MTU and World's Finest.

The Raid deck idea would be great. Multiplayer formats SHOULD be supported in VS (the templating is already there, for goodness sake). There is another thread here on the Realms that discusses some ideas for a "boss" deck. Very good read, if you haven't checked it out. A lot of our casual games here turn into multiplayer events. It's one of the only times you can sit down and play for "fun" without either playing "da jank" or having essentially predetermined outcomes testing within the gauntlet.

On the subject of prizes, this mostly appeals to the pro/semi-pro player who actually ventures outside of the kitchen/Hobby League. Granted, you could extend this to Hobby League, but how about a revision of the Players Rewards Program. You buy x amount of product and get something in return from UDE. Be it exclusive cards or swag (mats, shirts, deckboxes, life counters, etc), it would show SOME kind of appreciation from UDE for the casual player's (as well as the tourney-oriented player's) commitment to the game. This would extend the love to all player, not just the tourney players (although most of us probably agree the tourney players basically support this game at this point).

Just a few thoughts for you...

I think a variety of formats and prize structures would do wonders for VS:

Team-Up (Two-Headed Format)
SuperTeam (3-man Team Event for Constructed)
King of Heroes (Free For All)
Stolen Power (Grandmaster-style where you take the loser's cards)
Sidekick Tournament (Lazy Peon / Peasant Format)
Kryptonite Challenge (You play your opponent's deck)
SuperVillain Showdown (Raid-style play)

... etc etc etc.

When I saw the setup they had for WoW... I couldn't help but fume a bit because they should have done the same thing for VS. Now I understand that this was WoW's big launch but some of those formats could be used in the VS area to add some variety. LCQs are great for Thursday but PCQs take too long and Win-A-Box tourneys don't really pull in too many players.

Almost every person I knew who played WoW played in multiple events. We need to get that kind of redundancy for VS too. There used to be Comic Book tournaments back in the day.... maybe we should bring those back too.

My take is that we need broader public exposure, as long as you have new players coming in you can keep the game alive. Yes you need to maintain the existing player base, but many would continue or come back to play if there was new blood around to play against. I believe targetting only the gaming and comic market is short sighted. You have $1,000,000 on the line each year, I know that's exicited more conversations on the game with non-gamers than Super-Heroes or tournament formats. New peaple need to know we exist. We missed an oppertunity at PCLA to gain greater exposure, and I'm partly to blame for not devoting enough time to promoting the game independantly, but man UDE I handed you a ball, now all you have to do is run. I do have some if far less contacts in Australian Radio but if you want to take another shot for the PC down under I'll head you in the right direction.

And it is true this game is tough, and for that reason alone we will always have a high turn over rate, folks who think they should be making more money, or succeeding more in the tournament scene will fade away if they do not love the game, but this is all the more reason to generate new players. Where are the Children, I'm training mine, but where are yours? There was one player in the 12 under bracket for the scholarship series in LA, if I'd known it was that light my 5 year old would have come, even if she still can't read most of the text w/o a DQ she would have sucked up second place prizes for me and may well have taken first in her bracket heck she knows what flight and range do which is apparrently better than me in some of my worst moments in this game.

So must reach general public.
Must generate New players.
Must bring in the children.

So must return post to normal length, I don't know what's happened to me lately, perhaps Walter is contageous.

I personally don't care what this says, but you've hit 3,600 Booyeh Baby!:laugh:

The only problem with not allowing some discrepancy to hand out EAs to local stores is that UDE doesn't always ship the tournament packs on time. Or within the scheduled month. Or two. Just saying that if we're supposed to give out all the EAs according to UDE's structure, players wouldn't be getting any for months.

Also, though alternate formats sound like lots of fun, the majority of players at our local tournament are dead set against them. Most players play with decks they've built themselves and are far from tier 1. Even so, they would rather play with their own GA jank then bother with team/big deck/ or any other such format.

Still, anything to rope in and keep more players, I'm all for.

I totally agreed with 95% of the previous statements posted.Money is nice but T-shirts,playmats,deckboxs,and such are really cool and to me a big thing I like to win. And the rewards for buying more product would be nice as well since I am on a budget and cant buy 4-5 boxes of every new set. So basically I have buy what I can and hopefully trade to get what I need. This why I only have 1 Enemy and no Straight to the Grave.

I think a great prize for hobby leagues and rewards for purchases would be a new form of the gallery packs. Would kill several birds with one stone (or in this case 1 pack). First if loaded randomly with some of the super good rares Enemy,Sttg,Posion Ivy,.......... doesnt have to be foils or EA just plain old rares this would give the casual player another chance at the good cards,it give budget players good trader bait,and would be something that dealers cant just sell off without be noticed and hopefully punished for misuse of hobby boxes.

This is all a matter of money to UDE WOW Probly Gave them SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much money UDE had no Choice but to put on the knee pads and go to work for WOW leaveing VS system like dust in the wind and in my opinion VS has Far more supperior Mechanics than WOW . I Say boycott WOW KILL IT WHERE IT STANDS Because If it doesn't sell they aren't going to make it . I Just love VS and think UDE NEEDS to start promoting VS system game more .

WOW is like willam shatner .singer ,actor ,TV game show host . WOW is trying to be everthing to every one Kills me .

Magic has a ton of keywords too, but it manages to get new players. I've found when trying to introduce people, have them ignore the keywords for awhile or only use a couple of them initially. If people like the basic mechanics of the game, the keywords will come. Just don't overwhelm them.

Want new players? Demo the game.

I don't know if this is an established part of Hobby League
or any other facet of Organized Play, but most of the other
games I've played have benefitted from demo packs or
individuals providing demo support. Heroclix organized play
used to send out bags of spare pieces to be given out to
new players, demo participants, or whomever the judge
felt was deserving. Vampire: the Eternal Struggle (yes,
that game still exists, for going on 13 years now) provides
demo packs at decreased prices to retailers, who can give
the cards to organized play reps to run demos, who in turn
give away the demo packs to interested new players.

It may be that UDE's high-level organized play - the money
tournaments - are taking up all of their resources, and to
give away cards would be to cut into their bottom line.
But demos have often worked in my experience to broaden
your player base. It takes individual effort, though.

I would like to see more casual support from UDE, but
I really can't say what the state of their support is now --
I've been living too far away from any stores with organized
Hobby Leagues, or the like.

I always play in the team sealed events at sneak peek.
It's pretty fun, too bad the turnout is always low. :(

Yeah... we're doing our best to introduce new formats.

Started doing Team Sealed 3 or 4 Sneaks ago before it was an official format (in which Vidi's team always wins) and started a 3-on-1 "WoW raid type" format at our last PCQ.

Hmm... maybe I'll do a no-rare constructed at our next Sealed PCQ.

Good ideas! I think they should have a hobby league type thing going where you get promos that only come from casual play formats. Like the top 4 of a random tourney held every Saturday get a promo that cant be received in packs. Or it doesn’t even have to be a card; it can be a piece of art or something. Call the tournament like super hero of the month or master of the month, IdK whatever ghey name you like better, but they need to expand on the hobby league, and store participation.

Advertisement is a great way to start like you stated.

I play at a store that has the hobby league going strong. We have about roughly 15 people that play there. The only problem I see is that UDE doesn't send out any of the hobby league stuff. We were supposed to have a sealed sneak peek of Legions tomorrow but UDE hasn't even shipped it to the store yet so that was pushed back indefinately, it might not even be done because by the time the store gets the product it would have already been released. This is what damages the game more than anything, the waiting and wondering if UDE has its head on straight.

But I guess one good thing has happened, UDE has apparently fired the head of VS and is bringing someone new in who the owner of the store I play at knows personally. He has stated that he is smart and will honestly turn the game around and bring in more players and make the game great again. Here's hoping.