Our little gathering place here puzzles me. Sometimes it is a party, sometimes a shooting gallery. We meet, we greet, we sling the heat.

Does it really matter at all? Is it a positive or negative influence on the game itself? Could we do without it, and could we do what we do even better than we are?

It matters, because it is pretty much the central point for the Vs. System community at large.

It is the place, where, UDE actually listens - UDE actively involves itself (as much as they are willing to, and not nearly enough in my opinion) and where the people get to mass.

It does matter. It is the voice of the people, for all intents and purposes. It definitely influences the game. All the major names (on all sides; we include Paul Ross, Jeff Donais and Scott Gaeta) are players here, all the major news is revealed here and all of the significant changes happen based quite a lot on what happens here.

VSRealms is important because it is a meeting ground, the centre of a community and, most importantly, it is the voice of the people.

Cheers,
Logan.

You know that you have already answer your own question. If you don't like VsRealms then you will not waste your time reading or posting on here since you think it is a waste of time.

If you enjoy this site, then you will read it. If you really enjoy this site, then you will post on it. Seeing that you, stubarnes have posted over 10,000 times, I guess you like this site a lot. Good for you.

Considering that UDE trolls the site, comments directly here and takes "our" collective testing into consideration in regards to bans/erratas, I would say yes... we do "make a difference". In that regard, I would say it is a "positive" influence.

However, for every "positive" that comes along, there are (seemingly) an endless supply of "negatives" that pop up as well. While I realize that not everyone looks at our great game with the same rose-colored glasses that I do, I do know that constant complaining and nitpicking (generally) does more harm than good overall.

90% of the time, it's a matter of HOW things are said and addressed as opposed to WHAT is being said. Some people are just inclined to be "negative" most of the time... and there's nothing wrong with opposing viewpoints on most of the "issues" we discuss here. Constantly rehashing the same topics and arguements day in and day out is NON PRODUCTIVE (unless you get something out of arguing on the internet...).

The bottom line is that, as consumers, our purchasing power is what drives this game. No level of yelling or screaming online is going to change how much I spend on the game... but remember, there are others who pop in here to get a "feel" for the community before spending Dollar #1. I know I did... back in the early days of this site, the community was a much more positive place overall than it is now. It was warm and inviting and a place to LEARN about the game itself... not to complain about UDE, OP and the secondary card market.

There's nothing wrong with speaking your opinion... but shouting it in every thread (specifically in those that have nothing to do with what you're even talking about) is not the way to go about it. There is a "search forum" feature... I'd recommend that some posters learn to use it in regards to the "negative" threads. There is also a Dear UDE sub-forum that gets little traffic... most complainers would rather have their negativity shouted out on the "front page" or General Discussion. This is something the mods could improve on in regards to how the site itself deals with it.

Could we do without it? Of course, but it would be sad times if I didn't have my Team Jank-Sauce forum to brighten my day (as well as the occasional lesbian unicorn thread).

Sure, I know that. I just like to hear other peoples' answers. Thanks for yours.

We seem to be at a crossroads, beginning a new era in Vs. System history. I like reflection, and I think it would be cool for us to take a step back and look at the big picture for a bit.

In the beginning, it was friendly and supportive... almost exclusively. Now it seems we are a bit scattered in our motives. I really enjoy watching the Cities happening all around us, this site is a great place to keep up with them, and I hope we can get back to the friendly supportive thing again as a result of their momentum.

The reason you are seeing so much negativity nowadays is because UDE lied to their playerbase. Yes, some of players werent effected by UDEs false promises, but there are others that it impacted deeply. Honestly, there are more negatives than positives surrounding VS right now, so it is only natural you will see more people talking about the negatives.
The majority of the threads Stu starts have nothing relevant to say about VS. For instance, its hard to argue that this very thread has much to do with Versus. The negative threads have more to do with VS because they are addressing problems, but people dont want to see them because they are negative in how they pertain to Versus. I would say the majority of Stu's threads are neutral to Versus as they actually dont have much strategy content or legitimate Versus discussion, but they are tolerated because they dont offend anyone.

Back in the early days there werent many negatives surrounding the game. The most relevant things to talk about were card strategies and upcoming tournaments etc. You admit that you look at the game through rose colored glasses - that is completely fine, but dont promote censoring to force others to see it that way as well. Asking people to avoid talking about the most pertinent issues in the game right now to give newcomers a positive opinion of Versus is the same as lying to them.

All of the people on this board are still friendly and supportive to other players, but they are not supportive of UDE as a company.

Fair enough, but what about new players that are looking in for the first time? What about those of us that are willing to stay positive and start fresh with the City Championships? Some of us honestly do not feel like victims, we truly appreciate the efforts of UDE throughout the years and into the future. Are we only allowed to agree with the critics? Can't we have a different opinion without being called liars and shills?

I know I have been overly critical of those I see as being overly critical. I will continue to strive to do better. But I honestly think that the positive opinions get attacked just as often as the negative opinions, and I honestly think that many of us really do not feel like victims at all.

Hopefully everyone can state their opinions without getting attacked. No one is ever 100% correct, but we all scream like we are. I am one of the worst offenders when it comes to that, and I apologize and vow to improve my performance in that area.

Actually, I would dare say people have been getting friendlier lately, in part due to the sudden drop in the power of the competitive spirit in the VS System universe. When I compare VS to Magic, a few things stand out as far as this all goes:

* UDE is still in a developing phase as far as its gaming side is concerned. We expect a lot because Magic and some other games have had a long time to work out their system's bugs, game-wise and support-wise, but Yu-Gi-Oh is a very different beast from VS & WoW. This seems about the same point in the time line for VS as The Dark and Fallen Empires was for Magic. If VS doesn't collapse entirely this year, I think they're in a very good position to reinvent and revitalize the world built around the game.

* The competitive discussions on the WotC Magic boards are often not all that inviting at all. Wizards can devote as much to that side of the gaming population because they have a HUGE casual base. I dare say that Magic's design makes it better for casual players than VS System is currently, for a few reasons. Even so, the best thing UDE can do is to try and hybridize. If Magic is great for the extremes, make VS System perfect for those who fall more midline in the spectrum.

From what I've seen, this website is for people to make "The game is not dying!" threads, so that they think they sound wise and feel that they are having a moment in the spotlight that turns the game around! Then people start agreeing, with the same lame @$$ feeling, which digresses into usless jibber jabber, about how Mr. T invented jibber jabber. At least that's what it's like outside of the fun packed Jank-Sauce forums :)

I am going to take that "attack" can also mean "disagree." (If I misrepresenting you then I apologize.) I can agree that everyone can state their opinion as long as they are civilized but if someone disagrees with them then they are entitled to state their opinion that they disagree as long as they are civilized. As long as people are willing to behave in their posts and explain their opinions, then everyone will benefit from the disagreements.

Wow...that was a powerful statement....
That is all.

I really like this site
When i got blocked from it at work I got real out of touch with the game and almost quit playing because of a lack of local play and for thouse who know know what inovation games went through here and northern california really sucked.
Well i stayed around got unblocked and Cascade games took over our PCQs
AS of late this site has fallen on some hard times so has our game. I have found out that some people who i thought were real jerks are just very concerned and care alot about our game. While other (a certain PC Champ comes to mind first ) have really abandoned our game.
I think as a site we need to get back to ideas and strategy about the game ( MAD Props Tim for A Series of Tubes) we need more pros that help people with great deck ideas.
I think this site is very important as many have said UDE trolls this site,
In case of trolling this is my side tangent and rant.

My way to fix organized play:
Say we have 500k a year for big time tournaments,
Three inventational 100k tournaments the PCs 1 for each age
One West Coast, One East Coast and one location changing every year.
Now with the other 200k have 12 15ks 1 per month
Now for the PCQ lite i think they should keep point there have been many reason on here why we should keep them.
But to help turn out allow them to trickle down so people can win and if they have there 20 they can just go down to the next players who need them
For prizes it should be product and swag
everyone loves swag
Make the top 8 EAs like 3 differnt ones and make them playable cards
Maybe 1st gets 2 boxes or product 2nd get 1 box and so forth.

I think VS Realms is the most important site to VS players new and old.

We can only wish it was that harmless. If someone expresses their satisfaction with Vs. System, they are often labeled as unicorn-loving rainbow-riding apple-polishers who are lying about the joy they find in the game.

I think I just experienced deja vu ... I'm pretty sure I've already read this before.

Then again, I feel the same thing when Erick starts a thread too ...