PTCGO punishes slow Internet connections, removes social interaction of the game, punishes minors with inconsistent computer access (you can argue that people with computer access problems is much less of an issue then minors getting transport to events, but in it's current form, TCGO isn't even easily useable on all computers), requires purchase of TWO sets of cards (if Worlds is the goal), and a host of other issues.
Allow me to correct you as a majority off Pokegym users always like to play devils advocate for no good reason at all:
"PTCGO punishes slow Internet connections": get a better ISP provider--North America, Europe, Asia, are the common continents with players who play Pokemon, and have many affordable and reliable ISP options. High speed internet is very common.
"removes social interaction" Ever heard of
Skype or maybe that chat bar at the bottom left of the screen? It's there for a reason. Oh, and PTCGO has a "friends list" to keep your friends organized.
"punishes minors with inconsistent computer access": same as what I said before--get a better ISP--there are recommended settings for all computer hardware and software that will have to be abided by for optimal use.
"TCGO isn't even easily useable on all computers": it's made for Windows and Mac platforms--the two most common operating systems. But to be fair, there could be more support in the tablet area of computing--give it time.
"requires purchase of TWO sets of cards": this is a common complaint from most users that is overshadowed by the fact that cards on PTCGO cost much,much less than its real life counterpart, and the fact that the PTCGO community makes acquiring rare cards very easy via the trading market place (18 packs for a
Tropical Beach is an awesome deal when codes cost me .25 each) .
"and a host of other issues": are you referring to bugs? Yes, those are an issue, but the people at PTCGO have an active forum where fixing an issue is done very quickly.
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While the constraints are a little different using PTCGO vs. using the Wi-Fi tournament function in the video games, it's probably worth pointing out for those of you who don't play it that VGC had internet tournaments for CP last year and it worked fine. They were lower value events and definitely not anyone's favorite events of the year, but it worked well for supplemental CP that came at relatively low time and monetary costs to players. It was a good supplemental source of CP for us last year outside of a couple weird issues that wouldn't apply in the TCG.
I can't imagine PTCGO being used for CP any time soon with how buggy it tends to be, but it is strange to me to see most of the posts in this thread are against the idea given the complaints in the thread about the time and money required to qualify. I think it's pretty obvious TPCI isn't just going to be like "oh, sorry guys, you're right, let's just go back to what we did last year" so while PTCGO is probably not a practical supplemental solution for the system this year, maybe it would be more effective to suggest practical ways that the system could be improved without vast changes instead of trying to lead a boycott or something like Dragon Ball Z guy.
Without a doubt, PTCGO isn't perfect, but definitely is a solution if it were perfect.
