Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Pokebeach: A 'Note' About Prerelease Scans

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sentimentGX4 said:
What a sellout. I hope another site steps up to take Pokebeach's place.
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I may not be fully convinced of how genuine this move is, but seriously he's a 'sellout' for finally conceding to Pokemon's constant requests to not post early scans? For those of you who may not realize, with certain exceptions (such as some countries having earlier prereleased, which has been a more frequent phenomena), the scans should not have been possible to obtain, which means he got the from through illicit means, or his source did. This was never an issue of, 'TPCi doesn't want us to have nice things,' but an issue of an illegal leak.

I in particular find it very harsh and selfish to call him a sellout and berate him for renouncing something that he should. We should be promoting good behavior, not demeaning it.

While it is unknown weather or not this will remain true has yet to be seen, hopefully he will retain this change. It would really suck if his future credibility (in regards to legality specifically) was destroyed, and him stopping before such a thing happens is good to hear.
 
Full disclosure: I'm on PokeBeach's staff.

evil psyduck said:
Let's wait and see if he keeps his word this time.
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"This time"? When did he ever say he wasn't going to post prerelease scans anymore and then went back and did it? Ummm.... never.

SD PokeMom said:
gotta love the slaps at not only the PTOs, but the 'gym and team compendium...=/
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Would you explain how his post could in any way be interpreted as a slap to the PTOs and whomever else? Because it seemed to me the whole point of the post was to apologize to those people. I really do not see how it could be interpreted any other way. He made some mistakes along the way and he's trying to let people see what he did wrong and why he was wrong. This kind of post is unhealthy.

SD PokeMom said:
cynical me is cynical: with the coming world-wide simultaneous release of X and Y, i'm guessing he fears he won't be the big source of news from japan anymore...so he's trying to get back into OP's good graces to keep his info streams from drying up. jmho....
Believe me, the site grows more and more each day. I hardly doubt WPM is worried about hits as much as you people would like to believe. During the X/Y announcement I believe the main page got around 20 million hits.
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WPM has been actively talking to his higher staff about stopping prerelease scans for at least a year now. I know he has also talked to an admin here (at pokegym) about it since the summer and that for the last set he refused to use any scans from any of the sources that usually send them to him. This has been a long time coming. PokeBeach is going through some drastic changes this coming year and it's pretty clear he's been carrying this guilt with him for a while now and wanted to address it before then. When he told our staff about this a year or so ago a lot of them were against it, but we all knew he didn't care what we thought in this instance and was going to do what he thought was right.

Prime said:
My first thought, reading through the essay was, "and he miraculously rolled over one day and decided not to upload prerelease scans?" It really didn't feel believable for him to have changed his mind on the matter, because he's never shown any signs of feeling bad for doing it.
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Funny, I thought people might think this when I read it too. This has just been a long time coming for him and I don't think there really is a single point he can acknowledge for his change of heart. He spent many a night up talking about it with us. His essay does make it seem a little too "I used to think like this" and "now I think like this", with nothing really in the middle. But I think that's really the only way to communicate to his audiences why he did what he did and why he was wrong. If he wanted to REALLY explain things, I'm sure his post would be 3x as long, and no one wants that... He's not writing a book here.

I know he talked to someone from TCPI at regionals this past weekend for a tiny bit, but I don't know if that had anything to do with his deciding to stop it with this set. Maybe because it introduces plasma stuff and it would be something exciting for the kids? Who freakin' knows. The point is, he's been wanting to stop for a long time.

bullados said:
It's especially strange because of this, uploaded not 3 months ago, and then replaced...

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mclw2sSRrv1ri4y2do2_500.jpg
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All of the pre-release scans get replaced after a few weeks when we get our higher quality versions in. That is so not new.

raznprince said:
If it wasn't already clearly established that he's burned bridges, then this would be a good place to assume to be the "point of no return..."
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I think you guys take things way, way too seriously here. WPM is like Yoda when it comes to his personality. Sometimes he's fun loving and jokes around, sometimes he is dead serious and passionate. I'll admit that sometimes it's hard to tell. With that scan, it was pretty obvious to me and many of our forum visitors that he was just joking around. That's why the scan is kinda exaggerated. Even if he wasn't joking around, it's a valid point of discussion that he's bringing up that many people often bring up. So I don't see the problem. WPM said something similar to what you're discussing here in his essay of sorts. Why are you blaming WPM for calling out what the company has just done, but not blaming the company? Are the fans not allowed to point out what the company is doing wrong? Are they supposed to be silent and la de dah, everything is great? I don't think that's how the real world works. The prereleases had already taken place for that set too in Singapore, so WPM also had every right to post that edited scans and make that call.

Also I just wanted to say that I know WPM fairly well. He is a pretty open book. But all I ever see are other people posting petty stuff about him, or what they've heard, or guessing games. I've also seen a lot of small things said about him evolve and become a whole monster of their own. Many times these silly rumors come back to the site and me, and then I have a huge "LOL" moment. WPM said that one time at Nats he had said something to the effect of "I feel drunk" when he was tired (and this is someone who never has had a drop), and a year later on our forums we saw someone mentioning how WPM was partying hardcore at a Nats party (which is such a hilarious image since that's not him at all). People misremember things all the time, hate clouds our perception, and bad opinions take on a life of their own over time. I'm hoping that if you guys want to actually learn about WPM (you guys being the TOs or whoever), you actually talk to WPM. I know he has reached out to a few of you many times.
 
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Shining Raikou said:
Full disclosure: I'm on PokeBeach's staff.


"This time"? When did he ever say he wasn't going to post prerelease scans anymore and then went back and did it? Ummm.... never.
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Wrong! One of the years the had worlds in Florida he gave his word that he would not release scans until the night before the first pre's in the states. It didn't even last one set.
 
evil psyduck said:
Wrong! One of the years the had worlds in Florida he gave his word that he would not release scans until the night before the first pre's in the states. It didn't even last one set.
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Do you have evidence? "He said, she said" from more than half a decade ago doesn't really stand up.
 
Its crazy to read and now know how much power the owner of PokeBeach had over the TCG over the years. It was obvious that TPC wanted to use him to be able to not just expand the game but be able to make it a lot more valuable than it already is. Its kinda sad to know that the franchise could have gotten back up off its feet a lot quicker because of the owner of Pokebeach. If he had worked more together with the company in combination of his passion and his hustle, the Pokemon TCG could have been a lot more further ahead than even where its at now. He could have also had a really good paying job and probably didnt even need to go to graduate school at this point either. But hey you cant blame him for being a kid. Kids do stupid stuff, a lot of us did stupid stuff as kids. We dont all have the brains we had now back then and its hard to think like an adult when your 14 years old so I dont really blame him for thinking how he did.

I think the main reason people dont go to prereleases isnt so much the sets but the incentives to go. It seems slightly overpriced to play and theres no good prizes. The set matters but it only matters to the extent to where if everything else is bad, then the set is the cop out. Since everything can end up being bad, then theres an easy conclusion that nothing is worth it what so ever.
 
SD PokeMom said:
gotta love the slaps at not only the PTOs, but the 'gym and team compendium...=/

cynical me is cynical: with the coming world-wide simultaneous release of X and Y, i'm guessing he fears he won't be the big source of news from japan anymore...so he's trying to get back into OP's good graces to keep his info streams from drying up. jmho....
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Looks like you're still someone twice the guy's age trying to vilify him. Adding "jmho" to the end doesn't stop a post from being accusatory or inflammatory.
 
Unlocking.
Keep on topic, which includes discussion of the whole scan posting thing,
 
evil psyduck said:
Wrong! One of the years the had worlds in Florida he gave his word that he would not release scans until the night before the first pre's in the states. It didn't even last one set.
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Maybe it didn't even last one set because I never agreed to anything like that? And I'll tell you exactly why I never would have agreed to anything like that. At that Worlds, Dave and I went outside to talk about some things and he said TPCi might be interested in working with PB to release info. There were some conditions, though, of which I don't really remember. I do remember not agreeing to at least one of them and telling him that. Dave was very kind to me throughout the entire thing, and I've always respected him, so let's make that clear.

Later that day, I was walking around taking photos with my press badge that TPCi had given me (well actually, I had to work out getting it over a day or two of constantly asking and running around). One of the TPCi guys preceded to walk up to me in front of everyone and told me to hand over the press badge because I was not agreeing with what they wanted. I handed it over and walked out.

So I really don't think I agreed to anything that day. Maybe Dave thought I did, but I did not.

What I /do/ remember at some point in the site's history is talking to Chrisbo at a prerelease and him telling me something like "it would be nice if you waited until Friday." I think for the next set after that convo I did that, and then I tried to stick to that in subsequent sets except when I wouldn't be available to edit and post them on a Friday and would have to get them up a day or so earlier. As far as I remember, I have never, ever been told by anyone when to post the scans. It had only been suggested to me once by Chris and I decided to go along with it.
 
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Shining Raikou said:
All of the pre-release scans get replaced after a few weeks when we get our higher quality versions in. That is so not new.
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For amusement, please go and actually look at the scan that I linked. AFAIK, that one was up there until, approximately, this week-ish.
 
No, no it was not. The prerelease scans all use the same filenames as the eventual final versions. They get replaced when Shakespeare uploads the new ones. Maybe it was still in your cache.

Proof: http://pokebeach.com/ftp.jpg

The scan was replaced in November. Besides, what's your point?
 
I don't think pre-release scans have as much baring on people going to tournaments as he is making it out to be. I think generally, the pre-release scans build some hype for the events. I don't think there is any additional excitement of going to a pre-release this time around just because I can't look at all the pre-release scans haven't been posted.

Here's the factors I consider when going to attend pre-releases.

1.) Money. This is the big thing. If I don't have much money, I'm not going to go. The Dragons Exalted pre-release is the only one I haven't attended since I started playing and this is because I had just moved to a new city, and didn't have much expendable money or time. For Boundaries Crossed, I had more expendable money, so I went to 3.

2.) to support the local to's and stores. This is probably the only reason I will go to a pre-release for Plasma Storm. I appreciate the value that organized play in my area and the local store I play at brings to my life. In turn I want to support the stores when I can.

I think it's very bad that this is the ONLY reason I will attend a pre-release for Plasma Storm. I like being able to support my local store, but it's not good that the perceived value I have of these events is so low that I don't want to attend them based on the product and tournament available.

3.) Excitement - With the current release schedule this is pretty much impossible. Regardless if scans are released or not, I won't get excited from the cards in the set, as Japanese sets come out months before, so I can easily translate what will probably be in the English set. In fact, with excitement not being there, disappointment is the only thing that come from these events, and I think this is what the Singaporean players felt when seeing Ether, Bicycle, and Escape Rope not in Boundaries Crossed. The only way for them to fix this is simultaneous set releases.

4.) Perceived value. I went to the Boundaries Crossed Pre-Releases, and did not pull a single EX in 24 packs and have gone on to pull just 3 Ace Specs (1 Computer Search and 1 each of the unplayable Crystals), and also did not get any plAyable holos. As a result, the perceived value I have of opening loose packs is very low. I would be much better spending money on a box or buying singles. If the pull rates and cards in general (all the filler we receive in our sets) are bad the perceived value will remain low.

What's the best way to solve this problem? Increase the value of the product by improving the sets and pull rates. If I could go into a pre-release knowing I would get at least 1 EX, I would definitely go.

What's the best way to do this? Well they just made that Plasma Elite trainer box that comes with a deck box, damage counter dice, randomization dice, and status markers. Instead of releasing this as a retail product, why not make this the pre-release product.

Moving beyond the why not put box toppers in this product. Put 7-8 packs in there and top each box with a random EX from the set.

All of a sudden, the value of the event has gone up. Everyone will walk away with at least 1 EX, as well as tools for playing the game, which will be especially useful for converting new players over to competitive play.

Not only this, by giving everyone an EX, the tournament becomes much more balanced. This is another problem with these events, the actual tournament has no value. Prize support should be added back. It doesn't have to be major, butt taking a box for prize support and splitting it between the 3 age divisions could work. 6 packs for 1st, 4 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd/4th.

This would make players want to go actually play in the tournament, giving the tournament itself actual value.

Just my 2 cents
 
Could someone please enlighten me to something: What are you all doing? You've taken someone who is trying to turn over a new leaf and attacked him. You briefly locked this thread for reasons that I personally consider childish (and for all of you who will argue, how often are "off topic threads" really locked? I've been a member since 2011, and I haven't seen it very often at all). Please understand something: I am not bashing or disrespecting anyone; that is not my intention. I just don't see the point of putting personal information for all to see. If you have something to say that is of a personal nature (such as an accusation, or the admittance of a doubt on someone's word or honesty), why not just PM the individual?

For all the TOs and POs: you're angry at this guy because he has disrespected you in the past (a fact that he has admitted to); but if you're going to attack him and his integrity on these forums for all to see, aren't you sinking to the very level of the man who so obviously disgusts some of you? You say he'll probably change his mind; and you know, he just might. Whomever takes the word of another without a grain of salt (feeling(s) of doubt) is setting himself/herself up for disaster. But you know, he may also keep his word. The only thing that will answer these questions is time. End of story.

To everyone: You all claim to love this game, it's players, and the community if holds. If that is the case, why let pride get in the way of something that could benefit everything you hold dear with this game? Why sink into the he-said-she-said nonsense that is something so many Pokemon players ridicule the younger members of the community for doing? Genuinely, honestly, why?

If you feel I have gone to far with this statement, please say as much. I have no desire to create ill will with anyone on this site. Never have, never will.

Chance,

A competitive player,
A lover of this game and its community,
A guy with a question.
 
Alright, If you don't wanna post scans give me your sources and I'll post them.
And btw does this: "TL;DR: I won't be posting prerelease scans anymore, I only did it because I was trying to bring excitement to the online Pokemon fandom at a time when things weren't in good shape, I've realized my mistake, and I'm sorry to the TOs and TPCi." mean that you wont be posting any prerelease scans anymore?
 
That's exactly what he said he'd do guys. He said he'd post scans after the first day of prerelease was over. That was the plan the whole time. He hasn't gone back on anything he's said here.
 
Wait, what? You guys didn't get that? The whole post was talking about how I used to post scans before the official events. For some sets, I did it over a week in advance of the prereleases. Usually though it was just a couple days before. The whole post was saying I'm sorry for doing that and ruining the fun of the surprise. Once the first events are over on Saturday, the cards are public knowledge and you're allowed to post them. PokeGym does it too, and TPCi has said before that the night of the first events are okay to post them.

What did people think I meant?? I guess people didn't read my post all the way. Can't blame them I guess.
 
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