This entire back and forth is getting out of hand. Since I started reading this board a while back(I've always been kind of a lurker), I've felt that criticizing Pokemon in any way will bring hate, no matter how genuine and polite your criticism is, and this thread doesn't change my mind.
For those who argue that PTCGO is free, it is, in the same sense that most premier events are. Both are there to provide incentive to purchase packs. While they ARE free, imagine if BRs, the day before multiple started, got moved back. Then got moved back again. Would we still be whining children who can't get their way if we politely told how the disliked the situation, and went to a Pokemon forum to discuss our issues? To be fair, the penalty to players who wanted to attend a tournament is greater(travel prep, work arrangements), but I think anyone can understand the point there.
I understand that those that are defending PTCGO here just really love Pokemon, and I do as well. However, shooting every valid criticism down doesn't help anyone. Is anyone at Pokemon going to have its feelings hurt over some players being disappointed? No, obviously not. However, knowing what a large part of the community thinks of their actions provides great feedback. Getting offended because a group of people is disappointed in something you like doesn't justify hurling insults, inferring we're unintelligent , and wanting us to stop criticizing Pokemon. As far as I've seen, we're not demanding it be released now, we're voicing how we don't like how it's been handled, and how long it's taken. Can anything be done about that? As far as taking too long, not at this moment, as I'm sure they're working as hard as they can, but how they've handled it has already changed for the better, no longer pushing the time back hours at a time repeatedly as they missed goals. I appreciate these changes, as others here did.
As far as the free argument goes, that isn't how free works. If anything 'free' is attached to a paid product, it isn't free, it's marketing/a sale. Buy 1 get 1 free isn't free either, it's a 50% markdown as long as your purchase a set amount of product. If someone wanted to play online, but had no reason to play paper, those codes would be 4 bucks(possibly less at a LGS), with 'free' cards. The codes aren't free, they're no-cost-added marketing. I've most certainly bought more packs in the past week, gearing up for this release, because of the code cards, so it's obviously working, and a great strategy. I'd be willing to call it a 'mostly free incentive' but it's certainly not free.
TLDR: It will be up when it's up, but trying to dismiss criticism that a large group has and insulting them along the way isn't helping anyone, especially not those who're working on the game, as feedback is valuable. We're all here because we enjoy PTCGO, and want it to succeed, arguing over who is/isn't right about if a criticism is valid gets us nowhere, as any criticism is valid unless it's flat out wrong(ex: I dislike PTCGO because I ate cheese that was out of date). Also, free isn't much of a flexible term in reality.
