Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

PTCGO: The Hope, The Promise, The Disappointment

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Yoshi- said:
Thank you!

This is the kind of statement I was looking for.. "Were realizing that the current system isnt working all that great and instead of resolving every issue seperatly were kinda renewing the whole thing"

This is exactly what I was hoping to hear and this makes me really happy and gives me back some hope. But why does it have to come from someone who is sitting next to the guys who should be posting this :p?

I wish official people would just star communicating more, just give us some feedback, something.. I dont mind the programm not working if I know theyre on it but with no feedback / nothing happening most people just got the idea that the whole project was abandoned already.

I still feel like you guys will have to deliver quite something to "renew" the hype but Im hoping =)

And redoing the whole thing is probably for the best, better then hotfixing around every issue again and again. Everything works smoother when coded a second time :p
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In a corporate environment, people aren't always free to say anything they want to say. Further, they may not want to say everything they know, or think, in a given moment. Communication in such an environment isn't organic--and if there isn't a specific process in place for how and what information will be communicated to consumers and customers, things can get messy.

I just don't think it's always as simple as, "Why won't they tell us anything?" There are rules and protocols set in place that people have to follow.
 
TheDancingPeanut said:
In a corporate environment, people aren't always free to say anything they want to say. Further, they may not want to say everything they know, or think, in a given moment. Communication in such an environment isn't organic--and if there isn't a specific process in place for how and what information will be communicated to consumers and customers, things can get messy.

I just don't think it's always as simple as, "Why won't they tell us anything?" There are rules and protocols set in place that people have to follow.
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That's great and all, but they still needed to tell us something. Most of the problems with the program have been an issue for months. If they needed to get approval to post a message, they should have gotten together in December to create the post that was made earlier today. All I see from the PTCGO is a textbook example of how to turn your customers off of your product before it's even finalized.
 
I have sank so much money into this game (mainly because due to my isolated location in the world I do not have the opportunity to play the game I love so much in a physical setting) and the state of the game continues to dishearten me on a daily basis. I keep hoping and praying that today will be the day I can log on and actually play a game the way I've been dreaming about for months, but alas nothing happens.

I wish so much that I could poke my head behind the curtain and see just what is happening, but it is impossible. I can only hold out hope for so long that a truly great version of this game will come. I believe it will, I just hope that it's not too late. I would hate for the finished product to be released to a consumer base who just doesn't care any more.
 
One...."bug" that feel should have been fixed long ago is the match pairing system. The amount starter decks I run into is ridiculous. That has been a problem from the start and has improved much at all. Its not even a bug as much as it is something that needs to be changed. I felt that it was a little better around NV's time, but lately seems to be as bad as ever.

I'm not giving up on it 100%, but I'm really, really disappointed in the game right now. I've spent a lot of time and money, all for naught at this point.
 
I have no doubt that the team knows what the issues are, and knows how to fix them. Thing only thing I wish would get communicated a little bit more clearly is whether or not the company is fully committed to the product. I don't think there's anyone here who can't understand or accept the concept of a Beta release, nor are any of us without patience. But too often in the gaming community, people invest time and money into a game, system or platform only to have the support for that game, system or platform pulled out from underneath them.

So the only real question I have about the PTCGO is: Are the powers that be committed to fixing it and making it live up to its potential? I think that if we had a more definite answer, people might feel more inclined to believe that the next incarnation will be better. The answer has been hinted at, with references to a ground-up reworking. But to me, the tone is still somewhat wishy-washy. I'd love to hear something along the lines of, "The PTCGO is here to stay. It's a key component of the Pokemon TCG community, and we're committed to working out the bugs and creating a smooth experience for players." Because the truth is, the development team could be doing its job and working on a re-code, but the powers that be could be eyeing and end to the project at the same time. We just don't really know where the company stands.

On my end, however--from the retail standpoint--demand for cods is still very high. Yes, the price has dropped. But I still sell through about as many codes as I can get. I have not noticed a decrease in demand for codes since B&W was released.
 
TheDancingPeanut said:
On my end, however--from the retail standpoint--demand for cods is still very high. Yes, the price has dropped. But I still sell through about as many codes as I can get. I have not noticed a decrease in demand for codes since B&W was released.
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If the price is lower, that pretty much implies in itself that the demand is less. You're also dealing with less competitors on the market who don't sell anymore due to the low selling price so you might just be getting a higher percentage of total traffic. =P
 
sdrawkcab said:
If the price is lower, that pretty much implies in itself that the demand is less. You're also dealing with less competitors on the market who don't sell anymore due to the low selling price so you might just be getting a higher percentage of total traffic. =P
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I think the price is lower because there is much more supply. When B&W come out, and codes were $1, there were only codes in hobby-market boxes from the first couple of print runs (or something like that).

Now, there are four sets worth of booster boxes with codes out there. Of course the price is going to drop, if the increase in supply increases faster than the increase in demand. But that doesn't mean demand has dropped.

---------- Post added 02/04/2012 at 03:14 PM ----------

Just as a side note, I think $1 was way too much anyway. If codes were still $1, wouldn't be able to find sealed NV boxes for less than $120.
 
With regards to all of the complaints about PTCGO...y'all DO know it is just a BETA version, correct? The BETA version WILL more have bugs, lag issues, etc. etc than the final completed version.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.
 
peadawg14 said:
With regards to all of the complaints about PTCGO...y'all DO know it is just a BETA version, correct? The BETA version WILL more have bugs, lag issues, etc. etc than the final completed version.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.
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I am pretty sure that people know since it has been mentioned in this thread a few times. It doesn't seem to be the fact that it is in Beta that is the issue. The issue is the lack of communication.
 
sdrawkcab said:
If the price is lower, that pretty much implies in itself that the demand is less. You're also dealing with less competitors on the market who don't sell anymore due to the low selling price so you might just be getting a higher percentage of total traffic. =P
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The demand isn't less; the supply is just greater.

Has the same effect: a reduction in price. However, it does not have the same meaning. Lots of people still want codes, there are just more of them available.
 
I remember reading somewhere their budget is very minimal and their team is small, some of whom don't even play Pokemon. I guess that would explain it, if true. I think if they offered it on a subscription (like $5-$10 a month) and made it downloadable it's be a lot better.

And I'm sure the coding is a lot more complicated than people are giving it credit.
 
I ended up checking out Magic Online, and it was one of the least fun experiences I had on my computer ever. That game is hard to navigate, visually ugly, and the gameplay doesn't flow as well as PTCGO.

I'll say this about PTCGO in comparison to Magic. They're on the right track with PTCGO as far as the user interface is concerned. They're also on the right track as far as the price point, free codes in booster packs is the right idea, and a corresponding 50 cent to a dollar to buy a booster pack online in the future would be around the right price. Much better than the ridiculous $3.99 on Magic online.

PTCGO just needs to get the following things done:

-Friendlists/Ability to play friends.
-Online tournaments
-Fix all the bugs in how the card works. The game will simply fail if the cards don't work.
-Ways to get all promo cards online (Tropical Beach)

With the exception of tropical beach, it seems like all of these things should be done by the end of this year. Once the game is out of beta and the game works properly, it will provide a good opportunity for the game to grow, at least online. It's just simply a much better user experience than Magic Online....I mean really, Magic Online was really a horrible experience. Not going to ever go back on that thing, not even to try to get some value on the $10 I had to pay for their starter kit/account activation.
 
Charranitar said:
I ended up checking out Magic Online, and it was one of the least fun experiences I had on my computer ever. That game is hard to navigate, visually ugly, and the gameplay doesn't flow as well as PTCGO.

I'll say this about PTCGO in comparison to Magic. They're on the right track with PTCGO as far as the user interface is concerned. They're also on the right track as far as the price point, free codes in booster packs is the right idea, and a corresponding 50 cent to a dollar to buy a booster pack online in the future would be around the right price. Much better than the ridiculous $3.99 on Magic online.

PTCGO just needs to get the following things done:

-Friendlists/Ability to play friends.
-Online tournaments
-Fix all the bugs in how the card works. The game will simply fail if the cards don't work.
-Ways to get all promo cards online (Tropical Beach)

With the exception of tropical beach, it seems like all of these things should be done by the end of this year. Once the game is out of beta and the game works properly, it will provide a good opportunity for the game to grow, at least online. It's just simply a much better user experience than Magic Online....I mean really, Magic Online was really a horrible experience. Not going to ever go back on that thing, not even to try to get some value on the $10 I had to pay for their starter kit/account activation.
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I don´t think you played magic online much. Its the best traiding card online software out there.

-It mabe looks ugly, but the client run on every comuter out there, even if it is 10 years old.
-The client almost never lags, is user firendly and has 24/7 Live chat suport in the client.
- The support is amazing. (some day somehow the client crashed and i got droped from a draft. i just wirte a refund form and i got my entry fee back and 2 aditional booster for excuse.)
-You can 24/7 draft, play against firends and play tournements.
- its cost about real life boost prices, but you can sell you cards for $ at some point on the sencond market.
- for examle if you have a complete Set online, you can let the company delete your online set and send you a real one.


If Pokemon Online will at some point neraly as good as Magic online, i will play it. but at the moment i can´see this comng..
 
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A few points:

--PTCGO keeps alluding to some big overhaul. In my mind, the only overhaul large enough to justify what's been going on would be if they are scrapping the flash interface completely in favor of a downloadable client. That would certainly take a lot of work. (Of course, there is no indication that this is what is happening.)

--It's interesting that they've mentioned that they are not fixing certain bugs because they are closely related to fundamental problems in the game's rules architecture. This is troubling to me, because in a game like this, pretty much any absolute rule can be broken by a potential future card (or rules change). In other words, this means that the original programmers did not adequately plan for future expansion, which doesn't inspire confidence.

--PTCGO doesn't seem to understand its players at all. They waste their time on ridiculous things like the Leaderboard while not allowing people to play their friends. (It goes without saying that fixing game bugs in priority number one.) And while they have pretty good resources for new players, they are not very good at explaining how their site actually works. (How many times do you see people showing up in the Lobby saying, "How do I make a deck?")

--The matchmaking on PTCGO is still pretty terrible, but it has definitely improved a lot over time. They claim that the player base needs to grow in order to get better matchmaking, and I think that there is a lot of truth to this. I find that if you play at times when there are many users, you get much better matches on average. But really, telling you, "Sorry, no match was found," is better than matching a competitive meta deck against a free one.

--I agree with the idea that the real problem is that the company is just not committed to PTCGO's success. If you throw enough resources at a problem, it will go away.
 
I'll wait for the new release of this to be released first because the game is kind of unplayable for me. Flash was the wrongs way to go about this. See if you guys can make it into a program you download and install with all the same options. That way you don't deal with the lag issues of Flash and its not dependent on the Pokemon Website to work.
 
Someone remember the old Pokemon TCG GameBoy game? even that was better than Pokemon Online is right now and the gameboy tcg is like 10 years old :D
 
User Name said:
Someone remember the old Pokemon TCG GameBoy game? even that was better than Pokemon Online is right now and the gameboy tcg is like 10 years old :D
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If by "remember" you mean "have in hand right now owning the fire gym with raindance.dek" then yes. But seriously, they've promised a set of improvements and a new bottom-up client. Patience is key. Or would you guys rather have had nothig, and just waited till 2012? I personally am glad they went with an open beta, bugs and all.
 
cabd said:
If by "remember" you mean "have in hand right now owning the fire gym with raindance.dek" then yes. But seriously, they've promised a set of improvements and a new bottom-up client. Patience is key. Or would you guys rather have had nothig, and just waited till 2012? I personally am glad they went with an open beta, bugs and all.
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That game was awesome. Japan had a sequel to it too which was even better. We never got it in the US. I had downloaded the rom (LOL, take that SOPA) and spent an entire an entire week playing it without leaving my house.
 
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