TCG Online Codes for League: I don't get it

[ChaosJim]

Based off of what I can tell here:
http://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/play-pokemon-leagues/

It looks as though there will be no actual promo cards for league, but only code cards.

I don't want to get too upset about this before I say: I don't get it.

I was under the impression that TPCi has been working toward two goals:
1) Accessibility of rare cards to all players. Trying to keep secondary market prices from being exorbitantly high.
2) Generating more lifetime value from Juniors and Seniors, & growing the younger player base.

This might address the accessibility issue, but online only. I don't know what the codes give players, but if it is Lilliput or Tepig, I'm underwhelmed.

I realize that getting players to play online could be linked to lifetime value, but I imagine getting people to come to league excited for REAL rewards seems like the bigger deal. Lots of little kids don't play online, but nearly every single one of them can enjoy a foil or a cute card.

When others voiced their concern about the changes to Regionals, and cited that they complained because they cared, they were treated as being selfish more often than not. I'm very genuinely concerned that I see this as the wrong direction for league to be headed in. Moving from POP Packs to useful cards that hadn't been printed in a while was a fantastic move, and moving those playable cards to player rewards was a good move too. I just don't understand the motive here.

I'm expecting to be told that I'm not owed an explanation. Really though, without understanding the motivation, I cannot, nor can anyone else, offer what they see as a solution that would both help TPCi's goals as well as be good for them as an individual.

-A concerned League Leader

 

[artist92]

Yeah, I agree. As a collector, I put a much higher personal value on a physical card than a whole booster of virtual ones. TCGO is good for practicing, (as long as I can get the same cards I have IRL...) but the real deal is so much more fun! Maybe if it would be possible to give an option of either a promo card OR a code card? I can still see there being problems like printing each and then having a surplus of one and a shortage of another, but I think some sort of option would be better.

 

[losjackal]

This might address the accessibility issue, but online only. I don't know what the codes give players, but if it is Lilliput or Tepig, I'm underwhelmed.

Why is a real life Lilliput or Tepig any better? The promo cards for last year were underwhelming IMO. I guess some players like the holo energies, but the hardly makes a difference...whether for tradability or playability. You can compare this move against Uxie, Claydol, Expert Belt, DCE if you want...but that's not on the table. Compared to holo energies and unimportant Pokémon, I'm willing to try something new.


Each code card redeems for a set of digital league promos. It seems TPC's goal is to have people trade these to other players online who might know that leagues exist.

This presumes that TPC believes there are many players on PTCGO who do not play TCG in real life. This could be a step in the right direction to encourage these virtual players to play in real life too. The counterpoint is it's an interesting question of which players value the promo cards over the season reward of a cool badge. Will they keep coming to earn badges that look like the ones in the TV series? I hope so, and that seems to be feedback TPC has received. It's a calculated risk, I'm sure they've considered what will happen if they discontinued promo cards for this cycle.


In the larger context, it seems right to me that they are trying to encourage PTCGO. As an elite player, it's easy to criticize it's shortcomings. And to TPC's credit, they rebuilt it so as to have a better foundation to fix the problems. But to a kid who likes the game, and hasn't become a player in real life? They can fire up PTCGO and play anytime they want. Kids do it with dumb Flash games online all the time, so why not try to give them a good Pokémon game? And then convert those into the real life card game? That seems to be part of the strategy for this year.


As a League Leader, I don't see any reason why we wouldn't encourage the use of PTCGO, and these league promo code cards help us do that.

 

[Tash]

My league leader usually just hoarded the holo energies and used them as trade bait, anyway.

 

[vaporeon]

My league leader usually just hoarded the holo energies and used them as trade bait, anyway.

You should report him for doing that. It's considered a integrity issue because s(he) stealing from the league.

 

[ApachePrime]

My league leader usually just hoarded the holo energies and used them as trade bait, anyway.

"hoarded" how? Each league leader is allowed to play to earn their promos, as they can report themselves in attendance. So if he/she had 4 of each, this is perfectly allowable.

If you're saying this person didn't award them at league at all, then this person should no longer be a league leader. There is precedent set that this is not only heavily frowned upon, but can lead to some pretty nasty consequences from Play!Pokemon. If your league leader is not giving out promos, and offering to trade for them, you should 100% report the incident to Play!Pokemon through their customer service portal.

My local league leader plays with us, and does everything he can to distribute the promos to players. He even keeps track of old league seasons, and rewards us for those. Every few months we get stacks of promos and baggies of pins. The league promos are FREE, and should be GIVEN to players at every opportunity. That is the purpose of said promos.

 

[losjackal]

^^ Yeah, what do you mean by hoard? As long as the participating players get their 4 sets of promo cards, the leader is free to do what he/she wants with any extras.

 

[JohnnyBlaze]

2) Generating more lifetime value from Juniors and Seniors, & growing the younger player base.

Jimmy I dont understand this issue either. Where I hold my league lets just say that it is in a town/county with less than median household income and that the majority of my Jr/SR players dont even have a computer in their household. Now this may seem ridiculous to many people on here that post in these forums but the sad reality is that there are a numerous amount of homes/families in the US that do not have a personal computer in their home. So to give out online promo code cards is not catering to the JR/SR player base. Its actually catering to the college age older Master division which Tcpi has done the exact opposite with the Regionals prizes. What is going on here? I am totally confused.

 

[losjackal]

That's surprising to me Johnny, just because there must be just so many computers that are recycling for scrap nowadays, that would still be useful to someone that has no computer at all.

From a business perspective, is it safe to say those same households aren't spending much money on Pokémon cards in the first place? Marketing dollars need to be spent on the demographic that have money to spend.

 

[psychup2034]

That's surprising to me Johnny, just because there must be just so many computers that are recycling for scrap nowadays, that would still be useful to someone that has no computer at all.

More importantly is access to the internet. As of 2010, only 71% of Americans have access to the internet at home. (Source: United States Census Bureau)

I also know of several Pokemon players without internet access at home. Anecdotal evidence is not optimal, but it seems there's a large minority of people that is being shunned by this choice to give out code cards as league rewards. That being said...

Marketing dollars need to be spent on the demographic that have money to spend.

I agree completely. Pokemon is a business, and unfortunately, businesses can't always cater to everyone's needs. Alienating the people who don't have money to spend does seem like a wiser choice than alienating the vast majority of the Masters division.

 

[Biggie]

1) Accessibility of rare cards to all players. Trying to keep secondary market prices from being exorbitantly high.

To be clear, we do not make any decisions based on secondary market. We have offered deck staples to help younger players get started in the past, and we may do so again in the future.

2) Generating more lifetime value from Juniors and Seniors, & growing the younger player base.

Younger players are exactly the kind of players who are going to be most excited about the badges and badge cases. losjackal also makes some astute observations about the effects of spreading the word about Leagues to those who don't yet play TCG on a local level.

 

[acktacky]

This presumes that TPC believes there are many players on PTCGO who do not play TCG in real life. This could be a step in the right direction to encourage these virtual players to play in real life too. The counterpoint is it's an interesting question of which players value the promo cards over the season reward of a cool badge. Will they keep coming to earn badges that look like the ones in the TV series? I hope so, and that seems to be feedback TPC has received. It's a calculated risk, I'm sure they've considered what will happen if they discontinued promo cards for this cycle.

I think there is a vastly small division of the TCG community that only plays on PTCGO. I think looking at it from PTCGO backwards is well... Backwards. The only thing that can rectify this is if they code cards are actually VALUABLE to the PTCGO community, and thus drive users who are new or have discontinued playing online back to PTCGO.

However, I do agree that the badges look totally swag, and have me more excited for anything that has been released in the past year in terms of promos. Is it sad that there's no cards that will be released? A little. But I have only been playing for a year, and I valued playing games without marks far higher than wasting the league leader's time to mark off my card. Haha.

 

[losjackal]

I think there is a vastly small division of the TCG community that only plays on PTCGO.

Yes! The TCG community plays the TCG. That is all of us.

What about the kids who have just bought Pokémon cards here and there, but not actually made a deck and played by the rules. I bet there are lots of those, and really only TPC knows for sure based on market research.

So, what's the next step for those kids? Discovering PTCGO, downloading the program, and starting to playing the real game is a much smaller barrier to entry than making deck in real life and going to league session. Both avenues hopefully yield to purchasing booster packs to build decks in real life and with codes online, but I hope you can see how it's easier to "get started" online now.

 

[solo59486]

I got started playing the TCG by playing tcgo first (I was bored during summer and decided to check out the TCG part of the pokemon website for once). I learned how to play from the online tutorials then after i beat the trainer challenge I decided that I want to try this game out so I went to a league then after that went to a prerelease then one thing lead to another and *BOOM* here I am now!

Also I didn't even know all of this existed until after my first year of pokemon when a friend told me about this...