First and foremost, lets address GodTrainer, and his stupid owl thing which doesn't actually make all too much sense.
I have judged. I have not judged as much as a good number of people, but I can guarantee you, 100%, that compared to playing your heart out at Worlds, or at Nationals, judging is not even close to as draining. I am not retracting that statement. I do not mean it to say that "judging is easy" because it isn't. It can take a pretty heavy toll on you, especially on a "bad day" full of difficult rulings and controversy. Otherwise the core of the issue is running around all day making sure everything stays in order. It is a tough job, but it isn't even close to as mentally exhausting as playing can be. You go and play in the 18 hour Team Multiple Player Championship from 2003, see how your head is doing by the end of it. I am not saying that judges do not do a great thing for this game. What I am saying is that when you hold a TOURNAMENT ( not a league, not a get-together-with-friends, but a sanctioned tournament ) that the BEST PLAYER that day should certainly win more than the staff gets for running it. In Ohio, do you know what happened at Battle Roads? We had 10+ people fighting for judge spots. Simply because it was stupid to play when you could judge, not have to think as hard, and make more packs! I'm not saying that half a box is inappropriate for judges. I think your being ignorant if you took that as the core point behind what I was saying. I was using it as a reference point to showcase how PITIFUL the prize support for the PLAYERS is. Also, I will be PMing you shortly, I have roughly 30 Victory Medals to sell you. Thanks for covering my trip to Nationals this year bud
As for the redistribution globally, how can Nintendo even think that makes sense? Lets give Organized Play the same amount of money, but lets vastly increase the number of regions and players they have to support. I was fed the argument that it is difficult to show a strong correlation between organized play and profits, but it shouldn't be so hard to prove that its physically impossible to maintain legitimate support when your having to expand your efforts into so many different territories with rapidly increasing player bases.
Due to the cost issue of flying people, and rooming them, may I ask why the decision is to always post Worlds in Hawaii, or Orlando, or *insert the hottest, most expensive tourist traps in the US here* I LOVE getting a nice vacation to a great city or state, but if resources are being spread so thinly, don't you think it is a better idea to go a bit more managable? Also, why are we consistently holding Worlds in the U.S? Wouldn't it be more cost efficent to hold it in Europe? They only have to deal with 8 trips from the U.S. so why are they crippling their budget with poor location choices? Especially since the European player base is growing quite well right now. I imagine Worlds held there would do a great job of jumpstarting that further.
Also, let me make a nice clear cut clarification regarding a misconception I'm seeing thrown around here a lot. What we are seeing is NOT a "redistribution" of prizes. Sure, if a player can play in the entire sample size of tournaments being offered, hey, look, a redistribution. The amount of prizes available potentially to any one player in this game has seen a dramatic drop off. "redistribution" is the kind way of saying " you can't win nearly as much anymore". Perhaps from the budget's standpoint, maybe redistribution is an appropriate term, but under absolutely no circumstance is it appropriate to claim that players are receiving anything less than a CUT.
Also, Scorpio, I am really, really confused by something. You claim, and I'll quote " Also, when has there been a CUT in prizes? Just a redistribution...." only to IMMEDIATELY respond to DarthPika with "You don't seem to read. Its definitely increased. Just not in the USA". Within the span of a quote, you managed to make two distinctly different arguments.
I want to address something as well, in regards to a mindset I've seen run rather rampant amongst a good number of posters. People seem to think that when a player wants an opportunity to make money at playing cards they have some unfair sense of entitlement. I love this game. I find it extremely fun. I work very hard to be as good at it as I am. I find playing Magic fun. I find playing Pokemon more fun than I find playing Magic. But I don't find it so much more fun that I'll pass up the opportunity to win thousands more dollars for that slight increment of increased fun. I'm not the only person with this type of mindset. All things equal, I'd pick Pokemon over any other game on the market...the problem is, everything is far from equal. It is hard to convince myself to choose to give myself less of an opportunity to profit.
As for the statistic of Pokemon outselling the other TCGs: I had seem a number of articles regarding TCG sales over the last year or so. I know that some of the data was posted here on the Pokegym as well. So yes, that is roughly a fact. I say roughly because I know I am pretty close in the ballpark, and that those numbers hold true for a good number of sales quarters, but I don't remember off the top of my head the specifics. I can try and find them though.
