Changes Coming to Pokémon TCG Online Code Redemptions
- Thread starter ticka222
- Start date
I'm probably echoing others here but this could be really bad for people like myself who are only planning on playing the online game due to not be able to play competitively and having no desire just to collect. Right now you can get hundreds of codes for the price of a regular booster box which basically guarantees you can make a competitive deck for online play. If a new set has multiple cards that are being played competitively then the price of codes for that set will be a lot higher that current prices for codes.
Yarac
New Member
This is not good for business or players.
I'm guessing I'm not the only player whose online collection doesn't look like their RL collection. While I enjoyed the pre-releases and winning tournament packs when Call of Legend and Emerging Powers came out, I made minimal investments in those sets online - the very few good cards those sets offered I just traded for. Basically, booster pack credits were a great way for players to compensate against poorly designed sets.
So now I'll just ebay the RL cards I want from the poorer sets and not bother buying the packs.
I'm guessing I'm not the only player whose online collection doesn't look like their RL collection. While I enjoyed the pre-releases and winning tournament packs when Call of Legend and Emerging Powers came out, I made minimal investments in those sets online - the very few good cards those sets offered I just traded for. Basically, booster pack credits were a great way for players to compensate against poorly designed sets.
So now I'll just ebay the RL cards I want from the poorer sets and not bother buying the packs.
FirestormXVI
Member
This is good for business.
Bad for players (although good from an interaction design point of view).
And if you played / traded online enough you know this is really hardly something to quit the game over. That's an overreaction to say the least.
I look at this with 3 things in mind:
I play the TCGO regularly recently, and this change doesn't phase me at all, but that's because I buy the real TCG a good amount and I often trade cards for code cards. I feel this change actually simplifies things for consumers and TPCi. I can't count the number of times someone was in TCGO chat confused as to how to redeem codes, THEN on top of that having to redeem the credit for the pack/packs they want.
Finally, most people have the cards they need from current sets, and those who don't won't have to worry too much. If they roll out the changes like I pointed out in my first point, then the change will have virtually no impact in TCGO Modified play. Unlimited is a different story though... As well as collections...
- With the changes to Modified each September, they can push the rotated sets out of the code redemption and into direct pack redemption with minimal impact on players building competetive decks.
- This is beta, I wouldn't be surprised if it was inteded from the beginning to have players redeem pack codes for packs from the set they came out of. I mean, each set had their own code design so it makes sence. When TCGO came out, HGSS sets were still in modified, so they had to implement some way to get the packs, thus booster credits were created. At least that's my theory.
- This change going forward should have little impact on the game for the reason above, as MOST (I know not all) players who compete, get packs of the current set(s) anyway, and if they want cards from a certain set, they can just buy the codes from the specific set anyway.
I play the TCGO regularly recently, and this change doesn't phase me at all, but that's because I buy the real TCG a good amount and I often trade cards for code cards. I feel this change actually simplifies things for consumers and TPCi. I can't count the number of times someone was in TCGO chat confused as to how to redeem codes, THEN on top of that having to redeem the credit for the pack/packs they want.
Finally, most people have the cards they need from current sets, and those who don't won't have to worry too much. If they roll out the changes like I pointed out in my first point, then the change will have virtually no impact in TCGO Modified play. Unlimited is a different story though... As well as collections...
I posted this in the PTCGO forum and I figured I would post it here to add to the discussion-
If Gems being implemented is part of the reason for this, I dont see how this will benefit the online community at all.
People either use codes from booster packs they buy or codes they buy by themselves, and when gems are implemented there will be a price point established for online booster packs. Once that happens, retailers and ebayers will have a base price (most likely way higher than the 25-50 cent/code premium now) to sell packs for. This in turn, will drive away players, as the premium for playing online only will likely rise to near the expense of playing in real life.
If they intend to charge any more than 50 cents for a booster pack credit (IE hypothetically 1 gem = 1 USD = 2 booster credits), its going to drive away massive amounts of casual players that cant afford the premium of REAL boosters or even the price point at which the "GEM to Pack" is set.
If Gems being implemented is part of the reason for this, I dont see how this will benefit the online community at all.
People either use codes from booster packs they buy or codes they buy by themselves, and when gems are implemented there will be a price point established for online booster packs. Once that happens, retailers and ebayers will have a base price (most likely way higher than the 25-50 cent/code premium now) to sell packs for. This in turn, will drive away players, as the premium for playing online only will likely rise to near the expense of playing in real life.
If they intend to charge any more than 50 cents for a booster pack credit (IE hypothetically 1 gem = 1 USD = 2 booster credits), its going to drive away massive amounts of casual players that cant afford the premium of REAL boosters or even the price point at which the "GEM to Pack" is set.
FirestormXVI
Member
Prices on the grey market will go to what people are willing to pay for them. Doubt it'll be much higher than it's at now. TPCi will set them at what they think is appropriate. Casual players likely aren't buying codes en masse anyway.
I don't know if I'll use the Gem system, but I would say the benefit of a gem store is that this game likely wouldn't exist if they didn't intend to use it to make money from. Unless you can explain another way for this product to become profitable?
I just want to say one thing-
Unless it's been mentioned, it seems league codes have been completely skipped over as the means for which people can acquire staples. iirc, I know that some league seasons would provide you with Ns, Junipers, and other playable staples online. Not to mention you still have redemption for decks (?)-if its staples you want, I would say the Xerneas/Yvetal decks are a good place to start. But outside of that (for things like ACE SPECS, Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym and EXs) that gets a bit more dicey. You're sorta stuck buying tins at that point or the codes that come out of the tins. But if you play the market smart, the horrible T&T will not be able to rustle the secondary code card market that badly.
What I wish COULD be done, is have an in-game "redemption AI system" something to where you can "virtually trade in" X amount of "garbage pulls you have and get certain cards you need. You still have people buying packs anyways because that's not going to change. And people will still generate "online bulk"-Why not give the player the ability to turn in that useless digital copies en-mass for cards they need? Plus, it give online players a way to generate cards through the system and trade with others for the things they want. That would seem like the most logical way to fix it for everyone.
So essentially-
1) Player buys pack gets code card to redeem online packs of the same set
2) Player can stockpile useless virtual bulk to eventually turn in cards that are not as readily available or for cards PLS-on
3) The system could create a "virtual redeption turn-in" based on how much bulk/points/whatever you want to set up for it
4) Player redeems useful cards by "bulk trading"
5) You can either lock these redemption cards to the account or allow them to be freely traded. Locking them to the account would probably make more sense so people don't aimlessly generate tons of usable staples with codes they might have gotten for free irl. If you don't lock them, those that have tons of codes they've sat on can bulk redeem_> flood the market with staples for others to trade for-> possible healthy trade market
Just my two cents.
- - - Updated - - -
I just want to say one thing-
Unless it's been mentioned, it seems league codes have been completely skipped over as the means for which people can acquire staples. iirc, I know that some league seasons would provide you with Ns, Junipers, and other playable staples online. Not to mention you still have redemption for decks (?)-if its staples you want, I would say the Xerneas/Yvetal decks are a good place to start. But outside of that (for things like ACE SPECS, Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym and EXs) that gets a bit more dicey. You're sorta stuck buying tins at that point or the codes that come out of the tins. But if you play the market smart, the horrible T&T will not be able to rustle the secondary code card market that badly.
What I wish COULD be done, is have an in-game "redemption AI system" something to where you can "virtually trade in" X amount of "garbage pulls you have and get certain cards you need. You still have people buying packs anyways because that's not going to change. And people will still generate "online bulk"-Why not give the player the ability to turn in that useless digital copies en-mass for cards they need? Plus, it give online players a way to generate cards through the system and trade with others for the things they want. That would seem like the most logical way to fix it for everyone.
So essentially-
1) Player buys pack gets code card to redeem online packs of the same set
2) Player can stockpile useless virtual bulk to eventually turn in cards that are not as readily available or for cards PLS-on
3) The system could create a "virtual redeption turn-in" based on how much bulk/points/whatever you want to set up for it
4) Player redeems useful cards by "bulk trading"
5) You can either lock these redemption cards to the account or allow them to be freely traded. Locking them to the account would probably make more sense so people don't aimlessly generate tons of usable staples with codes they might have gotten for free irl. If you don't lock them, those that have tons of codes they've sat on can bulk redeem_> flood the market with staples for others to trade for-> possible healthy trade market
Just my two cents.
Unless it's been mentioned, it seems league codes have been completely skipped over as the means for which people can acquire staples. iirc, I know that some league seasons would provide you with Ns, Junipers, and other playable staples online. Not to mention you still have redemption for decks (?)-if its staples you want, I would say the Xerneas/Yvetal decks are a good place to start. But outside of that (for things like ACE SPECS, Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym and EXs) that gets a bit more dicey. You're sorta stuck buying tins at that point or the codes that come out of the tins. But if you play the market smart, the horrible T&T will not be able to rustle the secondary code card market that badly.
What I wish COULD be done, is have an in-game "redemption AI system" something to where you can "virtually trade in" X amount of "garbage pulls you have and get certain cards you need. You still have people buying packs anyways because that's not going to change. And people will still generate "online bulk"-Why not give the player the ability to turn in that useless digital copies en-mass for cards they need? Plus, it give online players a way to generate cards through the system and trade with others for the things they want. That would seem like the most logical way to fix it for everyone.
So essentially-
1) Player buys pack gets code card to redeem online packs of the same set
2) Player can stockpile useless virtual bulk to eventually turn in cards that are not as readily available or for cards PLS-on
3) The system could create a "virtual redeption turn-in" based on how much bulk/points/whatever you want to set up for it
4) Player redeems useful cards by "bulk trading"
5) You can either lock these redemption cards to the account or allow them to be freely traded. Locking them to the account would probably make more sense so people don't aimlessly generate tons of usable staples with codes they might have gotten for free irl. If you don't lock them, those that have tons of codes they've sat on can bulk redeem_> flood the market with staples for others to trade for-> possible healthy trade market
Just my two cents.
- - - Updated - - -
I just want to say one thing-
Unless it's been mentioned, it seems league codes have been completely skipped over as the means for which people can acquire staples. iirc, I know that some league seasons would provide you with Ns, Junipers, and other playable staples online. Not to mention you still have redemption for decks (?)-if its staples you want, I would say the Xerneas/Yvetal decks are a good place to start. But outside of that (for things like ACE SPECS, Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym and EXs) that gets a bit more dicey. You're sorta stuck buying tins at that point or the codes that come out of the tins. But if you play the market smart, the horrible T&T will not be able to rustle the secondary code card market that badly.
What I wish COULD be done, is have an in-game "redemption AI system" something to where you can "virtually trade in" X amount of "garbage pulls you have and get certain cards you need. You still have people buying packs anyways because that's not going to change. And people will still generate "online bulk"-Why not give the player the ability to turn in that useless digital copies en-mass for cards they need? Plus, it give online players a way to generate cards through the system and trade with others for the things they want. That would seem like the most logical way to fix it for everyone.
So essentially-
1) Player buys pack gets code card to redeem online packs of the same set
2) Player can stockpile useless virtual bulk to eventually turn in cards that are not as readily available or for cards PLS-on
3) The system could create a "virtual redeption turn-in" based on how much bulk/points/whatever you want to set up for it
4) Player redeems useful cards by "bulk trading"
5) You can either lock these redemption cards to the account or allow them to be freely traded. Locking them to the account would probably make more sense so people don't aimlessly generate tons of usable staples with codes they might have gotten for free irl. If you don't lock them, those that have tons of codes they've sat on can bulk redeem_> flood the market with staples for others to trade for-> possible healthy trade market
Just my two cents.