Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

To Mall Tour or not to Mall Tour? That is the question.

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Dayton_Pokémom

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DaytonGymLeader and I have tossed this back and forth and I thought I would get it out on the board to give everyone a chance to add their 2 cents to the jar. This will also give the powers that be a chance to read it over and see if there are enough pennies to make it work.

What does everyone think about having a mall tour? I think that it would be a good idea for Nintendo. This will help with advertising league play and tournaments. This also gives players a chance to see how Pokémon is working under Nintendo. August-October would have been a great time to do one. However it’s too late for this year. If Nintendo decides to do a mall tour we will have to wait for next year, at least.

I also think that it is highly important that they do one in Europe as well. The Europeans have had, well, more problems with Pokémon then Americans. It could be a real morale booster and leave players more open to following on with Nintendo. Europe would take a lot more work to do but in the end it will be worth it.

If Nintendo does decide to do this it would be a good idea to have 3 types of tournaments going at the same time: straight TCG only, straight GB only, and biathlon, as the R/S Challenge is. Instead of doing a group of single elimination tournaments, as WotC did with their Mall Tour, there could be 8 person ones. These are only like 2 hours long and more of those could be run if properly staffed. Single elimination tournaments seem to discourage most the younger players. By doing this all the player bases would be covered and a good idea of what the players like the most could be accounted for. Maybe the mall tour could have trophies or medals as well.

As always, it will be very important to have Premier TOs who are well versed in Pokémon or Premier TOs that have a well versed staff. There are Premier TOs who are excellent for this job.

Well that is my 2 cents worth. I look forward to hearing what everyone else has to say.
 
Well, it's an interesting idea, that's for sure. I'm not terribly familiar with the previous mall tours. One thing they would do is increase game awareness in high-population areas. The question becomes is that a worthwhile goal? I'm not sure.
 
Thumbs Up on a Mall Tour!

A defininite "thumb's up" to any Pokemon mall tour -- especially if Nintendo can add a stop at one of the world's most famous malls, the "Ala Moana Shopping Center" here on Oahu!
:thumb:

"All Things Japanese" are, of course, enormously popular here in Hawaii, GBA's are everywhere, and I can hear Pokemon R/S music coming from many of them. All we need is a solid corporate push to keep the TCG momentum going.

And who could say "No" to a mall tour stop in Hawaii ... I mean, come on! Think "Tropical Mega Battle v2!"

:clap:

Over 'n out,
 
Malls are great places to advertise the game.

But from the experiences we've had in Florida. Geesh. Running events in local malls is crazy... Lemme take an except from the last primere event we held in The Florida Mall:

"The first thing I see is the new Florida Primere Pokemon Organizer Heidi Craig in a frantic rage with a mall employee and rightfully so. There were not a single table or chair in any direction except at the registration desk. After much debating with the individual with SIMON who promised the space where the event was to be held with equipment, we finally got nearly two thirds of what Heidi requested from him MONTHS in advance. It would turn out that the individual who handled all the equipment was fired from the company a short while after. But no no no, there were more problems! Probably around the third round of all three tournaments Mall Sequrity walked up to the staff working at the registration desk telling us that some of "our" participants were ripping out leaves from watermelon sized planters that were placed around pillers on the outside of the space given. Guess what that would mean for poor Heidi? If management thought the planters could not be used, a planter would be charged to her bill. Praise be to SIMON for not doing that, because Heidi would be ready to go to court over that planter. I cannot clearly see why Mrs. Craig would be required to pay for something that another person she was not aware of and quite possibly had no control over them to apply DCI Penalties over would reflect her. It could have been some random middle aged shopper who is depressed at the prices at SIMON Malls. We will never know. Additionally, another problem was that the table players were playing at were so very close to the walkways of the mall, the judging staff had to many times be called over to stop parental/friend sideline coaching. In the end, the tournament was smooth, no players went through any hardships as experienced by the Staff that day."

While many of you may not have gone through these hardships with such venues, Malls are very sensitive areas where it either goes great or you offend all the shops around you when you get on your microphone to make a couple of announcements. Both occured for The Florida Mall incident. But, if I recall correctly, these Mall Tours were a success because they used tv ads to attract people in. However that could just be the Mall Tour I attended, because they had ads running for a couple of weeks in the afternoons and Saturday mornings when Pokemon aired.

Running an event, in any venue, with proper advertising, will result in a large attendance. If we are going to focus on getting people into the game then we need to consider running demos, similar to those seen at the conventions, of the game to any mall shoppers who are interested. Freebies and other gimmicks get the random people in the mall into the game. They arent going to start up a trading card game for the first time and walk out of the mall whistling the great mechanics of the game. No! It's the atmosphere, the people that you meet, the stuff you walk away with, etc.

Sealed events could easily be picked up by attendees of the demos if they wish to compete in a couple of matches. Constructed events would really be for those currently in the game. I seriously do not think a GBA/TCG tournament is something that the players or judges want reflecting the current attendance and lack of interest on both sides (TCG players and GBA players). The Ruby and Sapphire Challenge was a one time only gimmick to attract new players, continued use of this format is like running a rochester draft. Most players, judges, and organizers have no experience with it, thus no interest. (the R/S format should have been introduced at a large scale event to attending TOs, then taught to the local player base, this was the way WotC handled Rochester).

I dunno how you would promote league... "Go to League" or something? Printing out a list of locations and giving them away would be the best way. Of course, I'd love to see this in time for the Sandstorm Prerelease, but since registration for leagues started so soon, I doubt it will occur.
-Phil
 
Mall tour - been there, done that. In order to build a strong player base, why not just hold tourneys? R&S Challenge & Sandstorm Prerelease are a good step. More "Premiere Events" would do it.
 
I too was thinking about Mall Tours a while back. I think it would be excelent if Nintendo did this. I remember back in the day of the East Coast STS QT in boston, the day Gym: Challenge leaked out to stores, and we where all in the reg line at 6am wondering if it would be league for use ;)

But I think it may work. League Zone, Registration Area ("Pokemon Central" ring a bell?), a main event area, Lt. Surge's King of Hill, Erika's Challenge, and Create-A-Card stand where all ellements i remember of the last tour wizards ran. I think if they did a League Zone, Reg.area (i mean, free little goodie bags, especially with lists of leagues in the near area/near states are what some people i know got in the game), and main duel area would do well. A gba, tcg, and biatholon all sound great too.

Staffing could be simple. If funding works, have DSL, that company wizards used, and get like a few people, then have local professors help fill the other positions. Perhaps send Jimmer and Schwimmer out too, i'd love to meet those guys again!

-marril
 
I think a mall tour would be an excellent idea. It would be really cool to have a tour for the GBA and the TCG together.

A good idea would be to do it around the time of Pokémon: The Sixth Movie as a promotion for that. If hype gets up for the sixth movie (and if Miramax doesn't screw us over again) and we had a tour at that time, people will notice that this game is here to stay. To get this game as popular as it was we need to sharpen our resources to a point.

This could really work for us.
 
Mall tour? Maybe Mall TourNAMENTS, yes. Once organized play begins and player rankings begin, a Mall tournament (TCG and GBA?) would be nice to help repromote the game again.

Me too tired to elaborate though.
 
...

*wonders vaguely if dropping a huge tin of day-glo orange paint over Belfast would make Nintendo realise it exists*

As far as I remember, there's only been one mall tour in the UK, and it was back in early 2000, I think... I didn't know about it until AFTER it'd been at my nearest shopping centre. ¬_¬
If they do a mall tour, they NEED to publicise it, and not just on the Internet.. They'll need TV ads, preferably on kids' channels and not UK Gold at midnight or something. XD;

But yeah, as long as they brought this to the UNITED KINGDOM, and not just England, I'd support it, I'd take part.. I'd try and bribe half my school to go too... >_>
 
Mall tours, yes. We had a couple (1 GB, 1 TCG?) at Santa Monica Place. Not the biggest Mall to be sure. However, they were well organized and supplied with chairs, too.

There was good advertising and lines went down the block to get in.

The tiny, few and poorly advertised GB/TCG RS Challenges do not show much interest/money for the Mall format, however.
 
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I'm sure there will be Mall Tours, we just have to wait for October to hear Nintendo's exact plans, because that's when OP really starts to kick off.
 
Except in Europe October is apparently when they'll start talking about OP :(

I was getting really positive vibes about the future from reps here and now I just think Nintendo are gonna blow it...

So much pent up demand and they are gonna hand those players to YGO who are getting their OP going great guns now!

SHAME.... May 2003 last official support for BZs in the UK; October 2003 Nintendo are gonna talk about OP and support in Europe... 5 Months of NOTHING could just kill the game....

No R&S challenges here
No Pre-release Tourneys
Heck Ruby and Sapphire only officially released this week!
 
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That`d definately be a great idea to show everyone out there that doesn`t know,that Pokemon is still here.The mall tours is one of the fondest memories from the WotC days that I have,so if Nintendo/TPC would run another set,it`d be awesome!

`Sensei
 
Mall tours would be great. I remember back in the days of Reb and Blue where there was that HUGE Nintendo Tour going on. I can still remember the day I took a picture with that huge Pikachu card (and somehow, I regret that now). I could remember so many people being there. They even had tournaments for the TCG and the Red/Blue game. All that I hope is that if Nintendo does a mall tour, I hope they make it as big as Wizards did.
 
Yes, tours would be good for advertising the game, but I don't like the TCG/GBA concept. Yes, this first one is a way to pull people to the TCG and vice versa, but realize that many people only play the GBA or only play the TCG and won't transfer to the other in addition to the one they play NOW. SO, these cross-over tournaments would only include those who already have the time to play both, or otherwise, the people who can afford to start a new game. MANY people can't AFFORD to either buy a GBA, R/S, and be able to spend the time. Others can't afford to buy enough cards to be able to make a new deck. While these would be appropriate once in a while, there should be SEPARATE tours for the two the majority of the time.

As for which end should get more attention, I think the TCG should. Even though not everyone who has R/S on their GBA posts on the boards and is a member of PokeGym, or like boards, there are a LOT of people with GBAs. On the other hand, not *as* many people are with the TCG, so pulling people from TCG to GBA isn't smart.

They should hold TCG ones alone, and GBA and TCG ones. For the most part, people involved in the TCG spend a large amount of time making their deck work, against other people, so they don't have as much time to get R/S going.
(I know I may not be making as much sense, but in my mind, it works out. ;))

(And if any tours DO happen, Lehigh Valley Mall, Whitehall, PA! ;))
 
Don't worry about the GBA/TCG tourneys, they'll not become the new standard. They were just a "first step" for Nintendo, a way to attract the many GBA players.

It seems to me that Nintendo is taking everything slowly from step to step.

Step 1: Finding players
GBA/TCG tournaments. Get GBA players into the TCG and also check out the exisiting player base.

Step 2: Getting the player base stabilized
League and Professor Program

Step 3: Premier Events?
We can only hope...
 
I'd love to see a mall tour. Yu Gi OH just finished a highly sucessful mall tour, and didn't give out jack in prizes. I'm sure nintendo could do better, but they have to have them in more places that what they did with the R & S tour. Yu Gi Oh made it down here, and 1000's of players came out. It would be even better if they hired the Zeo staff to tour with them ! :clap:
 
I got a great idea. For the last 7-8 weeks, Xbox Live and G4 (TV for gamers) have been doing a special "gamers appreciation" event called the Dew Den. It was at Mall of America (in Minnesota), and from what I saw on G4, there were probably about 1000 Xbox owners (young and old) there and every Friday, they had a special tournament. The winner of the tournament would win an Xbox, a few games, Xbox Live, and a lot of Mountain Dew.

I think Nintendo should do something like this for TCG/GBA. The main difference would be that the tour would go from state to state. Another cool idea would be if they have a preview of the upcoming Pokemon games at the tour. We can even have people dressed up as giant versions of the pokemon walking randomly around the malls :lol:

-edit- oh yeah, one more thing. Prizes can include boxes and boxes of pokemon boosters :thumb:
 
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Rocketman said:
It would be even better if they hired the Zeo staff to tour with them ! :clap:
Click to expand...

Yah, second that; Zeo did a great job with the YGO events. In fact, they need a mall tour to ramp things up. R&S Challenge was cool, but a bit of a fizze. Grabbing some Pokémon fanatics and dragging them around to do the tour would be a pretty smart idea, not to mention the entire online community of Pokémon would be on high alert and amped for the events.
 
I like the idea of a Mall Tour for the main reasons that it would give us TO's a chance to enjoy playing in some major tournaments, instead of always having to run and judge them. It is nice to sit back enjoy the game, and have someone else plan it all ;)

Plus it would help promote the game better in areas that have been keeping the game alive, and could bring in a lot of new players.
 
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