Stefan Ferenci
2006-06-26 18:54:00 UTC
First of all i dont want this to degenerate into a flame war, so please
refrain from posting insulting answers to this post, if you dont agree
fine, just explain your point of view without beeing an ass!
Admittingly, the header is kind of catchy but there is sadly some truth
in it.
Of course there will be a lot of you out there who will simply deny the
obvious truth that vtes is losing players and sales are declining, but
nevertheless it happens.
just look at the number of players attending tournaments: over the
last to year in most areas the numbers have been declining. the most
obvious beeing Budapest with an unthinkable low number of attendees at
this years qualifier (24 compared to around 80 in 2005)
go to your local retailer and ask him about orders on the last few
sets. Our local retailer (who not only supplies most of austria, but
also large parts of the czech republic, hungary and slovakia) just told
me that his preorders for the new set are down an amazing 66% (while
still having awesome prices) compared to NoR, even though the new set
is by far larger than NoR.
I wondered why this happened and talked to a lot of players what they
considered reasons or why they left. The mass of players stoped playing
because they simply did not recieve enough value for there money (NO i
nor they think that vtes is to expensive). i am not talking about the
hardcore players who are financially willing or able to simple order a
few boxes of a new set and get what they need in a sufficient
quantities and dont care about the rest. i am talking about players
buying just a few boosters everry month or two, the last few sets just
left them with a nagging feeling that after opening boosters that they
didn´t really get cards that they could need or trade.
The sets in retrospective:
CE: good base set that was a good starting point for newbies, no wonder
its sold out.
Anarchs: great hopes big disappointment, introducing a new mechanic
(anarchism) but with to few good cards to make it worth playing, there
is no benefit for barony compared to princehood or archbishopness
(sorry for my bad english), the cards are not good enough to make the
big investment (gamewise) worth enough. i agree anarchs got a few good
cards the last few sets but to few to late (people dont want to wait
years for there cards to become playyable). and still they the are not
really playable tournamentwise. anarchs had horrible rares and bad
starters
Black hand: Another set same mistakes. new mechanic, not enough vamps,
not enough good cards,
2 or 3 new decks types at best, horrible rares (crusade anyone) still
the decent new vamps and the very playable starters rescued this set.
Gehenna: new mechanic that took up most rare slots without beeing
overly playable. the events create an unnessary rabdomness to vtes,
killing alot of decks, without adaequate countermeasures
introduction of group 4 indies giving group 3/4 the very playable
numbers of 4 vamps per clan!!!!!!!, !!!
(with the promise that the next set will include plenty indies to make
up for it, giving players cards that are not playable for a few months)
addendum: even almost 2 years and 3 sets later group3/4 for indies only
include 12 vamps, way to few to make them very competitive. adding
insult to injury the diszispread of a lot of the new vamps is rather
odd.
KMW: new mechanic way to cornercase to even consider playing it (i know
your great cock deck norm) taking up a lot of rare slots, horrible
starters (playwise) overall very dissappointing.
LoB: the biggest mistake WW made which cost them most. mixing to
different sets that dont match, reprinting commons as rares, reprinting
old cards but in such a high rarity that the on average you would need
to buy 5 booster boxes to get 10 reprint commons, creating 4 new clans
which are not only bad design wise (defense seems neglectable in
Africa) but with only 11 members totally unplayble at a tourney level(
i am aware of matt´s deck that made the finals at templecon)
adding again insult to injury we are still missing the lost Osebo (see
what happens if you are defenseless in africa) but what angered players
most: one had to invest an high amount of money to get a playable deck
out of LoB, what could have been a great set getting players into the
game turn out to be a major turnoff
NoR: i would like Nor if not for the interaction with the gehenna
events, what could have been a great small set turned out just to be
another major blow for an already declining game.
so what about the future: WW anounced a major drive to get new players
in this game. but 1 base set will not be enough, even if this set is
flawless (the dangers are there: crappy reprints will missing key
cards, will we see group 5?) the next set has to build on this one.
every new player has to get cards in this next set that he can use, so
it again should focus on sabbat. a new black hand set could be a
possibility (WW could even included and black hand assamite starter).
it is imperative in order to keep the new players in the game that they
can use 90% of the new cards if the only own the 3rd edition set, if
they again get a set that can only be played if you own plenty of old
cards, or cannot be played at all, they will leave vtes pretty soon.
stefan
refrain from posting insulting answers to this post, if you dont agree
fine, just explain your point of view without beeing an ass!
Admittingly, the header is kind of catchy but there is sadly some truth
in it.
Of course there will be a lot of you out there who will simply deny the
obvious truth that vtes is losing players and sales are declining, but
nevertheless it happens.
just look at the number of players attending tournaments: over the
last to year in most areas the numbers have been declining. the most
obvious beeing Budapest with an unthinkable low number of attendees at
this years qualifier (24 compared to around 80 in 2005)
go to your local retailer and ask him about orders on the last few
sets. Our local retailer (who not only supplies most of austria, but
also large parts of the czech republic, hungary and slovakia) just told
me that his preorders for the new set are down an amazing 66% (while
still having awesome prices) compared to NoR, even though the new set
is by far larger than NoR.
I wondered why this happened and talked to a lot of players what they
considered reasons or why they left. The mass of players stoped playing
because they simply did not recieve enough value for there money (NO i
nor they think that vtes is to expensive). i am not talking about the
hardcore players who are financially willing or able to simple order a
few boxes of a new set and get what they need in a sufficient
quantities and dont care about the rest. i am talking about players
buying just a few boosters everry month or two, the last few sets just
left them with a nagging feeling that after opening boosters that they
didn´t really get cards that they could need or trade.
The sets in retrospective:
CE: good base set that was a good starting point for newbies, no wonder
its sold out.
Anarchs: great hopes big disappointment, introducing a new mechanic
(anarchism) but with to few good cards to make it worth playing, there
is no benefit for barony compared to princehood or archbishopness
(sorry for my bad english), the cards are not good enough to make the
big investment (gamewise) worth enough. i agree anarchs got a few good
cards the last few sets but to few to late (people dont want to wait
years for there cards to become playyable). and still they the are not
really playable tournamentwise. anarchs had horrible rares and bad
starters
Black hand: Another set same mistakes. new mechanic, not enough vamps,
not enough good cards,
2 or 3 new decks types at best, horrible rares (crusade anyone) still
the decent new vamps and the very playable starters rescued this set.
Gehenna: new mechanic that took up most rare slots without beeing
overly playable. the events create an unnessary rabdomness to vtes,
killing alot of decks, without adaequate countermeasures
introduction of group 4 indies giving group 3/4 the very playable
numbers of 4 vamps per clan!!!!!!!, !!!
(with the promise that the next set will include plenty indies to make
up for it, giving players cards that are not playable for a few months)
addendum: even almost 2 years and 3 sets later group3/4 for indies only
include 12 vamps, way to few to make them very competitive. adding
insult to injury the diszispread of a lot of the new vamps is rather
odd.
KMW: new mechanic way to cornercase to even consider playing it (i know
your great cock deck norm) taking up a lot of rare slots, horrible
starters (playwise) overall very dissappointing.
LoB: the biggest mistake WW made which cost them most. mixing to
different sets that dont match, reprinting commons as rares, reprinting
old cards but in such a high rarity that the on average you would need
to buy 5 booster boxes to get 10 reprint commons, creating 4 new clans
which are not only bad design wise (defense seems neglectable in
Africa) but with only 11 members totally unplayble at a tourney level(
i am aware of matt´s deck that made the finals at templecon)
adding again insult to injury we are still missing the lost Osebo (see
what happens if you are defenseless in africa) but what angered players
most: one had to invest an high amount of money to get a playable deck
out of LoB, what could have been a great set getting players into the
game turn out to be a major turnoff
NoR: i would like Nor if not for the interaction with the gehenna
events, what could have been a great small set turned out just to be
another major blow for an already declining game.
so what about the future: WW anounced a major drive to get new players
in this game. but 1 base set will not be enough, even if this set is
flawless (the dangers are there: crappy reprints will missing key
cards, will we see group 5?) the next set has to build on this one.
every new player has to get cards in this next set that he can use, so
it again should focus on sabbat. a new black hand set could be a
possibility (WW could even included and black hand assamite starter).
it is imperative in order to keep the new players in the game that they
can use 90% of the new cards if the only own the 3rd edition set, if
they again get a set that can only be played if you own plenty of old
cards, or cannot be played at all, they will leave vtes pretty soon.
stefan