Pokemon TCG Live, my career, my frustrations.
I don't like to complain about things as inconsequential as Pokémon cards when the world has much greater concerns to be had, but as a creator that hopefully fills the void with entertainment for some of you I like to share where my head is at.
As you may or may not know, I did not start my youtube channel celio's network out of necessity; meaning it wasn't because I needed money or a job and expected youtube to fill that role. I started my channel because Pokemon TCG has been a mainstay of my life: the people i've met, competition i've participated in, and the analytical processes behind both gameplay and tournament preparation have all undoubtedly influenced the person I am today. Whether pokemon cards is a hyperfixated interest, a lifestyle, or just a fun hobby, I wanted to share it with the world. By the looks of things, at least some of you enjoy what I share with the world and I've come to think I'm pretty good at teaching, providing information, and entertaining a bit along the way.
Up until the rumblings of a new pokemon tcg online software in 2021, I was stumped as to how I could push the ceiling of my audience to grow my channel and ultimately the pokemon tcg category as a whole - to be clear this would both benefit my career and hopefully the pokemon tcg community and sub communities. I've watched Andrew Mahone (Tricky Gym) really push the ceiling of how far pokemon tcg content can go, and I felt like even he had hit a cap. Pokemon TCG was missing an easy way to introduce new people into the game, especially from home on a mobile device or pc. The modern day gamer has been conditioned to hop into a game and try it out immediately, which PTCGO was not good for unless you were ok playing strictly with theme decks. And as for mobile, PTCGO was not made for mobile but there are work arounds that can allow android users specifically to download it. Even so, to build creative decks and compete with functioning meta decks you would need to learn how to buy, scan, and trade code cards and most people do not want to sign up for learning an economy system just to build a deck in a trading card game - why not just go to hearthstone, legends of runeterra, magic, etc instead?
PTCG Live was announced to be the new way to play pokemon tcg online, from mobile devices, tablets, or PCs. When I heard this announcement in 2021 I ignorantly assumed that TPCI would be working towards making an online client for the TCG that would bring in new players and be comparable to card games released in the past few years. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought that I could finally tell my friends who loved the pokemon franchise but wouldn't touch the convoluted and outdated systems of PTCGO with a ten-yard stick - to try out the NEW pokemon tcg game on their phones or PCs! And even further, I could potentially reach new audiences with my content - instead of new people finding my videos and then looking into ptcgo and telling me they'll stick to magic or hearthstone.
My best guess of what PTCG Live is to the pokemon company is this: a software that will be just good enough for the people who really want to play pokemon cards and nothing more. I cannot fathom that anyone at TPCI believes this game will grow their playerbase, increase sales, bring in more people to IRL tournaments, or anything like that - so I am left to assume that TPCI doesn't want to achieve any of those things. Pokemon TCG Live legitimately looks like the first pass of an in-development game without any polish or testing done - corporate probably saw the first draft and set a release date.
Assuming I am right and TPCI doesn't want to grow the game, make profit from tcg live, convert online players into real life players, then what am I doing? I'm trying to grow a game that even the company who makes it doesn't care about?
I hope you all can understand how this has left me frustrated, lacking ambition, and most of all confused. I don't have a conclusion for you because this is where I'm at right now. I just began my Pokemon TCG Live progression series and existing viewers and new viewers alike were enjoying it, and by episode 3 an update to PTCG Live has broken the game beyond playability at the time I'm writing this and the currency system restricts anyone without an existing ptcgo collection from exploring and building new decks unless they buy heaps of *the correct* code cards and scan them in - not much better than the previous PTCGO issues I encountered. I've tried to embrace PTCG live several times as a necessary part of my career moving forward, and its been rough to say the least. I daily consider just moving to another category of pokemon content creation because I don't think the corporate entities of Pokemon care about the card game players. As I stated earlier, if my complaints about a children's card game seem fickle to you - I don't disagree... but this has become my career and I felt the need to share my thoughts and concerns. Nobody told me to go and make my career revolved around Pokemon TCG, thats my own fault. Ultimately it's up to me to make a change and not wait for TPCi to do something for me, they owe me nothing. As I said the whole thing is confusing. Thanks for reading.
Comments
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Live being on phones is going to make the actual game side of the TCG explode to levels we’ve never seen before. That’s not a guess, it’s a promise. There are going to be so many new players, we can’t even comprehend it yet
I know that this update breaking the game is disheartening; I’m also a content creator, and my first reaction to this was being scared that I’m placing my future in this game…but I have faith, and I also have experience.
I’ve seen this game get broken before, been playing the beta since the first day it started back in February. They’ve broken it before, and they’ve fixed it before. They’ll fix it again.
It’s unfortunate that the development team is having to go through the struggle of making a game so publicly, having every move they do be in the spotlight of the entire (and already growing because of Live) TCG scene. But they’re getting better and better, and I’ve watched it happen over the past 10 months.
They said they were going to update the game board, they updated the game board. They said they wanted to increase the speed of the game and add better animations when Pokémon evolve or switch in, they did both, and they did it FAST (for them). I’ve watched them improve this whole time.
There’s going to be growing pains; we’re in some right now. But this game is going to come out, and it’s going to do wonders for the TCG, the competitive scene, and this game we all love so much. The fact there are such fiery opinions both ways for this game shows that it’s a thing worth making content for.
Keep your head up, Celios. And NEVER STOP FIGHTING 🤘🏻
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