Why the lack of game modes?
Why is it you can basically only play standard? Probably the least popular of all the game modes.
Against friends, standard.
Ranked, standard.
Expanded exists but is extremely limited it seems.
I know I'm just one person and this probably won't see much interaction but I hate this new version of the TCG online. It's complete trash compared to the older more outdated model. It's like they didn't really give us anything with this new version and took all the fun stuff away. Like if Sony started making PS1 era games not finishing them and then selling and advertising them as PS5 games.
In short. This game sucks now and I'll probably quit unless they address these particular issues. Bring back TCGO please.
Comments
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First of all, Standard is definitely the most popular format by far. I get that you probably loved them or making silly decks in Expanded, but let's not pretend that this is what the majority cares about. After all, there aren't theme deck IRL tournaments.
As for the general lack of modes, it's because it's made by a small team of inexperienced developers with very little money and resources dedicated to them. Maybe in 10-15 years it'll be better, if it lasts that long. I expect that it'll be sunsetted without a replacement in 2026 though.
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They only have Standard mode simply because they don't have enough/good resources allocated to this game to implement all the features they want.
On top of the bad programing, the poor decision making ended up resulting in a game that it's far from be ready to release... with a large amount of critical bugs and lack of fundamental features that were needed to make the game at least enjoyable as the older version.
The older version (TCG Online) will not be back... so not only you but many players will keep leaving (eventually me too) because they are not willing to invest enough resources to make this game what it should be. At the current state it will take many years to make this stable and enjoyable...
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https://community.pokemon.com/en-us/discussion/comment/14127#Comment_14127But the Google reviews say something completely different. Even if you know many players, you know what the majority liked to play. The majority likes free play. Only a small proportion play standard, that's no secret. Formula, the decks are only overpower decks, especially in the standard, which have almost "fun" deck character. But the live game really can't do anything about that.
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First of all, Standard is definitely the most popular format by far. I get that you probably loved them or making silly decks in Expanded, but let's not pretend that this is what the majority cares about. After all, there aren't theme deck IRL tournaments.
@TechHog It is probably true that Standard is the most popular tournament format, but if Pokémon is like a lot of other TCGs, the vast majority of players do not play in tournaments or follow official format rulesets. They play "kitchen table", using whatever cards they have from a variety of eras mashed together into decks.
I would be interested to see what statistics TPCi has collected on their customers, how the playerbase actually breaks down, how many have ever even been to an event, and how many are simply collectors.
Of course, this is not helpful when it comes to making a ruleset and format for players all over the world to compete evenly in your game client. Most companies will look at their tournament participation numbers and results to decide what formats to support.
It is easy to adapt a tournament/competitive play focused perspective and assume what is true for highly invested tournament players is representative of the majority of the playerbase. They are the types of people you will meet at events, talk on message boards and write/read articles about competitive play. That can be the only perspective that you hear, and can be let to think it the unanimous opinion.
But that is simply not true. If anything it's the inverse. People playing in tournaments, playing official formats, or playing a game with them at all, are likely the minority.
To ground this back in the topic at hand, Standard is the format it makes the most sense to support. But I think to appeal to more people, widening this support to Extended play, casual free-form "anything goes" and gimmicky special events and formats like theme deck.
Sometimes less is more. But with greater regularity, more is more.
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Thanks for the discussion folks. Though I would disagree with the Standard being the most popular format. It's standard so I get it's existence but not everyone wants just that. Also if we learned anything from WoTC and MTG they tried for years forcing their formats unto players while spouting that commander wasn't that popular or fun outright being petty with business practices in regards to the commander format and to this day is still the most popular format by far. It's still not considered an official format if I remember correctly. I would argue it's probably the same as standard in any game is usually the most boring but is the most used because it's forced on the people like being the only tournament format irl and what not. Also I would agree with TheJeffers that the most used and popular format would have to be kitchen table rules basically as that's definitely what the majority of people play.
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Are we talking about the actual TCG or the garbage excuse of a video game?
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