Pokémon and Pokémon TCG, historically considered “kid’s games,” actually draw an incredibly diverse audience. Not only are the vast majority of Pokémon’s competitive players adults; several of the players who grew up with Pokémon got their siblings, spouses, and children hooked, as well. It’s a bona fide family game!
So then that raises the question: Is the Pokémon TCG welcoming to players beyond the “genwunners” and their counterparts? Heck, can we even really consider Pokémon TCG that welcome to anyone outside of its bubble? In today’s Social Saturday, we’ll be examining that crucial question to the game’s survival.
Methodology – or lack thereof
I won’t measure how welcoming Pokémon is in a scientific sense, and my use of empirical data will be limited. However, this article does seek to address the good and the bad that I’ve seen, in the hopes of raising awareness, creating discussion, and brainstorming ideas. If something in here inspires you to approach this scientifically, then I’m all for that! But for now, consider this article less formal or academic, and more casual, in the hopes that it can be more accessible to the whole community – and maybe people on the fence about joining.
Casual Play: a great place to be!
Except for the occasional bad experience, I think players on average are much more likely to enjoy themselves when they’re casual. At this point, you haven’t gotten serious, really just mess around, and your most serious “events” are league and all the league satellite events, i.e. Challenges and Cups. This is the introductory stage of Pokémon cards, and for the most part, this is where a majority of the people who have ever played the game will stay. Every league is different, and its tone is set largely by the league leader. While there are definitely some difficulties getting approval for leagues, I’d say Play! Pokémon has a much stronger system set in place than it ever did to reduce the risk of crappy league leaders – I said “reduce” because there are still scam artists like Mr. Hypothetical who becomes a leader just to rob supplies, but they’re pretty rare.
For the most part, I’d say leagues are supremely welcoming, with plenty to do and not a whole lot to suffer. Of course these places aren’t immune to awful things happening – I had $50 stolen from me as a little kid, and it felt terrible. But even with that bad experience, it wasn’t enough to deter me from the game. And now that we literally have league leaders who grew up with the game and know what it means to grow the player base, the quality of people we now have is only going to increase.
Final verdict – super welcoming!
Competitive Play: a troubled experience for the wayward newbie
Competitive tournaments, on the other hand, can be very disconcerting for a newer player, especially since they’re so used to the way casual play works.
Many years ago, I went to what was called a Super Trainer Showdown qualifier. My experience with organized play up to this point was Pokémon league and mall tours, so I had no idea what to expect. I spent a lot of time waiting around, only to get to play two rounds into double elimination with my awful big Basics deck before I was done or the day…and that was all! While I continued on with the game, had I based any future desire to play competitively on this one event, I would’ve been insane.
Nowadays, I can only imagine what new players feel like when they’re thrown into their first League Cup laden with point-hungry pros, or even their first Regional Championship with around 500-700 other competitors. How must it feel have so many odd pressures on you, including the cutthroat nature of some of your opponents, and of course the looming 50-minute timer.
All this pressure coupled with competitiveness can bring out the bad. Even a legitimate player following the rules could potentially frustrate a casual newbie without ever knowing it, and the experience could perhaps turn the person off of Pokémon forever. This gets even more complex for attractive women players, who may get ogled at least once every tournament.
(In the coming months, we’ll revisit the topic of women in Pokémon. I think this issue is fascinating in its own right, especially because there comes a point when Junior girls begin to drop off from the game.)
And then there are the cheaters. When you have money on the line, this is when people’s demons may truly come out, and a newer player may be at serious risk for exploitation. People who like the game don’t always know its intricacies, so when the casual player who just likes the game without fully understanding it is up against a pro who knows the inside and outs of card interactions. Perhaps the biggest threat to new players is willful neglect by the cheater; that is, neglecting to point out and openly take advantage of inaccuracies in the board state.
Of course it’s a bit more complicated than pressure and cheating, and I’d be remiss if I just looked at external reasons for why newbies could get turned off by big tournaments. For starters, many new players tend to have a stubborn misunderstanding of the rules. Normally these get cleared up by the judge explaining the card interactions, but it’s infuriating to learn that Flygon is suddenly doing twice as much Damage to you, or that Weakness applies before Resistance when you always thought it was the other way around.
Finally, there’s the sheer length of these things. Rather than go to league for free and come and go at your leisure, you’re essentially paying a tournament organizer anywhere between $5 and $40 to hold you hostage for a day! Combine all that and for new players, and it’s a tough day.
Here’s where PTO’s and Play! Pokémon have taken great lengths to make the new player experience better. There are many problems with organized play this season, of which I will go into later, but organizers are finding all sorts of ways to keep their Regional Championship events inviting. Perhaps the most important thing is to have side events or something to do when players are eliminated from regulation matches. Another thing is to produce more of an interactive event, which streaming has done a fantastic job at doing. Regionals still have a long way to go before they’re honestly events for everyone and not just the competitive players, but I see promise in the future.
Final verdict: Mostly unwelcoming, but lots of hope to improve soon
Last but not least, there’s the gateway drug known as…
Pokémon Trading Card Game Online
The censored username is "DirtyPoopyPants619"
PTCGO and the message boards/groups surrounding it are a unique hybrid because you’ve got prizes, virtual currency, and virtual cards, but nothing that’s terribly serious. About the furthest you ever get here are 24-ticket tournaments with 20 online booster packs as prizes, after all. All the same, you’ve got the same competitive mentality bleeding through, coupled with a relatively toxic internet troll approach to a card game with children players. But whether you’re a child or adult, I feel like newer players have a lot to do on PTCGO that strikes that balance between league-casual and Worlds-competitive. You also see that in the diverse competitors, as with every improvement you make in your hidden match-making ranking, the better the players you’ll play. Finally, you’ll never be taken for a ride by pro players because – guess what – the match-making system pairs newbies against each other!
Although I miss having in-game chat, it may have ultimately been a good call by the developers to limit communication in public games to select stock phrases and emojis. A new player DOESN’T need to hear you moan about not drawing Double Colorless off your Set Up for six; a new player DOESN’T need to be made fun of; and a new player DOESN’T need to be told their deck “sucks,” even if it is abjectly inferior.
I don’t really uses PTCGO for the experience, so I’m afraid I’m not well suited to critique the community. But it is a good place to enjoy the game, especially as a new player.
Final Verdict: pretty good for new players, too.
Conclusion
Our online program and casual avenues of play are great and incredibly welcoming to new players, but our competitive circuit still needs to improve in the way it invites the general public into its serious events. Tune in next week as we go over the state of organized play in Pokemon, and throw out some ways to improve competitive Pokemon for everyone, including the newbies!