VS

There is a new main VS website following the announcement that VS was no longer going to be produced. What was once Steve Garret(Kamiza)'s own hub for VS is now VsSystem.org. A lot of people have moved to the new site from other sites, such as Realms and TCGPlayer, but I haven't gone. There are many reasons for this. The main point of this though, is to explain my thoughts on the current state of VS as much as I possibly can.

I love superheroes. I have loved them for a long time. I also love TCG's and have for a shorter amount of time, but a fair amount of time nonetheless. I played Overpower with a friend of mine for a long time, as we both were superhero fans. He had a lot more than me, and I didn't spend nearly as much as on other games, partly because I didn't have the money to spend and my parents weren't going to buy me cards. Either way, with him stopping, I literally had no one to play against. I found Recharge, which I played for a short amount of time with him, mostly though by myself. I found it cheap at Toys 'R Us, and wanted to complete the sets, so I went to Cards and Comics Central near my house. When there, the guy behind the counter asked me if I'd be interested in VS, seeing as it was a new game that was actually starting to grow whereas Recharge, well, never really started to begin with. I bought a couple packs and the X-Men/Brotherhood starter and liked the cards. New art, a new game and it looked fun. For a while, I was playing wrong, but eventually I found other people who actually knew how to play and I had a lot of fun. My deck was horrible, but somewhat consistent and surprised people and was able to win. I bought more of Web of Spider-Man, and was excited for Marvel Knights. I'm definitely not a DC fan, and was less of one then. I never got DC Origins or DC Man of Steel, but got a little Green Lantern (because I was interested in the GLC). I got a bunch of cards from new sets, even going to the DJL, MXM, MHG, DLS and MTU pre-releases and the 10K SF and Pro-Circuit SF (although just for side-events). Playing VS was lots of fun for many reasons. Getting to use favorite characters in battle is a concept I always have liked (I played HeroClix, love superhero video games, etc) so this was fun for me.

As I have stated before, I am a realist. I try not to be too optimistic or pessimistic, but sometimes I am seen as pessimistic, which is unfortunate. When UDE announced they were going to stop making VS, that was bad. VS, as a game, is dead. They are not making cards for it, and to me, that means it is dead. Now, that doesn't mean I am going to stop playing it. The game is fun, and I still know people I can play against, so I am going to continue to play. But, honestly people, VS is dead. No, that doesn't mean that people have to throw all their cards into a fire and forget it ever existed, and they don't have to do other stupid, crazy things. When I say VS is dead, I specifically am referring to the card game, which is no longer going to have any cards made for it. I am not referring to the players, who are extremely loyal and love to play the game. There are people who aren't going to stop playing because the cards are no longer being printed. I am among them. Still, the card game is dead.

I was a big fan of VsParadise, when it was still up and about, as they were an incredibly friendly and great community. Sure, I had accounts on Realms and TCGPlayer, but my main support was for Paradise. They had a fantasy card contest, which is where I first designed fantasy cards. I believe that I had seen fantasy cards before, but never really paid attention to them. I got incredibly into fantasy cards, and tried to make realistic, balanced cards. I also hung out on TCGPlayer in the fantasy card section, helping people out and giving people feedback on cards they had designed. I have made a lot of fantasy cards. That includes a couple sets, where I made entire teams and concepts. I believe I also made hundreds for Spidey and friends, including about 20 different Spider-Man, when I just wanted to have fun and make clone a viable deck (as that was one of the first decks I liked a lot). I love creating fantasy cards and helping others to create them. I am fairly good at determining balance on cards and am fairly good at getting wording that works. I may seem a little nitpicky when it comes to wording, but I feel that fantasy cards should be like real cards. Still, I designed my cards for fun. I never intended to use them. I have never been a big fan of using cheats in video games, and that applies to everything. Using fantasy cards, to me, is like cheating. They created a certain thing, and you just take it and change it up to fit your own personal needs. I love fantasy cards, don't get me wrong. I just don't think that fantasy cards should ever be used as actual cards. That concept doesn't sit well with me.

In the time after UDE announced they were going to stop making VS, Ben Seck went on Realms and said that he thought there should be some kind of "player council" that the players have to do whatever. I am not a fan of the idea, but others are. CarlosTheDwarf started looking into creating a "player council" at the very least to start things off, and it could move on from there. He also planned with Kamiza to create a new site, especially considering the shaky behavior of Realms after it went down. He also worked with Flashback who got the only non-UDE employee copies of the last cards of MEQ to share the cards with the world. With all of these different things happening, seemingly taking place with Carlos' idea, being that he was pushing for a council, then having secret discussions with Flashback and Kamiza about unrelated things (that wasn't clear as they were secret), I mistakenly lumped all of them together. With that, I was against the new site, as I thought it was a "player council" thing, and as I am against that concept, I was against the site. When I said that I had issues, and tried to explain them, people from the site lashed out at me, which was annoying. I don't support a "player council" because I don't like the idea of a group other than the people who created VS running what is going on in VS. Sure, I don't have to follow anything they say, but it still is a bunch of people discussing what they think is best. The way that things had been going, I was also assuming that they were just meeting in secret, then making decrees and handing them down to us. I now know that isn't fully correct, but I didn't at the time. Still, the point remains that I don't like the concept. It doesn't sit well with me. It won't sit well with me. I understand people want it, so if people do something, I am not opposed to people following a council, I just don't want to have anything to do with it. I wholeheartedly support VS and love the game a lot. The way I was treated, it felt as though I was all for burning VS cards in the street in my underwear, holding CarlosTheDwarf's head as a trophy under my arm. When Carlos explained the new site more in depth to me, I was more for going there, but at the same time, I like Realms and wanted to stay there, just because it was familiar. That also didn't sit well with people. Now, I know CarlosTheDwarf personally and he is a great guy. He wasn't rude at all, and was very level-headed, as I believe I was. Unfortunately, there was such a negative reaction from the people at VsSystem.org that I still really don't want to go there. It was an elitism, where they proclaimed they were better because of the new site, and I didn't like it. I may stop in at VsSystem.org in the future, but presently I can't see myself joining the group, considering how much I don't want to associate myself with some of the people there.

I don't even know what to say at this point. Once I start ranting about something, I keep going and going, repeating myself, becoming redundant and repeating myself. Still, I love VS and had a lot of fun over Spring Break when I played with my cousin. I only wish that I had a better community I could play with. Oh well. To everyone who actually made it to this sentence, if you think I should head over to VsSystem.org, let me know because honestly, it does matter to me what certain people think.