Weekly Discussion #5: The Internet's Impact

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Riskbreakers

The Brilliant Star☆
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TCG Weekly Discussion
Week #5 - The Internet's Impact​


Background Information:
Much like the real world weekly discussions, the TCG Weekly Discussions are threads posted to get a good discussion going about various aspects of the Pokémon TCG. If you have any ideas for topics we could discuss in the future, please PM me or leave a profile comment.

Discussion Starter:
The internet has been something everyone uses for their daily needs. Some people decided that using the internet for sharing ideas in hobbies and games would be creative. Eventually, it got into Pokemon and we now have several sites showing Pokemon TCG strategies. The question is, has the internet destroyed creativity or has it promoted it through sharing decklists and people "Netdecking". Has it created a good avenue for discussion and teaching or has it just been mindless brainwashing for newbies to play "meta"?


This discussion started on 01/31/2012.
 
RE: Weekly Discussion #4: The Internet's Impact

IMO, the internet is a good thing for the TCG, yes sure there's the ever-so-frowned-upon net-decking; but without the internet (or at least Pokemon fan-sites), we wouldn't have stuff such as a heads up on what's good and what's bad, which can leave people un-prepaired for their next tournament; early scans from the next set so we can see how many pack to get/how many PRs to attend, ect; and one of most important things, Noobs who don't know anything about the game wouldn't be able to learn more and become a competitive player without knowing someone who plays competitive; top players get the chance to improve their skills even further. All in all, the internet is a good for the TCG thing and I think it will stay that way.
 
RE: Weekly Discussion #4: The Internet's Impact

Hi I'm fairly new to the ptcg. Me and my gf have been playing it for about 7 months together, but now with ptcgo I've been sucked in even further. How I use to make a deck was we would buy a booster box each we both picked our different Pokémon types and shared the cards between each other to make decks, they were fun, really fun, I use to think junk arm was pointless, and normally had 10 fire, 10 water energies in a deck with loads of random Pokémon, never really paying much attention to weakness/resistance or how well Pokémon could work together, we then got more competitive with each other and started to form much better deck lists, until the point I started to think oh, I wonder what other peoples decks are like if I even go to a comp I’ll need to know... and so began my exploration into online deck lists.

once I started to look at the lists online our decks were similar to some of the better decks at the time, but still a long way off, instantly it killed some of the fun of making the decks, because all of a sudden there’s my deck idea but overhauled fully tested by world champions and brought down to fine numbers and strategies, then all the other people start using it to refine it even further. Now I don't need to think much further then that, I can if I want just order the rest of the cards from said list and it's a fully pimped out deck. Which is so tempting. But it's not as fun as inventing your own deck, taking your own creativity and testing it agenised other peoples. The way I use to see it was as if you had 2 design projects battling it out to see who had the better design.

But now I tend to think why risk spending loads of time and energy into a losing idea, when you could just look online at current archetypes, find people that have already tested them inside out and then see their list. Why reinvent the wheel I guess, because if you don't take this approach a million other people will, and you can put yourself at a huge disadvantage

Now as I mentioned earlier I've been sucked into ptcgo where I will openly admit to making a few net decks, and although you might fine tune the t/s/s to what you want, or add/remove a few techs you kind of lose the fun of making the idea yourself, but the decks are extremely good I must say. But it has made me lazy, now ND is coming out, should I read through every card in ND and all subsets to try and figure out a new combo, Or just wait to read the pros take on the decks that will be good and copy paste their decks. Tune the t/s/s lines and tech to what I like and save the hassle?

So to answer the question has the internet made me lazy and uncreative the answer is YES!
Am I happy about that? I'm not sure.

Anyway if you made it this far thanks for reading :)
it's my personal take on things

[/sand=Zerotier] -Celebi23
 
RE: Weekly Discussion #4: The Internet's Impact

@Zerotier I have to completely agree, the internet makes it more convenient to look up and access everything but before that I also remember having to buy packs/boxes just to get what I needed as opposed to checking a trading/buying site. Overall the internet isn't something we can change so we must adjust to it, that being said I try to use everything at my disposal over the internet to become a better player.
 
RE: Weekly Discussion #4: The Internet's Impact

The internet has a huge impact on the Pokémon TCG. Think of Sablelock a couple formats ago. No one expect the select people who played or knew Steven Silvestro would have known about it, but it spread like wildfire across the internet. It took a while for people to get a decent list, I remember hearing about "secret rogue" for like a month, before I actually learned what cards were in the deck. All I knew was it somehow utilized Sableye, but I learned more once a list was leaked.

I know that the internet helped make me the player I am today. I learned a lot of things about the game when I first joined Pokébeach, learned about a lot of rulings, and simply how to build a functional deck. It is amazing how far posting a decklist can get you, if you get detailed advice from good players. I also learned a lot from watching people like Jwittz off of youtube, and reading threads and articles here, on Six Prizes and Pokégym. I am sure that a lot of people have done the same. The internet's impact is large.
 
RE: Weekly Discussion #4: The Internet's Impact

Good discussion!

I personally believe the internet has really helped the pokemon TCG. It's certianly helped me grow as a player! From watching Jwittz's "Prof-it" show, reading the threads in the beach, and following Thetopcut as well. The internet has always been around during my pokemon life there, so I can't compare to what it was like before it became so widespread, but I can imagine it would have been alot harder to get information out there, organise and co-ordinate events and just have a discussion board where people can talk about different TCG related topics.

It does open up the avenue for "Netdecking" but this is an expected bi-product of the internet. Net decking is one of thoes topics that creates widespread debate. It's like seeing a thread about religion on the internet, you know it's going to be all over the place. I don't want to enter into a "Net Decking" but I don't feel it's half as bad as it gets made out to be in threads. While it does take away some important learning aspects of the game, that's going to be a problem for the individual player and there development. At the end of the day the most important thing to remember is nothing comes from nothing, something always comes from something else. Or in other terms idea's are inspired by other ideas, not holding secrets and not letting anyone else know. The more widespread, accepted and discussed our wonderful game becomes, all the better for us.

Look at magic? I have never played the game once yet I know alot about it, I even know some of the top players, why is that?
Because it's all over the internet. Live coverage of games, thousands upon thousands of youtube channels...it's hard to NOT find out something about magic if you are looking at TCG's on the internet. Look at the prize coverage and recognition they get? Half of that wouldn't have been accomplished without the internet to put all that out there into the public eye.

Sites like the Beach, youtube channels like Thetopcut, Prof-it e.t.c are what are going to help this game evolve a step further (if it does...) all we need is MORE coverage of events. And we need there to be a direct line of communication / Understand between us the players and Pokemon the company who produces the game we love to play. I am not saying we should choose what cards are released e.t.c but we should defintily be able to voice our opinions for serious consideration. After all without us, the players there is no pokemon TCG.
 
RE: Weekly Discussion #4: The Internet's Impact

Anybody remember google's deck? Imagine if it weren't for the internet. Very, very few people would have the luxury of using that deck if it wasn't for the internet (and in this particular case, them releasing the list in the WC decks.) Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is open for discussion. Less people playing the deck would certainly make the game less stale, though. The deck would still be considered fresh, not uncreative meta.

The internet is certainly good for the health of the game as a whole. It allows them to market their products much more effectively, and it gave birth to a bunch of fan sites that promote the game and encourage people to buy even more products. It lets people see set lists and card scans much more easily, also making them buy more products.

Whether it is good for the game competitively is much more open for discussion, however. It puts much more emphasis on actual playing skill, but on the downside, it makes deckbuilding less important.
 
RE: Weekly Discussion #4: The Internet's Impact

By your point Celebi, it's like now we have to focus more on other skill-related aspects such as proper playtesting and proper teching and meta-scouting.

The internet has helped us teach how good combos are and how to make basic decks but it is still up to our own creativity how we can improve on that deck or add a personal tip. The internet makes a newbie into a decent player but only you can make yourself go from decent player to pro.
 
RE: Weekly Discussion #4: The Internet's Impact

Riskbreakers said:
The internet makes a newbie into a decent player but only you can make yourself go from decent player to pro.
Click to expand...


This is so true.
That's why the Netdecking debate is null and void for me. Sure it's not healthy that "newbies" can come online and get a tier 1 deck and build it and play it. But at the end of the day not having deck building experience is going to hinder them. They are still going to have to practice and learn the deck to get good with it, and even then they will never truly understand someone who has built there own deck.
 
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