I am currently on my cell phone with Chubbs, one of the best players I have versed in UFS. He has asked me to post a topic for him. If any of you doubt that this is from Chubbs you can confirm it by calling him on his cell. In short, don't shoot the messenger.

From Chubbs: I am serisuosly thinking about quiting UFS. The reason being is that there is not enough competiton in the little stores like mine. I am tired of having to wait from the end of Gen Con till summer for BIG tournaments. The game is not how it used to be when I looked forward to getting off of school on the weekends just to play UFS. Alot of people are leaving this game for that peice of crap YGO b/c there is one major tournament every month as well as there small tournaments. FFG could fix these problems by advertising more and having a major tournament in the middle of Maryland and PA so people from Maryland and PA can go to it. Or New York and NJ and stuff like that for example. If they really want to keep this game alive they should listen to what I am saying. I have heard some people are dropping the game. In Hanover, there is only three of us still devoted to the game. You all know how we felt about the game and how we loved it. With our team disbanded, it is discouraging to me to continue playing this game. I tried to build a deck the other day and just decided not to because of how pointless it felt.

This has been a message form Chubbs.

*sigh* Imagine how I feel having to hear it from his mouth. I am trying to tell him to stick with it. The only incentive he wants isn't prizes or kickin' people's decks around. The only thing he wants is to always have a challenge every weekend. UFS was the world to Chubbs and his team mates from Tapout. Well I am not sure about you guys, but loosing people is starting to annoy the ever living hell out of me. While our playgroup is thriving, some are dying out. With this irritation, I have a bone to pick and while the mods might not like what I am about to say...you folks are just going to have to get over it. FFG, I hate to do this but here I am gunning for you.

You guys are up against some feirce competition. You are versing Upper Deck and there never say die game from Japan which I like to call Magic for Dummies. You are versing the company that started it all, Wizards of the Coast. There are card games such as Bleach and Naruto that are slipping beneath you all ninja like while yelling belive it from the top of there Spikey Blonde heads. Reality, if you have not figured it out is that your competition needs to be looked at and looked at good. Why are we loosing people to other games? Why are some folks just all out quiting?

TBH, it is because you guys are taking the wrong approach and taking too long.While it is true that some games are more popular in certain areas than others I got a fact for you that has reamained true throughout my card gaming carreer and that is no matter where I go YGO and M:TG have dedicated followings. How come? Oh I don't know maybe two little things called advertising and promoting. While it is true that the latter is done by the fans, a big boost from FFG and not just FFG UFS could help.

I find it quite ironic that a company wants there game to sell, but doesn't plant the seeds in the right area's of the proverbial garden. You have bought licenses from Capcom, SNK Playmore, and Namco and haven't really bothered to do the one thing that should and I repeat should be done and that is advertise. Folks, let us use some common sense here. This game is about the great fighting game franchises that have been licensed out to UFS. How about advertising in Gaming magazines? Online gaming sites like 1UP? G4TV? You need to go to places that you are going to find fighting game enthusiasts who will look at this game and say "What the Deuce?" And let me make another point, if you guys asked the gaming companies to support you, do you really think they are going to say no to adding some extra dollars to there pockets? Look at George Lucas. Man is still milking the Star Wars cow that started in the very late 70's. Trust me, Capcom is more than willing. SNK will be more than willing and Namco...yep as willing as a drunk sorority girl at a frat party.

Now advertsing may have been frowned upon in the STG era of UFS. There approach was the same as GW, there sister company with there war games. Whom I had the honor of working for. Sell through the gaming stores themselves. With the STG era dead and gone, the FFG era began. Which means that you guys are going to have to throw out that ol' mentality and get something new. The only way that any store selling UFS can thrive is through advertisement and promotions. Noticing a trend. God does it ever sicken me when I have to see a YGO commercial for there latest set 5 D's. But the commericals work and both YGO and M:TG have thrived due to a thing called public knowledge.

What else can FFG as a whole can do? Well despite the fact that UFS was suppose to be sold through the brick and mortar hobby stores, the truth is, Cool Stuff Inc. is raking alot of cash from us UFS Players.Must I expound on the redundancy of such a method? So guess where I am going here? C'mon...you can do it. If you guessed selling at Game Stops than that is a good idea. You can not and should no longer limit yourself to just hobby stores. Magic doesn't and neither does YGO. As long as events are being ran, you can bet that folks will still be buying from there local hobby stores. Also, if you sell at Game Stop, you might actually obtain a sponsor for tournaments that are or are not regional.

Which leads to my final point. Part of promoting the game as I have stated previously is through the fans. That is true but in all reality it is not enough. Why are we loosing players to other games? That is elementary in nature FFG. When a game is given the right support and environment, it can thrive. For instance, Naruto is not popular here in our little gaming town in Maryland. In Hanover, it is the GAME, nuff said. I don't know who does that CCG, but I do know that they are sure to have one big event per month. Whence more people show up. People see the game in action and thus they become drawn to it because it is fun.

Leaugue tournaments are good. But they are not enough for some gaming groups. Hanover and Team Tapout to name one playgroup is a fact and Scuba himself has told me that his playgroup has dwindled. What would happen if we took Chubbs advice about having one big tourney between two states? What would happen if 15-20 people gathered and played UFS in those stores? I will leave that for you, FFG, and fellow UFS'ers to answer.

In short, more exposure and knowledge, more people in the UFS community. More people buying cards. More people playing games and of course less gaming groups fading. Plain and simple.

One last thing, unlike YGO and M:TG, FFG as a whole and not just FFG UFS, have one of the greatest CCG communities through the UFS gamers. We act like family and that you can not deny. We will crack jokes. Drink with one another at conventions. Argue about cards till we are horse. We are an incredible community that encourages veteran gamers and noobs alike. Once people see that they will realize that such an awesome community is a big bonus for them to jump right in.

FFG, that is the word. Don't just listen, DO.

-Mt_Do-

Spreading the big championships out I think would be a huge step. Personaly having to drive across 3 states to get one is a bit rough when it racks you up over 40 in tolls one way. Plus you can also help support the stores that support the game by changing up which ones get the big events. Big events tend to lead to big sales and what store dosen't like big sales.

Having one big to do every month is also a good thing. When I use to run mechwarrior events for Wizkids the best turn outs were always for the good prizes that came with the mainline events. I think UFS needs the same thing something every month that is really worth turning out your bet for. Right now I know patches are suppose to be the big to do. But if the only place to redeem them from my understanding Is one event that might be cross country. That might not be the best reason to play. Earn this patch that you have to go cross country to redeem. Can't I just play for a cool promo set that will only be available like once or twice.

Just something I learned from being a Battlemaster for Wizkids. Want to keep the player base up give everyone a reason to keep playing keep the rewards good and make the events worthwhile.

Now on the bright side of things. I still think the game is solid and the new sets have really got me back into it now that its not so much aone symbol show. I like the new sets content I like the character selection it's all quite good. My play group at the store I play in is growing slowly but surely attendance is up and the variety of decks is to. I like what I see from that. But that just has to be carried over to other areas and I figured I'd just throw out a few ideas on what i've noticed in the past running games.

At Gen Con this year, I had the honor of spending some time with Chubbs and Shaneth in the dealer's room, and they both indiciated that they may quit due to this very reason. I didn't think much of it, but now one of those players seems to have kept his word sadly =/. UFS without Chubbs feels as empty as a Sundae without hot fudge.

Do regionals not count as big tournaments? I know they don't start for another month, but assuming they're scheduled in a reasonably spaced out manner there should be about 1 a month within range of most places. Of course, the September-December drought shouldn't have happened, but it's kinda at the point now where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, you know? I've been told that the Waverly shop (center-southern border of NY) wants to do something big-like in January, and surely if the Hanover folk decided to hold one of their area's regionals people would come.

Agreed of course on the advertising front, and probably the big-vendor front as well. It's not like B&Ms can't sell MTG or YGO just because Walmart does. Having it at such places (especially Gamestops) would serve as advertising as well. Though if you really want them to listen to your thoughts you should probably email your little rant to them as it can be assumed that they don't often read the forums.

Until we start hearing about a lot more regionals showing up, people are going to be quite frustrated. I've got players in my region asking, "Dude, you guys get one yet? Anyone yet?"

I've been frustrated with the fact that we've only had zero special events since Gen-Con outside of Path of the Master tournaments. Not even Brawl events or Team events or Tag-Team or any of that. Sitting back and just complaining about those who are running ain't gonna cut it.

I haven't heard from Paul yet about when the Regionals site will be back online, hopefully we will hear soon.

Cetonis said:

While regionals do count as big events, there needs to be more than just regionals. Also, if I am correct, Scouts have to apply for regionals and not every scout is going to be able to run regionals. Beyond that, there has to be something to fill the gaps. These events do not need to be regional level, but there has to be some event that can be used to further promote UFS in stores all over the U.S. Something to ensure that the population for UFS is stable and increases.

I am sure I will get an idea later. Just give me some time to figure out something.

Okay just a quick idea...

What if we split the Regiionals into two seasons? If for this coming up season we do only singles and than following after that we have a seperate teams regionals, that could guarantee that there are big events in each region once a month and in different parts of each region.

Not a perfect idea, but a start none the less.

Something I'm not liking one bit from this topic is that it took Chubbs quitting to make a lot of people realize this was going on.

i pretty much quit too, 800 bucks for my entire collection was too good to pass up, and iam sick of playing the same 4 people every week at my store, i dont see a future in this game, and all of you who do, good luck to you...might just be my area but this game dies a little more each day, look around you....

Guys, just about every game I've played has had something like this happen. Just grab people who play other games, offer to let them play a test game or something, help them out with decks, and show them how fun the game can be. That's a really good way to get new players...that and giving them odds and ends to help them be able to play.

Also, as far as a larger tournaments are concerned, that's been a thought of mine for a while. I do have an idea of what to do about it, though quite honestly, I think that in the long run people would think I'm nuts for it. However, it could be a really good idea, and I would be trying to include slightly more out of the way stores in on it for that reason.

If you feel like hearing the idea, just kinda post on here and let me know. I'll post it up then, but unless people want to hear the idea, I'm not going to do all the typing, lol.

Wilding said:

This. It really helps if you stop trying to get people to be "UFS players" and instead get people who are "game players" to play UFS.

This isn't a new or unique problem for game brands, and frankly, spewing crap like this all the time makes it that much harder for games to bounce back.

Mt_Do said:

^THIS

Steal something from Magic, their tournament scene is year round, and it changes formats depending on what time of year it is. UFS has three really solid playable formats, Teams, Legacy, Standard. Have regionals year round with different formats so that it keeps people A) Buying cards, its amazing how much people spend on Magic right before the tournament circuit switches formats. B) Interested, who doesn't love playing UFS?! I really think that if you had qualifiers with prizes that would help with transporting people to events that would be great. One of the reasons that I cannot attend the bigger events is because there is no way I can afford it, even being good at UFS doesn't help get you to events.

The system I would use for tournaments would be as such: Divide the calendar year into 3 sections, Legacy, Standard, Teams. In each of those sections you have Regional Qualifiers(think old AoPs) these could give you advantages at Regionals like first and second round byes, traveling expense assistance etc. Then you have Regionals, which would be held at the end of the 4 month circuit. Nationals and Worlds will remain as is, but it would be nice to have them a little farther apart in the calendar year. This is really just a rough outline that I thought up, I will need to flesh it out in the future

Example of Tournament Year:

January-April-Legacy Circuit

May-August-Standard Circuit

September-December-Teams Circuit

Maybe not Legacy though... at least not immediately. I don't dislike it, but I'm pretty sure we're all aware that new player acquisition needs to be a serious goal for FFG, and having 4 months dedicated to Legacy would be among the things that could scare some away.

I can agree with chubbs. Larger tournaments are what I found myself living for UFS wise this season. The locals not nearly as much b/c they'res not 30+ people showing up weekly. The competition level was just higher.

Another thought to tack on here. After gen con aka the big one for the year what do we get after that? Basically our tournie scene is dead until jan / feb. So by the power of math! We get a five month hiatus give or take. And this is the first year with "Regionals" tournies instead of our A or F ops. I just think this time could go to better use. Everything right now feels so clumped with nats and worlds together.

Personally more tournaments spread out more will please ALOT of players in my opinion.

DoubleD said:

^THIS

You good sir earn the achevement of EPIC WIN! This idea could work wonders. Especially the Legacy idea. Old packs that are not selling out in the stores b/c they are block one could be sold again and FFG can have a reason for reprinting block 1 and 2 cards. I tip my hat off to you good sir. This is the sort of brainstorming that needs to be done.

My final suggestion is that once enough people read this, you should write up a petition and have several UFS'ers sign the dang thing and send it to FFG. Hey, you have to listen when an idea is that good.

Polygon said:

I'm sorry, but I fail to see where my statement of "grab people who play other games, offer to let them play a test game" etc. was aimed at solely converting someone to UFS and making them a UFS player. Your statement about getting people who are game players is just re-wording my post, and frankly if you feel the need to tell me that what I'm saying is wrong, you probably shouldn't go agreeing with me.

As for the seperate season idea, so as to boost competitive play, that's basically what I feel would be a good idea. However, if FFG doesn't wish to institute what would essentially be a pro circuit of sorts, the other option is to have fansites or outside organizations host large tournaments with cooperation/support from FFG. This works in several other games. StarCityGames and Neutral Ground (if I remember correctly) regularly hold large Magic events. When I played DBZ, the tournament season was very similar to the UFS schedule. So a gaming site that focused mainly on that game, and a few others like it, hosted tournaments that were the same size as regionals.

If there were to be an outside "circuit" like what I just described, the best idea would likely be to get as good of prizes as you can, but also keep the fun in the game with something like a trohpy/medal for the winner. This, or the idea of an invitational tournament, which you can garner an invite to through these said "circuit" events could be another idea.

Question how does one contact the person in charge of OP ?

DoubleD said:

My only problem with the schedule is that Legacy is not fun, so for 4 months, alot of people have nothing to do. Legacy is supported by having a Legacy Worlds and by letting scouts run 2 Legacy events per month. I think that's enough really, it has been said on the boards before (at least on the older boards) that Legacy is not considered when creating new cards, it isn't a truly supported format. But it is kept as a courtesy... I don't think it needs to go any farther than that.

Well I wish we had more communication from FFG I wish we would get a posting of exactly who have been approved for regionals I am still waiting on that to see which events I can go to at this rate it might just be nats and worlds.

A year ago, people were complaining, and the same conversation was happening because there was such a focus "big tournament play".

I know it's been said already, but pass this onto those folks who are phoning in their messages:

It's your responsibility to go out and find new players to teach, and bring them in.

That's how Magic got started.

People didn't start playing magic because they saw an advertisment somewhere.

A friend started playing, and said "this is really cool! You've got to try this."

Keep in mind, I'm talking about grass roots, when you weren't limited to 60 card decks, or just 4 copies of a card in a deck.

That was how we started playing Magic back in 93.

~~~

Getting newer players into legacy shouldn't be an issue. With the number of folks who are dumping their collections right now, and how little many players play legacy... playing legacy shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Especially considering how some standard format decks can now run with legacy decks.

To "Wilding": Pay more attention to what you're reading before flying off the handle at someone.

I also wanna back Antigoth on his statements. To carry it further, most game players don't play games other than the top-sellers for the "tournament scene". People will play UFS because they have someone to play with . In their area. Until the sales reports come in, this is only a question of whether UFS is being played in your area rather than whether it's "dying" or some crap. And before that point in time, all it will do is potentially kill interest when local players take a peek at the forums and see so many threads about how the sky is falling or something. It scares people away because they'll think UFS won't even stay around for them to buy , and it's a potentially self-fulfilling attitude because those local groups ARE the profit for FFG.

But as Antigoth said, if we want UFS to be played or played again in our respective areas, that's really our job. No promotional announcement or major tournament schedule is really going to spawn a play group at our local stores; if we're not the ones starting it, no one will, including FFG. You want a more busy tournanent "scene", that will come naturally if more groups in more places pick up the game.

At the most basic level, Worlds tournaments and such really just serve to get outside people introduced to certain games at the con .

I think the responsibilities of the game mainly fall on the producers of the game, in this case FFG, not the players or the scouts. I promote the game when I can, but the fact of the matter is, it's not my job, that's the job of the people over at FFG now. If FFG wants to limit thier clientel to brick and mortar store, thats suicidal, and illogical, as their sales will never reach past a certain point and they will lose gamers to other games such as MtG, Yugioh, bleach, pokemon etc... To play a card game competitively, which most people would like to do a some point, people have to spend x-amount of money, be it $2-300 a month, $5-800 a set, and their funds are limited, thats why it's rare to see a gamer that is competitive in many different ccgs, ussually it's just one game like wow, mtg, UFS. It's cut throat out industry, and there is nothing wrong with selling UFS at gamestop, EB Games, or even "heaven forbid" wal-mart or a big chain store like that.

When I went to Gen-Con this year, and I had to explain to a bunch of my freinds and classmates why I was taking a week out of my schedule to go to the states, they looked at me absolutely clueless because they never heard of UFS, some of them thought that I was talking about magic, and I had to correct them. UFS has been around for 2 years now and not that many people have heard of it. It had a good growth in the first year, but it's gotten stagnant, and it's starting to falter and die now. This game desperately needs to grow more. What it doesn't need is delays after delays.

120ish players for the world championship of a game is absolutely pathedic. I've been in backwater magic tournaments (around 250 players) with a bigger tournout then that. I found that the prize support was absolutely horrendous, and it did not justify me spending 500 dollars going to that event.

The constant bannings in the game are also very irratating. I do agree that addes, revitalize, and rank should have been banned. But you know what would have been better? if you actually playtested before you print cards and see how redicoulous some of the cards are. Honestly, I want to get myself a playset of feline spikes, but I dont' know weather I should bother getting them cause I don't know what the Bannings of December, January or February are going to be, and I could be out $75 that could be better spent on clothes, food, mastercard payments, going out ect. The game isn't stable enough at the moment and it seems like anything could happen.

Yes, I would like to have new players. I've talked to people about the game and most of the people that I know used to play the game and have left it due to power imbalances or constant bannings, or they see the game going no-where, and quite frankly I don't blame them. If a product isn't worth buying, then don't buy it.

Now the thing is that this isn't magic who's backed by Wizards Of the Coast this is UFS who's backed by FFG. If anyone doesn't get the picture I will tell you PLAYERS ARE GETTING BORED WITH THIS GAME CAUSE THERE'S NO BIG TOURNAMENTS TO BE PLAYED THIS TIME OF YEAR . Everytime that I look around players are leaving out of UFS cause there's no comp. In NYC players are leaving by next year cause of bordom, NJ , Pa,Down South hell all over are leaving cause of said reason.

Ok from what I have personally experienced in the NY and NJ meta this games is not kinda dying it's dying cause of the following: not enough advertisement in the gaming community itself . This game's for the gaming community so why the hell not ? FFG wants to stick to the whole" were rebels in the CCG business by not going to the mega chains but has not even tried to advertise on certain bigtime gaming communities which the game is suppose to cater to. The next thing is that the fact that theirs NO SPECIAL TOURNAMENTS GOING ON UNTILL 2009 kinda makes for bad business when the players in the
UFS community in the past had something going on this time of the year and the company was the one sponsoring the event and that was good for business but look now there's nothing going on and now players are getting bored with UFS and cause of that are starting to redabble into the game that they left rather it be Yugioh,Magic,Pokemon etc....

Furthermore ok were suppose to support our stores but with little-to no advertisment the brick and mortar are looking somewhere else cause they wanna make money the store that I go to's owner told me that if the scout quits then he will never carry ufs anymore cause there's no money to be made cause no one is buying from him cause of the cost of everything and that's the real reason that Coolstuff Inc is making a killing is because there connected to a store and they sell ufs cheap and come on we as ufs noas CCG gamers are going to go for the cheaper thing rather than the expensive store. Now some of us are looking at the other CCG's and are like " if they can do it why can't FFG" and what I mean by that is again advertisment on a low scale. Another thing I have to agree with DoubleD on what he said about splitting up tournaments into quarters with this in mind I would like to give my two cents:

Jan-Apr: Two Regionals top 16-20 qualifies for worlds ( fit in US Nats in this timespan) or increase the number to a reasonal number

May-Aug: One Regional top16-20 qualifies for Worlds and Worlds

Sep-Dec: Two Regionals to qualifiy for next years Worlds event.

This along with cutting down the price of the regional packets to about $250 would solve a whole lot of problems with the game and would bring in new players. Now with that timespan players have no time to be bored cause we have to think "what am I going to do to qualify for worlds ?".

sir_shajir said:

The idea missing here is that FFG literally can't form local interest or play groups. They can't make people play. Any TCG relies on an active player base to do well. That player base is you. You wanna get stuff started, you're not gonna do so by having FFG run massive ads and watch people flood into your local store because they saw those ads. You have astronomically better chances by actually recruiting people in person, yourself.

The undertone here seems to be that if FFG were doing their job, their magical fairy wands would plop a local play group into your area without you doing anything. The reason that can't happen is those play groups consist of people, not objects. If you feel it's unrealistic to have to do the promoting yourself to play a game in your area, that it's the company's responsibility and not yours, fine. You'll just have to decide whether you want to play UFS more than you want to avoid the sort of "volunteer work" involved. And frankly, the whole non-video game industry is suffering because people wanna play stuff but don't expect to do any social leg-work to get it started.