This news makes me sad. UFS was pretty fun, and the crossover stuff was a nice touch. I started playing a little before Set 4 came out...and I've only made about 3 decent decks since then...ha ha ha.

I'm not very active here at all, but I've been around for a while. It's been fun watching the game change, seeing all the different characters and their cards.

But it's great seeing so many people here still supporting the game. It would be really cool if someone continued it...

Someone mentioned the Magic Set Editor? It's got a UFS template, and you can make some UFS cards with it. It's missing a few things, but it's still pretty cool. I actually modified it to have Resource Symbols in text, as that wasn't supported, but I lost the edited files and I'll have to do it again. It's not too hard though. In fact, I just did it! I'll send it to one of the Moderators to review before it's put up on the site. (my username is Blizzard Warrior over there)

I've actually spent a fair amount of time making my own cards with it. Why, just last night I made a bunch of F-Zero character cards!

Whoo...aggro characters. Nothing special, but it was fun to make 'em. I'm SURE that the next license people wanted was F-ZERO. (I know, the names should be capitalized, I should add stuff at the bottom...they aren't done I guess)

I really think that the UNIVERSAL part of the Universal Fighting System really works. It's such a cool game with a bunch of potential, I'd hate to see it fade into oblivion! Go UFS!

Sad times indeed...

I am willing to help out with any continuation of the game, because UFS is the greatest game ever... and even if there are no new cards coming, the game will live on with me...

Postman197865 said:

How mature. I guess you know that FFG did this to HURT you personally, You and no one else.

My post from Kingdom Hearst.

To everyone who has said they will never buy any FFG games again, and any other over the top reactionaries....all I can say is get a grip! FFG did not kil off there CCG just to harm you personally. They were BLEEDING cash. As much as they and their fans LOVED the games you cannot run a business that way. That's right first and foremost FFG is a business. While making kick ass games is a close 2nd, making $ is thier number one priority. That's not a personal attack on them, just a fact of life. If they don't make $ they don;t make games.

Reread the front page post. They tried to make it work but CCGs are dying all over the place.

It's shame when any game finally goes DOA,but that does not mean that you cannot keep playing a game you love. No one is going to show up in the middle of the night and repo you cards.

Relax.

-H, who has never played a CCG game.

I think the potential to revive this game as a fan run non profit game far outweights the possibility that someone will swoop in a pick it up. And as much as I love the fan cards, only making cards out of existing licenses will help solidify its demise, as the cost and probelms with dealing with them has been one of the greatest downfalls of the game.

I would be all for another company picking up the game and trying to do what FFG couldnt...

They needed someone to work with the playerbase and make the game what everyone wanted it to be they never once in the last few months listened to what the fans had to say and they paid for it with the death of the game.

Jasco if you honestly think that you can run the game then i wil back you 100% and if you get all the playerbase behind you i believe we could turn the game around and have it be something worth fighting for

I think the main problem is that FFG couldnt keep up cost with the game and the liscensing and everything else that had to go into the game

How would people feel about the game continuing but without all the SF, soul cal and it be all like shadowar? Im just saying this is a possibility and maybe not the best way to go....but does anyone think its a good idea

Da_ghetto_gamer said:

What company is going to pick up a game with a player base less then 1,000? And if you read Steve's post, they couldn't keep up with the cost of the game because they had to print less per set because of the dwindling player base. And when you print stuff through printers like FFG does the more volume you print the less it costs per sheet/card whatever. Because the game had so few players they had to print less volume which made it cost more. It’s not that they couldn’t keep up with the costs it just got to a point where there were so few players playing the game it wasn’t worth it to print the small amount they were printing because it costs were so huge because of the low volume they were printing.

JDub said:

I understand all that but there has to be a way i dont wanna give up until we know for sure that every last hope is gone....

and i really cant believe that we have less then 1,000 players i wonder if we can get an official number somehow...

Da_ghetto_gamer said:

Less then 1,000 is pretty much as an official number as your going to get (straight from Steve). No company will pick this game up, FFG will not make a UFS LCG, it isn't worth it. If you want to continue to play UFS and want the game to continue go here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=26&efcid=5&efidt=257017&efpag=0

Trust me it's the only way UFS will continue.

JDub said:

Unfortunately your probably right but i still dont want to give up on it....ive been playing since the very beginning and i dont want it to end now

Da_ghetto_gamer said:

I went through this with Raw Deal when it was cancelled. I wished some company would pick it up some how or someone would make a new WWE CCG but it's two years latter and it hasn't happened yet. So anyone shouldn't get their hopes up that UFS will become a LCG or get picked up by Upper Deck or something because it's about a .5% chance that that will happen. Antigoth helped out with the Raw Deal players committee and they did an awesome job. They ran events at the past two(?) GenCons and created a new set (which is probably more balanced and fun then any other set that was released). If you want the game to continue and play then that is def the way to go.

******* Sgrooges they ruined christmas. :'(

I can't believe board games or role-plays or whatever, buy once and have all you need to play game, give a company more profit than a CCG. A, buy once have all you need game, can serve for a playgroup of average 4 players. So you only profit from that one person. In a CCG, all the four players will buy displays (imagine for an example case, that all games sell for 50 dollars) at 50 dollars each and one display is not enough, so the 4 will buy an average of 2 displays per person, that's 50*2*4=400 dollars, where a board game will give the company 50 dollars for that playgroup of 4 people. How's that not profitable?

Malk said:

Because there aren't enough people playing the game.

Printing a CCG costs more money than producing a board game, meaning less profit per unit sold. Sure they make $400 off four boxes of UFS vs $50 for a board game, but it's possible the board game only cost like $20-30 to make versus each box costing something like $40-50 - meaning the four UFS boxes only got them some $20 profit, same as the one board game.

This really has me heart broken. I saw where the SOTG was going and had to force myself to keep reading, kinda hoping that if I didn't finish it wasn't true (Some reason I've got a scene from the first Street Fighter movie in my head. Zangief: "CHANGE THE CHANNEL!" heh) I'm oging to pull away from the whole macho thing and shed a tear. Still, I'm glad I was able to go to a GenCon and really get to meet everyone and have an absolutely awesome time. Honestly some of the most fun I've had in a while has been because UFS. I truly loved this game and the people the played it. I was already super psyked to get ready for GenCon and see Joe, Aslum and everyone else I can hang out with other wise. This has to be one of the lowest points for me this year. No more arguing or bad mouthing, everyone here are some of the coolest people I've met and wish the best, I'll be up at GenCon probably playing Warmachine, but I hope we can get together and have another drink for old times sake. This was truly an awesome game and I wish I had done more for it and had tried to drive around more lately and have a few games post GenCon. Anyone that wants to, try and keep in touch, hopefully I still have Joe's big email list from GenCon somewhere. Guess I'm going to have to jump in Shane's boat and try to become a real champ since this card thing never worked out.

Peace out and keep fighting, I'll be around

AIM: Halbard100

GMAIL: Halbard100

Facebook: Facebook.com/halbard100

Myspace: myspace.com/halbard100

(Noticing a trend )

Well, I only have one thing to say. ANYONE WANNA BUY MY CARDS. My whole playgroup had the feeling this was gonna happen, but I forced myself to not believe it, and I was wrong. I guess I can spend the money I've been saving to build up my WoW collection now. At least I know that game isn't going anywhere soon. I know that producing CCGs are costly, but honestly, they could have given us one more Worlds.

I can remember back in the day, I used to play the Dragonball Z/GT CCG, I placed top 32 in the Focused Format Worlds 2003. September came around, and I went to Archon to play in a tournament there when Score Ent. annonced the end of that game. I was so pissed that I bagged all my cards and literally threw tham in the dumpster. Over 5,000 cards, in the trash. Anyway, I guess there are only three CCGs and have a chance of living on right now, MTG, Yugioh, and World of Warcraft, everything will probably die off in the next year or so.

I would like to thank FFG for at least trying to save this game after STG went under, but I really would like to punch the guy who said, "Why don't we just kill it to save the company some money". I, like many other players, thought the early rotation was a life saver for the game, and Tekken and SCVI QoS just improved everything so much, before the new block, I really was looking at getting out because everything was so overly control based. When NewFS came full force, and the decks were all aggro based, it made the game a lot more fun to play.

DBZCCG, has a fan created site, I believe it's called TopTierGaming.com, they have taken the dead game and instituted a card making system for it, where they actually release online cards, and everyone plays online. Hence, costly nothing more than the time spent making cards, and the cost of server usage. If any one would like to design something like this for UFS, I would be more than willing to help, I do have some HTML training under my belt, having designed a few fan sites just for personal use.

And by the way, I really do plan on selling my whole collection to anyone willing to make a decent offer, I'll start the bidding at $25, I'll be posting it on Ebay within the week. Thanks.

Too bad they are not trying UFS/KH as a LCG, this would make me interested. since they already revived the COC game as a LCG. I imagine that the UFS/KH player base must be really small since they are not trying it.

tech7 said:

It's got more to do with the licenses than the format. For UFS, it's hard because of all the licenses they have to cover and how restrictive they've been. As a LCG, they likely wouldn't have been able to fix that problem either, which meant they would lose the licenses before long.

You're probably right. Still I'd like to see them try and regroup and relaunch it as a LCG starting with ShadoWar, since its their own IP to mess with and then see where it takes them. I can't count the number of people I've talked, especially those that own stores, that have said if UFS was converted to a LCG they would start buying and playing it.

Thank you for all of your hard work Steve, and to FFG for doing what they could for fringe CCGs.

Being a player of a little over a year, or one who has played soley during the decline/(last year) of UFS, I can honestly say I've enjoyed every game, every new card, and every new player I've met. I also enjoyed meeting you Steve, and some of the others responsible for my chance to play and compete in the UFS world and I could tell that the game, despite struggling, was still much loved by its caretakers - perhaps moreso than by its players.

It goes without saying that the survival of FFG, and by survival I mean its success, comes before that of any one of its games. Naturally it makes sense then to cancel products that are not recovering or producing as desired. Anyone who doesn't understand this, or just wants to blame FFG for not finding a way to support their favorite game is just shortsighted and probably being a little bit selfish about the whole situation. .

I especially appreciate your run-down of the UFS life cycle, including the attempts to turn things around. However, this is where I am at a loss, and maybe it is because I don't have all the information, or maybe it is because I am simply missing the business boat. Namely it seems most of the steps taken were to bandage the wound rather than attempts at curing it altogether... and maybe that was the best thing to do, sometimes things heal on their own (I know my playgroup has grown a great deal over the last year and a bit and thus responded well to a bandaged environment) An example:

Printing fewer cards - As much as this takes the CCG 'investment' out of the picture, and perhaps leads the game towards an LCG, it doesn't address the base problem, which is numbers. Yes, a small portion of the already playing will continue playing longer because the cost is less, likely you will still get the same amount of money from them anyways. But on the flipside this move does very little to attract new players (what would seem to be the pimary goal), i.e. there are fewer cards out there, less of their favorite characters, less of the variety which makes a CCG a CCG. In fact, I'd speculate as many players kepy playing because of the in sets there was an equal in players disallusioned by the decision, turned away by the lack of card pool and deck building options, etc.

Sadly, in my opinion, the only way to reduce the investment needed to get into the game would have been to have the nuclear strike sooner followed by the print of new sets that are more player friendly/balanced that can be used longer and provide new players with a variety of base level experience with the mechanics of the game.

Sadder still, the only way to cure the disease of dwindling numbers is to advertise (spend money). You need to spend money to make money until a self-sustaining playerbase exists that grows by word of mouth and continued infusion of good/solid/balanced cards and it doesn't quite seem like these types of steps were taken. Don't get me wrong, from a business persepctive perhaps these steps weren't even warranted the ship already half under water, saving the passengers is sometimes more important than trying to save the ship itself.

But most of all I feel for Hata, who I don't really think had a real opportunity to leave his design mark on the game. I'm sure he will be fine whatever he does, he is a smart guy and talented to boot, but it would have been nice to play a full block of his stuff, not a mish-mash of counter tech for the old garbage and a small creep to a new more exciting and balanced experience (which is what a lot of block 4 has been).

I'm also going to focus on the timing of this announcment. It would have been far nicer for all of the players to find out about this around the time when the next set would be released, granted we would have a few months of blissful ignorance ^^ Obviously not everyone would agree, in fact more might even argue knowing sooner would have been better. I know our SCIV set 2 is massively sold out, and before release. I know I didn't even get enough of what I want out of it. I know I am still going to buy what I intended to, but by no means will it be as exciting knowing that there won't be anymore, at least for an indefinate period of time that is.

As a player in this there really isn't a reason to have hard feelings though, and like when any good thing passes on it is better to reflect on the good times shared with it rather than the fact that they are done. That is what I intend to do and I suggest all the other players do the same.

Finally, remember - There will always be another game, there will always be a better experience, and I hope to see at least a few of you at each and every point of escalation along that path.

- dut

hahnarama said:

I don't have to be mature anymore you ass. Just because they are a business and they have to make money, doesn't mean they didn't totally **** the game. I wasn't being immature. I told it like it was. They killed the game from day one. They kept alienating the player base. Each time, they probably lost half of it. A half of a half of a half of a half is less than 1000 people, hmmm?

So get off your high horse. I supported the game until the end. What did you do?

I know that this has been said a million times, but this is bull. I really can't believe they blind sided us like this. I mean I knew it was going to happen but not like this. This is a great way to start off the Christmas holiday, at least I didn't spend my money more of this game now. I love this game with all my heart but this is it I finally have a reason to quit cuz of this ****.

You know the more I think about it the more I wonder if giving us a heads up would have helped or just been a sooner nail in the coffin. Like "We're in trouble, if SCIV doesn't sell big I don't know whats going to happen."

Halbard100 said:

It seems to me they already made up their minds before the newest set came out. There are some people who have admitted knowing that the game was going to be canceled over a month ago. They just didn't know when it was going to happen.

I've already quit this game, over a year ago, though I hung on collecting the character cards until a few months back when I finally called a halt to that. Guess I may as well go for the ones I missed now, since the collection has a definite end on it. I don't know when I last posted here, but I kept an occasional eye out for news of new characters....

...and, to be honest, for this announcement. This board is home to a good few loyal die-hards whose enthusiasm for the game has been impressive, bordering on inspirational, but even they must have known that this day was both inevitable and imminent. And here it is. The life-support is being switched off. The game has been living on voltage for a long time, and we all knew it.

Many thanks to FFG for doing their best - they could have let the game die immediately with STG. I got a lot of fun out of this while it lasted, as a collector and a deckbuilder, and to a lesser extent as a player because it never took off in my area despite my efforts. I'll miss it.