How Can Konami Improve the Yu-Gi-Oh! Experience?

[AsianGuy1137]

I saw a similar thread on Pojo and I thought it was a good idea to incite discussion so I decided to start one here.

As all games ultimately depend on the players' support to thrive through their decisions to buy or not buy products, understanding what makes the game fun for its players is a crucial factor for attaining success. What do you think are the good and/or bad aspects of the game? Can they be improved, perfected upon or are they good enough or just hopeless as they are? Do you have any suggestions for improvements?

The following are my personal thoughts.

1. Make more creative cards that don't necessarily need to follow the cheap 1-for-1 or even +1 destruction, spammability, and broken support formula that most recent archetypes have adhered to. I think each archetype needs a way to be competitively viable, which usually translates to consistent win condition, but I think it's possible to have more creative ways to gain advantage than straight up destruction. I wouldn't mind straight off destruction as long as it was relevant to the design of the archetype instead of a rehashed generic destruction made to be archetype-specific. Fire Fists and their interactions with their Continuous S/T is what I consider to be somewhat creative in design. Gladiator Beasts are an archetype I consider to be very creative and flavorful in design.

2. Significance to each attribute/type. It seems like a lot of the attributes and types just do the same thing. Types don't really mean much outside of occasional systematic, concentrated effort to fit them with a specific theme (e.g. lifepoint-based effects, then Banish-based effects for Psychics). I honestly don't see the difference between how DARK insects spam and blow up stuff compared to how WATER Sea Serpents, etc. search and blow up stuff, how LIGHT Fairies Special Summon bosses and blow up stuff, and how FIRE Beast-Warriors search and blow up stuff apart from their designated archetype specific mechanic in doing so, Equip, Sending to Grave as cost, generic Special Summoning, and Battle/Sending archetype-specific S/T to grave being the respective mechanics. I'd like to see each attribute have its specific general theme, e.g. Earth being Life/Growth/Strength/Endurance, DARK being destruction/corruption/sacrifice for power, etc. while Types have some sort of subtheme such as Insects being weak by themselves but capable of swarming, Warriors being Battle-orientated with maybe a focus on Equips, Winged-Beasts having maybe some sort of tactical advantage based on the idea of flight such as bouncing, etc...

2. Have open polls or some way for the players to submit input about the state of the game which consists of everything ranging from banlists to tournaments to card designs, etc.

3. Have card design contests held on a regular basis with the winning designs being made into actual cards. Regular is intentionally used for how arbitrary it is. I think the player base as a whole, especially this community, is capable of a good deal of creativity. I've seen cards here that I've thought would be great if they were real. Why not let great ideas become officially recognized?

4. Fix the rarity system and adopt a system like MtG. Have commons/uncommons (Rare in YuGiOh) in a set with 1 Super Rare/Ultra Rare with only the occasional Secret Rare, etc... Statistically, having Secret Rares become more available could potentially increase profits for Konami as there would be more enticement for players to buy more packs with a higher chance of getting good pulls. The exact math behind this would require extensive analysis of collected data which is something Konami should be very capable of doing with the popularity and success of the game.

5. Adopt a points system like MtG's Planeswalker Points, except use ELO Rating style to determine point distribution.

6. Make sure new card types/mechanics that are introduced are actually playable. e.g. Toons/Gemini/Union are some introduced sub-types that are almost never played. Neos Alius and Machina Gearfame are the only two cards of the above sub-types that see any competitive play. Equip Spells are very bad in general.

[darkwolf777]

Remove Xyz and Synchros.

Not enough effort on slowing the game down and stopping players from performing so many huge moves every turn so that a player would want to give up within the first few turns of the game.

[Stan Alda]

I wouldn't mind some anti-Extra Deck cards, but removing Xyzs and Synchros entirely would ruin faster players' fun. Besides, this is a CUSTOM card forum. We're here to do what Konami can't or won't.

[Cute Rotten Yoshika]

konami cant (well wont) remove them entirely, but giving extra deck monsters summoning sickness might help? it certainly works from my experiences playing in a format where thats the case.

[Not-so-Radiant Arin]

[quote]Pojo[/quote]

There's your problem.

Based on the answers in the poll, the only real choice is that they want nothing but our cash. Because, you know, that's what corporations do. By the end of the format, building a Mermantean Deck will cost more than buying a car, and if it's not Meta, it's not worth it.

[Blake]

[quote name='darkwolf777' timestamp='1357395388' post='6111839']
Remove Xyz and Synchros.

Not enough effort on slowing the game down and stopping players from performing so many huge moves every turn so that a player would want to give up within the first few turns of the game.
[/quote]
Oh look, Nostalgia Faggory. No, the speed niche of the game is the only edge it has on Vanguard and MTG, so that's a stupid ass idea.

[quote name='clairedestroyer' timestamp='1357398238' post='6111857']
konami cant (well wont) remove them entirely, but giving extra deck monsters summoning sickness might help? it certainly works from my experiences playing in a format where thats the case.
[/quote]
Chance Format is literally s***. All it does is slow the game down in a stupid manner in a format made to f*** consistency, and the summoning sickness does nothing but stop you from attacking. LOL VOLCASAURUS, ATUM, ETC. Removing balancing factors and punishing decks for using the Extra Deck is totally [i]genius[/i].

Now for the actual points...
1. I can't take this point seriously at all anymore, because you seem to think T.G. 2.0 and Glads are remotely creative. Also, the irony of this whole complaint is that ignores what IS printed. Have you even seen Spellbooks, Hunder Family, or Geargia? None of them focus on destruction advantage, in and of themselves, but hoard advantage at times.

2. There is a bit of this in the game, and each attack the game from different angles. Your only point here is "HOW DARE ARCHETYPES GET TO DESTROY THINGS", as far as I can see. You seem to not understand that archetypes are, basically, smaller Types, go figure. An Archetype doing its own thing MAKES SENSE.

3 (Not the second 2, 3).I've yet to see cards on this site that deserve it, and that shows how bad an idea this is. Why? Because the fanbase is full of idiots who don't know anything of card design, even when they think they do oftimes. Putting contests like this in the hands of the players is probably the worst idea in the thread so far. Also, they do get viewer submitted cards in the anime sometimes.

4-5. Shut the hell up and go play MTG. If you want it like MTG, play MTG. That's simple.

6. Um... why? Toons is a heavily desired buff for the fans, but you can't even comopare them to Gemini or Union. Geminis are a lot of standalone monsters that have nothing in common. Quite a few Geminis have uses, and "Gemini" is a balancing point, more often than not. Union is a SUPPORT sub-type. It's made to come in bits and pieces to support monsters that it can equip to. It's also a fairly standalone style of card. Finally, Toons are spam from the hand, and people seem to b**** when that's too frequent, so why? Finally, there ARE some good equips. Equips in general are extremely vulnerable, so they have to be ridiculously good to be used. That's how the game's made, that's nothing that can be changed unless they make invincible equips which would then have s*** effects to "balance".

All in all, these suggestions are awful, and I don't see why you'd waste your time typing them all out. The only remotely respectable one was 6, and even that's a stretch.

[Sora1499]

@OP: You seem to want to turn YGO into a MTG clone... Why? I play yugioh because I like the fast pace and freedom that it gives its players.

As for how to make the game better: The reason why a lot of people don't like the state of the game is because many of the decks aren't fun to play against. Konami has had to implement power creep in order to make money, because who wants to buy the new cards if they're crap? The result is that, over time, the decks have become spammy and rather stupid (for lack of a better word). One possible solution to this would be to double the ban list and start from scratch, but that would never happen and I would certainly not want that to happen. Sleepy raised an interesting point a little while ago: Increase each player's starting Life Points. This would prevent many OTKs from happening and make games longer with more twists and turns, akin to a slower format, and they'd become more enjoyable for the players. However, this has the possibility of making games long and monotonous, so it might turn into a double-edged sword. There's also a possibility that decks like final countdown and exodia would get a boost from this.

[.Rai]

The awkward thing is that the best way to improve YGO is the take a few points from MtG. Importantly, [b]not how the game plays[/b]. Just how it's [b]designed[/b].

1. Make the game more resonant. It's a universal game design term. This is the point where I reference [i]The Art of Game Design[/i] as a reading point.
2. Make less archetypes, and concentrate on making powerful generic cards. It's twofold: not only do you stop the sheer linearity of tons of archetypes and make design more interesting, you get a bigger diversity of decks. I'm not saying to remove archetypes; just tone it down, Konami.
3. Reduce power creep, and increase complexity creep. It's an Escher's Staircase, in card game speak. Easy stuff really, if you have a decent development team :/

[quote name='Archlord Sora' timestamp='1357406953' post='6111918']
@OP: You seem to want to turn YGO into a MTG clone... Why? I play yugioh because I like the fast pace and freedom that it gives its players.
[/quote]

:> Some of the MtG formats in history have been faster and more skill-intensive than any other YGO format. And, to be honest, Pokémon is by far the fastest and most expansive TCG out there.

[mido9]

[quote name='.Rai' timestamp='1357408003' post='6111929']
complexity creep.
[/quote]
I couldnt find anything on google on what this is,could you explain?

[.Rai]

[quote name='mido9' timestamp='1357408594' post='6111932']
I couldnt find anything on google on what this is,could you explain?
[/quote]

It's the first thing that appears when you type it in. In the general course of any game that updates itself, the two things that are generally noted are the presence of power creep and complexity creep. [b]Power creep[/b] is obviously the increasing average power level of cards in the game. [b]Complexity creep[/b] is the increasing average complexity of effects in the game.

Complexity creep can be negative or positive, depending on the balance: a game without any gets boring, and is unlikely to go forwards much, whereas a game with too much is likely to only have a loyal fanbase since the game becomes too complex for beginners to enter.

Konami would benefit from a mixture of increasing complexity creep in individual cards (because of the general formulaic way Konami is making sets and cards), but keeping the overall complexity the same: YGO is already a very intimidating game to enter because of how fiercely competitive it is. What this means is making more out-of-the-box cards and generally cards that make further use of what effects Konami has available to them.

Complexity creep also gives the illusion of power creep, so competitive players are willing to play with new cards and make new, fun decks with them because of their apparent power when looked at.

[Stan Alda]

In the end, though, this question and thread is futile because everyone's idea of a good YGO experience is different. I like it slow and casual, while others like it fast and competitive. There is no one definitive "YGO experience".

[ihop]

All they need to do is make a couple of meta Decks each format dirt-cheap to build decently so that the game becomes available at all budgets and, more importantly, make a confirmed rulings base that is accessible by every level 1 judge so there's never any controversy and everything is rules the same everywhere.

Apart from that the game is fine.

[.Rai]

[quote name='Stan Alda' timestamp='1357412985' post='6111996']
In the end, though, this question and thread is futile because everyone's idea of a good YGO experience is different. I like it slow and casual, while others like it fast and competitive. There is no one definitive "YGO experience".
[/quote]

Which is why the company has to improve everyone's experience. It's not exactly impossible, since every major TCG apart from YGO has managed to do it (maybe not CFC, but that's just a really competitive game). They have to design cards for both the casual and the competitive player.

[quote name='Kettleblack' timestamp='1357413146' post='6111998']
All they need to do is make a couple of meta Decks each format dirt-cheap to build decently so that the game becomes available at all budgets and, more importantly, make a confirmed rulings base that is accessible by every level 1 judge so there's never any controversy and everything is rules the same everywhere.
Apart from that the game is fine.
[/quote]

You heavily imply that the only thing wrong with the game is the competitive environment and its price. Despite that being a problem, there is so much more that's wrong with this game.

[ihop]

[quote name='.Rai' timestamp='1357413208' post='6112001']
You heavily imply that the only thing wrong with the game is the competitive environment and its price.
[/quote]

This is correct. The only thing really wrong with the game is that going first gives too much of an advantage.

[.Rai]

[quote name='Kettleblack' timestamp='1357413533' post='6112006']
This is correct. The only thing really wrong with the game is that going first gives too much of an advantage.
[/quote]

Well, you just mentioned the price. You didn't say anything about how the competitive environment actually plays. If we judged YGO on its actual craftsmanship as a game, it would rate lowly. It's about as well-made as Hotel for Dogs for Nintendo DS.

On a fundamental level, the game is a game that should be judged by its design and enjoyability, not how much of an efficient competitive orgy it is.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

[quote name='.Rai' timestamp='1357413689' post='6112007']
Well, you just mentioned the price. You didn't say anything about how the competitive environment actually plays. If we judged YGO on its actual craftsmanship as a game, it would rate lowly. It's about as well-made as Hotel for Dogs for Nintendo DS.

On a fundamental level, the game is a game that should be judged by its design and enjoyability, not how much of an efficient competitive orgy it is.
[/quote]
1. They made a game tie-in to that god-awful movie?
2. Why do people judge it by how much of an efficient competitive orgy Yu-Gi-Oh! is?

[The Hounds Of Anubis]

[quote name='.Rai' timestamp='1357413208' post='6112001']
Which is why the company has to improve everyone's experience. It's not exactly impossible, since every major TCG apart from YGO has managed to do it (maybe not CFC, but that's just a really competitive game). They have to design cards for both the casual and the competitive player.[/quote]

1. CFV isn't competitive yet. The game still relies way too much on luck for any major portion of the playerbase to realistically call it a competitive game.

2. Yugioh makes an absolute s***-ton of casual cards that the casual players generally don't even try to give a s*** about since all they do is b**** about meta decks.



[quote]You heavily imply that the only thing wrong with the game is the competitive environment and its price. Despite that being a problem, there is so much more that's wrong with this game.
[/quote]

There isn't really much more wrong. It's down to whether the game design is the player's cup of tea or not, and those who prefer a slower game should play something like mtg. One of the biggest problems IS the price. Just going to compare Jace, the Mind Sculptor to something like TGU when it was at 3 and in EXVC.

Both TGU's and Jace's rarity are the highest in their respective games, and both were format-making cards. Tour Guide, however, had an innevitable banlist addition in its future, whereas Jace had a permanent home cemented in Legacy and at the very least Vintage, where it has a 100% chance of being competitive there forever.

Now, TGU's price? 100-125 dollars on average. Jace wavered around 80 dollars when it was in standard, iirc, and has gone up more since the set's out of print, but just look at the investment difference:

TGU: 100+ dollars for a card that was only @3 for about a year, after which it got hit, and will very likely be hit again in future, with absolutely no value retainment.

Jace: 100-odd dollars for a card that sees play @4 in a huge number of competitive decks over 2 formats and will be viable in them for eternity.

Not to mention, Jace is the best magic card ever printed, and TGU is far from the best yugioh card ever printed.

If you want an even better example: DAD was $300 in Tele-DAD format.

[.Rai]

[quote name='TheFinalFan' timestamp='1357413927' post='6112010']
1. They made a game tie-in to that god-awful movie?
2. Why do people judge it by how much of an efficient competitive orgy Yu-Gi-Oh! is?
[/quote]

Take the definition of game from dictionary.com:

[quote]1. an amusement or pastime: children's games.
3. a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules, usually for their own amusement or for that of spectators.[/quote]

It's perfectly understandable that YGO is a competitive game. Therefore, one of the things to take into account when improving the game is improving the competitive experience. As such, it's the same with every TCG.

Yet, we look at the 'big 3' of TCGs, and on the terms of simply how [b]well[/b] they were designed, Magic would come top, Pokémon a close second, and YGO overwhelmingly last. If all three TCGs have both a casual and competitive scene, why is YGO so far behind? And this is unarguable, by the way. There is no opinion in how well a game is designed really: the only variable is how enjoyable a game is (but a game can be badly designed, and still enjoyable).

The clue lies in the fact that YGO has almost forced itself into a competitive environment. They strive for money, and keep their casual scene limited to those who like the anime. Their business is almost exclusively on the competitive scene: not only does it completely limit their market and number of new players, but it makes the competitive scene stale and dangerous. It's a cycle of endless power creep, and purposely delegating design to second place in return for making more powerful cards with competitive prices.

[quote name='Borderline Unplayable' timestamp='1357414352' post='6112016']
1. CFV isn't competitive yet. The game still relies way too much on luck for any major portion of the playerbase to realistically call it a competitive game.
2. Yugioh makes an absolute s***-ton of casual cards that the casual players generally don't even try to give a s*** about since all they do is b**** about meta decks.
There isn't really much more wrong. It's down to whether the game design is the player's cup of tea or not, and those who prefer a slower game should play something like mtg.

...
[/quote]

Of course I agree that price is one of the biggest reasons why YGO is not as good as it should be. It makes the game inaccessible, and intimidating, for new players, as well as making the game about money, rather than skill. I was simply saying, that on the level of 'how to make a good game', YGO fails quite badly for reasons outside of finance. It fails the test of design itself. When it comes to award ceremonies like the Golden Joystick Awards, if they had a TCG category, YGO would probably never be nominated.

There's definitely a difference between casual cards and filler. YGO has a lot of filler, not casual cards.

[newhat]

On Dueling Network, I run into a ruling issue basically every game. This game has too many effects that deal with the same triggers and events ("destroyed by battle" is a popular one). MTG is much more complex, but because there are clearly-defined keywords and extreme clarity, rulings aren't an issue.[color=#FFFFFF] Yes they are |_{[/color]

[darkwolf777]

[quote name='Josh Black' timestamp='1357404559' post='6111902']
Oh look, Nostalgia Faggory. No, the speed niche of the game is the only edge it has on Vanguard and MTG, so that's a stupid ass idea.
[/quote]

Its about knowing what I like. It has nothing to do with nostalgia. As Yugioh continued to turn into a fast paced shitstorm, I started to appreciate games like Magic more.

I know too much to completely abandon Yugioh, but I haven't played the game in almost a year.

[SzayelAporro]

I personally find nothing wrong with Synchro monsters, but Xyz monsters and the WInd-Up cards simply sicken me. They rely far too heavily on buying online and thus reduce the fun (and occasional anger) of opening stacks of packets to get the cards you need. I admit, buying online is helpful, but not when a single card costs upwards of £70. All Konami need to do to stop people wasting their money online is make the card packets cheaper, as most will agree that £3.00 is too expensive for 7 - 8 pieces of card, and with ssuh a small chance of getting anything worth your money.

[Azuh]

If anything, I've found it a lot easier to find the Xyz monsters I've wanted. Its still Synchros that are a b**** to find

[Sleepy]

Timmy wants to get into Yugioh, so he buys a pack. From there, he gets:
1 Wind-up monster, 1 Evol Spell, 1 Xyz for Machines, 1 vanilla Tribute Monster, 1 Field Spell for WATER, 1 self-damaging joke Spell, Baby Toragon, 1 Spell for Beast-Types when banished, and 1 Noble Knight equip.

Timmy doesn't play most of these, and in the best case, Timmy will find 1 card out of that pack that will be of interest, or maybe trade material at least... though the most common outcome is nothing. Even if Timmy DID play many decks from that pack, he'd discover all arch-types have support that is not actually worth using at all, and that such support is very abundant in these packs.

Timmy will also find out that many of these so called Arch-Types, are not gonna be supported for too long, absent for next packs to come, or like the case of Harpies, for years to come.

Timmy also finds out he is better off paying for cards individually if he wants to build something without having a ton of irrelevant cards around. Getting introduced into having to look up the prices, the cardpool of each pack, and all those things. Timmy of course has a lot of homework to do, since he needs to either study the thousands of cards out there, or be forced to net-deck. He is not gonna have many personal options since he doesn't quite know everything, being a casual player and all.

Once he is more knowledgable of the cardpool, Timmy will come to discover the abysmal gap between "casual" cards and competitive cards. Finding out that competitive decks are not just generally better than casual ones, but they also pretty much make playing against them with non-competitive decks pretty pointless. When was the last time something like Ojamas beat Inzektors or Wind-Ups?

Timmy then will go through many annoying moments of discussing rulings of cards, and losing many duels because of it. Some details that make perfect sense to experienced players, but not necessarily to new comers.

If Timmy doesn't decide to quit, Timmy will come to know about terms like "Game Design", "balance", and the such, and will start discussing them carefully. Which is an interesting set of things to know, but as a consumer, he shouldn't have to worry about those things so much, since the game designers are supposed to take care of that part for the players to only worry about enjoying the product.

If Timmy doesn't decide to quit, he'll eventually face that his only good deck suddenly received list attention, ruining it's playability and decreasing the price of everything he payed for. Now that he has lived through that, he will need to keep close watch on all these factors. The final outcome will probably force Timmy into competitive play or will make him quit the game.
---------------------------------------------------

I don't think Yugioh in general cares about casual players at all.
It always creates enviroments that satisfy the competitive players to a certain degree, but the amount of power creep it provides is enough to leave a ton of decks behind for eternity. New players with no fanatism towards the anime, and no sense of nostalgia towards any decks in particular, will only see the so called "casual" builds as worthless outclassed trash.

That's a problem I have with the game. It might not be a problem to many other people, and it's certainly not the only issue.

[Bringerofcake]

I mostly think that the problems with the game are in release, rather than in implementation. Rarity bumps, extra secret rares and the like make the game a lot more expensive than it needs to be. I think giving all players a better chance in getting the cards they want goes a long way to attitudes about the game.

[AsianGuy1137]

Well I'm glad there's been some feedback. Just try to be polite and considerate in your discussion. Nobody here's perfect, and it doesn't help anyone to devolve your comments to personal attacks.

As for you...
[quote name='Josh Black' timestamp='1357404559' post='6111902']
Oh look, Nostalgia Faggory. No, the speed niche of the game is the only edge it has on Vanguard and MTG, so that's a stupid ass idea.
[color=#ff0000]Oh, you're gonna point out how stupid an idea is by pointing out how much it enables fast-paced matches where the game is more likely to be determined by the luck of drawing your starting hand than making it better paced and more resilient to ridiculous combo spams and OTKs? How insightful.[/color]

Chance Format is literally s***. All it does is slow the game down in a stupid manner in a format made to f*** consistency, and the summoning sickness does nothing but stop you from attacking. LOL VOLCASAURUS, ATUM, ETC. Removing balancing factors and punishing decks for using the Extra Deck is totally [i]genius[/i].

Now for the actual points...
1. I can't take this point seriously at all anymore, because you seem to think T.G. 2.0 and Glads are remotely creative. Also, the irony of this whole complaint is that ignores what IS printed. Have you even seen Spellbooks, Hunder Family, or Geargia? None of them focus on destruction advantage, in and of themselves, but hoard advantage at times.
[color=#ff0000]Yes, I believe that they are exactly that. Remotely creative in the strictest sense of the phrase - they're tolerable designs. As for your so-called irony, when was the last time the Thunder pseudo-archetype was competitively viable? Sure, it's good at making generic Rank 4 Xyzs, but so are Constellars and Evilswarms. So it doesn't auto-conform to the destruction aspect of the generic competitive archetype formula, does that mean it's creative just because of that? What about the generic Xyz spamming? Now, I personally think it's fine as it is, but more creative ways to formulate archetypes must exist besides use search card (Thunder Seahorse) to get components to spam the field with Recycling Batteries to continue the formula. As for Spellbooks, I will admit they are quite flavorful, but the entire basis of the archetype revolves around spamming Junon. Without her, the deck would not be nearly as competitively viable as it is. Still, for what it does, the archetype is a good representation of what exists, which doesn't actually contradict my point. If you actually utilize some reading comprehension or maybe just common sense, you might realize that the specific examples I mentioned are becoming more prevalent in the competitive circuit which doesn't necessarily exclude the presence of archetypes which do not conform to the aforementioned generic formulas. The Prophecy archetype is one of them, but the competitive scene has become dominated but the aforementioned archetypes that do conform to said formulas. As for Geargias, they essentially do what every consistent archetype aspires to with absolutely no creative design behind them. Have a generic searcher, have a generic spammer that can retrieve a card when sent from field to grave, have a generic summoner, and have a generic built-in monster reborn. Do try harder to come up with a better example next time, will you?[/color]

2. There is a bit of this in the game, and each attack the game from different angles. Your only point here is "HOW DARE ARCHETYPES GET TO DESTROY THINGS", as far as I can see. You seem to not understand that archetypes are, basically, smaller Types, go figure. An Archetype doing its own thing MAKES SENSE.
[color=#ff0000]You seem to not understand that archetypes actually have become quite stale and do a lot of the same things under different names. How exactly does this refute my claim that there should be a hierarchical divison of Attribute encomposing the main principles, types encomposing subsidiary themes, and archetypes perhaps encomposing a specific manifestation of that theme? No sir, again, your reading comprehension fails or you're being intentionally petulant.[/color]

3 (Not the second 2, 3).I've yet to see cards on this site that deserve it, and that shows how bad an idea this is. Why? Because the fanbase is full of idiots who don't know anything of card design, even when they think they do oftimes. Putting contests like this in the hands of the players is probably the worst idea in the thread so far. Also, they do get viewer submitted cards in the anime sometimes.
[color=#ff0000]Oh yes, generalize more, will you? If you haven't found good designs, it's either because you're not looking hard enough, generalize all designs based on the poor designs of some, possibly even most, while disregarding the rest, or are just bad at judging these things. I cannot name exact designs off the top of my head, but I do remember seeing some creative designs through the years here. Agro does have some realistic and, at times, even balanced designs. I'm sure there are many others out there too, but I do not have a good enough memory to fully list all the others nor do I have the time to go through each with thoughtful critique. If you missed that, it's your fault.[/color]

4-5. Shut the hell up and go play MTG. If you want it like MTG, play MTG. That's simple.
[color=#ff0000]Your irrefutable logic astounds me! Of course, why didn't I see it? The desire to make Rares, and by extension, good cards easier to access for the general market so we as consumers don't have to bleed our wallets dry and implement a ranking system whilst refering to MtG's procedure as a point of examination MUST mean I want to turn everything about YuGiOh into Magic! How could I have been so blind...[/color]

6. Um... why? Toons is a heavily desired buff for the fans, but you can't even comopare them to Gemini or Union. Geminis are a lot of standalone monsters that have nothing in common. Quite a few Geminis have uses, and "Gemini" is a balancing point, more often than not. Union is a SUPPORT sub-type. It's made to come in bits and pieces to support monsters that it can equip to. It's also a fairly standalone style of card. Finally, Toons are spam from the hand, and people seem to b**** when that's too frequent, so why? Finally, there ARE some good equips. Equips in general are extremely vulnerable, so they have to be ridiculously good to be used. That's how the game's made, that's nothing that can be changed unless they make invincible equips which would then have s*** effects to "balance".
[color=#ff0000]Why you ask? Toons are technically a subtype in the same sense the Geminis and Unions are subtypes, even if they weren't originally intended to be a subtype. They were created in the early days of the game where the idea of introducing archetypes and new subtypes were still not completely distinct. Toons might have been a bad example for this reason, but Geminis and Unions appropriately characterize the idea of introducing a new gameplay mechanic for monsters in the form of the subtype. Konami went through the trouble of introducing the subtypes and their respective mechanics into the game, and I expect that to be because they want to implement new ideas, perhaps experiment with creative outlets that could potentially increase the enjoyment of the game for the players. Although they were made with the good intention of introducing something new and exciting, the subtypes have failed to accomplish that. Yes, they are not meant to be playable together in the same sense that an archetype is. Yes, they should exist in standalone varieties as to maximize their range of playability rather than reduce them to a specific design and playing niche like archetypes often are, but the fact that VERY few of them can be considered playable at all is what distresses me. If there were more Geminis and Unions that were playable in general, then I'd say the introduction of these new subtypes wasn't a complete waste of time. Your next comment seems to suggest some level of agreement so at least you're sensible enough to understand this point.[/color]

All in all, these suggestions are awful, and I don't see why you'd waste your time typing them all out. The only remotely respectable one was 6, and even that's a stretch.
[color=#ff0000]Thank you for showing me the error of my ways, I will swear to uphold your indisputably supreme ideals in everything I endeavor! Sarcasm aside, your critiques were rather misconstrued or just simply just poorly constructed. Your attitude is conceinted and bluntly rude, and the way you convey yourself does nothing to warrant any respect for yourself or represent the proper conduct moderators should aspire to. Now, if you have nothing useful to say, I suggest you leave this topic and never return. Have a nice day, or not, I couldn't care less.[/color][/quote]

[quote name='Archlord Sora' timestamp='1357406953' post='6111918']
@OP: You seem to want to turn YGO into a MTG clone... Why? I play yugioh because I like the fast pace and freedom that it gives its players.

As for how to make the game better: The reason why a lot of people don't like the state of the game is because many of the decks aren't fun to play against. Konami has had to implement power creep in order to make money, because who wants to buy the new cards if they're crap? The result is that, over time, the decks have become spammy and rather stupid (for lack of a better word). One possible solution to this would be to double the ban list and start from scratch, but that would never happen and I would certainly not want that to happen. Sleepy raised an interesting point a little while ago: Increase each player's starting Life Points. This would prevent many OTKs from happening and make games longer with more twists and turns, akin to a slower format, and they'd become more enjoyable for the players. However, this has the possibility of making games long and monotonous, so it might turn into a double-edged sword. There's also a possibility that decks like final countdown and exodia would get a boost from this.[/quote]
Forgive me for failing to see the connection here, but how exactly am I trying to make this game into a MtG clone? By suggesting that archetypes and card design in general become less focused on spamming and cheap destruction? By suggesting that Konami actively gathers player feedback? That we should have less rarity bumps and more distribution of Rares like in MtG (the equivalent of which would be the uncommons) under the rationale I brought up in the OP? By introducing a ranking system that uses ELO ratings so we can comparatively see how skilled all the players are? Or to make subtypes and the introduction of new mechanics in general be not a complete waste of time or have more than just a few viable cards for the aforementioned subtypes/mechanics?

Your other points are all valid. But as Konami ultimately decides how to pace the game, I don't think it's completely unreasonable for the banlist to expand by a considerable amount, though I don't think it would need to double in size to address what truly needs addressing such as Wind-Ups. I've become more hopeful that the banlist will increase to address the state of the game as the past one has so there's a good chance that it'll expand indefinitely, possibly only stopping when they change the fundamental access to the cardpool, such as the introduction of formats in which only sets from a certain point and onwards are usable or attain perfect card design in which no new card will ever need to be banned. The latter seems very unlikely while the former is a possibility I think Konami will have to consider in the future. As for the LP increase idea, I like it. If I'm not mistaken, there are custom formats out there in which this very idea is implemented.

[quote name='Bringerofcake' timestamp='1357447540' post='6112525']
I mostly think that the problems with the game are in release, rather than in implementation. Rarity bumps, extra secret rares and the like make the game a lot more expensive than it needs to be. I think giving all players a better chance in getting the cards they want goes a long way to attitudes about the game.[/quote]
Yes, I've been wondering about this myself. I personally believe that it is statistically possible for Konami to make more profit if they were to reduce rarity bumps and allow packs to have a slightly higher frequencies of rares (just rares, not super, ultra or other). My rationale for this is the fact that MtG (oh no, I'm trying to turn everything about this game into Magic!) has been quite successful in selling packs because the rarity structure allows for the pack to have commons and uncommons, which would translate to Rare in YuGiOh, in addition to Rare (Magic Rare, as in golden set symbol) and Mythic. The mindset this creates for the players is that buying packs could potentially yield profit that offsets or at least pays for a significant portion of the price of the packs. There is of course a specific critical point in which buying and gaining would break even, but I believe that if Wizards of the Coast can ascertain this specific break off point, so can Konami with its access to consumer statistics and such.