Thought Experiment: Is Yu-Gi-Oh! Fun?

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Yu-Gi-Oh!, as we all know, is a game.
A game, by its very definition, is "a physical or mental activity or contest that has rules and that people do for pleasure". Therefore, Yu-Gi-Oh!, by that definition, must derive some form of pleasurable entertainment from its players.

So, I ask you all if you honestly enjoy playing this game, despite its current state of incredibly powerful and broken decks, and what you think that means depending on the result.

 

I must mention that this is a theory about the game, so I believe it counts as being in this section.

[Delibirb]

I'm not expecting good responses to this. Oddly enough most people on this forum seem to generally dislike this game, or at least that's the impression they give.

 

Anyway, I enjoy yugioh a lot. It's a very pleasurable pastime for me, that I had played casually as a kid, as we all did, but it just became so much more interesting when I found my way into the competitive scene.

 

The only time I'm really not enjoying myself, is when I'm either being cheated by my own deck (:P) or I'm up against meta. Not because meta is powerful, I have no real quarrels with that. It just gets a bit repetitive, since most of the time they just do all of the same stuff, so I can just predict what they are going to do and its quite dull.

 

I don't usually play meta decks for that reason, I just don't enjoy the repetitiveness. I often end up throwing myself into making my famed bad.deks (which dont often end up being that bad) to further my enjoyment. And of course I main decks that are not only viable, but fun as far as I am concerned as well (Dustons, primarily).

 

I've never really wanted to quit yugioh because of some new deck or card that seems really broken or powerful. Because while I am competitive, I tend to have fun as long as I'm playing a deck I love, and I'm free of the monotony.

[Taylor Gorrell]

I certainly find this game to be fun.  I may not actually play it that often, but when I write YGO fanfics with Duels in them, I have a blast creating cards and making the characters' moves.  ...Does that count for this?

[Maeriberii Haan]

I wish I can play Yugioh without sacrificing my anger control, or other things.

 

Yugioh is a toxic game for me, yet I can't help but to keep playing it.

 

Fun? At times.

 

But other times it felt like it tried to shoot me in my head with a shotgun.

[Degritone]

I have fun playing Yu-Gi-Oh!. Lets me talk with some people that I like when I go over to locals to have fun. Sure, there are idiots who I want to burn, but it's always an interesting experience. I get to learn what's good and what's bad in the meta while not actually caring that I lose every time, as a poor man is destined to lose before they arrive now. It's also fun to pull off that 100 life point Exodia during my opponent's turn.

 

I remember back when I was even worse as a deck builder and I made a Psychic Deck that could get me to over 20000 life points on my first turn, if I was lucky. It had Exodia thrown in there because I was an idiot, but I still got that lucky Exodia occasionally, and it made my opponent freak out when I managed to do the impossible: Draw Exodia by only Draw Phases. I always loved their expressions at that. Other situations I loved was when I had three Master Gigs on the field with 12000+ life points (Which was small for me back then). This was before Banish Psychics were a thing, so having Mind Master + Brain Research Lab usually ended in me having many thousands of life points too many.

 

And then banish Psychics came around. Eff those guys. They made my deck die so hard. Luckily, one of my friends was willing to lend me experimental/just for fun decks which he had made. Heck, the first time after banish Psychics came around, I topped locals with a Deckout Deck he had made.

 

I am getting way off topic, but as everything above says: Yes, I have fun playing Yu-Gi-Oh!.

[Trebuchet MS]

I've immersed myself in Yugioh largely because of Deck building - there were plenty of ideas I wanted to try out. Right now, however, pretty much every archetype boils down to the same "cough out my boss monster before you do". The variety is slightly dwindling because the power creep is producing some strange sort of singularity.

 

Doesn't help that I've pretty much jumped ship to MtG which offers more variety and possibilities in deck building. EDH is incredibly fun like that. It's also partially why I tend to create cards that have bizarre/rare interactions - for example, a Chain Link 3 card negating what's on Chain Link 1, or a card that triggers if your opponent shuffled their Deck.

 

For the time where I was actually playing the game, yeah, I kinda had fun, trying to put together a low-cost Deck that is largely immune to the banlist while still holding its own against those that dominate the meta. That's why I was sad to see Macro and Countdown get hit, and why I felt confused at the saltiness against stall and burn.

 

I don't play much nowadays, but it doesn't stop me from keeping up to date with the cards and monitoring the current game state.

[Goose]

The funny thing is that everyone on this forum enjoys yugioh no matter what they say.

[Maeriberii Haan]

The funny thing is that everyone on this forum enjoys yugioh no matter what they say.

Then I guess many of us are masochists then.

[Toffee.]

To be fair, and if we want to be serious, the word "fun" is exaggerated when it comes to Ygo.

[Greiga]

My idea of fun is basically any duel lasting more than x turns.

 

I liked the end of the synchro era, with Tengu Plants and Samurai and shit, because you could kinda go different ways with those decks instead of being "do same play, get same boss, win same way". It basically wasn't whatever we have happening now.

 

If there is a deck like that right now tell me though.

[Airride]

The actual game? Meh. Could be better. It's okay. Sometimes fun, sometimes not.

(Some of) The players, the interaction, trading, etc? Yeah, that's cool, I like it.

 

So basically, stuff like DN is meh 'cause it's mostly just dueling, while Locals are really cool since you meet new people and all.

[asterr259]

Do I think it's fun? Hell Yeah~! Do I think the game could be better? Hell Yeah~! Do I wish Exodia was banned? Hell Yeah~!

 

Around here Yugioh is just a children's card game so if there are locals no one talks about them. Even the people here who play card games would much rather play Magic. To each their own, I still love the Yugioh.

 

All I see nowadays are Bujins, stellars, chaos, ect. I find it alot more fun mixing and matching things to find amazing combinations that are both unique and somewhat competitive. Sure communities like DN aren't exactly social, but that's mostly what I come to YCM for, discussing cards, ideas, and then making them. Also I keep my circle of dueling friends pretty tight yet diverse to people who think in a similiar way I do and help each other grow as players, and not as single minded machines who can't come up with anything besides 1-turn Exodia Decks.

[Zauls]

I find winning fun so I go on DN.

[wightpower]

Depends on my opponent, I guess. I've met a lot of players who didn't seem to... have souls? If you know what I mean. More obsessed with winning with the best cards. I've dueled against a lot of decks that I thought lacked any personal influence or; how do I put it? An actual "heart of the cards", if that means anything. I absolutely love deck building, and I've made a bunch, but many of them are stupid, built because I liked the theme (like basing a deck entirely on combining the Seal of Orichalcos with Zera the Mant, or a surprisingly-lucky Ghostrick/Destiny Board deck, etc). I always enjoy dueling someone who puts their heart into building their deck, and especially if that person can enjoy a duel and laugh at what can certainly be a fun game. I love to duel opponents that are enough fun that I actively enjoy losing to them. Unfortunately, I find those opponents few and far between.

 

Basically, if you use only the best deck builds and are obsessed with winning, I probably won't want to duel you. If you come at me with a sense of humor and a unique deck build that defies logic, I'll enjoy the duel.

[werewolfjedi]

on the question, meta level play is not fun, it's far to repetitive and boringly plus happy.

what I find real fun is actually just playing below that. thematic decks that propose a challenge or play style, and don't try to back in staples and reset cards to allow easy otks or lock-downs.

for example, my drill synchron deck is a wonderfully fun deck, using several somewhat subpar cards to produce wonderfully powerful effects, as well as when I"m able to put my favorite timelord metaion in my decks, funny enough at one.I"ve always drawn my RL copy right when things get bleak. I"m definitely a believer in the heart of the cards. I've trusted my deck, and it's trusted me. it's old and in the non meta games I play it in, it wins with show like quality, slowly building resources till I can bring a victory from seemingly nothing

[Neutrality Man]

No, and it's all because a metagame exists

[Hunduel]

The game itself is fun (or was fun, until the unnecessary reboot of the ruling *cough*pendulumandfieldspells*cough*). The metagame, itself, however, is totally different, but I actually think that there were worse moments of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Do you remember for the format without actual banlist? Yeah, that sh*t was broken and unenjoyable as hell for both the player and its opponent. Or I could also mention formats before emergency banlists, like AirTurbo and TeleDAD formats. But it also had obviously its better moments too. Like the Monarch format. Even it was dominated by the 'narchs, they were not totally broken and you still had the chance to use a creative Deck. The current format's biggest advantage is the huge card pool, but unfortunately, you don't need to use any of these awesome cards because of the autopilot nature of the current archetypes, which are also closed. You can bash on Lightsworns how they are or were broken at their time, but they are really splashable, unlike, for example, Bujins, Constellar, or even Fire Fist. The Elemental Dragons were the closest thing to that, but they messed it up so badly that they were (almost) God Tier for their format.

[%phil]

i must say recently i've been finding the game a drag to play and i've been really demotivated. the fun for me is and to an extent always has been just being at tournaments, meeting people, having a laugh etc. playing is sometimes fun and winning is fun but it's been getting less and less so for me recently. i feel like i'm going to come to a stage where i've quit playing but still turn up to events just to chill with the people.

[Wildflame]

If I didn't, I wouldn't be around.

 

I find both competitive and casual gaming to be fun. But deckbuilding is probably my favorite aspect of YGO.

[Sunn O)))]

Let's see you try to beat those Bujins & Shaddolls with a Toon deck.  It's just not happening.

 

I've beaten Bujins with Toons multiple times.

[J-Max]

I find Yu-Gi-Oh to be pretty fun overall (especially when I am owning with CB's and Lightsworns) but when I have to sit there and watch a player do tons of moves in one turn just annoys me. I have noticed that sometimes the moment I summon say Judgment Dragon, Rage QUit or I am doing a few moves to get Crystals, Rage Quit.

[Not-so-Radiant Arin]

If the game wasn't so OTK-centric, then yes, it would be fun.

[Sunn O)))]

>Yugioh

>Fun

 

lol

[Trebuchet MS]

... Shaddolls.  They're so powerful in the metagame because they're - when you look closer - anti-meta decks instead.

When anti-meta is the meta something's being done wrongly. Things like these led to Royal Oppression getting banned.

[Airride]

If I didn't, I wouldn't be around.

 

I find both competitive and casual gaming to be fun. But deckbuilding is probably my favorite aspect of YGO.

This. So much this. Making decks is 75% of the fun for me, just making up concepts to use...making decks around stupid cards, or some insane combo, or whatever.