Hello, Odysseus here. I’m a known tournament organizer for retro formats if you are familiar with the War of 04 and Stambler Open series. These series have grown incredibly popular and while I enjoy hosting them, the TCGOne development speed has been disappointing. We’ve enjoyed using TCGOne to host these events, yet the bugs and server resets continue to plague the experience for both existing users and new players.
It has become increasingly difficult to plan these events months in advance only to find out in the coming weeks of the tournament that a bug has somehow resurfaced. When it isn’t specific cards not working, it’s cards that once worked that no longer work properly; when it’s not that, it’s constant game engine errors or worse, an entire server reset in the middle of my events. There are too many timezones to consider when planning these events and while players can cause delays, I see no reason TCGOne is the primary malefactor for all of these events. If a player has a deck set in stone and is incredibly skilled at piloting it, the player is now forced to adapt the the game-engine because a particular 4-of is bugged and cannot be used in the deck the way it was intended, NOT the meta.
Everyone can understand real life priorities, yet no one has access to the site to publish material. The disconnect between the community developers versus axpendix is absurd for any collaborative project. If you need developers, especially of ALL communities in the TCG space, Pokemon has plenty of voices and known programmers who would be willing to give up time to help speed up the process of TCGOne! The only time a major update occurred was when outside developers grew tired of PTCGSims and began developing their own.
The rhetoric surrounding TCGOne’s slow development is almost a joke at this point, and considering the developer is still accepting Patreon dollars and insisting on gatekeeping classic formats that could attract more users (therefore more patrons), you are ultimately cannibalizing the site’s community. Transparency and communication is lacking, so much so every developer that’s assisted TCGOne’s progress is taking the heat for the developer, and they cannot implement the fixed or new cards because no one is allowed to have the keys without permission.
This coming fall will be the last Stambler Open, as I cannot see a world where TCGOne stabilizes even one format for competitive play. Two server resets have caused matches to change and delay my tournaments. What happens when the community I’ve established desires to play, but can’t be bothered to deal with TCGOne in-game chat STILL flooding the logs with something like a Sticky Goo? Their Surprise! Time Machine not allowing them to use Poke-Powers after evolving? My Muk-ex retreats into another Muk-ex and somehow my opponent can use all of their Poke-Powers? Or worse, they are about to finish a match only for TCGOne to reset, and now the player who was winning is now at a disadvantage. I simply don’t understand why axpendix has not given site access to more trusted individuals to implement bug fixes when he is way. I guess it doesn’t matter if I’m receiving a paycheck from a website I barely have to keep my eyes on.
I’ve been on TCGOne since the most recent set up to date was Fates Collide. Even features such as trading cards in career were removed to get more Patreon money. Why actively remove features other than to increase your margins or actively go against the playerbase? I have played with and talked to the players, and the majority seem incredibly disgruntled at the site development. I simply do not understand why so many VOLUNTEERS dedicate their time to assisting the site when all in all, their months work will take years to even be implemented. The lack of alternatives won’t be a safeguard for TCGOne much longer, so I hope to see better communication and some actual chain of command and procedure to implement these bug fixes and new formats more. I don’t think there is a single person who wants TCGOne to fail and disappear, everyday it seems closer to that conclusion.
If you don’t believe me, implement SUM-LOT as its own format and see how much more site traffic appears on the website. Implement 2010 Worlds and watch the players flood in. Regardless, I can’t host events on TCGOne anymore so long as bug continue to dismantle players’ deck choices and delay our events in a skill-based competitive environment for players who just like yourself, have jobs, families, and lives they are giving up for some PTCG fun.
