2491220:

Now, the fact that this piece of information fell in our lap through a guild member who is part of the TGC distribution chain is interesting in itself. But, what made it even more relevant to us at the time was the announcement of the Blizzard Pet Store, and the blatantly obvious PR stunt of attaching the micro-transaction store to a charity to soften the blow.

See, here is the problem with podcasters not being journalists. Is this guild member someone that you know as a person? Since you are using single source information, you should be absolutely certain that the source is valid.  You are basically saying that UDE is lying about their product announcements because they know that Scourgewar is their last set. That could be considered libel.  You state on your website "sources" twice but here you say it was a single guild member.

Distribution Chain is a specific kind of term. It denotes someone who is between the producer of a product and the end user. As I understand it, Upper Deck will sell directly to stores as well as distributors.  For TCGs there are a few major distributors as well as a few resellers claiming to be distributors (Potomac is an example) and companies (like Georgia Music in Florida) who supply game stores directly.

So where is it in the Distribution Chain that someone would have access to the statistical data showing the percentage of players vs retailers vs loot speculators purchasing the product. We are all certain that the game is profitable only because of the loot cards, but that is also equally known to be anecdotal.  I'm also wondering where in the distribution chain this guy is that he has access to Blizzard insiders.

The  Blizzard Pet Store is also something I mentioned as being a possible reason if you were reverse engineering the rationale for Activision pulling the license.  You jump the shark by assuming that the charity donations are not being made in good faith AND that they have a specific relationship to the TCG game cancellation.... or is that just completely suplerfluous conjecture about the Pet Store itself?

The discussion of WHY Activision might pull the license is good because it helps to educate the players and perhaps help UDE to improve their product and service.  What you posted was garbage.

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Fully Baked Bear's Trade List

2491220:

Thanks for the discussion guys. As I have mentioned before on the show, we are not a news source, we are just a couple who chat about WoW. We don't profit from the show, so those theories of drumming up traffic are funny. The fact is, if it is a topic that interests us and our readers/listeners, we prompt a discussion. Nothing more than that.

Now, the fact that this piece of information fell in our lap through a guild member who is part of the TGC distribution chain is interesting in itself. But, what made it even more relevant to us at the time was the announcement of the Blizzard Pet Store, and the blatantly obvious PR stunt of attaching the micro-transaction store to a charity to soften the blow.

Right now there is a HUGE consumer base is purchasing the trading card game through third party sources for just the loot. The novelty is profitable, and Blizzard knows this. Those sources are profiting from a Blizzard product. And, everyone knows how Blizzard feels about that situation. So, yes... it makes sense that this information coincided.

Blizzard is opening the door to micro-transactions for these novelty items. Once they take that out of the TCG, let's see where the sales are then.. lol

Right now, there is money being made off of trading cards and the pet store at the same time. The market for one does not totally or even closely overlap the market for another. You have not adequately explained how Blizzard could replace the profit from the TCG using the pet store or how one detracts from the other. It's not the same in the slightest. The pet store is simply giving people who play WoW a chance to buy special pets. The loot cards are a way to add value to the card game. Where's the overlap? The point of people buying $700 loot cards or gambling on packs of cards is because these people love the rarity of the item being bought, and the rush of finding rare cards. This cannot ever be emulated using that pet store, and it'd be outrageous for a price like that to appear anywhere but an aftermarket. A $700 spectral tiger appears for every, what? $2000 of cards bought? You think these people are making a killing off buying 15 cases of Fires of Outland and then opening them all and selling the loot and cards one by one? How does this affect the pet store again?

There's also not going to be any jealousy at Blizzard of retail stores buying cases of cards and trying to sell them at a profit. This is how all retail works. Part of the card game is having events to promote it, and part of that is haivng stores selling it. Cards are very physical items. Blizzard reaching into hobby gaming stores everywhere with the card game.

Maybe we will see corporate changes, like maybe Activision/Blizzard buys out that division of UDE, but the card game disappearing or being totally changed somehow? In light of your apparently awful source (not even you can make him sound like a good source) how would we make that assumption?

You want us to think that this is not just a publicity stunt, but the alternative is that you have pathetic analytical skills. Don't you think people are being nice to you to assume that this is mostly a way to get some attention? Not everything in this world is done for profit. Case in point: people who pay $700 to ride a transparent tiger around.

Proof that UDE and blizzard are on bad terms. Performance in sales outside of America has been terrible.

Proof: UDE Australia is being scrapped, ie UDE is no longer supporting organised play in Australia as of the 20th of December. If you are unsure, ask Chris Foggin, the head of UDE Oceania, what the situation is.

It's clear that UDE cbf doing any investment advertising anywhere except America and clearly gives Blizzard a reason to terminate contract. Blizzard clearly doesn't want the terrible support of ude outside of america to damage it's reputation, a reputation they have built around supporting their online players

If this post is removed without any reply from the moderators, it will simply mean that I am right. ude is in a terrible position and doesn't want people to know about it.

I suggest that if ude want's to prevent this from spreading on to all the forums, that they quickly have a look at what their goals and plans are and whether they need to reassess how they are performing.

If you feel the same about ude not supporting the organised play in your country, then post this on to other forums to spread the news, hopefully this will get ude to change their performance.

Knight Blaze.

OP is the UK is fine thanks.

Do other people have a different useage for the word "proof" than me? Taking one fact that might be true and extending from Australia to most of the world is an interesting stretch.

As you know how the sales for outside the US how about some figures then?

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Has made top8 of some events

A 1-post anonymous internet poster is proof enough for me.

If the sun comes up tomorrow, that means I'm right.

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My entire collection for sale.

I'm actually a common poster to these forums, but I decided that I wouldn't want to have my usual account banned because of ude having a fit at me for releasing unfavorable information.

But the facts that I have said are 100% true and confirmable, hence why I wrote ask the head of oceania ude Chris Foggin, in case some of you sceptics don't believe me. So I really haven't made any unjustified claims.

Perhaps it was a slightly exaggerated claim that wow tcg is going bad because of this one piece of evidence. But you have to agree that withdrawing ude support from a country is very similar to letting the game die and if I were blizzard, I wouldn't be too happy about ude for letting that happen. It's not like Australia has a low amount of disposable income, it's because ude has not put a reasonable effort into promoting the game.

would you be happy if you got no support at all for wow tcg?

You can have your own sceptism, but when evidence is presented, you should judge the truthfulness of the statement on the evidence not on the who is speaking it. Failure to do so, only shows your own immaturity in these discussion boards.

Are you sure you're not confusing it with WoW not being sold in Australia?

http://www.wow.com/2009/02/04/world-of-warcraft-no-longer-legally-for-sale-in-austrilia/

Cheers.

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Come play at C & Js in Newark, CA

1189990:

Are you sure you're not confusing it with WoW not being sold in Australia? http://www.wow.com/2009/02/04/world-of-warcraft-no-longer-legally-for-sale-in-austrilia/ Cheers.

I was gonna say this but then bam you beat me to it.

Wouldn't really make much sense to support a card game based off of an MMO that nobody can play anymore.

Sucks, I know.

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3109391:

You can have your own sceptism, but when evidence is presented, you should judge the truthfulness of the statement on the evidence not on the who is speaking it. Failure to do so, only shows your own immaturity in these discussion boards.

Point to me where you presented evidence. If you're telling me to ask Chris Foggin, that's not presenting evidence if I'm the one doing the research.

If you're merely expressing public knowledge, there's no need to be afraid of getting banned. And now you're stating your post was exaggerated. Plus someone else provided actual source to refute your initial claim. It's obvious who's lacking maturity here.

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My entire collection for sale.

Hi Guys,
There has been a lot of discussion about this topic and a lot of angst, so I am delighted to let you know that I just heard from a reliable source that WoW TCG will be around for a long time to come.

All sorted!

In academic research, when you use evidence, you add a reference on the statement that you are making, and then in the footnotes, you cite what source you got that information from, it the reader wants to confirm it, then the source is clear and it's up to them. If that's the way that Harvard accepts it, then I doubt some drop-out can have an issue with it. (and yes you can make reference to verbal statements made by people)

You are pretty naive to think that expressing public knowledge is alright. You can express an honest oppinion that can make a business look bad, and it's in that business' best interests to censor what they don't want seen on public forums, that's why ude reserves the right to revoke forum rights at will.

I said "perhaps" I had exaggerated a little, I was simply saying this to show that I'm open to other's opinion and thought that the previous poster may have had some validity in it and was showing some acceptance of it because he didn't blatantly deny the game and made a statement that uk op was good. But at least I didn't deny statements without any justification at all, which is what you are doing.

And I stand by my original sources, I was told by that ude Australia division would be closed on the 20th of December 2009. It has nothing to do with the posts made above, which did not refute my statement.

You know what's funny, you've yet to make any factual contribution at all, all you are doing is simply rationalising your statements with loose logic. And finally, how is it obvious that I lack maturity. I have backed myself up with logical claims and evidence, while all you have done is bring up irrelevant and incorrect points such as who is posting and what evidence is.

Can you bring counter evidence from ude that this is not true? if so then you have a case, but knowing your level of thinking all you can do is try to find some random and irrelevant excuse to flaw this argument.

Now, I really hate all this rumor mongering. So when did Foggo make this claim that UDE Aus is getting dropped? Was it at the RC? You sure being closed on the 20th December isn't for Christmas hols?

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Does this mean that since the post wasn't deleted that UDE is a-okay?

3109391:

Proof that UDE and blizzard are on bad terms. Performance in sales outside of America has been terrible.

Proof: UDE Australia is being scrapped, ie UDE is no longer supporting organised play in Australia as of the 20th of December. If you are unsure, ask Chris Foggin, the head of UDE Oceania, what the situation is.

It's clear that UDE cbf doing any investment advertising anywhere except America and clearly gives Blizzard a reason to terminate contract. Blizzard clearly doesn't want the terrible support of ude outside of america to damage it's reputation, a reputation they have built around supporting their online players

If this post is removed without any reply from the moderators, it will simply mean that I am right. ude is in a terrible position and doesn't want people to know about it.

I suggest that if ude want's to prevent this from spreading on to all the forums, that they quickly have a look at what their goals and plans are and whether they need to reassess how they are performing.

If you feel the same about ude not supporting the organised play in your country, then post this on to other forums to spread the news, hopefully this will get ude to change their performance.

Knight Blaze.

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wow/en/OP/tournaments/realmqualifier.aspx

Scroll down just a bit over half way and you will see 'Australia'.  Note, there are plenty of Tournaments for 2010. 

Nice try, but thanks for playing!

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Know the most rules knowledge at my Battlegrounds. Doesn't mean the other plays will listen =P.

Why can't under 18 be judges?

Couple things -

First, call me crazy, but if UDE Australia ceases to exist, UDE USA can still run OP in Australia. UDE Australia ceasing to exist does NOT mean OP in Australia ceases to exist. There's one little fact you've "assumed" and gotten wrong. UDE USA can continue OP anywhere it likes, as far as I know. Until you've heard that "all sales and OP in Australia will cease to exist," stop crying wolf. You've heard half of a whole truth.

Second, I find it hillarious that you're "posting on an alt" in fear of UDE. You do realize they track all IPs of posting accounts, and easily figure out whos posting what? I mean, this is almost 2010, not 1995. You can't *67 your posts and think you're safe.

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