The End of an Era - June 2016 Update

If it hasn't been very obvious already, I'm unable to keep up with Buddyfight any longer.

There are lots of reasons and excuses I can give.

• College has been more time-consuming than I had originally expected. This makes it very difficult for me to prioritize blogging at any given point during the school year.
• Being away from home means I'm far away from my locals, so I don't get to actually play Buddyfight at all anymore. That sucks.
• I can't find cards at reasonable pricing, and it's hard for me to buy decks that I'm passionate about playing.
• I can't afford to play this game because the market is atrocious. Because there is no market. And if I can't play card games physically, it really makes it hard for me to keep up passionately. Hearthstone excepted.

But ultimately, it's because I've lost passion for the game.

It's not that the game is bad. Far from it. I think Buddyfight is a great game with very good foundations. It's well balanced. There are meaningful tradeoffs with field positioning and weapons. Sideboarding exists. Valuation of cards has been consistent and intentional. It has the potential to be a fair and fun game.

The problem lies with, well, everything else. The lack of a stable market for cards, which means insanely high prices for an unpopular game. That means its harder to attract newcomers, which in turn makes it difficult to establish cheap prices. Older staples get harder and harder to find. The situation is bad, and unless something changes drastically it will not improve itself.

The problem also lies with me, too. I'm not really into Buddyfight from an aesthetic sense, in the same way I'm not really into Magic the Gathering or Yugioh. I play Weiss Schwarz because anime, and I like Vanguard and WIXOSS because anime-inspired. Pokemon is awesome and Hearthstone is free. That's basically how it goes.

So at this point, there are only two options for me:

1. Discontinue blogging
2. Attempt to catch-up

The problem with #1 is: I still love to blog. And write about card games. And talk about card games. It's fun, it's something I'm passionate about, it's something that I've given a lot of time and effort into. I don't want to just see it die, incomplete, neglected. I've gotten to know great people through this and it's been a meaningful chapter in my life.

But there's no way #2 will ever happen. It's impossible. I'm too far behind, and there's only going to be less time for me to give to the blog from here on out.

Here's where the final nail in the coffin comes in.

In about a week, I'm going to be leaving the US on a two-month missions program to Mongolia and China. During which I won't have reliable access to internet and my entire schedule will be packed with English teaching, evangelism, training, and all sorts of activities and events. I come back the week before I start school.

I'm out of time.

But I want to make a clean ending. And I managed to do so during this week.

If you go and check, every World Article should be updated for all of the Hundred Boosters, EBs and the very last Perfect Pack with the Inverse stuff. The last thing I need to do is to create a separate Demon Lord from Dungeon Enemy and I'll be finished with everything pre-Triple D. And that's as far as I'm going to go.

My first article was today, two years ago. June 9th. It was about card advantage, and how Buddyfight had a very strict system that encompassed every statline in the game. It's still something they continue to abide by today, which gives the game a fair standard and helps develop a stable metagame.

For the past two years I've continued to follow the growth and development with varying success. And personally I've grown a lot too, both in experience and knowledge. Looking back at some of the stuff I wrote in 2014, I shudder at my over-exaggerative language and my naive assumptions.

My greatest achievement, however, has been my foresight. I noted in my Impact article way back in September 2014 that Impacts were going to become cheaper, more utility-based and at higher numbers in decks. And they did, slowly but surely. And now we've got Impact monsers. Amazing. Maybe one day we'll get to see that 8 Impact per deck I envisioned back then.

I've taken a lot of inspiration from an old Vanguard site called V-Mundi. The writer there had great articles, many better than my own, but she also faded out of writing after about two...arcs? Defining periods of the game's development. I think I'm fated to go down the same path, having written for all of the original period and the Hundred era but not having the steam to continue this train.

So this is the last station. For Buddyfight, that is.

But if you're interested in joining me a bit farther...I'm going to start up a personal blog. One that isn't specifically about a single game, but rather about my experience and insight as a TCG player. Because frankly, Buddyfight is actually a game I have little experience in, but a game that I've done the most research for. Buddyfight Theory is the fruit of my research. But I'd like to talk about other games I enjoy, like Weiss Schwarz, ChaOS, WIXOSS, Pokemon, and even Hearthstone. I don't want to be limited to a single topic or game, especially not when I have so much diversity to offer. And I'd like to rant about anime occasionally too.

I'm still brainstorming for good blog names, so I'm open to suggestions.

Anyways, I'd like to take the time right now to thank everyone for supporting me throughout the years. It's been an absolute honor to write for you all, to hear your voices and to be a part of this amazing community. I remember how shocked and happy I was when I was 2nd on the poll for guest speakers for the livestream event we had, losing only to...John Cena, of course. I've had a really amazing time, met awesome people and made good friends. It's hard to put this feeling of gratitude into words...

Oh God no not Shirobako Episode 23 why are you coming now that episode was so sad please stop I don't want to cry

(I admit, it's getting a bit emotional for me to write this though. Nostalgia hit pretty hard and I'm feeling kinda sappy right now)

Huge shoutout to all the people who supported me on Patreon...and then refused to contact me so I couldn't send them any rewards. You can still claim them, you know. And the support really helped me get through a tough time, and without the support I don't think I would be where I am today.

Many thanks to HunterSerge and Austin Somers for being my main bros, also Damian, Tim, and the rest of the gang. You guys are awesome, wish I met more of you in real life, and I hope we can continue to be...buddies? Aha, ahahaha.

I guess I'll end on a Tensai quote.

 

これで全ての謎は解けたな

Now all the mysteries are solved

And with that~