SHOWMANSHIP!! (Errata Text) 

"Bionicle: surrender or run" is still the best catchphrase

Spectacle can turn a boring game to passable, or get people who didn't care about the game, to want to play it. I had friends try my Zombie board game and they didn't seem to like it. But really liked my zombie story so the night as a whole was fun. I'm part of a writers gathering filled with boomers. I told my zombie story. The people were so interested that they wanted to play my game.

Huh, never expected Kohdok to mention Bionicle of all things.

The Elestrals point actually makes a ton of sense; the divine runes feel so expendable. Like they’re mechanically powerful and some are interesting, but there’s no actual lore apparent between them, no wheel to tell me that Earth Elestrals have beef with Thunder, no stupid Ra chant that makes me feel every emotion towards my opponent, no cute background art of Pokemon. Like MTG can communicate a ton about lore with color identity alone. Yugioh tells most of its lore through card art. Pokemon doesn’t have the harsh rivals or storylines so they use their space to make loving art pieces. This is my weekly gush over how good the big 3 card games generally are.

As a child I learned Binoicale/ Hero factory from Netflix Movies I never got any of toys but I loved how the world worked.

Unironically the Billy Trailer for Zenless Zone Zero is what got alot of folks hooked on Hoyoverse’s new game.

I think you nailed the magic of early bioncle when you mention mystery. It has mysterious cool. I think there is something to say about the marketing looking like the product. Having textures right for 3d robot toys feels especially crucial for media. Bioncle got that right in the og movies but struggled in subsequent attempts.

I will never forget the Dragonball GT card game video demonstration performed by the voice actor for Vegeta and Piccolo.

Bro Kopaka was the first Bionicle I ever got. I remember seeing his trailer for the first time on the TV in our living room and running to get my mom's attention because I had to have one. I legit bought and collected Bionicles from every set to release until the end. Hell Bionicle is partially responsible for my taste in music lol. Also the phrase "6 new reasons to hide" became "I'll give you a reason to hide" as a threat me and my pals would use growing up.

I think a big part of what made old Bionicle compelling was the fact that the Toa are siblings and act like siblings as opposed to... Petulant children who happen to share a name in the reboot

I think the main thing hooking new people into a TCG is the art on the cards being more than just the one thing that card is about. Like how Pokemon cards have a lot more going on in their art than just the main Pokemon, a lot of cards have a story to tell or more things going on in the background of the Pokemon interacting with a different Pokemon and that makes you want to learn more just by looking at the card. It's not a hook in the sense that you know exactly what you're going to be getting into but it is a hook in the sense that you want to learn more. If everyone didn't already know what Pokemon was then they would also serve to hook you into the lore *without using text* because the first thing people see is the art. The art doesn't even have to be technically good, it just has to have style and show more of the world within the art instead of just being stock art on a generic background or no background (yes, Pokemon cards have gotten a lot better overtime, I'm using older Pokemon cards as an example here but even in those sets there were a lot more going on). This is something that Gemblenders really horribly fails at, it seems like the creator wanted to have an interesting world but almost exclusively tells instead of shows by using low level of detail chibi characters all in very similar poses with little amounts of color and no background. I'm not gonna read the lore text if you don't give me a reason to and those cards don't give me a reason to. Another thing that companies don't seem to keep in mind (or don't have to budget to do properly) is that every card could be the first time someone ever sees something from their game, not just the epic and detailed ultra deluxe secret rare art, if there's 6 of those and the rest of the cards are screenshots/stock art then it's gonna be a lot more likely that the average joe sees the bad cards first and it gives a bad first impression.

Barraki's Creeps from the Deep will always be my favorite.

lol I love that thumbnail photo of u never change it

the wrestling example for a gameplay tutorial is fucking genius

bionicle mentioned! acceleracers mentioned again! this activates my goose neurons

Monster Club mentioned RAHHHH 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Monster Club Mentioned!! RAHHH🦅🦅

love me some monster club, the community does great showmanship as well, it's creativeness draws in other creatives

i mean this in the least combative sense possible but it makes me laugh so hard whenever I hear Elestrals catching shade in every other video. Nothing you say is (usually) ever that scathing or anything so I can't even discern why. I guess I just love how nonchalant you are in bringing it up just to talk about how generally unwowed it made you. hopefully the upcoming lore drops make up for that.

Yu-Gi-Oh's works are still, anime-wise, the best advertisement for a TCG in a televised form. Oftentimes card game anime seems to fall into either the pitfall of being too exclusively centered on the card game such that you miss out on some of the more compelling character/narrative potential or more recently (due to shorter anime seasons) unable to fully display the card game since they want the story to drive the show and thus need to cut some of the play by play. Yu-Gi-Oh strikes this great balance. Yu-Gi-Oh anime series are ones where if the duel is important, unless the goal is to build up mystery on what a certain duelist is capable of, they show you every single move. This was a bit of a problem in Vrains where the combos got extremely hard to follow but they still showed every move. I think that Yu-Gi-Oh's speed relative to other card games (and the decision to center the anime duels around 4000 LP instead of 8000 to make for even faster games) contributes a lot to being able to convey the card game in a brief form. A game like Wixoss might not be able to squeeze a full game in around 15 minutes of an anime episode while Yu-Gi-Oh can. Going back to Vrains, it had its own problems because the combos started getting too long and most duels, even ones against one-off characters to pad out Yusaku's win record, oftentimes had to go into 2 episodes whereas in a series like GX or the more recent Rush Duel series you could have a narrative hook of some wacky situation and a full duel packed in a single episode.

Bionicle, a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

12:54 HUNTER THE PARENTING SPOTTED!!!

Great writeup, the one yu-gi-oh moment that is stuck in my head is Jesse Kotton performing an otk with Utopia double in sky strikers so i can only agree with your points.

Bionicle had the best catchphrase: "Each set sold seperately"

The second best is for the vhaki "surrender or run"

Two things that I love to see in anything be it a movie or a card game, are sincerity and passion I'll be infinitely more drawn to something if those two things a clearly there

I screamed when you said time before time I knew what was coming

It's nice to know I'm on top of things, but what I really need at this point is a video on how to get publishers to give me the time of day.

Oh fuck yeah, was not expecting Bionicle to show up here. Gimme that Bonkle goodness.

Glad to see monster club get more love.

The big thing I feel was missing from Bionicle G2 was the lingo. G1 was full of in-universe terminology that gave the feel of a lived-in world with its own language, etymology, and culture. Kopaka, Toa of Ice, is responsible for protecting Ko-Koro, a village of Ko-Matoran, located in the icy region of Ko-Wahi. His main mask is the Kanohi Akaku, the Great Mask of X-Ray Vision. In the first issue of the comic, he awakens on the island of Mata-Nui, meets a Matoran (or Tohunga, as they were called back then), has a run-in with a Rahi called a Nui-Rama, and is taken to the Turaga, who explains that his mission is to defeat the Makuta. Before the audience is taught the meaning of these words, they're mysteries that draw them into the story, and once they learn what they mean, that's it, they know the lingo, they're now fully invested in the world. G2 simplified out a lot of those names and terminology, making things feel a lot less unique and deep. Lego seemed to think they were barriers to jumping into the story and removed them, when really, they were an invitation to delve into the story to begin with.

Kohdok🎉 Thank you so much for showing Monster Club at 18:00! And thank you for the lovely compliments 🩵🩵🩵 Even the smallest mention helps us share the fun with new people!

Flesh and blood has some neat characters with interesting backstories and lore you can read up on Hell even the artwork itself tells a lot about the characters

based bringing up bionicle

Woah. Came for Kohdok, stayed for Bionicle!! Edit: Bionicle Books and Movies brought me in, and the Comics and Wiki kept me. Lol. Unity, Duty, Destiny!

Yeah man Bionicle was something special. Nice video!

Bionicle and Acceleracers...My childhood!

Imo, Yugioh is the undisputed king of showmanship. Not only does it hit every point you discuss, but does each in a unique way. But its biggest strength is lore. Not only does the game itself have lore in the show, but even many of the _cards themselves_ feature their own self-contained stories. There are several cards and archetypes where, if you place the cards in the right order, their artworks depict independent story arcs with beginnings/ends, protagonists/antagonists, plot twists, character growth, and resolutions. Some of these cards are or have been meta staples, meaning just a casual game can give new players glimpses into the deeper lore that act as a potential hook. Here’s some examples: -Solemn Judgement and Forbidden Droplet take place in the same universe. A young girl messes with several Forbidden artifacts (Chalice, Dress, Lance, etc.) and each time receives a Solmn Warning, a Solemn Scolding, a *Solemn Judgement,* and finally a Solemn Strike. The woman feels betrayed and eventually rebels by using a *Forbidden Droplet* to corrupt several creatures into the Darklords. -Tour guide from the Underworld runs an infernal touring business, and at one point accidentally gets Sangan falsely arrested. -Knightmare Corruptor Iblee is a key figure in an overarching story that includes the Mekk-Knight, World Legacy, World Chalice, Krawler, Knightmare, Crusadia, Guardragon, and Orcust archetypes.

I remember playing the mata nui game as a kid, I loved it. I tracked it down one time, and I think I might have a copy somewhere...

14 minutes in Star Wars I’m looking at you

This video basically going: 'You gotta appeal to the Timmys and Vorthos so let me tell you a tale of Bionicle." My mind? AWAKE My neurons? Firing My inner monkey? Screaming My lore seeker? Pondering

Both inspirational and informative. Thank you! :)

I know you hate vanguard but the first season of the anime was amazing at making the competitive strategies fun and interesting

I actually wrote a comic to tie-in with an indie card game once and I would love to do it again!

wikipedia actually gets me excited pretty often so...

18:04 I found monster club through your video on it, and I have been enamored with the art it since. As a graphic designer, I fucking wish I had made that damn game, since it looks so goddamn slick. Real shame it is still super indie, I think the guy who makes it is super passionate about his game, but lacks a the know-how to market it properly. Real shame too, since I bet there is a niche for it.

All Showmanship (now that I know what you mean) with No substance ..... sounds like YGO

HTP mentioned!

What's with the capital F at the end?

RIP Throwbots

I'm sorry but G2Y2 has some gold. Umarak and Tahu look sick.

Battle spirit saga is crazy fun but Bandai doesn’t care at all and now no cash prizing. I pray it sticks around for a while

I still want a Yugioh RPG in the style of a Shin Megami Tensei game.

It is my greatest shame, that I am one of those people that never understood why cranberry mango was not called Crango...😂😂😂

We Bionicle girlies now.

Would you put betblade into this game spectical? Beyblade x has been incredible

Let’s gooooo I love mcc still play with my original season 0’s don’t tell my siblings

Battle Spirits is actually my favorite card game ever. Battle Spirits Saga did in my opinion a good job at leveraging mechanics while having very distinct playstyles and advantages, Cores and Colors are good staple mechanics that have good balance but they have committed several big mistakes in trying to revive the series in the west, which you elegantly put as the "Hook". Battle Spirits has a fantastic anime series anthology in Japan which has seen reasonable success and has, in no exaggeration, the best 3D assets ever made for their creatures; everything that Battle Spirits Saga brought over for its reboot is an in-universe retelling of those anime creatures... except the western audience will not know who Siegwurm is or care... Another big mistake is that as there's no restriction for colors in deck building, later metas have been defined by just having the best mana ramp options of any and all colors and letting the best creatures define the game, which is a shame because the japanese counterpart usually solves this by giving staples in all colors, so players will gravitate towards monocolor decks without needing to make a soup deck. And lastly, there's no additional non-monetary hook for the game, which the monetary hook also disappeared after the first world championship as they're no longer giving cash prices. Other Bandai properties crossing over will not be enough and my beloved game will very likely die again.

Elestrals going through the motions you say? A game by that guy? Whaaaat. Never

This is why Magic is so weird to me. Wizards has never tried to make their setting as interesting and cool as it could be. Yeah sure, there’s the old website stories but honestly MTG is kinda, eh, boring? The game itself has stood the test of time though just on its own strenght. But if I had to choose between which is cooler, MTG, Pokemon or Yugioh, its obvious that MTG is always the most lame. The YGO and Pokemon shows do so much heavy lifting pushing the product. Magic is like happy with its card lore and stuff but gone are the days where wotc really tried to push the game with novels. Still no movie. still no show or comics. Nada. Its crazy how the strenght of the game itself sells itself

Ty

I know you're gonna roll your eyes, but Divorced Dads is super fun. You should review it. My friends and I are loving the gameplay minus the limited rules atm

I find it ironic the video is about showmanship and making people believe your game is interesting... and it starts with an ad read where, instead of being interested and hyped, you just sound bored, as if you, the person trying to sell us on it, doesn't even believe it. You almost sounded as bad as the robotic tutorial voices you (rightly) derided.

Also did you already get Monster Club Manga Volume 2? Would love to get that to you 📚

I'd argue that fact that MTG never needed a large hook and was mostly focused on game design is why it was successful and remains today. It took advantage of a niche that didn't really exist yet and was allowed to flourish until it matured because its own marketing hook. Even among the big 3, YGO and Pokemon need to invest large sums of money into recognizable IPs or tons of extra marketing in the forms of things like an anime to get people to play. Magic is always just the TCG and its identity is solely focused as such (which is why I'd argue its more mechanically sound than either). There is only so much room in a saturated market, games have to either hook you with hollow marketing and be either broken or shallow or be the most thought out and mechanically sound game no one ever played. Nice ad btw, lol.

crango

YOU WATCH HUNTER THE PARENTING?!?!!?!? BASED

Do you have a discord I can join? So you can critique my card game?

Kohdok, can u make a video explaining why Vanguard is still around ? Since you hate it so much. I played and thought it was fun but surely to disappear but nope

By mid zexal era any level of yugioh above casual locals became a slog of one card combos that search into searches and every format the turns took longer and longer, and matches would last less and less turns. I dropped out not too long after dragon rule/spell book times and it seems like it only got worse after that. I just wasn't the same game anymore, also yeah boring to watch. I am glad they have become aware of the problem... thats the first step towards getting better.