The Actual News:
There’s been a bunch of other little tidbits that I’ve been meaning to talk about, but not enough to warrant a whole post about it. I guess maybe I just want to share something quick with youse-gaise just so show you that I’ve got my foot in those doors.
Pokémon TCG Raid Battles
Ooh jeez… well, first off, let’s just watch this video first:
First off, oh man, this has been something I’ve been waiting for with baited breath. But furthermore, I’ve always wanted to see some kind of “outside of player control” element added to the TCG, ever since I made my “Wild Skarmory” fake card, pictured right. That is to say, it’s always been in the back of my head when designing fakes on what I could do to add some way for players to battle Pokémon which aren’t under the control of either you or any player. But I guess that the only way to really get this to happen is to literally design the game.
But honestly, this is great. In fact, this kinda reminds me of the Vanguard format from Magic the Gathering… sorta. Actually, this is nothing like Vanguard. No rather, more like… it’s not so much that it’s like Vanguard, mechanically, as much as it’s a way to change the game to be something different, and yet still have elements of the core game still within it. In the case of Vanguard, you were given special jumbo cards which altered how you actually played the game… like, you started with more or less cards in your hand, or more or less life, and/or had a good or bad ability as a counterweight to those changes.
In the case of these Raid battles, what reminded me of Vanguard was the idea that you have this jumbo card which affected how you play the game. But instead of it being player versus player, it’s not players versus…. uh… card. Now so far, based on the response on YouTube, this might be a fun idea to try out myself.
BUUUUTTT… perhaps the BETTER aspect of this game is… it’s downloadable! You don’t seem to need to buy anything to play it, you can just go to the Raid Battle page on the Pokémon website, download all the necessary bits-and-bobs, and you’re on your way! And because it’s all downloadable… you know what this means? FAKE Boss Cards! And FAKE Boss Attack and Chear cards to boot. And they’re already so easy to make… this should be a cinch to make! So who’s with me?? 
…dammit tho, I already have a lot on my plate… but this is just too obvious, there’s no reason to NOT make it happen. So tell you what… lemme make a “Pokémon TCG Raid Fakes” page on the sidebar there, gather a few folks together, and lemme get back to you with more details. OK?
Pokémon Unite… a Dud?
Man, and I was so hyped for this already!
Here’s the thing… two of PA!’s old staff members and my closest friends, Jimmy C (aka Teslalyte) and Jen Brazas (aka SavageSparrow, aka TRCassidy and NeoQueenJen once upon a time) both play League of Legends… like, RELIGIOUSLY. They both tried to get me into it, but it never really clicked with me. But it’s not that I don’t see the fun in it! I even drew up two LOL-related comics for Jen’s Mystic Revolution webcomic series back in the day…
So anyways, here comes a Pokémon version of League of Legends (aka the most original joke evar: Pokémon League of Legends)… and apparently everyone hates it? So much so that people cried CONSPIRACY when the video was taken down and replaced due to a mistaken screenshot? Meh… whatever.
Anyways, I’m still interested in the game, bad reviews or not, only because it’s my way of getting a better handle on League. In the mean time though, I’m gonna play it safe with Unite until it’s released. And when it does, I’ll give it a whirl and then see what Jim and Jen—my resident League wizards—think about how it compares with it. Maybe it’ll be a good way for someone like me to get into the whole MOBA thing, or maybe I’ll grow just as bored with Unite as I have with League. We shall see…
Actually…
…that seems to be everything I wanted to share for now. If something else comes up, you know I’ll have the hot scoop on it… three to four days after everyone else has talked about it. Sla, I got nothin’.