Believe me. I wasn’t the only one keeping boxes sealed back then. I’m glad I did though😛
There is one card that might be a copyright issue. Indrid Cold. It’s essentially Giovanni’s brother after a bong hit. The drawing is based on existing folklore though so may be a coincidence. I can’t think of others that cross the line, unless we want to copyright animals.
Good eye;)
@KingPokemon, yes and yes:
“Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright law without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to make derivative works.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright\_infringement)
Either that, or my imagination is so fertile that I’m seeing things that aren’t there. Anyway, I would not expect TPCi to pursue legal action just like they don’t with Chinese counterfeits or custom made cards and even if they did it would likely feed even more into multi-level marketing’s hype.
Was just trying to make a point that these offer nothing to the market in terms of art that hasn’t been offered by more established and affordable products.
Now if it is a great game with great card quality it may still be a worthwile purchase, just not under the premise of ‘authentic 90’s style nostalgic artwork’ in my humble opinion.
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I mean I don’t get the multi-level marketing hype prices either (makes more sense than $600,000 NFTs though) but this is such a reach. Dragonite and ho oh and onix look nothing like those and believe me there were dragons and birds wayyyyyyy before Pokémon lol. Pokémon doesn’t have a copyright on hand drawn colorful birds and dragons and bugs.
Sableye looks pretty close… but sableye also looks like every gremlin from like 1960s.
Come on.
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Sableye is based on the Hopkinsville Goblin, so the resemblance isn’t unexpected. We can’t copyright these kinds of things can we?
And those were based on others that came before. So come on.
Big time reach Kaldoverde. How about spending that time going to POKÉMON - The Aoki Foundation and do something useful. The kids need it desperately.
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I think calling the game a Pokemon rip-off is a bit of a stretch, but it’s definitely trying to cash in on the Pokemon hype…
Also, because no one’s mentioned it yet: the bright red borders look terrible. I really don’t understand why they went for those. Black or yellow would’ve looked much better.
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It seems like an interesting concept with all the “cryptids”. That is a term that I wasn’t familiar with but it seems like it wraps into it a bunch of folklore/mythcial creatures that just exist in the public domain so an interesting idea. It feels likely every person would have knowledge of or familiarity to at least a few cryptids. It is just not for me. I never got into any cards besides Pokemon in my youth either. As far as playability of the game goes well I’ve never played a serious game of Pokemon so can’t comment there either. As far as the IP clashes I don’t really see it any more than Pokemon borrowing from others before it or just things from nature.
It’s not surprising that anything coming out in this environment is going to get extreme reactions on both ends. From the outside there is no way of knowing anyone’s motive but to see that boxes have already gone 10x or more just isn’t too surprising. I can’t view the video in the OP but it sounds like there were some conflicting ideas being shared e.g. it being an affordable kids game vs. talking right out the gate about keeping things sealed as investments and grading cards etc. It is a cool concept if the print numbers will be disclosed for all future runs. I’m not sure how that would effect things longer term if a TCG did it throughout an entire decade or longer existence but it would surely be interesting to see.
All this that is going on is just telling of the times we are in and as with a lot of other things it is all a bit scary for where we may be headed. I really don’t know how something could launch these days without getting a lot of hype and hate all at once. Seems like they started small and that is being pounced on and pumped by some whether for love or greed who knows. If I can do it as MSRP I may pick up a couple but I’m generally fine missing the boat on things and not chasing them once the price goes beyond where I feel comfortable even in many areas of Pokemon.
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Hey everyone - Mike Waddell here. I created multi-level marketing. I’ve actually been on these forums on and off for several years (mostly looking up print run info on trophy cards).
Been reading a lot of the feedback here and taking notes. I’m trying my best to make the game as great as possible and constructive feedback like this helps.
I know things are crazy right now from a pricing perspective on the secondary market, but please know this wasn’t my intention. The print run for the Kickstarter boxes was:
2.5k Booster Boxes
2k Blister Packs
500 of each theme deck
1k Spellbooks
This was the print run because this is what we could afford with the funds raised (and quite a bit more from me). I’m actually still sending out booster boxes that people bought for $79.99 and are now worth what they are on the secondary market. No orders have been cancelled. It would be morally bankrupt to do so, and I would never to that to the tcg community as a whole.
We have 1st edition coming out in June/July with the following print run numbers:
25k booster boxes
20k blister packs
5000 of each theme deck
10k spellbooks
My plan is to help ease the tension with all of this pricing on the secondary market by putting the 1st edition in people’s hands ASAP. I want people to play the game and I want the game to grow. That’s the only way a game becomes sustainable and positive in the long term.
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@multi-level marketinggames,
Hi Mike. Thanks for jumping into the fire:) Since you probably read all this you know I’ve turned into an advocate. I’ve done some videos and IG pics with multi-level marketing and seriously enjoy it.
I love your cryptid idea and the reverse holos are awesome.
Let me ask you two questions. Are any of the holo rares printed in lesser numbers than the others? What would you say are the big 5 in the set, sorta like Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur are the big 3 in poke base.
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Yes! We do have some rare cards that weren’t designed to be rare if that makes sense. Back in September 2020 I sent out roughly 10k free sample cards to people, and there are only about 100 of each sample card floating around.
We do have this concept for medals, which are similar to trophy cards but with a broader scope of what they apply to. For instance we have a medal card for participating in the Kickstarter, a medal card for being an artist, etc… we want to get creative with these even if the print run is super low!
As for the big cards in the set… I have my own personal opinions about what they are (huge Mothman fan!), but I feel like at this point it’s better that the community comes up with their own favorite cards! I kind of made the mistake of being outspoken about what my big/favorite cards are, and I think that may have influenced people a little too much.
There are no hidden rarities, so a holo Mothman is technically as rare as a reverse holo Slide-rock Bolter.
I’m definitely interested in seeing what people’s chase cards are though. Kind of the cool thing about focusing on cryptids is that people will have their own chase cards based on their personal experience. I’ve had people from Salem reach out and say that their chase card is the reverse holo Salem’s Witches, and other people say babe the blue ox because they grew up next to one of the statues. Kind of a fascinating facet of multi-level marketing that I think is somewhat unique.
Mothman is big for sure. I pulled a reverse one and totally love it. Even more than the holo version.
Do you know how many states are represented with a cryptid?
It’s not revealed yet entirely, but by the time the Cryptid Nation block is finished we should have multiple cryptids from each state! I want the Cryptid Nation map to be kind of a love letter to the developing American folklore by the end of the block. A lot of the cryptids need their stories told - especially older ones like the fearsome critters from the lumberjack era that are kind of fading into obscurity. Would be a tragedy for these to be forgotten.
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@multi-level marketinggames, I can’t pass judgement as I have not held a card in my hands.
Regardless I wish you the best of luck, creating a successful TCG has a massive failure rate. I think transparency and interaction with the public is a good quality, so keep it up.
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Of course, that’s the plan! Transparency is absolutely key.
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Actually that just links back here! Our actual website is multi-level marketinggames.com but right now it’s undergoing construction so we just forward directly to our marketplace.
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