[QJ's note. My point here isn't to explain the EPP mains. If you are reading this and want to know more about them, I highly suggest you head on over to the Decipher homepage and read up on them. Or, if you're really a big dork and want to stir up some trouble, you could go directly to the Decipher Discussion BBS and ask "What do you guys think about the EPPs?"]
It's been quite some time since Decipher announced its plans to distribute the Enhanced Premiere Pack mains - personas of SW:CCG main characters with built-in weapons. It's amazing to me how much controversy was generated by the news of the new products. For weeks, the Discussion BBS boiled over with people either singing their praises or (and by far more likely) proclaiming this to be among Decipher's worst decisions ever. Inevitably, articles began appearing on SW:CCG-related sites that either condemned or defended Decipher for the new product. Articles with titles such as "Decipher - Money Making Machine" and "Defending the EPPs" were quite common. Even now, weeks and weeks after the announcement, people with nothing better to discuss bring it up in chat rooms and on the BBS just to get a reaction. Not too long ago, the webmaster of a SW:CCG site was telling visitors to "stay tuned for the announcement of his ‘official' position on the EPP mains." Well pardon me if I don't stay glued to my keyboard.
After weeks of silence, I've decided to share my feelings on the subject. Not because I actually think any of you care what some chick thinks about a new product, but because, once again, I think I have found an issue that serves an a poignant example of how this bizarre little community operates.
First of all, I am absolutely amazed by the strength and intensity of the reaction by the SW:CCG community to a product that they have never seen, have no concrete knowledge about, and do not know when to expect. We've been told (or it's been hinted at) the new characters won't have the cool immunity to attrition that our favorite mains do. Well duh - Decipher wouldn't intentionally devalue any of its cards. Retailers wouldn't be too happy about that either. We know how the product will be packaged, and we know the distribution of the cards in the boxes. But we don't know anything else. For all we know, the EPP mains could add to weapon destiny draws or give force drain bonuses. We have no idea how these new characters with weapons will interact with existing cards in the game. For example, if the EPP Luke force drains for plus one due to the lightsaber, can I play Weapon of an Ungrateful Son and send the whiner to the used pile? Can an Ugnaut's game text be used to retrieve a weapon from the lost pile if that weapon just happens to be the one attatched to the EPP Vader. How about a card like Quick Draw - will that be a way of rescuing Boba Fett from his doom in the lost pile. Cards like Disarmed, Blaster Proficiency, and Weapon Levitation could wind up seeing a lot more use due to these new cards.....or they might not - which is exactly my point. I suppose what I have just spent the last several sentences trying to convey is that in the grand scheme of things, we have no real idea how these cards will impact the game. We'll just have to wait and see. I don't know if I like them or not - I've never seen or read one.
Now, I'm not illiterate (or at least if I am, I'm doing a pretty good job of fooling everyone), so I know that a major argument against the EPPs is that they will pose a significant cost to those people who consider themselves to be collectors. Well, let me tell you a little story. Here's a true but little know fact about yours truly - I love Winnie the Pooh. I have always loved Winnie the Pooh, and had read the original A.A. Milne stories long before Teen Bob Magazine (of whoever decides these things) chose to make the bear of very little brain popular. [Hey guys, I hope you don't think less of me for the Pooh bear stuff, but it's further proof that I really am a girl]. A couple of years ago I started *collecting* these Winnie the Pooh decorative plates. I'm not talking about those plastic children's plates that you can get at Wal-Mart; I'm talking about hand-crafted collector's edition plates that often run more than $60 each. The first two in the series were beautiful and well worth the cost (even though I am a very poor college student who must save up for these things), so I decide that my goal was to own the whole set. The next two plates in the series were also pretty good, so imagine how I felt when the fifth was just plain old stupid. I didn't really want it on display in my home, and I certainly didn't have any desire to pay $50 plus shipping and handling for something I didn't really want. PAY ATTENTION TO THIS - this situation forced me to decide: was I going to fork out the cash for a product that I didn't really like because I was *collecting,* or was I going to choose which of the plates I wanted in my collection?
It is my assertion that if you make a conscious decision to collect each and every card in the SW:CCG realm, you have decided to pay whatever that cost is. This is an especially important point beacuse the EPPs weren't designed for the guy who has every single card since Premier. The EPPs were created to help newbies get into the game. They were designed to help those who have arrived late to this hobby to build competitive decks without forking out even more money to acquire mains. That's also the reason why the EPPs include packs of Premier. Despite all of the innovative strategies, Premier cards still play a major role in the game. If Decipher had truly intended for this product to be one that targeted collectors, they would have designed a package that kept the identity of the EPP main a secret until you had already paid your money. As for me, unless the gametext of the character makes them of considerable benefit, I'll probably only buy the Han Solo EPP at first. That's the only one that I need.
When I sat down to write this article, I took a deep look down inside my SW:CCG soul and wondered if I really do have an preconceived opinion about the EPPs. And since I was honest with myself, I'll be honest with you. Despite the fact that I think they have the potential to be very good for new players, there's a teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy part of me that thinks they are cheating. After all, I must have bought a million packs of Premier before I got an Obi-Wan. I had to get my Luke Skywalker in an Web auction. My Leia Organa was won in a sealed-deck tourney. I still don't have a regular Han Solo or a Cloud City Boba Fett. I worked hard for the mains I have, and now everyone with $100 can get them all easy. Somehow it just doesn't seem fair. It's a little like how my mother loves to tell me how hard college was for her having to type papers on a manual typewriter with only correction strips to hide the mistakes. My gradpa used to tell me about how he had to get up at 4am when he was a little boy so he could milk cows on his father's dairy farm. Maybe some day I'll tell my kids about how I used to *gasp* have to pull mains out of packs.
And so, I have to wonder how many of the people who have raised their voices in expression of disappointment and contempt for Decipher's decision to create the EPPs aren't really annoyed that newbies can take an easier road than they had to travel toward getting mains. To be honest, I think that's a perfectly normal and rational thing to think. It's not especially kind, generous, or noble. It certainly doesn't make for good newbie/veteran relations. But if that's what people think, that's what they should say rather than finding other reasons to dislike them.
In terms of the game itself, the EPPs could be a good thing or a bad thing - until we see them, there's no telling. For collectors, the EPPs will be a cost associated with their decision to to own every SW:CCG card. For those who simply enjoy hearing their own voices (or seeing their own words in print as the case maybe), the EPPs have provided them with another reason to howl. As for me, if the EPP mains turn out well, I hope it will make it possible for more people to get serious about the game faster. But I still plan to complain about how I had to walk to the card store to buy packs - uphill....both ways.
P.S. For those of you who were wondering, yes, I bought the ugly Winnie the Pooh plate. How could I not - it was my bear of very little brain :-)
Queen Jawa