The Masked Carnie

Breaking away from Dragon Ball Z for a while, this week was a huge one for gamers.  I couldn't even tell you how many new games were coming out.  I'm sure this was to pre-empt Black Friday.  They are a lot of high-profile titles that fans have been anticipating for a while as-is, and retailers are going to have to contend with big crowds looking for deals next week.  Get those established fan crowds done now so you won't have to deal with overwhelming crowds later (not as much, anyway).  For me, that game is Super Smash Bros. 4.  Now, I was a big fan of Brawl for a while.  I liked that it removed a lot of the technical requirements present in Melee.  I'll concede that random tripping was dumb.  My Donkey Kong was actually pretty strong, just about competitive-level.  However, I am not interested enough that I want to try playing this thing competitively.  There's no way to remove high execution requirements in a game like this....

Dragon Ball Z is back!  Remember how awesome that was?  It's finally back in real card form!  The community for this game was so strong, Panini America decided to bring it back as an actual product, yet still compatible with the old game.  If you want to work the new cards in with the old stuff, the rules are basically the same as they always were.  As a fresh product, this game was definitely designed very well.  It plays mostly like the old game we always knew, with a few exceptions.  I like the idea of starting fresh, knowing the mistakes of the past so that hopefully they won't be repeated.  With any luck, this game will come to be an even better thing that its predecessor.  I'm totally not doing it because I had to sell all my old cards to fix my vehicle at one point.  That really helped make the decision, but I love the ground floor of anything.

  Last time, I wrote a little something going over the various styles & characters for the Dragon Ball Z CCG.  That was made to help people figure out how they like to play and pinpoint the best way to get into that.  It was fun to write, but I really don't feel like it helped much more than my ego.  This post is for all those right at the very bottom entry level of the game who haven't even played the game yet.  Maybe you haven't even purchased cards and are curious what it's all about.  Maybe you're confused with the rule book.  Whatever it is, I'm here to get you started.

Panina America's Dragon Ball Z TCG has finally launched!  It's been a long time in waiting.  It barely feels real, honestly.  After some shipping delays, I've managed to get a couple boxes and some starters.  Like anything else with a variety of play styles, this guide is here to help you determine what style and character to play, in no particular order.

Hello all.  It's been a long time.  Why is that, exactly?  Is it another episode like my LiveJournal , where I just write in a big burst because of some big moment?  (Warning: that journal featured some very low emotional moments as a teenager for me, but w/e, I like being an open book.)  Hopefully not.  See, what I've been doing since my last entry is I've been writing about the My Little Pony TCG.  Yeah, that's a thing, and I was pretty good at it, too.  Here's a link to my other blog about it as well as my work on Ponycard.net .  Unfortunately, I have concluded that I simply cannot afford to continue with a collectible card game.  I'm trying to move forward in my life.  Once I can get my car fixed up, I'm going to be looking for another, better-paying job, and move out into a new place.  While I do that, I also realize I need to invest in the job I actually want to do, which is gaming culture.  I'm hoping I'll be abl...