u/infiniteparadigm

Growing up I always loved playing the chaotic trading card game, myself and thousands of other people really had a blast with this game growing up. We loved watching the show and playing the card game. Fast forward a bit and the game turned out to die due to a licensing lawsuit around 2009. We heard nothing until 2019 where the original creator announced he secured the rights to the TCG and was going to do a full on continuation, not a reboot.

He said in multiple interviews that there was no chance of a reboot happening and it would just be a straight continuation with backwards compatibility with older cards. We got leaks just out this week and the new card images have been revealed and its not good.

The card on the left is the "new" modern card design which strips everything from the old card, removes the unique variable card stats, removes the flavor text, the color on all of the symbols, the set symbol removed, and just takes it and enshitifies it to look like any other TCG.

The creators of the game also have partnered with Panini of all companies to bring the game back, this is extremely concerning because Panini just opened a NFT division which ill link here -- https://nft.paniniamerica.net

They are only re-releasing the same cards that they already put out in 2009, but making all of the old cards not compatible with the new cards, this kills all of the value in any of the cards everyone has, making them have to re-buy the "new" versions to play. The cards in the new set are identical to the 2009 sets but enshittified in this ugly new borderless design.

Essentially they are turning my favorite trading card game into a NFT brand. I feel like this isnt getting any reach because its not releasing for another three months so just posting to see if anyone else sees what I'm seeing happening.

I just wanted to rant and get my horrible take off here. Chaotic is not going in the right direction and its too late for them to change course. I know I'm going to get clowned on in the comments, everyones going to say oh what a hater, oh he doesnt know what hes talking about. I literally have tens of thousands of dollars in chaotic cards and product, I have obsessed over this game since the launch, and this is MY opinion on what I'm seeing so far.

To the folks at mothership I know youre eagerly awaiting the communitys wonderful responses, I think you guys severely misunderstood what makes chaotic, chaotic. im not mad at you guys, at the end of the day youre just doing your job. But chaotic always should have been a continuation, not a full reboot. The entire community has been told this, and was very clear what we wanted. Chaotic is about the cards, the creatures and the stories, its about the gameplay and insane history this game has.

What you guys have just done, is pandered to a very specific TCG buyer, youre going after the pokemon scalper buyers and metazoo inflaters, not the OG fans. You're going after the price go up so I buy crowd, not the I really like chaotic crowd. People will still buy it, and it will still do good, but once those whales get tired, they will drop chaotic like a hot pocket and write it off on their tax returns.

**You are going after buyers like Alpha Investments, not fans. Chaotic will be about profit, not longevity.**

So from what I understand:

- chaotic is ditching backwards compatibility instead of just doing a large (very much needed) banlist

- chaotic is going all cards fullart, and ditching the iconic frames

- we are starting over at DOP instead of continuing FAS

Why this is not good for the game in the long run:

Chaotic has built its backbone with a diehard community, people that have literally waited a decade for the game to just come back because we love the game and everything they've built. What the company behind this is doing is pandering to a specific kind of TCG audience, this is akin to the pokemon scalpers, the whales, exactly the kind of people that arent in it for the game. The collectors who buy because "shiny" and not collectors who buy because they care.

Look at what happened to metazoo, they got wrapped up in "the speculative investor buyer" it started as a wholesome retro TCG that grew a quick fanbase off kickstarter, but as soon as product became rare, the collector base shifted from people who wanted to play the game, to people who bought the product because its an investment, not a hobby. By going fullart frames, chaotic is trying to "Mimic" or make their cards look rare and valuble to attract "the speculative investor" instead of staying true to itself.

Fullart frames are great as rare collectors pieces, but they are often difficult to read and hard to play with in games, we have yet to see the revamped gameplay yet, but knowing its ditching 6v6 and going to 3v3 exclusive is all we really know. Small text thats obscured behind art, is not great for gamelay.

The heart and the core of what chaotic is, is dead. Chaotic was built on amazing art, unique frames, colorful cards and rich lore. The show literally brought so many people into the game, and everyone who has ever gotten into chaotic has many stories to tell from the game.

What could have been:

They should have done a massive banlist, ban virtually everything thats strong compared to the new cards, create a legacy vintage format where they arent banned, DO start over at dawn of perim, but do the whole block in one big set, DOP-ZOTH-SS then do MIV block in one big set, then continue with FAS., re-use some art keep original frame format, but slightly update it to be more modern. Add 10-30% new cards, some of the op cards like quadore, or new art, and remove the most useless creatures or cards, and rebalance the stat curves to be more in line with AU. Maybe a different code pattern or colors like a more vibrant blue or something like that. Keep fullarts as a beyond rare varient.

This is just my hot take, you guys are going to absolutely hate me because I'm not wrong.