Ask Barron
February, 2007 Edition
by Barron Vangor Toth
WWE Raw Deal co-designer

To say “it’s been a while” would be an understatement. Sure, folks hear from me on this site as well as (almost) daily on the Yahoo Groups, but still, there’s something about this format that just works.

While I’d love to answer every question individually, there is a logistical issue as there were 150+ emails that I got which I can answer with a few points that cover all those questions. So here goes:

First and foremost, don’t worry, while I am doing other things with my life besides WWE Raw Deal, I have no intention of leaving this game ever. As far as I’m concerned, if fans want cards in twenty years, I’ll still be here with Mike Foley giving them to you. I’m a workaholic and always have been: so whether it’s the exciting new Stargate TCG from Comic Images (which, while not designed by Mike Foley and me, we were recruited to help with its development) or my poker coaching business, reporting, and writing—my first priority is this game and you, our WWE Raw Deal fans.

Speaking of poker, I try to keep that discussion on BarronVangorToth.com or the various sites I work for, but since so many of you mentioned it in your Raw Deal questions, I’d just like to say a quick thanks to all of you who congratulated me on winning Gutshot’s award for 2006 Poker Writer of the Year. It is a huge honor and, as trite as it sounds, as I was happy enough just to be nominated. And as I tell all the people I know and meet in that world in my travels that if they like poker they’ll love Raw Deal, especially now that Revolution has been released.

And speaking of Revolution, I’m thrilled to see how many of you have changed your minds as of late seeing the set for what it really is: the best thing we’ve done for the game since it debuted. If you like All Axxess or Afterburn, you have tons of new hard-to-reverse Maneuvers to put in your decks, alongside a new type of card (Antics) to simulate in-ring shenanigans, plus Reversals, Pre-match, and Mid-match cards. Each set four Superstars of yore will not only get a brand new ability, but nine new Superstar-specific cards. If All Axxess and Afterburn are a bit daunting to you as a player if you’re new to the game or returning to the game, then you have the Revolution format where you just play cards from the new set by themselves. No matter what you want from a set: Revolution has it. That’s why it’s completely sold out from Comic Images and I suspect that Revolution 2: Extreme will sell better than Revolution 1 now that many have come to the realization that those few naysayers that talked down upon it were just talking about what they didn’t understand for their own reasons that have nothing to do with us as a Raw Deal community. Hey, but what would life be without a few whiners in the corner trying to ruin the party and all the fun everyone else is having…

Everyone knows the four Superstars in Extreme—Edge, Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, and Kane—as well as the four Extremists—Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer, Kevin Thorn, and Balls Mahoney. All of you who asked what they do in the game, what their cards are, and wanted all that spoiler-type info: wait for next week when we have the EXTREME spoilers in an exciting one-week format. Going alongside Extreme are the requests about other Superstars and Extremists and why they weren’t in the set. The answer is part obvious and part not.

The obvious part is that by having just four Superstars we couldn’t have in every Superstar. So why make the choices we did? It came down to the environment we wanted to create with Extreme. Revolution made an impact on All Axxess and Afterburn, but its real impact is on the Revolution format as it defined it as it was, obviously, the only set in the format. Revolution 2: Extreme doubles the amount of cards in the Revolution format and it also doubles the amount of Superstars and Extremists so we wanted to make sure what we introduced was a natural extension to what we started. With “Stone Cold” Steve Austin having his new WWE film release in the coming months and everyone asking about him, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Ric Flair, Chris Benoit, and a few other Superstars, who will be in Revolution 3? You’ll find out sometime after WrestleMania, where you’ll also see who are the next Extremists that we’ll feature: perhaps guys people have been asking about since we debuted like Stevie Richards and Hardcore Holly; plus there are new names like Matt Striker, Elijah Burke, and Marcus Cor Von; and let’s not forget about top names in ECW like Rob Van Dam and its champion Bobby Lashley.

Some people have heard that the four Superstars and Extremists in Revolution 1 will not have Superstar- and Extremist-specific cards in Revolution 2. This is true. While almost everything we did with Raw Deal we did right the first time—how many other games have almost seven years of cards and no banned and no restricted list where you can play anything and everything like we have with All Axxess?—there are some things we’re improving with Revolution. Since I mentioned Bobby Lashley above, let’s take him from Great American Bash. He’s playable right out of the set with just five cards. But in order for that to be possible, we had to make him very powerful in order to compete with the Triple H’s of the world who have double digit Superstar-specifics.

While it works from a game perspective, we weren’t thrilled anymore with having some guys with twenty and thirty specifics whereas others have five. Plus by not having cards for Revolution 1 guys in Revolution 2 we can keep the set smaller—still only 130 cards—to make it easy to collect. Perhaps in Revolution 4 after we’ve had four Superstars and four Extremists in Revolution 1—3 we’ll have some type of holiday set where a specific will be released for everyone … including maybe some Superstars of yore that haven’t gotten the Revolution treatment yet. So, while there aren’t any specifics for Revolution 1 Superstars and Extremists in Revolution 2, there will be specifics for them in the future plus there is a ton of indirect support (oftentimes more valuable than direct support) for everyone in the set.

An interesting question that a few people asked me variations of is this: seeing where the game is now with Revolution 1 and how there are a few naysayers still not thrilled with the concept behind it, if I could go back and make our 21st set in a different fashion, would I? No. Not a chance. Not even close to being a chance. Sure, some people don’t like Revolution. That’s unfortunate but something I expected from when Mike and I were first developing the concept. Ultimately, what matters is doing what is best for the game: and that’s Revolution. Whether there are a few people that want to complain from now and for the next decade that they don’t like Revolution, I cannot help it.

My main responsibility is to make the best game that I can make, just like I’ve done for the last seven years, and everything else will follow along with it. Mike and I have always trusted our instincts and, I think without exception, I think we’re the only design team in the CCG industry’s history to do what we’ve done and created what we have. Every year a “hot” new game comes on the market and inside a year or two they either go out of business or they have to come up with a huge restricted and/or banned list and start over due to the incompetence of their designers. And then soon after they too go away. Dozens and hundreds of games have come and gone since 2000. The proof is in the game and just how good it is and how many previous players—Neil Gow, Raj DeVore, Tom Teagardner, Gabe Rosario, and on and one—are coming back seeing what they see with Revolution.

Certainly Mike and I cannot take all the credit as we have a crackerjack group of guys that have been with us for years now, from our lead playtesters Matthew Hatcher and Kevin Fish, to our rules guys and testers Ryan Alarie/Jabroni/Walter Kovacs, Creed, and Jason Griffey, to our other playtesters like David Marks, Bruce Stark, all the Indiana Boyz, and on and on. So, while I wish everyone loved Revolution as much as I think most people do, the few that still don’t, if they give it a chance, I’m sure they will. And, if they don’t, they don’t, and they’ll miss out on all the fun because there has never been a time in our game’s history when the game has been as fun as it is now: whether you like All Axxess, Afterburn, and/or the Revolution format itself—this game is just an obscene amount of fun at the moment … and it’s only going to get better when it gets EXTREME for WrestleMania.

I cannot wait to see the attendance at the Last Chance Qualifier since I had almost forty questions about what we’re doing that weekend. The venue is RIW Hobbies in Livonia, Michigan. (As I write this, their site is randomly down: HYPERLINK "http://www.riwhobbies.net/" http://www.riwhobbies.net/) The LCQ is on Friday, March 30th and will be starting about noon local time. We couldn’t announce the format earlier as we weren’t sure when Revolution 2: Extreme would get through WWE approvals. It won’t be out in early March—which then would’ve allowed us to have it legal at the LCQ—but will rather be debuting WrestleMania weekend. In fact, while the details haven’t all been worked out, on Saturday, March 31st, you can expect an EXTREME release extravaganza where there will be an EXTREME No Mercy / sealed tournament for all those not qualified for our World Championships.

As far as the LCQ goes, it’s going to be a $20 entry and get there for noon with your deck list already neatly written up. As everyone suspected, the format is Revolution era All Axxess—but remember, no cards from Revolution 2 will be legal, nor any cards from the upcoming Revolution 2 tourney kit, just everything from Premiere edition up through and including Revolution 1 cards 1—130 and P-1—P-12. Since a flight won’t be necessary (the World Championships are the next day at the same location) and the winner presumably already has a hotel for the weekend, CI won’t be providing the winner with either of those … so instead they’ll lay out $500 cash to the winner of the LCQ. The winner still will get a WrestleMania ticket and attend the event with the rest of us. Plus, for everyone else not fortunate and skillful enough to win the LCQ, we’re going to have prize support on top of prize support.

So the next day—Saturday—we should have the Revolution 2: Extreme No Mercy sealed event for folks not in the World Championships plus we’ll have the WCs for the sixteen qualified individuals. It worked well last year, so we’ll have two formats with four rounds apiece cutting to a top four. Of course, since it’s our main format, All Axxess will be one of those two formats. Will the other format be a … revolutionary … choice? We’ll be making the announcement soon. Remember, though, for the LCQ as well as the WC, no new cards from Revolution 2 (or the new promo and tourney cards) will be legal.

What about next year’s qualifiers? Final details haven’t been decided but since enough of you asked, I’ll give some basics that I think are relatively safe. First, you can assume we’ll have five international qualifiers: England, Canada, Chile, Singapore, and Australia. Yes, I’m quite thrilled with how well David Marks implemented my four regional qualifiers in Australia leading up to an Australian championship. Without him, that whole thing wouldn’t’ve been possible and, perhaps, due to low turnouts in previous years, it wouldn’t’ve been viable to keep a championship in that fine country. Now, with almost eighty people who came out between the four events—and assuming David Marks is game—I think we can do it again next year. If we could figure out four places in Canada, it might not be a bad idea for our friends up north given the massiveness of their country. As far as US qualifiers go, I’m guessing we’ll have double-shots at Origins and Gen Con again, plus one wherever WrestleMania 24 will be as a Last Chance Qualifier (whether Florida or Vegas, I’ve heard rumors of each, and it could be an entirely different locale). So that’s ten qualifiers. What about the rest? I don’t know, but there are a lot of options between the east coast, west coast, not to mention with the rankings. Nothing is definite yet and once things are decided, we’ll let you know. We’re still six weeks out from the Last Chance Qualifier and the 2007 World Championships, so that’s where the focus is.

Now those 150+ emails are taken care of, let’s look at some individual questions:

Q: After working for you as a playtester, I imagine someone got themselves a free course in game design. Are you worried about other companies then stealing these people away from you after they’ve learned your secrets? Have any done that?—Justin

A: Mark Wootton—who was one of our original playtesters, who started after the release of Premiere Edition and was recently featured on the picture of “First of All” choking out our first World Champ Mike Canu—a few years back after being one of our lead playtesters for years was approached by the folks behind “Legend of the Five Rings” to be a designer for them. I know I learned a lot talking with Mark and I hope he learned a thing or three talking with me, but I don’t consider that “stealing” in any sense, especially after I had many talks with Mark about it. I know there’s a misconception that our playtesters are getting tens of thousands of dollars every set and cases and cases of product but the reality is nothing like that. Mark’s a great guy and any time I see him at a convention my only regret is that he and I don’t get more time to talk to each other. Another of our playtesters—my friend of almost thirty years, Bruce Stark—was recently contacted by a different gaming company about working on a game, but he’s not interested in helping with non-Raw Deal games (although he was kind enough, alongside a few other playtesters like David Marks, to give Mike and I some help on Stargate).

Q: The ad copy for Revolution 2 reveals that there will be extreme maneuvers for non-extremists. We were wondering if this on any level expressed some concern on your part about the future of ECW and the likelihood that it will remain a significant source of future stars/material. Given the drop in ratings, the loss of certain top talent, and the questionable relationship between other top talents and the company such concern would certainly seem warranted.—Daniel

A: There is one Extreme in print at the moment: A New Breed Unleashed. It says “Requirement: Extremist” so only Extremists can pack it (we’re changing that rule in Revolution 2 to indicate that only Extremists can play it, but you can pack it regardless). Without giving away too much about what you’ll see next week, suffice it to say that it isn’t too hard for us to just not include “Requirement: Extremist” text on other Extreme maneuvers and then—bam!—it’s useable by everyone. As far as how long ECW will stay around, that is a point of concern, but I think pretty much everyone knows that after three or four tourney kits we will have printed most Extremists. In six months or a year if—and remember that’s a big if—WWE did drop the ECW brand, I imagine Mike and I can still make Extreme maneuvers without issue.

Q: I’ve been playing since day one (ok, not day one, but since before fully loaded came out) and you have a lot of different playtesters that come and go. Why is that? Any that you really miss? Who have been the best?—Brandon

A: Most people don’t work out as playtesters. This isn’t their fault but it takes a specific type of person to make a good playtester. It’s not just about being smart or being able to articulate your thoughts but there is an X-factor that doesn’t come easy for most. Some will wrongly think it’s about being agreeable to Mike or I. That is the furthest thing from the truth and anyone who thinks that has no clue what they’re talking about. Think about it: Mike and I know what we think, so we don’t need more people telling us the same thing. There isn’t just one personality either, because if I think about some of our longstanding playtesters, there is no comparing the personality of Jason Griffey and Bruce Stark. They are both very intelligent and articulate people for sure, but personality wise they are polar opposites. Yet, they both are great playtesters. Same if you compare a Matt Hatcher to a Creed or a Kevin Fish to a Ryan Alarie/Jabroni/Walter Kovacs/whatever other handle he uses elsewhere (although the comparisons aren’t as drastic as Bruce with anyone as Bruce is just, well, Bruce). And you can insert other names into there like a David Marks or any of Kevin and Matt’s Indiana guys, etc. etc. Sure, Mark Wootton leaving was a guy I missed but fortunately we’ve had a lot of other smart and dedicated people to fill his shoes. We keep trying new guys (and retrying people) to see if they’ll fit, but a lot of our guys have been around for a while: Bruce helped me on the game back in 1999; Jason Griffey has been around for five years; Creed’s probably been around for almost that long; Matt Hatcher and Kevin Fish have been testing for years before we made them our lead guys; Ryan Alarie I’ve known about for years (I don’t remember if it was Bruce or I that found him first, whether it was me on the Yahoo groups or Bruce on TCO) and he’s been a huge asset lately, as has David Marks. Plus, while they might not always be the best playtesters—it’s a different skill set—we always try to get some of the best Raw Deal players to give us feedback on our latest sets and do some additional testing to see what works and what doesn’t from an expert’s point of view.

Q: This is a very important question which I need an answer to in order to get my lovely girlfriend to keep quiet. The other day we were playing a game of Raw Deal Revolution. She was playing Cena, I was playing Rey Mysterio. She asked me if I had a certain reversal in my hand and i replied "I dont know". She thinks for a bit and hesitates to play a Hold:Mean but finally plays it. I then reverse it with the reversal she was asking me if I had in my hand. She is know accusing me of being a liar. Is she right? Am I a liar? By the way she is real good at the game too since I taught her. She plays in tournaments and recently has won a Tournament! Her name is Kara C. from Indiana! Look for her on the rankings!!!—Nathan Norrod, Raw Deal Manager…. Nathan’s League Info:

Location: Reader Copies
2976 N Scatterfield Road, Suite 131
Anderson, IN

Tournament Manager: Nathan Norrod (slinky462@insightbb.com)

Start Date: Feb. 18th 2007
End Date: April 8th 2007

Time: 1pm each week
Cost: $6 each week (except where noted)

Info: Think you are good at Raw Deal? Here is your chance to prove it. Show your skills over a 7 week period earning points each week building up your overall total score. For every tournament game you play you will be awarded 2 pts for a win and 1 pt for a loss. On the 7th week the person with the most points will be awarded the grand prize and will be crowned the champion. There will be 2nd Place and 3rd Place prizes too. Tournament kits will be given out weekly like normal too!

(2/18/07) Week 1: Revolution Format
(2/25/07) Week 2: Revolution Format
(3/04/07) Week 3: All Axxess
(3/11/07) Week 4: Revolution Format
(3/18/07) Week 5: Hardcore free for all Revolution Format (all games you play all day long, even fun games, will be counted for points. Good way to catch up)
(3/25/07) Week 6: Revolution Format
*Note there is no tournament on April 1st due to Last Chance Qualifier
(4/8/07) Week 7: Players choice (Players will vote between 2 choices for that day’s format)
Choice 1. Revolution Sealed Deck Cost $20 (Product will be Revolution 2, if it’s out)
Choice 2. Revolution Format

A: I think you’re asking is it wrong in terms of the Raw Deal game for you to answer a question dishonestly like that? There are some questions that you have to be accurate about. For example, if I ask you how many cards there are in your hand, you have to answer and answer with the correct information. But if I ask you and you say, “I don’t know, about seven.” I should ask you to check because you could have eight. Or six. But there is nothing in the rules that says you have to tell what cards are specifically in your hand, otherwise, everyone could ask about every card ever printed at every time and—you get the idea. Now, were you a liar in that situation? That I don’t know. You said that you didn’t know. If you didn’t know, you weren’t lying, you just didn’t know. But if you did know, and said you didn’t, then you would be lying. For some reason, girls don’t like being lied to by their boyfriends: call it a handy tip of the day. And, in general, I think you’ll find that if you are honest in all that you say, you don’t have to worry about remembering what you said to different people, because you always just told the truth. I don’t want to go off on a morality tangent, but I think the expression of “honesty is the best policy” is a well-known cliché for a reason.

Well, that's it for this February, 2007 edition of "Ask Barron." When it's all said and done, everything we do with Raw Deal, whether it's developing the cards, writing website content, or running events at conventions around the world, it's all for YOU, the player. No one thought we'd be here for more than a year and here we are almost seven years later. We have all of you to thank, whether you've been here since the beginning or if you're new to the party (or if you're like the original owner of the Yahoo list, Gabe Rosario, who has just returned to the party with Revolution). Like the cheesy song says, Everything we do ... we do for you. Have a great weekend and I hope you love the Revolution 2: Extreme spoilers next week. Quite literally there are hundreds and thousands of man hours that have been put into those spoilers. I love the set, so does my fellow co-designer Mike Foley and all our playtesters. Hopefully you will too. Let us know what you think and post up your thoughts on our Yahoo discussion board. Until next time...