Is anyone else disappointed with the characters/licenses listed in the e-mail sent out last week? The ONLY one I have any interest in is the Terminator series.

(Edited after SmokeytheBear’s response… Sorry Smokey!)

I’m specifically looking to hear the voices of people who are NOT HAPPY with the choices. Generally I’d expect such people to just be unenthused and not post, whereas the excited people are obviously already posting away in response to the e-mail topic. There were a lot of posts there by people who are psyched, (though mostly from a small handful of people) and in the pages I read, not a lot of discussion otherwise. Meanwhile, I think the vast majority of the licenses that people were most interested in, based on top-10 lists, are not on there.

I want to know… Are there many people who feel the same way as me?

Nope. Looks pretty good to me. Crank is blech, but hey, can’t have all of them top-notch. Overall I’d say these are fine choices, and I can’t wait to play.

Meanwhile, I think the vast majority of the licenses that people were most interested in, based on top-10 lists, are not on there.

I would take a wild guess that these top-10 lists were supposed to be for Decipher to see what direction we wanted the game to progress in. Not the location as to which the game would start.

In other words, I never expected the top-10 lists to truly influence the first set or two, shy of re-organizing characters they had already decided on. They started working with licenses they wanted to get, working to have characters ready for preliminary sets, asking us what characters we would like in order to begin tailoring the game to player tastes. Just guessing, I’d say that if they had STARTED with player interests, it would take them till this time next year to be ready to think about launching. What with finding the top characters, getting the licenses, AND building cards for them.

As for my opinions on the current list, I like it, despite not knowing all the characters. (in fact, I was surprised by the number of characters I didn’t know) It’s diverse, and at the same time, not really “lacking” for a beginning list. I think it’s just about perfect for drawing enough diverse players to warrant more sets and more characters. (of course, only time will tell if that works out or not)

I was a little disappointed, but I am still holding out hope for future sets. I guess the easiest way for me to explain my disappointment is to simply list out the characters and comment on them individually:

• Rambo – Super stoked! One of the few well-known characters in the game so far.
• Ash Williams – Super stoked! I only saw Army of Darkness a few months ago, but I am definitely a fan now and happy to see him in the game.
• Chev Chelios – Disappointed… I have no idea who this guy is or what Crank is. Sad face. :-(
• Hannibal Lecter – Mixed feelings. I don’t watch many horror movies, but I have friends who do. So while I’ll never care about this character, it may help me get some friends interested in the game.
• Jason Voorhees – Mixed feelings. Ditto Hannibal Lecter.
• The Jigsaw Killer – Mixed feelings. Double ditto Hannibal Lecter.

• Michael Emerson – Mixed feelings. Wow, another ditto for Hannibal Lecter, except I’ve actually seen this one. Noticing a pattern yet?
• Major Scott McCoy – Super stoked! I haven’t actually seen this, but it’s Chuck Norris, so who cares!!
• Tank Girl – Disappointed… I have no idea who this girl is. Sad face. :-(
• Captain Spaulding – Disappointed… Is this yet another horror movie character? Another sad face. :-(
• Mr. Blonde – Disappointed… I have no idea who this guy is. Yet another sad face. :-(
• Sil – Mixed feelings… Hey, at least I’ve heard of this one. Erm, that’s about it.

• Terminator characters – Super stoked! Hey, some well-known characters! w00t!

So… yeah… It seems like half the characters are from horror movies, and I just don’t watch horror movies. Granted, I haven’t actually seen most of the ones I labeled as horror, so if they’re not horror movies, then I’m not gonna argue with you. But there doesn’t seem to be enough diversity. And it sounds like half of the characters in upcoming sets are from horror movies too: Gremlins, Jeepers Creepers, Killer Klowns from Outer Space (I’m actually stoked about this one because me and some friends recently had a good time making fun of it Mystery Science Theater style), The Thing with Two Heads, Ghoulies, and The Exorcist.

But hopefully this trend will change once the character choices are opened up to the public to vote on. I can’t wait to see the site go live.

Rambo – Super stoked! One of the few well-known characters in the game so far.
Ash Williams – Super stoked! I only saw Army of Darkness a few months ago, but I am definitely a fan now and happy to see him in the game.
Chev Chelios – Disappointed… I have no idea who this guy is or what Crank is. Sad face. :(
Hannibal Lecter – Mixed feelings. I don’t watch many horror movies, but I have friends who do. So while I’ll never care about this character, it may help me get some friends interested in the game.
Jason Voorhees – Mixed feelings. Ditto Hannibal Lecter.
The Jigsaw Killer – Mixed feelings. Double ditto Hannibal Lecter.
Michael Emerson – Mixed feelings. Wow, another ditto for Hannibal Lecter, except I’ve actually seen this one. Noticing a pattern yet?
Major Scott McCoy – Super stoked! I haven’t actually seen this, but it’s Chuck Norris, so who cares!!
Tank Girl – Disappointed… I have no idea who this girl is. Sad face. :(
Captain Spaulding – Disappointed… Is this yet another horror movie character? Another sad face. :(
Mr. Blonde – Disappointed… I have no idea who this guy is. Yet another sad face. :(
Sil – Mixed feelings… Hey, at least I’ve heard of this one. Erm, that’s about it.
Terminator characters – Super stoked! Hey, some well-known characters! w00t!

You should go out and go watch a few good movies.

I am actually quite pleased with the selection. I was afraid the characters would be almost too… “pop culture”... Glad to see the heroes are not from movies within the past 3 years.

I will never watch Twilight. Please don’t insult me. ;-)

Crack is not a ‘good’ movie, at all, it’s a ‘FUN’ movie though. Don’t feel bad about not knowing that one.

Well… you should at least see Silence of the Lambs, it isn’t really a ‘horror’ movie.

Jason… you don’t know Jason? He’s what made wearing a plain white hockey mask creepy.

You don’t know who Tank Girl is? I assume you don’t like the Gorillaz either eh?

yeah… ok, go watch these movies.

Side note, I think D did a DAMN good job. There’s a really good mix of characters here.

My only negative reaction was the same one listed above: “Too much horror.” I’m excited for One and Two, but the list of upcoming licenses are all bland, campy B-horror movies. Not interested in any of them. Eh. Gremlins might be fun.

I was looking forward to Iron Man and Leonidas.

Tank Girl

Anyway, the movie was weird, but nowhere near as weird as the comic it’s based on…

@Friedhamster

I know who both Hannibal and Jason are. I’ve just never seen their movies. But you are correct about Gorillaz.

@slaxer

I’m glad they’re not taking “pop” characters or characters from movies made in the last 3 years too, but I was hoping for a wider variety of characters. There are lots of good movies from the 80’s and 90’s that aren’t horror/thriller/suspense/B movies.

I think this list of characters represent a compromise of what D wanted and what licenses they were able to get.

I thought it was good that Hannibal made the list, as he’s about as iconic as you can get when it comes to compelling villains. And likewise, Rambo is more or less the definition of an action hero. As for the rest of the characters, I’m happy with them, although not seeing Leonidas here made me a little sad, since I know he’d be a great choice for demoing the game to people.

Oh, and I’ve said this before, but at least one of the J.B. trio needs to happen early on in order for this game to maintain its credibility. :-)

I’m not really disappointed, but they all seem kinda samey, save perhaps tank girl possibly. Admittedly I only recgonize about half, and even then I just know the names, but still, I’d have liked to see something unexpected (by which I mean a character who, if suggested in the Heroes and Villains area, would at least be met with some degree of skepticsim). Of course, liscenscing is always a whore, but to sumarize my cirtuitous musings, my overall impression of the charries thus far is “meh”.

Licensing aside, do you see Cloud and Sephiroth as being likely, given that most every video gamer knows who they are, that there’s the significant overlap between the VG geek and the TCG geek camps, and that Decipher has revealed that until the community votes to approve animated characters, realistic CGI characters count as real for the purposes of being allowed?

This question is mostly directed at RPJeez, but anyone can answer if they want to. I ask because I know they would become the cornerstones of any demoing I could do in my social circles.

Crank…Meh…I would have loved to see the Transporter…but oh well. Otherwise, I like it, I haven’t heard of some of the characters, but overall they’re pretty solid.

Sil FTW!

I’d say possible. At the very least they’d at least be a nice nod to the video gaming community. Although if they’re gonna get the FFVII liscence, they might as well print the good charries, namely, Cait Sith, Red XIII, Cid and Vincent.

I think the characters represent a good selection of classic or cult movies. There is an inherent problem with including a lot of the characters mentioned in the Heroes and Villains threads – the idea of FK is to make a different game, by including the same properties that exist in other games only gives this one the inmpression of ‘more of the same’. I definitely don’t want that with a CCG. I want something that will transcend time and these iconic film characters do just that – all are unique to this game.

There are two key things that need to be considered with voting on new licenses regarding this game – the first is that it is highly unlikely that Decipher will acquire the license to print characters from many of the films or properties that are being thrown around – LotR, Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, DC, a whole host of Anime as well. Apart from the sheer cost of them, I have said before that those who hold the licenses to them at present guard those licenses jealously and are not about to let a competitor use them to take profits away from them. Has anyone here tried to acquire an Anime license? I know people who have (Bubblegum Crisis) and it’s rediculously expensive.

Secondly Decipher and the community need to be cognizant of the potential longevity of a property – hence their selection of cult heroes/villains. A lot of characters from film and television may only have a very short shelf life so people picking the game up down the track may never have heard of them, and that will deter some people – after all the evidence has shown itself here – the people disappointed in general are expressing that sentiment because many do not know the characters as well or at all.

That said I think characters like Ellen Ripley and John McLean would fit right in.

I ran through the list of characters with my gaming group last night. All I can say is Chev Chelios drew a complete blank, absolutely nobody (including me) had seen Crank. Why is this character in the base set, I don’t think I know anyone who’s actually seen this film? Is it one of Warren’s favourites or something?

Of the others, only one person had seen the Devil’s Rejects but he loved the idea of Captain Spaulding. Tank Girl, Ash, Rambo, Lecter, Michael Emerson, Chuck Norris, Mr Blonde and Jason all got the thumbs up. Sil and Jigsaw, nobody was very enthusiastic about but at least they’d heard of them.

I am going to sound like a complete idiot who has been living in a cave, but some of these characters I have never heard of before (or seen their movie).

Rambo – John Waynes replacement. Excellant choice.
Ash Williams – Never seen the movie.
Chev Chelios – Another major action star. I would have liked to have seen his charactor from Death Race or Transporter.
Hannibal Lecter – More of a mental bad guy, but never saw Silence of the Lambs (But saw the other movies)
Jason Voorhees – Never seen the Jason series, but was ok in Freedy Vs Jason.
The Jigsaw Killer – Another mental killer.
Michael Emerson – Don’t know this guy.
Major Scott McCoy – It’s Chuck Norris, so who cares!!
Tank Girl – I have no idea who this girl is.
Captain Spaulding – No Idea.
Mr. Blonde – I know about the movie, but never seen it.
Sil – Who is this again?
Terminator characters – Action, Adventure, Drama, good choices.

I am disappointed there are so many horror movie characters. I for one most likely won’t be able to use most of the cards if they contain “horror” movie type pictures as I am very squeamish. Needs more action heroes, and more non-horror characters.

I don’t think its a very good selection to get the game going, not enough variety to appeal to the masses. Rambo, Tank Girl and Hannibal Lecter are nice choices but the rest needed to be from different genres (such as super heroes, sci-fi, fantasy, dramas and comedies)

I’m not really disappointed with the characters, myself (not that I am really going to care if character X is character X when I’m building a deck, though). In fact, I like that FK is mostly shying away from the mainstream movies and going for a bit more underground. It gives some very needed in the market identity to the game and is good for culture. :)

I, for one, am very disappointed by the characters they chose for the initial sets. Most I haven’t even heard of before. The choices make me less interested in the game instead of more interested.

As a big biycher and complainer about the lag with D. Imust say the choices were excellent, and for those who don’t know these movies..blockbuster baby!!! Go rent one and have a hoot. If I had to pick a bust character (the Terminators..only because they are in black bueaties). The range is so dynamic and Micheal Emerson, wow didn’t think of that one (Lost Boys a personal favorite with Keifer Sutherland in it as well).

So D, good job

also koodos with Sil from Species….a hot ass killer chic you gotta love it

I personally thought the choices overall were pretty decent, fair enough D were never gonna please everyone and there’s the issue of more expensive / difficult licenses to obtain – but even despite this I was expecting something a range of characters that would all be immediately compelling.

I actually like the list, but I’ve encountered a lot of ‘mehs’ whenever I’ve tried to pitch the game to some of my like-minded friends.

I guess that D are keeping a few biggies up their sleeves for future sets, but right now all im getting from prospective players is “Where’s Neo, Batman, The Kurgan, Leonidas?” etc

Not to be annoying, but I wanted to repost this under this topic, I posted it in the sticky thread as well.

@TheDragon I just wanted to point out my sorted list of character votes from back in June. According to that list,

Rambo had 13, Ash Williams 25, Chev Chelios 1, Hannibal Lecter 16, Jason Voorhees 13, The Jigsaw Killer 12, Michael Emerson didn’t have any, Major Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris in any form) 14, Tank Girl 3, Captain Spaulding 1, Mr. Blonde 2, and Sil didn’t seem to have any but I’m pretty sure I saw people mention the Species alien a few times.

Now, this list was made back in June, and tons of characters have been mentioned since then that I never bothered to compile, and even then I didn’t go through every post that was made in the Heros and Villians forums so there was probably even more votes for these characters that I never put in. I’m pretty sure there were votes for the Lost Boys characters that I didn’t put in because they were being listed as a group. The two characters that had the most votes at the time were James Bond and Darth Vader and I’m not surprised that neither of them made it into the first two sets. They had 35 votes each. Considering the number of people voting that’s not that much higher than the number of votes that each of the characters in the first two sets got.

So what I’m trying to say is that the characters in the first two sets are accurate representations of what the players wanted, at least according to my list. Feel free to look it up, I think it was on the third page of Heroes and Villians.