Listening to all the little players, I can’t believe what I’m hearing. It’s laughable, it truly is. I hear things like, "I honestly love you all. I will miss the game... but I will miss the friendships I have made more than anything." That’s pathetic. Just because Wizards of the Coast isn’t printing anymore cards doesn’t mean you have any reason to miss the friendships that came about because of this game. Nor does it mean you have to stop playing it.

I’ve heard a lot of talk... on Pojo’s boards and on the forums at G4tv.com about Pokémon being dead. No. The fad is dead. The real game has just begun. Seasoned veteran players out there? Hey... do you remember the first time you walked into a Pokémon League. I do. There were about 80 people playing in the empty store across from Waldenbooks. At the time of our PL’s first day, there were three people who actually knew how to play the game. Myself, my brother, and a kid named Nathan.

We taught others how to play and we played them. Over time, the fad of it all wore down... soon, only those who played the game and enjoyed it stayed... not those who didn’t play with energy in their deck because it didn’t feature the picture of a cute little cartoon character they adored. The fad was dead. The game lived on. Soon, Waldenbooks stopped it, and I and an associate picked it back up. The two of us were running the league and holding an occasional tournament. We brought in TVs to put and N64 up (to play Stadium 2) and to put up DVD players to put up new anime (which... most of the kids were into). We brought in new games for them to try, from Magic, to Yu-Gi-Oh!, to Star Wars, to Mage Knight. Some picked up and some didn’t. Through it all, there were kids playing the game for what it was. A fun game.

The way people talk now, it sounds like they think it’s all over. So what? So what if there won’t be any new cards coming out? So what if there won’t be anymore tournaments? You *can* play outside of tournaments, you know. If you all love the game so much, you’d stop whimpering about how it’s dead and revive it. I’m not talking about writing letters to companies who won’t ever read them... Money talks, not the people. I’m talking about grabbing your deck... finding someone who plays, and have fun with the game. It’s time to have some fun with the game, and not worry about modified or standard format. Not worry about having the best archetype or the best anti-archetype. It’s time to just play.

I don’t know about the rest of you, put I’m going down to a hobby shop and bust some old school Raindance on some peeps.