SixPrizes Underground: The Unveiling

Paid subscription? TheTopCut used to have it and it doesnt seems to work, seeing their are sharings, etc.

But yes Adam, I'll be up to write top notch articles if needed. lol.

Im interested, do not want to have to pay money and think E-mailed newsletters would be the best method. As long as this does not replace the original Sixprizes I am in agreement because though some of the articles may be lacking I do enjoy he quantity that are posted.

Oops, posted twice.

Advertising is a good point. You could put advertisements for online stores like CollectorCache, Troll and Toad, etc if they were willing to help a little on the costs.

But we start kind of getting into a legal issue with any kind of product sold that has copyrighted icons on it.

Hey, I'd love to write about stuff if you want me to. Regardless of the fact I have almost no experience with actual competitive playing that is… I wrote the long article about the cards that got rotated out and I could pull off more articles like that.

Like the idea, but since im not in america, the letter thingy seems kinda expensive for me, so i will go with the e-mail. I guess i would like to see deck analisis, but card analisis would be good too, and maybe some cool moves, or techniques for games? Dunno if top players will be willing to write about those tough.
I dont have a particular player that i want to read, i guess any experienced one can do.
As everyone else stated, if needed, i can write a few things myself.

International shipping won't be an issue, it would just be an envelope with
the printed newsletter inside.

The Top Cut failed I believe mainly due to the fact that a majority of the staff worked and were full time students as well.

Adam in my opinion I believe the success of this will come down to the quailty of the writers you get to be honest. I would mainly only top notch writers to write in this. But at the same point in time I would also have a section for “Opinion” pieces where normal people can write an article, and maybe include one or two of the better ones in your news letter, and post others on the site.

its cool the way the site is now…. Emails are alot cheaper in the long run, but newletters would be cool but pretty, expensive. Any player is cool. This site is awesome how it is now….Thank you for creating this site.

Good idea Adam, I might be interested in purchasing the newsletter as well depending on payment options.

:)

I think you're right, and when people have something tangible in their hands, it's somehow worth something. I'm not saying that you can't charge for email or web access, but I think it's ingrained that tangible items have an associated worth.

i would potentially write for this if you asked me to

It would be black and white. I am going to bootstrap and print everything
myself at least in the beginning.

I have a laserjet printer and I calculated most of the costs already…

For me to print a piece of paper it's like 3 cents front and back (that
includes the price of the piece of paper)

I am thinking each newsletter would be about 10 pages front and back (so 20
pages of content, 5 pages for each of the 4 writers).

Envelopes range from 1.6 cents to 6.3 cents I think, depending on if I order
in bulk and if they are self sealing.

The envelope is going to weight right around 2 ounces, which is 61 to 78
cents for the stamp. Under 2 ounces is 61 cents…I hope I can keep the
weight around there.

So total it's like a dollar or so for each mailing, not that bad.

I don't think the demographic is really all that recreational…I mean look
how many people go to Nationals in their respective countries.

Also this isn't a cheap game to play, people who play Pokemon are spenders.

I think this would be a great idea. I would love to receive this newsletter, and I would write for you if you wanted. I enjoy writing articles and I think I'm halfway decent at it. I know I'm not amazing or a world-class player, but I think that I have good insight into the game that people would enjoy reading.

1. I am very interested.
2. I would like any players who are experienced and are good at the game to write for it.
3. Analysis would be preferable.
4. I think the best format would be the current Modified format.

I agree pokemon devotees will pay. Just like fantasy football, the reason people will pay beyond whats available for free is more immediate, and deeper info that others won't have in their leagues. Proven track record of predictions etc. give credibility. So Your idea of getting experts to do the articles, is awesome. I think the number and focus of the info needs to be pretty significant though.

I will be one who subscribes, don't get me wrong. I'm just thinking further out in terms of making this not a short term fad.

Nah dont like the idea.

Im not paying for Pokemon content because 1, it should be and is free, and 2 the best players wont just give out their decklist for a couple of bucks.

And if your worried about this content getting distributed around the net, having mailed newletters also is easy for people to scan and then email out, so its not like its that much harder than email.

If you want to have a new article on the website entitled like “The Masters Corner” and a couple of good players write that article that would be something. Or have another six prizes site with just those authors on it, that would be something.

But the main thing is no big players will just spill their decklists when they know they will be circulated very quickly.

But happy birthday anyway.

Well like Adam said, Sixprizes and Topcut were totally different things with different circumstances.

The reason why Drew Holton closed the site down wasn't due to him/the staff being busy, so much as A) him not making _enough_ to justify it, and B) the content actually hurting his own chances. Anyone at Worlds 2008 will tell you that Gardevoir mirror's complexity and deepness actually had topcut to thank for it; nobody else would have had incentive to go into such depth otherwise.

While a “pay site” angle is the way to go with 6P, I believe that Adam can improve the regular content immensely by just _not_ posting blatantly bad articles. How many times can you post Feraligatr Prime/Ho-Oh LEGEND decks before it begs the question, “why?”

Actually what that guy said is true. Setting it up like you plan with a subscription service isn't a good idea. Something that would work better as he said is getting advertisements and making them pay to provide players with this information. It will make people know them and be aware of them more and would be amazing advertisement if you could get good quality players to write

World Champions would make for excellent writers, that exactly who I'd like to get on board.

I doubt Yamato speaks English well enough to write for it hahah.

Thanks for the input Sergio. :)

Yeah exactly, the newsletter will be something you can divvy up the cost for between people at your league, team, testing group, or whatever and share it.

I've printed a sample newsletter just to weight it and figure out how I'd ship, and I gotta say it looks pretty cool. Getting one in the mail every couple weeks would really be something to look forward to during the season.

The problem I see with doing more general information is that I don't think people want to pay for that kind of stuff. Maybe I could write about that kind of stuff as an extra thing or do that as a separate newsletter?

It is really cool though, the whole paper aspect…it's something that is being lost as we progress into the digital age.

I agree Jay, the quality of the writers is super important.

I am only going through with this if I feel that you are going to be getting great value. If I feel that the writers aren't giving good enough info, then I'll find new ones or give up on the project.

The goal is to give people who want premium content just that. Of course I would like to make some money off it too, but I want to make sure people are more than happy with what they pay for.

Man, I think this is a GREAT idea! I don't get what people are saying…people that play pokemon don't have money? Really? Are your cards given to you? Cause I pay crap tons of money for my cards, a few bucks a month for GOOD reads on Pokemon is awesome. I've only been doing the pokemon thing for about 6 months now, and I can say that I have only seen 2 REALLY good articles: Jason Nat's report, and an article that just rotated off of the Pokegym home page about consistency. But, that is one of the things I love about 6P. There are a lot of pokemon players out there of different ages and different talents. I think its awesome, and is what sets 6P apart, that players of different ages and talent levels can write articles, instead of other sites where you if your aren't writing about a top tier deck or have a recognizable name, you won't ever be seen.

I am also sick of this crappy elitist American attitude that for some reason we are entitled to everything being free. We FINALLY have “free” healthcare, now we expect top quality pokemon advice for nothing? Lets just one thing straight: that info that you get from other sites is NOT free. The second law of thermodynamics: there is no such thing as a free lunch. All of you people that just LOVE T&T so much, just remember the reason that you do have to pay as much for cards from them, or anyone else, is because they pay to advertise, which they make up by selling you cards. If we had pay sites with no advertisement (this includes Pokemon advertising on CN), cards would be a lot cheaper. This “free” info comes at the cost of raising the price of every consumer product on the market to offer you “free” advice, hope its worth it.

I'm not saying its original, but I think it is a great idea. I think it has a lot of potential. As for the business side of things, I think it is a great idea for you (Adam) as well. Anything that can be made inexpensively, have a large profit margin, and still be offered at a low price is great for everyone. There are so many great ideas you could do with this. It doesn't appear that Adam is worried about being ripped off, more about authenticity. If one were to take the time to type out the newsletter, everyone would have no doubt it originated at 6P and would discredit any other writers as being not credible. Things of the internet, while originating somewhere, are just reprints of reprints of reprints. I think Adam is just trying to offer a truly authentic product.

Some ideas I would like to see:

1. Reoccurring articles (ie, Regional Meta-game [from different regions every time])
2. Some kind of trinket (something as simple as a signed energy card from contributers or even a JWittz like card of the featured contributer)
3. Contest (even if it cost more. Think about it guys, pokemon is a community that loves to collect rare things.)
4. Color (even if it cost more)

Something else I think the Pokemon community is in dire need of is a Pokemon Podcast (I know there are a few, but I'm not impress with any of them). I have thought about doing one many times.

1.) I would definably be interested!

2.) I really don't care who writes the articles as long as they are really good helpful articles!

3.) I woul like to see deck analysis but an occasional card of the day or something like that.

4.) This is a tough question personally I would love to get something in the mail because I never get anything. On the other hand it would cost a lot of money play people could still scan it in or retype it but that isn't as likely. Personally I think you should do the protected on-site content it would be easier and would save money. Also I have no clue how to do it but I think there is a way to disable right clicking on a web page I have no clue how to do it but if you can figure it out people can highlight but can't copy. I'll look into it if you want.

About your first part I really don't know if I could pay for it because I am a kid and I don't have money… Now if I had a job that would be different but I still nee dot be a bit older for that.

to all you people who think top players won't write for free…you're wrong lol

when thetopcut was active, good players because they got paid. they didn't write often before that and haven't since, so why would they now? i'm certainly not. you may get the occasional article after-the-fact (see fulop's jumpluff article) but yeah, that's about it.

I don’t think it should just be the “good people” that’s being a separatist. If you pay for something anyone should be able to write an article. Every one person has great ideas. You need to stop being so secretive, your kind of acting like this is government top secret stuff. any one can view the cards and study them. Don’t get me wrong I visit this site a few times a day and enjoy it. but you asked for input and here’s mine.

I don't like this “exclusive” idea. I think a site like this should be about sharing, not about keeping knowledge exclusive.

Yeah that may work, it kinda depends on how much room I have for extra stuff
though. I don't want the envelope to be too heavy or not be able to fit all
the papers inside.

I think most people should stick to submitting articles to the website, and
if they build enough credibility then they could become part of the
newsletter staff.

I agree with Kenny (maybe because we had a lot of the same ideas – lol!). One area I do differ is on the subscription idea. I think it would work better if you paid by the article – so when you clicked on the “Read-more” it would prompt you to pay the $1-2 extra to read the rest. It should be in a separate area like Kenny suggests (I like the name Top-Tier). In addition to the advantages of this I listed in my first post, I also think staying away from the subscription service idea would eliminate some of the some of the negative feelings many people have about separateness or elitism.

The other thing about having a “pay by article” format is that top tier authors that did want to write for free could have their articles posted in the same area for no cost. You might find that some very good players are willing to write for free just to benefit the game as a whole – this way they can get recognition for their generosity.

I never seen or heard of Con lee that guy who won the nationals he kicked all your butts rite. so look at it like that, I never heard of you and u have a good recorded. so lets see theirs millions of people in the USA and every one has potential to be great. if they put their minds to it and study.
I understand that you don’t want to have a novice write. but also you should take it in consideration that even the novice has great ideas. and you should take and review all submitted articles.
We know that the site is in good standing and making hits and you want to make money off it now. (pokemon tm should be the one making a profit). the site is great how it is.

I meant happy birthday to sixprizes.com

After some thought, I think yeah it would be good to have everyone’s input on deck analysis the coast needs to either be eliminated or steady no change or hidden fees, we didn’t get wealthy scamming by people we did it legit. fair and honest.

Ultimately its your website your decision. and your trying to get input so you have a community basis, to follow. if your going to charge people you should give them and incentive. maybe go into more detail then just an email or peace of paper. We don't want to feel like were paying for a dinner menu LOL:)

Yeah maybe a little detailed drawings, cards scans, pictures with the people who wrote the articles, make a card like TheJWittz did you know funny stuff reel people in and keep them coming. Write back

I don't like the idea of paying money to use this website. I don't care affordable it can be. I just don't have access to a credit card to pay for the subscription. Not cool.

I think you are missing the point. First, if you didn't come to this site, Adam wouldn't run it. It is worth his time to run this site because you DO come to this site. When the site gets a lot of hits, it becomes lucrative to advertise. I don't know if you have ever run a website, but I have been a webmaster for a few different sites over the years (still am for one), and it is a pain. I don't do it because its fun, I do it for some purpose, be it money or whatever. Adam isn't saying that he is ripping ANYONE off, or scamming anyone, or that he wants to get rich off of this idea. He obviously loves pokemon. Some people that love pokemon play. Some people judge and are TO's. Some make youtube series. Adam runs a website. I don't know Adam, but I can tell he likes the adventure of stepping out on a limb and pushing the limits. He has a real entrepreneur attitude, not because he wants to, but because it is part of who he is. He chooses to be an entrepreneur in POKEMON because he wants to. He is trying to offer a product that is different, something that is better than everything else out there right now. I think “advice” is the MOST underrated aspect of Pokemon. We are willing to pay for the cards, the sleeves, deck boxes, dice boxes, randomizers, posters, books, magazines, and tons of other merchandise associated with it, but the MOST important part of Pokemon, PLAYING THE TCG, way don't want to pay anything for that….really, why? If there wasn't a card game, how many people would buy pokemon merch? IF there is a card game, and you do play, wouldn't you want to be good? So, if you have access to the same cards as everyone else and can access the same websites as everyone else, why is it is always the same names that keep coming up over and over again? THAT is what we all need more than anything, to hear THOSE people talk and hear why they keep beating everyone despite the fact that they have the exact same stuff we do…No one said they had to give their decklists. No one said they had to be one of a handful of people. You don't have to win nationals to be a good player, no one doubts Con Lee was good before Nats. But, I would be willing to bet that if you looked at his rating going into Nat's, he was no slouch. He didn't get lucky all day and beat great player after great player, 2 of which I know off the top of my head were Jason and Pooka, and they are well known players. He took down great players playing great decks, round after round, after round. Was he a nobody that got lucky? No. He has probably been playing for a while and had a good rating and anyone that had played him before would vouch for his abilities. Adam isn't stupid, he knows that you can be a great player and a great writer based on your finishes, ranking, and past articles and posts. He doesn't think that your name has to be Silvestro or Foloup. But, lets not lie and act like there isn't a part of us that doesn't like our Pokemon community celebrities. Even if anyone reading this DOESN'T, think of how many people out there that would love to hear what some of the big names out there have to say and tell me that that isn't part of the community. I watch Profit regularly and rewatch the episodes many times. I've read Pooka's regionals reports many times (THAT takes a while). I've read Ryan Vergel's article on consistency many times. Finding that stuff is hard. If nothing else, I would pay for the convenience of having it all put together and save me the trouble of searching.

Sure you wrote a great essay. look I don’t know you, you don’t know me and you wrote a great speech. you proved my point. That any one can write good. :)

And I agree with you. But, just to “prove” your point, here is Con's list of accomplishments from his Pokegym sig:

-worlds invite 2007,2008,2009
-1st place N.H state champion, 2007,2008,2009,2010
-1st place regional champion 2008
-1st place mass. state champion 2010
-1st place 2010 national champion

He is no slouch, like I said. He didn't come out of nowhere. And, I'm not knocking the guy, but his writing isn't the best. But, what can happen with people like that is interviews.

Sorry about the essay, lol. I didn't intend for my last post to be that long.

Its all good man its human nature we speak what we fill and what are heart feels content. but no joke i understand most definitely! about what your saying about writing, i know its hard to say in words because we don’t want to be rude. But yeah it would be like hiring a high school student for a management position. (would be lacking the experience and or skills)

So yeah I totally agree with what your saying. because yeah we all pay for all that crazy stuff and 6prizes is on my favorites and I visit it every day.(great job Adam :) )

It would great for 6 prizes to be the one stop spot for strategy, it has really helped my game out drastically. I mean how many other places are going to tell you “You can set a BTS use a Pokepower then SSU then put it back down and us it again” HA HA HA, Ya know so yeah I see the picture thanks. LOL Mewuk85

Adam, how would I be able to contact you personally? I have many different ideas about how you could go about this, and I've observed things similar to this on many different sites, even helped with some of them. I also have a friend who knows everything you could possible want to know as well as everything you don't need to know, who could help out with programming this might require. As soon as you let me know the quickest way to contact you, I'll get back to you with all of this.

1. Let me know if you’re interested!
I'd be very interested in seeing professionally written, regular, deck and metagame analysis articles. =] Really.

2. Which players would you like to see writing?
I don't know the players enough to tell you who specifically I'd like to see writing…. I just like to have a wide variety of deck articles to read through =]

3. What would you like them to write about? I’m just making an educated guess and assuming you want to see deck analyses.
Deck Articles, metagame analysis articles, comparing decks, deck weaknesses, deck battles, card articles as well (analyzing specific cards).

4. Which format do you think will be best? Mailed newsletter, e-mailed newsletter, or protected on-site content?
I think a mailed newsletter would be really cool! But if you're mailing physically, that would either a) cost you a LOT. or b) stop anywhere from outside where you are to receive it as easily… what if someone in Europe wanted one? I for one am in Canada and that might be a little costly for you.. I dunno.

However, I have to say that the whole money thing would be a big issue for some people. Not everyone has credit cards, and personally, I'm pretty poor and just don't like paying for online stuff. I -might- pay for a physical mail subscription… But the stuff would have to be good, you know? I'm not saying your stuff would be bad. Au contraire, I think a lot of articles are pretty darn good already! I'm just saying that for some odd reason, I always find myself to be very hesitant in paying for mail orders, and especially web content…. I also think that many other people, though not everyone, would be the same.

Hey Adam,

This is a tough one for me. I feel like there are two important things this paper needs in order for me to buy in:

1. Good players/writers- I want credibility and I want good writing, preferably coming from the same mouth. If the names are unknown, it's hard for me to justify shelling out money I can just find somewhere else online, and if the writing is horrible I don't want to even make my way through an article.

2. Audience- You say this is targeted towards more advanced players, but even within this “top tier” player category there are different levels of needs. I feel like I personally know a lot about good plays/cards/consistency and I need higher level strategy in order to get my time/money's worth. If the writing is geared more towards the lower player then I'll get bored and think I've wasted my money.

The thing is, at some point you stop needing the articles and you just want the lists. How to play matchups and why cards are in the list can only make up so much of the article, and for more “advanced” players, decklists become much more valuable than full-out articles ABOUT a deck.

I would definitely try this out, whether it be physical or digital, but TBH it's going to take a little more to keep me hooked.

I am totally the opposite on this this issue. I would rather have a digital version. It's easier to save and keep track of. I don't have to have one more physical item cluttering up my house.

Adam, maybe you should set up a poll on this question. Although even then, it would be hard to determine which people in the poll are actually going to shell out some money.

I'll be honest. Although I have been expressng some opinions, I am unlikely to spend much money on this. If I saw an article about something I was really interested in, I would pay $1-2 for it. I am definately not into a regular monthly subscription.

First of all, I think this could easily be a great, fun way to do the sight or a terrible idea that makes sixprizes look bad.

How to make it good:
You should do email newsletters over physical letters because it'll be a lot cheaper and a lot of potential costumers (like me) like that idea a lot better.

You should, of coarse, try to get the best of the best players and a lot of creditable names for the special content. However, if you receive a great article be some1 not as known, they should be able to have it on the premium content as well. Like, where you can submit an article for Sixprizes, there should also be a button to submit articles for the premium stuff as well. Of coarse, it should be a lot harder to get in and would have to be something special. Perhaps, to encourage people to do that, you could give out a month free if they get into the premium content.

I think the Free Trial is a great idea, so that way we can see how great the articles are.

Another great idea is to try to do the adds, like you can view a lot of adds(which give you money) so they can see the content. Perhaps they get emailed a couple of adds a week along with the premium stuff so that way they can get it free, but you still get money.

Flexibility is a thing. You should have a lot of different ways to pay and get the stuff such as:
If you get an article on the Premium Content, you should get a month free
You can use paypal or a credit card to pay
You can view adds or something like that to get the premium content

To help get the things going, you should have some sort of survey that people can fill out about what they want to see, such as who they want writing, how often, what method of getting the articles, how much they're willing to pay and if they'd actually buy it.

lastly, I strongly suggest that you let any1 submit articles as long as they are high quality, perfect grammar and give us some really insight/good ideas about a deck or the current meta game. This will help spread the word about this six prizes premium content and get you a lot more business.

Adam, please send me an email about what you think of my ideas. My email address is
ihoppop@gmail.com

Will e-mail you later today, please remind me if I forget!

Ya i dont like this.

1) People shouldnt have to pay to read an article on a deck just to copy it. People should be original with their own decks. So I dont see the website making much off this. I only see it losing readers.

2) There are always going to be other ways to get the lists. One way or another people are going to find them. JWittz even posted Chris Fulop's list in one of his vids on you tube…And thats free.

I found this site under my bookmarks, probably bookmarked it my wife. Do you have a rss or something like this? I want to add you to my rss reader, becous liked this article especially your way how to explain this.

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