Pokemon TCG, can it still survive?

I 'm sure most you know what Pokemon is, either you've seen it the anime or played the game. You've must also heard of its trading card game. DUH, it generate more hype in Malaysia than any other TCG. Everyone play it, from kids to adults, its a fairly simple game to play actually.... check my earlier post on "Introduction to Pokemon TCG" for more info on how tp play it.

Anyway, this articel i'm not going to gloat on how good the game is or how the gameplay is fun blah blah, today its about how this game is spreading its TCG franchise so thin that its losing its appeal to both kids and adults.

For those who played the game or even watch its anime, some of you might be familiar with the characters, monsters and storyline of the Pokemon world. You would know there is a limited number of monsters, for a TCG that is based on creatures(well, the Pokemon TCG have the Pokemons as the main game point, if you have no more pokeamon in play, you lose the game). For the TCG to survive, they have to make lots of different type of monsters for every new sets they released. So far there are 24 sets released so far from 1999 till 2005(that is known to me anyway), each new sets suppose to come new monsters, but the makers of Pokemon TCG only recycle the monsters from older sets. Since Pokemon was first introduced in Gameboy, the TCG have to follow the Pokemon world in the Gameboy version closely or they would face backlashes from its fans.

So anyway, The Pokemon world have a limited number of monsters and the TCG game itself depends much on the monsters. 24 set released and they can only reprint the monsters. How long can this game survive anyway?

You can argue there are new game mechanics introduced, like the Poke-Body and Poke-Power mechanic, or new tools like the Stadium cards, Supporters cards, Poke Tools and new Energy cards. But the main objective of the game is to knockout all of your opponents Pokemons, so you would very much depend everything on the Pokemons you played. The only way the makers of the game did to keep the game interesting is ... when a new set comes out, older sets cannot be played in sanctioned tournaments. They don't even have a format ready for players to play they older cards. Which is kind of dissapointing, because you buy a lot of cards from one set to play the game, then when a new set come out, you cant play it anymore. Thats really sad.....

Currently, the current makers of the game, Nintendo(before this it was Wizard of the Coast, and supported by Nintendo) is making new characters for the TCG that is not related to the video game or the anime. New Pokemon monsters like Deoxys, Legends were made specially for the TCG(i think, because i cant find them in the anime or video game, if someone knows better, let me know in the comments). But i don't think coming out with new monsters now can save the game though.

The game is losing its appeal and more players are getting out the game than new players getting in. I hope the game makers can turn this around soon cause the Pokemon TCG is really a good game. I really don't want such a nice game like this die out.

So far, thats all.
Jya Ne