MetaZoo: An Analysis of WHY it FAILED | Something Different Sunday

[@DeadlestSpartanGroup]

I picked up decks and spellbooks of native to try out of curiosity recently, and my girlfriend and I enjoy it currently. Also just showed it to my mom and sister and had them play it with us just to have them also have fun playing it. We currently just have ruling questions that aren't very clear to us, but otherwise all of enjoy it to tje point my sister bought decks and my mom also looking at buying some. Honestly barely paid attention/noticed to the fact the borders are red as was more busy looking at the cool art and wacky effects.

[@ThisUploaded]

why it failed? easy. It went from being a card game to a franchise and the creator pushed the hell out of every partnership he could and encouraged people who treated the cards as an investment who confused a nostalgic art style for a repeatable brand boom that could replicate the likes of Pokémon in the 90s. He went from Naive card game creator to actively deceptive and greedy business man in about a year and it showed with how he and his staff interacted (or chose not to interact on certain subjects) with his fans. Sucks because the card game looked cute and had plenty of room to be molded into a better game with the people who liked playing it, but sets were rushed out and pushed as investments instead of playable material.

[@SJC_]

Yup that's true, his image didn't help the game, but really devaluing the brand by pushing so much out so quickly hurt. I think the second edition of Cryptid Nation really hurt the original set, which was a huge mistake.

[@felixdaniels37]

I don't think it's identity was part of what sunk it. If anything its style was part of the draw. No, what really sunk it was how it tried to pander to "finance bros", pegging MetaZoo as little more than bargaining chips in a speculator bubble, rather than an actual GAME. The real nail in the coffin was their egregious shoehorning of NFTs. Word of Mouth is paramount for a game to survive long term, and it pretty much squandered a lot of goodwill with that move. Kohdak, one of the main TCGtubers thay helped it gain traction originally, swore off the game because of that. Those burned bridges only sped up its demise.

[@SJC_]

That's a good point! Although that is part of its negative identity that was assigned to it by the community. People associated this game with a scam or as everyone says a "finance bro" bubble rather than a game as you said. That was the identity of MetaZoo rather than a game that does x.

[@queenautumnween2796]

Another reason for the failure is that the tcg market is a really tough market to succeed in. Many many large ips like star wars, transformers, Naruto, etc have tried and failed to make a long term successful card game. Most only like 2-3 years before losing popularity and failing. We're at a point now where again, there's an over saturation of card games. Metazoo was more of an "investment" than an actual card game, so once the "finance bros" stopped buying the cards, the game fizzled out.

[@volatilesky]

This just made me think WotC's current strategy is to oversaturate its market, in the aim to squeeze out the couple other smaller competitors. Your competition can't gain a foothold, if you're pushing as much product as you can into a niche market, to potentially monopolise the consumers limited discretionary spending money.

[@SJC_]

That is a good point! It came out in one of the best card markets, but tried to grow in one of the worst times for collectibles.

[@6seph9]

Sorcery should take notes: a game with no players is going to fail, even if it is fun to collect

[@hyperone3232]

I love your style of commentary, very articulate and calming, never heard of metazoo before but you caught me up with its contextual information in just a few minutes

[@SJC_]

Thank you very much! I appreciate the kind words!

[@Peeweez0]

The reason Metazoo went with the red border was based on a Discord community vote in the early days of the game's conception. I don't think there was any color theory analysis to it. Metazoo was very community centric to the point that Metazoo management relied on the community for marketing and product ideas - definitely a double edged sword though

[@CryptidKeeperTCG]

Really enjoyed this video. I collect MetaZoo now and really enjoy ripping packs with my daughter. Played with my son and it’s tricky to learn. Coming from Pokemon, it’s WAY more fun to collect and rip. Especially now if you’re on a budget. What’s left of the community is pretty awesome bcuz all the investor bros got flushed out

[@SJC_]

That's awesome! And that is a silver lining for this. I know Blowout Cards (the sports cards site) has MetaZoo for cheap there. I'm not affiliated or anything with them, but that was where I put that image in the video. They have some really cheap metazoo stuff :D

[@davidv2002]

im honestly surprised how at how big metazoo got in the first place. when i first saw it on kohdok’s channel thought it would just be another one of those niche hobby store games. but it got big enough to get into major big box retail stores

[@TriWaZe]

Your first points about it blowing up too fast and overprinting was a big reason but a lot of the other points are moot at best. There was a lot of inner conflicts that really costed them that an outsider never saw or was a part of to understand. Some of these are just subjective opinions or at least generalized ideas that may have played a role in it not expanding as quick as they hoped but wasn’t why it died. The wonderful thing about MZ was it incorporated cryptids that people grew up with and could have expanded worldwide and brought together cultures. Which is nothing like any other TCG that is created these days. Good video nonetheless though

[@j.b.4340]

5:22 local lore is engaging. I collect MetaZoo for the exact same reason I collect tobacco cards: personal visual appeal, subject matter, and the art.

[@SJC_]

That's true, but its not a strong level of engagement most people will have unless they are in that area i.e. Mothman and West Virginia., and even then, only if they care about that lore. Do you collect baseball tobacco cards or all types?

[@mototrey]

bro you said tobacco cards is that real whatchu mean

[@SJC_]

Tobacco cards are cards that used to come with packs of tobacco. They are small cards (1"×3") or so. Look up Honus Wagner. It's the most famous tobacco card.

[@stuflames4769]

Good work, high quality, and easy to listen to voice that is suitable for the subject matter.

[@SJC_]

Thank you very much! I really appreciate that! I am glad you enjoyed it!

[@FrostByteLabs]

Regarding color theory please look at Native, it got better. But i totally agree with early set having terrible color theory. Also $0 is not entirely true those are 1st ed. MetaZoo has a lot of engagement in my opinion regarding 4th wall effects. I wish you didnt generalize that the game was unplayable, it absolutely is playable and every early TCG has to learn and adjust. Overall loved the video and subscribing!

[@andrewh0000]

Really great video! I actually learned something new. Can we get another video on Shadowverse?

[@SJC_]

Thank you, and I am very glad to hear that! Sure, I will pick up whatever the newest set is!

[@TotallySearch]

This also looks like the type of game you would see in Diary Of A Wimpy Kid lmao

[@DislikeThisCommentNow]

I pulled some great Zoo cards...I'm going to keep them....

[@Uguguabbabaa]

I think people overhate the design/art. The borders aren't that bad to me (though black would probably be better), white border magic cards look worse to me. The almost zero gameplay attention from anyone is probably the biggest issue, like you said the game just has pretty much 0 organic interest, and I say that as someone playing the game now (you can tell the gameplay was a backseat in design, a lot of rule interaction is weird/bad/unintuitive, go look at the status effect rules if you want to feel your brain melting, we have to play with the rulebook open every time).

[@computersandgaming6664]

I haven't watched the whole video yet, but the game's name is odd or different at least... I also feel the same about the aesthetic of the cards itself. They're not great, but not bad either. I thought it was some old abandoned game from the 90s, but no it's recent. I barely even heard about this game. The monsters themselves are a hit or miss. Some of them are cool and some of them are a turn-off. The game isn't relatable in the slightest either, so no one will care about it on top of the game's name, the aesthetic of the cards themselves, and playing the actual game. It's like they created the game for it to simply fail. That was the whole goal and strategy here just for it to fail, so it seems like a waste of time to try to figure out why it failed in a way, lmao. The game also looks overly confusing at first glance like modern Yugioh. I love Yugioh, but yea modern Yugioh is not easy to get into now. With TCGs time and money are a big factor. I don't know about Magic, but the reason Pokémon TCG is popular is because the game is easy to get into and the cards aren't an eyesore. Even if someone never played the Pokemon TCG before they can make a good guess at how the game works without even playing the game. That is how it was for me and my friends growing up and I noticed the same with my little sister and her friends most of witch aren't even into Pokemon but know how the game works in a way. The TCG space is already not an easy business to get into even the big ones have their struggles still. Besides the game being a flop their management seemed nonexistent, so that played a role in the game's failure, too. Whether you collect these cards or not (which is a small number of people as is) it's not sustainable for the game long term just as you said yourself. I can say though that I like those Hello Kitty cards and the only monster that I saw that I liked was Frogman. Oh, and you can't forget about those damn resellers...

[@MrRayRockstar]

Sorcery tcg is NEXT

[@demonicmachina]

I wanted SO HARD to like this game, but the red bordered cards put me off immediately 😢😢

[@Dragonfly542]

I never heard of this card game

[@aaroncampion9048]

"had a very successful ks in 2020" They only raised 18k

[@metadaveofalabama7799]

2 million raised on the 2nd kickstarter

[@aaroncampion9048]

Yeah, for the poker cards. It's possible OP got that confused for the original ks

[@alfascav1754]

I mean, I'm sitting here eating a Krispy Kreme donut as I watch this so your analogy just before 2:56 seems a bit off somehow

[@SJC_]

Haha that's fair, it was the analogy between the rapid expansion and over-saturation which customers rejected. Krispy Kreme was in a really bad spot in 2005 and closed down most stores. However, over the last decade the new CEO has turned the company around and it is in much better shape. I don't work or deal with Krispy Kreme at all, but I do like their donuts.

[@Kybone]

If you don't understand the business correlations, that's okay. Keep eating your Krispy Kremes and carry on.

[@alfascav1754]

@@Kybone Yeah I am, 3 months later. Are you always this late to the party? Phew lad.

[@megadunsparce5735]

Viva Metazoo!

[@A.I.Friends]

He said a small reason was how the cards looked. Pretty much the main reason.

[@newjones1754]

Because it isn't Pokemon

[@MessiahKnight]

Easy. Ugly art. No one knew how to play the game. Horrible product management.

[@pauldaulby260]

those red borders really ruin what's otherwise quite lovely card art

[@SJC_]

Same here! I do enjoy the water-color style art

[@GeneralNickles]

It really took you 10 minutes to say "meta zoo failed because every game that isn't one of the big three will eventually fail"? That's some serious padding for time.

[@stuflames4769]

Thatight be a different reason or conclusion - even a much better conclusion - worthy of its own dive. But no. That was not the content or reasoning of this particular video.

[@6seph9]

Many games going for 5+ years

[@GeneralNickles]

@@6seph9 and you're point is? The big 3 have been going for 25+ years. The longest running TCG that isn't one of those is vanguard, and that's pretty much entirely failed outside of Japan. The final fantasy TCG has been going for a long time, and it too will eventually fail. Why? Because it's not Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Pokemon. Plain and simple. One piece will fail. Lorcana will fail. Digimon already failed and got revived for some reason. And it will also fail. DBS already failed, and got replaced with Dragonball Fusion, which will also fail. Bakugan already died twice, and got revived again for some reason. And it will also fail. Because no one has the time or money to dedicate to 2 different TCGs. Everyone that's already invested in one of the big 3 will always go back to it when they're done messing around with the new hotness. That's why the new hotness always fails.

[@kingjamesjr.3278]

​@@GeneralNicklesTry the card game 52 pick up buddy how about that 🃏

[@Kybone]

@@GeneralNickles He listed several reasons, chief. One Piece seems to be doing fine.