Overpower License from Disney/Marvel

[teesaw]

Does anyone here know the history of the game license, and have any details about whether Marvel is willing to license a new set of cards or a licensed online platform? 

[Jack]

Trademark is expired so we have free reign to use it as we see fit. The rights to make a card game based on Marvel characters' likenesses is owned by Upper Deck and they can't do it right.

[teesaw]

I've reached out to Marvel and upper deck on this, and the response I got from Marvel was generally positive, and it sounds like they'd be willing to license a new wave of the game, but directed me to the folks at upper deck who have not been very responsive.

I'm proposing that the game be rebooted, similar to the way MTG has been in the past.  A new series of cards with all of the compliments, power cards, universe cards, reprints of several old heroes and specials, and a wave of new heroes and specials that go along with Marvel's current marketing plan.  The new stuff will be fully compatible with the old stuff, and the game can be marketed to an audience that has not really been exposed to it in the past.

I've already started to mock up a set list, which I'll share eventually, and even if this goes nowhere, it will still be fun to look at and tweak.

Has anyone gone down this road with those guys before?

[Jack]

I've reached out to Marvel and upper deck on this

Why?......

[teesaw]

To try and see the game rebooted - There's a reason why everyone has heard of MTG and nobody knows wtf you're talking about when you say overpower...even "pokemon" cards carry more name recognition than overpower, and the reason is persistent marketing.

If we want to get a new generation of kids playing overpower, then it needs to be mass marketed and mass produced.  Let's try to get this stuff back on store shelves...no?  Am I missing something here?  What do we have to lose?  The $15 booster packs, or the $25 brand new set every so often that you buy 100% of the cards and they get delivered to your door? 

We need to get back to overpower's roots: Grandmas need to be buying this for their grandchildren by mistake because they know their grandkids are into that iron man stuff, and they saw these sitting by the cash register at wal mart, and they were only $2.

Trash all the meta rules and write a real rulebook with real rules.  Some parts of the game will be unfair, so be it.

It would be such an easy kickstarter, too...the and the kickstarter rewards would be great...think of all the SWAG...

[Jack]

I'm not saying your idea is wrong, I'm saying your approach to it is.

The reason why everyone knows about MTG/Pokemon is because they are still in the market. OverPower went bankrupt and slowly rotted away.

You seem to be very optimistic about the future of the game, care to write a proper rulebook for us? I've been asking around and nobody seems to want to do it.

[teesaw]

Sorry if my response seemed a bit snarky or contrived - I was actually hammering that out on my phone, so the punctuation may not have leant itself to perfect conveyence of the meaning.

Basically plan is/was to:
1) Get an understanding of the costs of marketing, printing, licensing, and distribution (which would all be handled at UD/MC for a fee). 
2) Put together a design team, and design the series
3) Get an understanding of art costs, commissions, etc. 
4) Crowdsource the funds that we would need to put up to get this thing off the ground

#2 is going to be a considerable amount of crowdsourcing as well.  I've started to put together my idea of what the series should be, but admittedly a great deal of it pulls from the tons of posts on this site that I've been reading.  I don't expect this to be lucrative enough a pay day for me to quit my day job or anything like that, but it certainly could be for someone.

I think the key here from the standpoint of the series' success will need to be leveraging the "tier 1" marvel properties - the ones that they're currently pushing with the highest priority.

[Tussin]

oppowerbalance@gmail.com contact Alex, i'm sure he would like to hear from you... he is always working on new ideas to improve the game, he would also know lots of what you want to know.

[Jack]

With Marvel being a branch off Disney now, it will be quite expensive to get any license to use their characters.

The problem with OverPower is that the people who are interested in reviving the game simply have no time to devote to reviving it. We were all fans when we were younger but that was 10-15 years ago. Now most of us have families and jobs to worry about. Heck, we're lucky to even find time to do meetups every few months. If you were to assemble a team, non-OP playing, they would probably make another ReCharge.

What I want to do is rewrite the rulebook and incorporate as much of the metas into it as possible, and go from there.

[teesaw]

With Marvel being a branch off Disney now, it will be quite expensive to get any license to use their characters.

I'd be interested to see.  I can think of some pretty inexpensive licensed products on the market.  I think Disney is in the business of growing their brand in any way possible, and if they see an opportunity here, they will take advantage of it.

The problem with OverPower is that the people who are interested in reviving the game simply have no time to devote to reviving it. We were all fans when we were younger but that was 10-15 years ago. Now most of us have families and jobs to worry about. Heck, we're lucky to even find time to do meetups every few months. If you were to assemble a team, non-OP playing, they would probably make another ReCharge.

I haven't given too much thought to the precise logistics here, but I would expect that this would be a long process with certain consulting credit given to those who participate.  I agree, that I don't have much time to take away from my family and day job to devote to this, however I think once the ball starts rolling it will easily pick up steam.

What I want to do is rewrite the rulebook and incorporate as much of the metas into it as possible, and go from there.

Agreed.  I think some of the clarifications are really helpful (i harken back to the old tournament manual) and I think an overpower encyclopedia or something (wallet size) would be helpful.  I was actually envisioning a stock cover paper-back version and a leather-bound version of the updated manual as kickstarter giveaways.

One of the problems I've found with some of the updated rules that I've seen is that they are intended to thwart a specific mechanic - power leech is the best example of this. 

I've read the power balance stuff and while I think the updates to the game that come out of power balance are really good, I think anything that is too complicated is going to make the game less accessible.  One of the things that made OP so accessible in previous iterations was how simple the game was to play and learn.