It is with great sadness and disappointment that I make the following announcement.  I have recently been informed that the potential for OverPower to continue being produced, even in some small capacity, has changed from bleak to a virtual impossibility.  I know that this will not come as a surprise to anyone, as OverPower has had no direct support from Marvel since early this year, but I at least wanted to let the players know something about the matter.

    For starters, I do not claim to know everything that has happened at Marvel regarding OverPower or anything else to do with the Marvel business, as I have never worked directly for Marvel.  Nor do I claim to have any "sources" at Marvel or anywhere else that, in all honesty, could have either intentionally or unintentionally given out incorrect information.  For those of you who do not know me by name, I have been one of the Reserves ever since Marvel began producing OverPower, which was shortly after Fleer decided to discontinue their production of the game.  As a Reserve, I have had access to information about OverPower that was not available to the general public.  Even though my information could be called hearsay by some, I believe it to be true and it is the following information that has lead me to make this announcement:

A.    The few people at Marvel who have had the closest involvement with OverPower have moved on to new jobs with new companies.  Essentially, there is now no one left at Marvel fighting for the continued production of OverPower.  When I say "people," I do mean more than just Ron leaving Marvel, which has been public knowledge since May.

B.    Our attempts to legally acquire the rights to produce OverPower have not been successful, partly due to our last remaining ally at Marvel leaving the company.  Despite the great turnout at the New York Regional, which was one of the catalysts of the last effort to bring OverPower back, we were unable to generate any enthusiasm for OverPower at Marvel.  I believe that this is partly due to their efforts to get Marvel out of bankruptcy.
 

    The following information is older and has been more widely known, but still helped contribute to the situation and I believe still needs to be said:

C.    After the X-Men expansion, for reasons that do not need to be repeated, Marvel decided to try to find a new company for the production and distribution of OverPower.  For whatever reasons, all attempts to find another producer/distributor were unsuccessful.  Any comment I make would be pure speculation as I do not know the exact reasons why an agreement was never reached, but there were a few companies that were interested and some of them had the potential to be very beneficial to OverPower.

D.    It has been widely known that Marvel had signed an agreement to license the CCG rights to Marvel characters and their likenesses to Wizards of the Coast for three years.  Again, I have not seen the actual contract, so I cannot validate that claim or make any comment about it.  It has been our opinion that Marvel, in order to cut their losses and try to get out of bankruptcy more quickly, had decided to make some guaranteed money by licensing these rights to another company, instead of taking a financially risky investment and continue to produce OverPower themselves.
 

Does this mean that OverPower is officially dead?

    In my opinion, OverPower cannot be dead if there are still at least two players who enjoy the game.  That is what matters right now.  If you have fun playing the game and want to keep playing then all you need is an opponent.
 

Should you just give up and stop attending tournaments?

    Obviously, attending a tournament may be the best way to meet people who share your interests, some of whom you may already know and some who may be new to you.  In all honesty, sanctioned tournaments are essentially useless now, as there is no budget to ship prize support (with no new cards since January all remaining prizes are complete sets you probably already have anyway).  The OP CUP events have been the major tournaments of the past few months, but the success of any future OP CUP event relies on a large group of people all getting the same weekend free to attend.  Depending on the prize support that still remains, if I am able to attend a tournament to judge it, then I will bring some prizes with me to award.
 

But, how can the game be kept alive and fun?

    For the most part, you will need something new to keep the game interesting.  If things are left alone for a long period of time, then it is likely that one deck will surface as the deck with the greatest chance of beating any other deck.  We witnessed this in the spring/summer of 1998, several months after Fleer had dropped the game, when most people were playing a Vertigo deck.  While I do not want to start another debate about why most players saw that as the most powerful deck at the time, especially since my above explanation is an oversimplification anyway, that is the type of situation that could arise when there is nothing new being introduced.  But if there are no more new cards to be introduced, then what else can be done to keep the game interesting?
    One of the options available that could keep the game new and fresh to some players is to change the rules or to change the effect of certain cards to make them more playable.  As some of you are aware, there are a few people who have already started to do this themselves.  While I cannot comment on their rule changes, as players of a game that no longer has any official support, if you feel that this makes the game more interesting to play and you have the opportunity to play against someone using these rules, then more power to you.
    Another option that I have been thinking of for some time now, in case of an emergency situation like this, is to ban the more easily abusable cards from tournament play.  Basically, this is based on the idea that if these cards never existed, the game would be totally different and no one can predict now what deck would then reign supreme.  When other cards become the dominant factors in the majority of top decks, then the list of banned cards would be increased accordingly, if only to keep the game fresh.  Of course, this list of banned cards would have to be made well in advance of any tournaments to prevent anyone from showing up with a now "illegal" deck.  Additionally, for the banning of cards to work best, it has to be something that you, the players, agree to do.  Lastly, it also depends on the host of the tournament.  If the host wants to run a "no-holds-barred" tournament with no banned cards, then that is perfectly fine.  I am only suggesting that if some cards are removed from play, then it could breath some new life into the game.
    Unfortunately, even with such a small player base, no single solution will ever please everyone.  I am open to the idea of changing the game effect of some Specials for the first "generation" of characters to make those Specials and those Characters more playable, but not until all other options have been attempted and the changes have been play tested.  It has been part of a personal crusade of mine to make these characters more playable, but with the situation as it is, I doubt if it will ever be fully realized.
 

What is in store for the future?

    OPRulesQNA@aol.com will still function as it always has, to answer any and all rules questions as accurately and quickly as possible.  I can attest to this statement because, while Norm did answer the rules questions for a long time, this email address is part of my AOL account and I have been answering OPRulesQNA and OPGame since around May 1999.
    My website will remain online as a source of information for new and/or inexperienced players.
    I would still like to judge the next OP CUP to be hosted by Howard Bertrand, which may be the best time to voice any ideas that you think could keep OverPower fun for everyone.
 
 

Nick Williams - nickw1973@aol.com
former Reserve, current Goodwill Ambassador