darkSpyro

Title says it all. Trap Masters should have just kept they're prototype name. Since all Skylanders can trap, why do the Trap Masters have that namesake if everyone can do it?

Well from a selling point of view , if only Trap Masters could use the traps that means you would have to buy both at once . Bad idea .


Yes i sort of agree with you that they are not gimmicky enough to have such a title . Lost islands have them forging traptanium into traps . Would have been so hard for them to destroy traptanium crystals and using those shards to say ..... make something to freeze villains for a few seconds ?

More interesting thought - if the game had been set up so that all Skylanders could open elemental gates, but you had to use a Trap Master of the corresponding element in order to trap the villain, I wonder if folks would have felt this game was as much of a money sink. The Elemental Gates would have been back to the way everyone knows and loves them, which seems to be one of the biggest complaints - but this way would have still virtually required folks to buy one trap master of each element in order to trap all the villains and would have fundamentally changed the game play for some folks (would have went into the boss battle with the Trap Master needed to trap the villain just to save time swapping).

Oh, to have the power to peer into alternate universes.

They deal more damage to Villains, they are trapping masters.

You know, if they had it so you had to have the corresponding Trap Master of each element to trap villains (and either the traps weren't a thing, or came with the corresponding Trap Master), and the elemental gates worked like they have in past games (you just need any Skylander of the corresponding element), I guarantee you I would have a Trap Master for most elements right now. I would have felt like I had a nice investment, because even if each Trap Master cost $20 instead of $15 (because the trap was included), it would have been ~5 characters for the price of 2, and the trap gimmick interested me. Granted, I'd probably not buy them at full price, but I would get them.

As it is, I bought a trap of each element (except Light because the few characters I have access to without adventure packs aren't worth it), and only have two Trap Masters: Snap Shot and Knight Mare, and the latter only because I got Midnight Museum when I got the game.

So, assuming $15 each, and that I only got the elements that interested me when I started, and that I got Knight Mare without Midnight Museum, they would have gotten $120 out of me (well, probably less, but I'll use retail price for this). I also would not have been as mad at them, and would have gotten all of the cores and minis that I liked, rather than just my absolute favorites of what was out when I got the game. This is not including the cost of the game.

As it is, they only got $79 out of me, $30 of that being for Midnight Museum (again, I'm not counting cores, minis and starter pack, for fairness). And, I think less of Activision and TFB for making the Traptanium elemental gates.

So, in my opinion, what they did with the elemental gates was a mistake. They could have totally made the villains only trappable and playable with a corresponding Trap Master and I wouldn't have thought that was unfair. Even if the villains weren't playable in future games, I would be satisfied with having a fun gimmick in that game and having more Skylanders to use in the next. Don't know how anyone else would feel about it, but that's what I'm fairly certain I would do.

Your idea would have no doubt worked better UncleBob and would have definitely made the gimmick feel more natural.

Traptanium Elemental Gates have probably been the worst mistake in the whole game but I feel like there was a lot of pressure from Activision to make it happen (and I fear we'll have something along those lines with SuperChargers).

However I don't think we should need a reason to buy specific Skylanders.
They should do what they did with Giants: a single Gimmicklander needed to unlock everything and then if you want you can buy the others.
Not because you "feel forced" but because you are genuinely curious about them and like their look.

That may be part of the magic that has been fading after the first game...