L5r and banned cards. What happened to "Pillowfight"?

[L5r and banned cards. What happened to "Pillowfight"?]

28 minutes ago, Yandia said:

I just don't get it... It is a joke and a pretty tame one for L5R standards. Chuda Ruri was post girls for these kind of jokes, and I remember people joking about some Fabio type Crane Artisan... Pillow Fights sound rather tame...

It's not just that the joke was a little crass, it is additionally the context it which it was made. 

Hoturi is one of the more significant characters in the story. His relationship to Kachiko an important part of not only his story and hers but important to the plot of the game as a whole. In changing that character it threatens the memory and significance of that relationship to both those characters. Then to make a joke that belittles the significance of that change is just showing how little respect the new story team seems to have for the old one and its fans. 

[Do some people seem overly whiny/negative about this game?]

43 minutes ago, PlaguedOne said:

This stance confuses me. From almost the moment of the purchase it was indicated that the new game would draw some inspiration from the original, but would ultimately be a different game that was incomparable with the original. Why would anyone expect them to simply reuse the same game with different cards? The CCG had much deeper problems than a bad card base.

He didn't take a stance, he expressed a concern. 

I played L5R for about a decade ending in 2006. I was very excited about this transition, many people I know would love to play the CCG but its hard to figure out how to get them into at this point. This could of been a great opportunity for me to introduce it to a whole new community and generation of gamers. It is unlikely I'll be doing that now.

My surprise is how much they seem to have changed, and how little respect and understanding it seems to show for what L5R was. Listening to the designers was helpful in that it allowed me to understand wher they were coming from, and disappointing how little they know about the game.  None of them had played the game at all, and frequently said things, even  now after completing their design, that showed they didn't understand the CCG. It's not that I expected it to be entirely the same, I just didn't expect such a departure from the CCG design,  and its a little bit of salt in that wound that the designers didn't seem to take the time understand the CCG at all before making the LCG. 

I'm not sure what 'deeper problems' you are speaking of honestly, the system design of L5R was incredible allowing for all the variations in additional mechanics that Yandia mentions above. Some successful some not, but in every set it still primarily played like L5R. This won't. 

I'm incredibly skeptical of many of the choices right now... just to name a few: system design allowing for only 1v1, the betting mechanic, the ring mechanic, and the dumbing down of the open phase into just a attack phase variant, generic names of cards that are likely to threaten the immersion and story aspects of the game significantly, and even simply changing the names of key characters. 

I fully understand that designers don't want to be entirely derivative of the old game but there is no shame in doing an old thing well. It is hard to respect a team that shows so little respect to a game so many people love. Hopefully, as more information comes out my opinion will change. Right now I'm extremely disappointed, as are the people I hyped this game to when I saw the FFG acquisition.