History
Okay, so you've probably see it written everywhere that La Musica is "the original music tcg". Well we DO have a
long history, but what difference does it make to most people? Also, how do we really know that we were the first?
It amazes even me how long I've actually kept this
Anyway, I suppose I'll just spend some time reminiscing, read if your interested. :)
♥ Mysty
Birth
La Musica was originally a project throught up by Jesheckah back a good couple of years ago.
Back at that time, TCGs were still a new thing on the internet, and there were only maybe TEN TCGs total online
up and running. Almost every TCG was about anime, the most common being about Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (I hate
to say it, but everyone was kind of copying Calico and Senshi-Card Mania!). The only TCGs without an anime theme
were Wired (first Video Game TCG) and Voices of Emotion (first Seiyuu TCG, which after a while began featuring a
few popular Japanese Artists).
Jesheckah (or Crystal Serina back at that time) had the brilliant idea to make a MUSIC based TCG. Specifically
pop artists. The reasoning behind it was because Jesheckah was uber into Pop music at the time and wanted a TCG
to collect her favorite music artists/celebrities.
She was having trouble getting started mostly because she had trouble deciding on a template. Even she will admit
that her graphic skills at the time were not up to par with what she wanted for the TCG. She had great difficulty
making cards, sizing them, and adding clear text. So she asked me, Mysty (or Mystiqex back at that time) for my
opinion and some help on making cards. I ended up making all of the cards in the end, and we decided to co-own
the tcg. Thus, "Pop Star Cards" was born.
Pop Star Cards
We originally opened up during the summer time of 2001 under the name "Pop Star Cards" since, well, all the artists
we featured were pop artists. The variety in decks was really limited, since we also only really had knowledge of
American artists, we only featured American pop stars. Pop Star Cards ended up rather popular even still, being
the only Music TCG.
When we opened we also wanted to have an original card number per deck, since most people did 10, 15, or 20 carded
decks, we decided to do 9 (that may seem ludacris now, with how easy a 9-carded deck would've been to master, but
back at that time we also weren't as active, and it was much harder to master decks). But with the growing
number of decks, not to mention there are only so many pop artists, we thought it'd be a good idea to crossover
into other genres.
With the new found plethora or artists to do for decks, we also found that we could no longer call our tcg
"Pop Star Cards", so we went out searching for a new name. At the time there was only one major message board
that had a TCG community (really because all the TCG owners at the time were friends, and all belonged to the
same message board) so we went and did a poll, asking suggestions for names. Out of all the suggestions we got,
the name "La Musica TCG", which was suggested by Danika (owner of Drool Worthy, the first multi-anime tcg) stood
out the most.
La Musica, for those that don't know (and I have been asked before what the name meant, too) is Spanish for
"The Music". So our name basically translates to "The Music TCG".
The Music TCG
La Musica had a good run for about a half a year to a year before we closed. Honestly because both Jesheckah and I
had just started High School, and so we lacked alot of time (and interest). I was also more focused on another tcg
project I had going at the time, NERV Cards (the first and only Neon Genesis Evangelion TCG) so La Musica sadly
said goodbye.
Death and Rebirth
After some years, I worked once or twice to bring it back, but just never got around to doing it until
October 2005, after going
through nearly a dozen templates - finally decided on one and stuck with it! We re-opened after about a month in the
prejoining stages (and we got 13 members!) with all new cards, and with a new theme: Around the World. Featuring decks
from artists from, well.. Around the World! Featuring some of our now most popular artists for the first time, such as
Ayumi Hamasaki from Japan, and Jolin Tsai from Taiwan!
We had a really rough start, attracting only a few members who weren't exactly the most active (with the exception
of a select few). Jesheckah was active for about a month or so, and then exams came up. She then just never got
back into doing anything - and me? I grew tired, and school was tieing me up - seeing as how I had just started my
first year of college. So La Musica inevitably went on a long two month hiatus a little after Christmas 2005.
The hiatus was rough, both of us had already lost interest in the TCG again, but I decided to keep it around because I
didn't have the heart to delete the site after working so hard to bring it back. As the year started to head into the Spring Time,
I resolved to re-open La Musica. At that time I was so disgusted with the current template (although when I
look back they were really cute! But hard to work with!) I designed a new template taking advantage of my new
access to graphic programs (before this time, I had only used Microsoft Paint to make cards) such as Irfanview,
I was back on my feet revamping cards with a nicer and much simpler template!
Rise and Fall
After only a few months, I'm amazed even today at how ridiculous this tcg got. We had a good 50 or so active
members, and I was updating on almost a daily basis. Major updates (like adding new decks and updating games)
still only came once a week, but I was answering emails almost as soon as they came in and I was releasing decks
by the boatload (about 9 or 10 every week). Suffice to say, I lived and breathed La Musica. I didn't do much else.
Aside from go to class here and there. XD
This went on for quite a few months before I went on vacation in Virginia to see my then boyfriend over the summer
of 2006. It was a nice vacation, although that boyfriend at the time wasn't in the least bit interested in tcgs,
and didn't want me working on La Musica while I was there. Unfortunatly this was also when I was starting to have
problems with bandwidth with my host, and I was in the process of moving my entire domain over to a new host. La
Musica ended up going on yet another hiatus, and a long one. One that lasted about 5 of 6 months.
The main thing that led to the hiatus was stress and problems with my family and boyfriend. At the time we were in
a long distance relationship and I can honestly say now that after 6 years, seeing eachother 2 or 3 times a year
wasn't cutting it.
Because of everything that was going on in my life, I lost interested in tcgs for a while. I played a few here and
there, but I didn't have the time or energy to run one. My life became school and work, trying to save up to move
up north so that I could finally be with my boyfriend.
Breakdown
I eventually ended up quitting school so that I could work full time to save up, but in the end I ended up leaving
the relationship anyway. I don't know when I'm going to return (mostly becuase I honestly don't know what I want
to do yet), so for now I'm just working and relaxing.
I began a new relationship with someone who is actually introgued with tcgs, and loves the fact that I'm a bit of
a computer nerd (he's a computer tech, go figure). It was the first time I was ever really with someone who was
interested in and supported my hobbies.
Even though the website was at the time on hiatus, I still made decks every day and I still played several other
tcgs. With the support of my new love, I decided to give the website another shot and share the cards that I
(mostly out of boredom) had been making for several months.
I re-opened the tcg in January of 2007, with a brand new layout and tons of new cards. Alot of members quit, but we
also saw alot of new faces and since I was working full-time - activity has slowed quite a bit (but it was still more
active than most tcgs). I answered emails and do updates once a week.
Eventually it all came crashing down, as I started having more problems with my boyfriend (who I was then living with)
and I started getting hardcore into the hobby we shared, World of Warcraft. Things ended up going sour between us,
though, and I'll admit that our friendships with people in-game and just the general drama added fuel to an already
growing fire.
I put the website on an in-definite hiatus just after Christmas, and I ended up putting all my time and energy into
WoW. Alot of shit happened, but things have gotten better and my boyfriend and I resolved alot of our issues.
Nowadays
Recently I've been wanting to get back to when things were simple, when I only logged on WoW to play with my boyfriend
once or twice a week, and I've wanted to get back to what made me, well, happy.
So, I've brought this website back yet again June 1, 2008. This website has (unfortunatly) been affected so much by
my real life ups and downs, but I think that's what's made me so attatched to this project. No matter how many times
I've quit TCGs and/or gotten tired of them, I always come back to this website. It's the only real project that I've
ever actually put this much effort into and kept running this long..
To say the least, I love La Musica. I am so proud of how big this website has become, and how its grown and changed over
the years; Because it's something that's grown and changed with me as I've grown up.
I don't intend on closing this website for a very long time, if at all. It's grown to be an important part of my life, and
every once in a while, even when I'm not actively working on the site, I like to go back and browse through it. Read
some of the old comments or like this section which changes everytime I open and close the site. (LOL)
Hopefully things will continue to improve for this tcg in the years to come.
Thank you to all the members and current/former staff members of this site, you all are what makes this project
worthwhile.
