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In the immortal words of Dr. Gregory House, "You're an
idiot." Seriously, I'm not joking; you are an idiot.
Hopefully, it has sunk in now that Uncle Sam told you as well. I'd say I'm sorry, but honestly, I'm not. Story Time I have a six year old niece that lives with me. She's one of those finicky eaters that hates everything. The other day we had pot roast that had been slow cooked to a tender perfection all day long, along with some mouth-watering potatoes, simmered carrots, and sickeningly sweet caramelized onion. The entire roast itself had been hand rubbed with horseradish and a special blend of spices to give it that New England flavor that permeates the whole thing and makes it drip off your fork. So I present this amazing dish I had spent all day cooking to the family, how did my niece treat it? She put her nose up and said, "I hate pot roast." I looked at her, and asked her the question, I've learned to always ask, "Have you ever had pot roast?" Surprise, surprise, the answer was, "No." Everyone has probably known a person that hates new things without ever trying them. If you haven't had the fine chance to meet the child who eats nothing, maybe you know the girl that orders nothing but chicken tenders or your annoying friend who will only play sports games. These are all people who for some reason or another, won't try anything new. In college, I took a human sexuality course. One of the things my professor espoused throughout the course was to be open and try new things, not just once, but three times before you make a decision. Even, though this little nugget of wisdom was used to support some things I personally never will try, he had a valid point. How can you know if you like something or not, until you've had it? Further, how can you tell even from a single tasting that it's bad?
Most game players tend to stick to familiar things and play inside their frame of reference as well. I used to point-blank label the playing of Guitar Hero and Rock Band as lame karaoke with props. However, I forgot I love to get drunk and sing bad karaoke. As it turns out, the first time I played Rock Band, the session lasted six hours and now I play on expert almost every day (I can't five star everything, but I can gold star the easy stuff now). If you were to ask the average Magic player to design a Magic set they'd probably start by making a list of things they needed that looks like this:
It'd be more of the same. Players know what they've experienced, but most lack the insight and creative direction to make a "sequel", instead creating an "expansion." Expansions are great, but personally I want new things. I don't want chicken tenders every meal. Want to keep players buying new sets and cards? You need to get them trying new things. Listening to a fans advice is often a bad idea. In recent years, with the internet bringing game developers and fans closer together than ever, the video game industry has begun to learn some harsh truths. One of them, is that listening to fans too much, is, in fact, a bad thing. Some developers gave far too much ear to hardcore fans, who more or less want the game tailored to them and only them. They suggested ways to improve the old game, but not really create a new game. This literal extension of the old game often was ramped up to only the hardcore player's needs. These core fans pushed for features that casual players would never use such as item dropping, permanent death, no rules player vs. player, and other extremely challenging modes of play that favored only those who put in the most time. Yet for all their massive input of how things should be to keep them playing the game, hardcore players are usually the first to jump ship to new waters. Sure they play the hell out of a game for a month or two, but once a new ship is there, they abandon old properties in a heartbeat. Usually, it's the casual fan base that will play a game for years and really stick to the few properties they buy, while hardcore gamers are quick to recycle products into second hand markets and move onto the next game the day it releases. The problem when you develop a game for the hardcore players is that you end up with a game most new players can not establish themselves in, and eventually the hardcore players find something new. Thus leaving the game with no one playing. Everquest fans are idiots.
Other mistakes also lead to Vanguard's demise. Massive time sinks were put into the game that ensured you'd run the same dungeon for weeks. Numerous spawns were made random or situational on extremely long timers. My favorite feature though was meaningful travel which meant if you wanted to go from one place to another you really had to hoof it there, even if you had spent countless hours finding the cash and materials to build yourself a boat. So if you went exploring in a new place and your friend came on, it might be hours before you finally met up. Let alone if you were a low level and had to traverse through dangerous terrain just to make it there. Hardcore players and fans of Everquest loved it, everyone else quit or couldn't afford a machine that could actually play. Eventually with a lack of population (which tends to happen when everyone quits), most of the hardcore players quit, leaving a beautiful ghost world. In the end, Vanguard was deemed one of the largest MMORPG failures ever. While World of Warcraft (WoW) that was in development at the same time released earlier with much simpler graphics, became one of the greatest video game successes ever. Any computer can run WoW, anyone can grasp it's learning curve, and the content was ready to go. On paper, a far inferior game in terms of ambition and level of design turned out to be the clear winner. I'd also love to note that the hardcore community talked about how kiddy and dumb WoW is and how it would never work. Magic fans are idiots.
I think it's safe to say the game is as stable as ever after planeswalkers. The fact is that they didn't radically impact the game in a negative way, and above all people have really embraced them. Guess we like planeswalkers, good thing the idiots who blindly hated and doomsayed the end of Magic weren't right. Things a Casual Player Needs Mark Rosewater is your daddy. So when daddy tells you eat your pot roast you best at least try it. After all, Rosewater has been guiding the game for years through its best and worst moments. Believe it or not Rosewater is trying to save you from yourself, because if he can keep you playing, he can keep his job. The casual player wants a lot of things, but most don't know what they truly need. Which begs the question, what does the casual player need? I think it's simple:
Magic for far too long now has catered to the hardcore fans. Prices have gone up, set sizes have increased, and there are more and more tournaments that you can't attend. Forum trolls on Gleemax that can't make an honest decision about a card without a pro using it, have long held the ear of designers. We finally get some beneficial changes to the casual, and the casual players decry them as evil witchery. Cheaper is better.
Unfortunately things get worse before they get better. Such is the case with our economy, and sadly Magic as well. As the world entered a global depression, Magic unleashed it's next set of losses that seemingly affected everyone with the loss of books in fat packs, novels released on quarterly basis, and less cards in each set. However, losing all of these things enabled Magic to not raise booster prices and in my book play to the casual players benefits. Still casual players are crying foul, and I have to simply question their logic. Let me phrase it this way for those who still cry about their books disappearing from blocks. Would you rather WotC retain their staff and keep chugging out books that the majority of players read or pay say $.50 more each pack you want? I know my answer, it's not even a debate. I love to draft and am becoming better and better at it. I don't want to pay a $1.50 or even $1.00 more every time I draft. Especially since I've only read one Magic book and that was a mere five pages before I gave it to a friend since it was rubbish. Quality is better. It's not like the books are even disappearing. Instead of a book with each block, we get a book each quarter. The fat packs are offering preview pamphlets and people who actually want the book will be able to buy it. To me that stops books from being carried by people who simply wanted the fat pack, and if it turns out enough people really don't want the books, Wizards will stop wasting the time and assets to produce them. By having books stand on their own, it actually encourages the writers to improve their craft and develop interesting stories. After all, the same people I hear lamenting about the loss of the books are the same exact ones who a year ago were complaining about the poor quality of the books. I see no reason to carry a dead horse, if the books are worth keeping let them prove it by selling enough to justify their existence. Local is better. Also as a casual player, why do you care if pro-tourneys are canceled? Do you know what happens when there is less organized play in sports? Unorganized play increases through grass-roots play. After all, the average Magic player is one hundred times more likely to play at a local venue than to travel a hundred odd miles to a sponsored tournament. The current tournament void, while probably economically motivated does present players and local shops a viable chance to fill it. I don't think I need to say how powerful the effect of local tourneys and thriving shops is on a local Magic community. Anyone that has a lack of a strong community in their area knows how bad it sucks, and everyone that has a good one knows the benefits of playing people outside of your group, increased local events, and ample trade opportunities. Smaller is better.
In its current state, pulling that must-have rare like Figure of Destiny or Bitterblossom ("the chase rare effect") is about the only way to get it shy of purchasing it. Trading for these cards will cost the casual player far too many cards, and their value retention has maybe a two year life-span before dropping to a fraction of their former value as Extended/Standard rotates out. None of these things benefit the casual player. Yet, many players put on an epic-whine fest when Wizards announced that they were going to have slightly smaller sets. Smaller sets are the easiest ways to decrease the effect of chase rares and help players acquire desired cards. Smaller sets are casual player friendly. Look at Fallen Empires, sure it was mass produced, but it's small boosters, lack of rares, and general ease of collection made it the ideal set for casual players in numerous ways. It also had a lower cost per booster and its commons were often more playable than the uncommons, increasing the trading potential of all of its cards. Alternate artwork on commons also made common for common trades plausible and helped to open up new trade partners. You can still buy Fallen Empires for a mere $1.75 a pack in many places and I remember finding them for as low as a $1 at release. Fallen Empires to me defined casual collecting at an affordable price and while it is often called a weak set, it definitely helped to popularize Magic by encouraging player-to-player trades. There were only 102 unique Fallen Empires cards and getting a full set was a breeze. I just don't see any validity in crying that less cards is bad, because for a casual player it's good. You're probably still an idiot. Want my opinion on Mythic Rares while you're reading? Keep them, in fact, get rid of foils. Just simply replace the foils with the Mythic Rares. I don't like shiny cards anyway. Shiny things are for slow kids, raccoons, and crack addicts. Oh and cavemen, I forgot about cavemen and their dirty, dirty loincloths. I'll also throw the whiners a bone of agreement that basic lands in boosters pretty much sucks. It does help to keep commons slightly more valued, but not at an outstanding level, and gives you three potentially wasted cards in drafts as you can bring your own basic lands. Hard to imagine a year ago, Magic was giving us double rares and putting foils in common slots. I guess the good Rosewater really does giveth and taketh away.
~Cashew~
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Spotlights from 2008: |
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Sticking
to food, I hated many things as a kid because my brother and sister only ate
Spaghetti O's and chicken nuggets. As I hit college, and didn't have to eat
meals with them, that I liked a lot of things I always thought I hated. Vinegar,
oysters, sushi, southern BBQ, Indian food, collards, and so and so on. These
were all foods I never ate as a kid and grew to love as I actually tried them. I
still do hate many things, and will continue to hate them, like mustard and
olives. I can't explain why, but at least I've had them to verify that distaste. 
Let's
use the infamous MMORPG Vanguard as a case study for what happens when you
listen to fan-boys and see how the hardcore Everquest fans helped shape one of
the costliest failures in the video game industry. One complaint that many
developers take to heart is that players want photo-realistic graphics for
immersion, instead of blocky polygons. Vanguard developed a powerful and
beautiful landscape, that used all kinds of new technology and programming
techniques to create vibrant environments and characters. The problem was that
it also outpaced the scope of most player’s computers. The very fans that pushed
for upped graphics now complained that their machines simply couldn't even run
the game, yet alone run it with a decent frame rate. They also didn't realize
that more time spent in the graphics quality department meant less time being
devoted to content. Hardcore fans lampooned the game for these reasons, casual
fans couldn't even afford the new machine to run it. 
Let's
get in the realm of Magic and look at planeswalkers now. Like every new concept
to Magic, fans whined, moaned, and complained about planeswalkers from the
moment Tammy-goyf subtly announced their existence to the world. There were
concerns about them radically changing the game, messing up the concept of the
planeswalker, or simply being overpowered. All of these fears were made without
ever seeing a planeswalker card or even knowing a thing about them. The blind
lead the blind into a state of panic. I know people have a general fear of
change, but Magic players should be used to it by now. The game has changed
drastically every year I've played and I've been playing since 1996.
The
global economy has dealt several blows necessitating change such as rises in raw
material prices and fuel. Rise of paper costs and general inflation caused packs
to go up a $1.00 last year, making it even harder for casual players to obtain
the few cards they do buy. Then gas prices rose amongst a weakened dollar, and
luckily this time it wasn't the casual player who suffered. Instead, this time
Gleemax got the axe it rightfully deserved and numerous tourneys that bring in
little revenue and cater to pro players were axed.
Magic
trading is not in a very good state, with the barter system hampered by common
devaluing and rares affected by the "chase rare" effect. Cards also struggle to
retain value whenever Standard/Extended cycles since they aren't seen of value
by tourney goers. It's mainly casual players who play those old blocks for
nostalgia and monetary reasons.
By
the way, my six year old niece loves pot roast after she finally tried it. Asks
for it all the time, she just doesn't like the cooked carrots. I can live with
that, since at least she's had carrots and knows she doesn't like them. As it
stands, sadly you are probably still an idiot, and until you shape up Rosewater
will continue to tell you what's good for you and Magic. In my opinion, and
after all this is all just my opinion, you should listen to your daddy. I know I
am, Alara is helluva fun to draft and I'm enjoying the set thoroughly on all
levels of play. 