Subject: Re: Magic Psychology?
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 23:22:55 -0800
From: ejkmcsm@arctic.net (Elizebeth Moeller)
To: bosium@hotmail.com
CC: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

OK, Brian, I'll take a shot at your discussion topic.  I'll take it up from
the standpoint of an adult with a good income and other hobbies, but who has
to confess that Magic is definitely his biggest hobby.
I started playing Magic about 3 years ago.  I wandered into the store where
you now work and got talked into buying a few packs by the store manager at
the time.  When I read your post, I tried to figure out how much money I had
spent on Magic over the past 3 years.  My best guess is about $500 per year,
more initially, less recently.  This is just cash outlay, mind you. It
doesn't include the time value of money spent judging tourneys for which I
got a $60 box of cards.  It also doesn't count my vacation weekend last
winter where I blew down to Seattle on a whim to play in a PTQ at the
tourney center.
I have been fortunate enough to build up my collection by a number of
cost-effective means: winning tourneys, trading for what I want, picking up
singles that I need, focusing on what I want, using the Internet.  But
still, even doing just about everything that I can think of to save money,
it costs me about $500 a year to stay current.
This isn't as big a deal in Alaska as it might be some other places.  Brian
(who started the thread) knows that every warm body in Alaska gets a big
check from the state each October; last year's was about $1300.  Still, $500
is a lot each year.  Or is it?
For adults with a good income, I don't think that it is.  How much do skiers
spend each year on lift tickets and resort passes?  How much do bowlers
spend each year on lane fees?  How much do bodybuilders spend on gym
passes?  (How much do baseball card collectors spend?  I'm pretty sure that
it's more to keep their collections up).  I would say that $500 a year
roughly approaches the cost of maintaining a U.S. stamp collection, if
you're into plate blocks and first day issues.  It's not any more expensive
than any other grown-up hobby requiring the outlay of money.
I should make one point.  The most expensive card that I've ever owned was
an Italian Mirror Universe.  I got it out of a pack that I won at a PTQ.  I
didn't buy it.  The most expensive card that I own now is a set of 4 Ice
Storms (at risk of telling people what I may play if I scrub out at
Regionals).  No Moxen, No Lotus, No Power Blue.  It would be nuts for me to
try to buy them.  For a set of the Type 1 power cards, I could easily drop a
grand.  I'm not spending a grand on 9 pieces of cardboard.  This is why Type
1 is dead.  There's no way in hell I'm going to beat a type 1 Weissman, let
alone 4 Juzams and 4 Nether Voids.
Unfortunately, I know that I'm the exception and not the rule.  Assuming a
typical $500 a year on competitive maintenance, where do kids and young
adults get it?  I sure didn't have that kind of scratch when I was in
college.  I had about $10 a week in my mid80s college days to drop on
nonbasics.  (Again, you and I both know that people up here blow their PFD
checks on hobbies, but what about elsewhere).  All I can do is tell you a
story about being down in Seattle.  I played a sealed deck tourney and won.
I got about 8 packs of Weatherlight.  I did what I always do, opened up the
packs, stuck the rares and the good uncommons, and the couple of commons I
wanted fresh copies of, (probably about 10 cards in all) in a plastic box,
and asked if anybody wanted the rest.  Up here, nobody wants them. Down
there, I had to split them up three ways.  Apart from some "rich boys" with
tons of cards, a lot of players didn't have that many.
Here's my response to your dad:  Children will tend to spend *whatever money
that they have* on entertainment generally.  The form of entertainment is
not particularly important to their spending behavior.  Magic is just one
form of entertainment that is competing for available dollars with other
kinds of entertainment.  Children don't really need the money (for food,
clothing, shelter or whatever).  Someone else is taking care of their
necessities, so whatever money they have is by definition expendable, and
they are not really engaging in economic decision making.  If Magic did not
exist, they would spend it on something else:  comics, candy, baseball
cards, magazines, movies, or other things that might appeal to them.  (Hey,
I just rattled off the entire inventory of your store!)  Magic is just
pretty good at outcompeting other forms of entertainment.  As a teenager, I
had one heckuva comic book collection, but that was before Magic.
The real test of "addictiveness" is how much money someone spends on
something when they have to engage in real economic decisionmaking.  The 10
year old with $20 burning a hole in his pocket is no test of addictiveness.
That $20 is gone no matter what it buys.  While there are a few people who
are compulsive enough to drop money that they could use and might need to
better themselves to win a card tournament, or to stand out in any leisure
pursuit, I don't think that Magic is that much more expensive than a lot of
other hobbies I can think of.

Brian Eddy wrote:

> Hello all,
>
>     I had an interesting conversation with my father today at the dinner
> table.  I had mentioned my excitement that I was going to participate in
> my first Classic tourney.  My father listened intently, as he always did
> when I talked about magic, and then asked me a question:  I wonder what
> the psychology is behind magic?  This caught me by surprise.  I asked
> him to elaborate.  He wondered how the man who invented magic, was able
> to create a game that would target small children into gambling.
> "Gambling?" I asked.  He went on to give me many viable reasons why he
> thought this way.
>     You see, Magic (as my father sees it) is a way for corporate
> companies to suck money out of kids.  They make random boosters for kids
> to buy.  WOTC makes the implication that to win, you have to buy cards.
> Kids love to do this.  They get hooked.  Is this right?  Is it
> justified?  I don't know about any of you, but I have seen this happen.
> I work in a Comic/Cards store as many of you know.  I see kids of ages
> 7-9 come in and buy a booster pack.  They open it up in pure delight.
> Their eyes glow in excitement as they pour over the cards.  After they
> have finished indulging themselves in dragons, monsters, angels and
> demons, they turn back to the display case.  They grab another.  Then
> another after that.  In no time they run out of cash.  They run to their
> parents, asking for more money.  Soon, every cent they get, they put it
> towards magic cards.  They are like mini-gamblers, just looking to get
> the "good" cards.  Spending all of their money, and looking for more.
> Of course, the little devils aren't quite as bad as adult gamblers.
> They don't have bills to pay or families to take care of.  They loose
> interest quickly because of a short attention span.  But, is this a good
> example for the world's children?  What causes this obsession?  Is it
> the same as gambling?  What they do resembles what Marlboro and Camel do
> to the children of today.  Don't you think?
>     Magic and other CCGs are an innovation that was ingenious, and
> original.  We call it a "game" and WOTC calls it a "fortune".  You see,
> to stay competitive, you have to buy cards.  There is no denying that.
> I guarantee you that in the standard environment, you will not be able
> to beat anyone with an all Fallen Empires deck.  WOTC has a perfect way
> to make money.  Many of us complain that WOTC comes out with too many
> sets, too often.  But wait...most of us buy the new cards anyway.  Maybe
> out of curiosity, competitiveness, or sheer addiction.
>     Many of us would say that we are past the "gambling" aspect of
> magic.  Maybe, maybe...  Well, why do you spend money on cards still?
> You know you do.  Maybe not on booster packs, but indirectly through
> singles, tournament fees, and accessories.  Magic is not like other
> sports.  For instance, take football for example.  Sure you spend tons
> of money initially on pads, helmets, shirts, balls, etc.  But after you
> have all that, its all you.  Your own skill.  What about Chess?  The
> granddaddy of all international games.  You buy the chessboard and then
> its all you.  Your skill.  You don't periodically have to spend money to
> buy new chess pieces to stay competitive.  You focus on your skill.
> Some of the best chess players I know have never spent a cent on a
> chessboard.  Do you have that in Magic?  I don't think so.  They make
> you spend dollar after dollar buying/trading cards.  To make your skill
> excel, you have to own the cards.  To beat others who have those cards,
> you have to have them too.  hmmm...
>       You see, I always wanted to have all the cool, expensive cards.
> The powerful ones that people would go: "Whoa, look at that guy, he has
> a Black Lotus...and he's even playing with it!"  Well, gradually, I
> spent money to get these cards.
> Actually I spent a lot of money to buy these.  About $600.  That's a lot
> for a student with just a summer job to spend on pieces of paper with
> pictures on them.  I haven't even been in a T1 tournament where I can
> even use 'em yet!  I thought that I was over the gambling part of
> Magic.  Hell, I haven't bought a pack of magic for 6 months!  Yet, I
> still seem to spend money.  Recently I was even going to sell my older
> cards!  I was so close, and then I backed out because I didn't have the
> heart to leave the thrill of the game.   Kinda makes you think...
>     You may not have spent $600 dollars on cards, and you may not think
> that you spend money on magic, But I think you spend more than you
> think.  I am not going to stop playing.  I'm still going to go to that
> T1 tourney.  I am going to go pumped.  Even if I don't win anything,
> I'll still be happy cause I got to play.  All I'm saying is stop to
> think...why do we play this game?
>
> --
> Brian Eddy
> G.A.B. Member
> Silver Team
> G.A.B. Home page: http://www.thesocket.com/~wolfman/gab.htm
> ICQ UIN #: 1152716