Subject: lost in the shuffle (long) Date: Sat, 30 May 1998 11:22:55 -0500 From: Steven Merritt Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Ok, the title's a cop out. Now that we're past that lets discuss something that's obviously important to most of us. What is happening to this game we just loved when we started playing? Why has the longest threads of discussion been about people who voulenteer their time(judges) getting screwed, or people cheating? I have a simple theory. Wizards has done something I haven't seen any other publishing company do. It has taken responsibility for the way it's game is played. This has done two things, it has opened the game of magic up to the wonders of tournament play, it's kind of hard to organize a tournament when you have arguements starting over interpertations of the cards. The second thing it has done, and this is where they went wrong, is it made magic a completely new style of game. The game can't exist without pages and pages of rules and eratta on each set. I have been playing games of all sorts since I was very young, i know of no other publisher which takes such an active role in it's game after it leaves it's warehouse. Can you imagine calling parker brothers and saying "I was playing Monopoly the other day, I was the little car, and my friend was the little dog. I rolled a 3 and ended up on the same space he was on. What happens now? In the real world cars run over dogs, do I win?" Or can you imagine calling TSR and saying "Well his Paladin has a sword, but he hasn't mentioned that he sharpened it, so does that mean it gets a damage reduction factor?" What would these companies do if you tried to call them and ask them these questions? You would probably get put on hold indefinitely. Why? Because they print games, they don't run sports. WotC has made magic a sport. Sports have evolving rules, judges, and comissioners and stuff. So, suprise guys, you arent' playing a game, you're playing a sport. What's wrong with that? Well, nothing is intrinsically wrong with it. The problem here is a matter of application. Wizards has made the game a sport, but they don't have any clear rules. I remember reading something written by one of the game designers, he said one of their goals when they design a new card set is to make a card which "breaks" a rule or two. Like relentless assault. Does this sound productive to you? I may have lost my perspective, but I want to play a game. I enjoy winning, it's more fun than loosing. I think WotC has messed up the game by overemphasizing the importance of winning. I am still active in the magic community in my area, I play with a group of friends at a hobby store on tuesday, I play with a group I am introducing to the game on Wednesday, and I sometimes go to tournaments on Saturdays. My wife and I play together, we'll buy a few packs and do a booster draft, or a sealed deck game occasionally. We both enjoy constructed, and play t1 almost exclusively. I occasionally pull out a deck when I'm doing trading after a tournamnet, and try to play a pick up game. It's amazing to me when people at tournaments refuse to play a t1 deck when they have absolutely no idea what's in it. They assume I'm like them, out to win, so I am naturally playing the power nine and they have no chance. They can't stand to lose, they have invested so much time and energy in keeping up with rules and eratta that a loss is a major defeat for them. Even though I'm not playing for the goals they seem to think I am, they refuse to play. Am I the only one who would still like to play this thing we call magic as a game? Obviously the answer is no. Well, how can it be accomplished, how can we get all these gamers together and let the sport players go off and pit their energies against each other? I don't know, I don't pretend to have the answers. I just know I plan to jump ship soon. I no longer have the energy or desire to play a game where everyone is so concerned about the metagame, or deck archetypes, card economy, etc. This doesn't mean I will give up the hobby. But I will give up tournaments. The most fun I ever had at a tournament was a minimaster tournament, we drafted one pack of visions and you got to keep any cards from any opponent you beat. you had a 20 card deck round 1, a 30 card deck round two, etc. Winner take all. Obviously this type of game is very rare. Only one winner, and everyone else walks away empty handed. The magic community I have seen in evidence on the web would go nuts with this format. They can't stand to lose. I even tried to get involved in the magic community online. I played the microprose game, I played apprentice, I read and post to newsgroups, I read and send posts to the dojo. I got disconnected a lot playing the microprose game, I met shallow, victory oriented, players on apprentice, and I get ignored on the usenet and the dojo. I posted decks, and I got responses which critiqued my spelling or my social faux pau on posting a deck idea someone else had already come up with. I probably sound like a preacher, but I would like to return to the days when a group of friends gathered around to play a game and helped each other build decks that were fun, not "killer." A good friend of mine once looked a one of my decks and said, "it looks interesting, but I don't see any direct damage, no real effective creatures, no way to deck your opponent, how does it win?" To which I cheerfully replied "it doesn't win" it's just for fun. A far cry from our new generation of magic players. I was approached by an acquaintance the other day at a trading session and he said "I have a great idea, each of us buys a pack, open them up and whoever gets the better rare keeps both packs." I asked him who was to judge what was the better rare. He indicated a group of players who are hard core tournament players, their motto is "if it's not broken it's crap." I declined his offer. I saw his point, if he bought a pack, and it had a card which was useless in tournament, then he wouldn't get saddled with it, so it's no loss for him. But if he got a good card, he got a free pack. However I find it interesing to draw the analogy to what magic has become. A person no longer looks at a card and says "neat, I don't have this one" and sets to finding combos with it. Far too many players take no notice of cards unless they are in a "dojo" deck. I find this trend alarming and saddening. Magic was once endorsed by Mensa as a good intellectual game. Now it's endorsed by ESPN. My original conception of this post was far different from what it has become. All I wanted to do was express my dissatisfaction with the current trends of anger and drive to win which has begun to dominate magic. I wish the old cards would be reprinted and all the pieces to play the game would be available to everyone. I play t1 because I like having the variety of cards and combos to play with. I hear people complain t1 has stagnated and no new decks could beat old decks. I have this example to put against such a misconception. I'm a fairly typical t1 player, I have a great many cards, I could build the killer t1 decks, but I don't. Why? I talked to a friend of mine who had just returned from a supertournament, he said there was a gentleman there who had an all alpha deck, and he'd play you if you had an all alpha deck as well. I was at a loss. I could play such a deck, but why would I want to? It's like playing chess but not playing with any knights or pawns. I wish people could understand what t1 is, it's not the same boring decks all over again, it's a virtually unlimited card pool. However, I'm not out to change the sport. I just want to play a game. So, I'll quit posting decks, tournament players get them off the dojo anyway, and I'll quit trying to keep up with the rules. I'll still buy new cards and keep my collection current, and I'll still play twice or three times a week. But as far as trying to be part of the magic community, I don't think I want to be. I'll withdraw to my little hole where we play with caribu ranges and ice cauldrons because it's fun to experiment with them. And I'll let the squabbles and pettiness of what magic is becoming pass me by. I'll play with friends, and if a rules arguement arises, we'll flip a coin to decide how it works. Steven