Subject: [ISSUE] 6E will kill Magic
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 09:02:24 -0500
From: Ken Lignelli <kenl@snet.net>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

This is a followup to Bill Jackson's article on 6th Edition Magic changes.
He listed the following changes to Magic as of the 6th edition release:

1. No more interrupts.
2. No more Damage Prevention Phase.
3. No more Mana Pool.
4. Tapped artifacts will still function normally.

Let me say that I am most likely one of the few individuals in the Magic
community that has played just about every collectible card game that has
come out.  I've played NetRunner, Vampire, Wyvern, ShadowFist, Illuminati,
BattleTech, Star Wars, and even glimpsed at Star Trek and Babylon 5.  Each
game had a different set of rules, a different feel.  Some games had quite
good game mechanics, even better than Magic.  But none of them thrived as
Magic did.  The obvious reason is that WotC did not push its other games
like it pushed Magic.  And the other game companies could not compete with
WotC.  So, for all its flaws, loopholes, eratta, and constantly changing
rulings, we were effectively stuck with Magic.

Now, WotC wants to push its revenue through the roof.  It wants every person
in the world to be able to play its premier game.  They want people from
doctors to garbage men (er, Waste Disposal Engineers) to be capable of
understanding Magic.  And since they are completely aware that they have a
total dominance of the CCG market with Magic, they feel they can change the
game to facilitate this, and leave us, the current players, high and dry.

I believe that this is a marketing mistake.  Magic will not appeal to the
mass public like Monopoly or Chess will.  Those games are not collectible.
A collectible game will only appeal to a limited audience, and that
audience has already bought into Magic.  The only thing WotC will accomplish
by this change, will be the dumbing down of Magic.  It will put Magic on par
with NetRunner, Vampire, Wyvern, ShadowFist, Illuminati, BattleTech,
Star Wars, Star Trek and Babylon 5.  And as I've said already, a number of
those games are strictly superior in playability than Magic is.  If NetRunner,
ShadowFist or BattleTech had as many cards as Magic, I can tell you that just
about no one would be playing Magic right now.  But Magic is all there is.

And now WotC wants to take that away.  This is a big mistake.

Ken Lignelli                               DCI #2090
KenL@snet.net                              SCRYE Contributing Editor