Wizards of the Coast smoke some crazy shit

[eldaec]

Yeah, I know there is a specific MtG board, but this deserves ridicule from a wider audience.

Wizards have announced that as of next month, Magic the Gathering players will find a new type of card in packs they open, your typical tournament sealed pack will include something like this....

Aaron’s goal was to create something similar to the baseball cards he collected as a kid. Players opening a Ravnica tournament pack will get one free player card from a set of 25. Aaron felt that there was a need for something like this as the coverage of Magic events has shifted from the bygone print era of Sideboard and Duelist to the online coverage here at magicthegathering.com.

“Without magazines,” explained Forsythe, “it is hard to expose people to the Pro Tour. You either click on the coverage or you don’t. With these cards we get to show off the Pro Tour to players who might not otherwise look that way. I remember when I was playing and went to a PTQ and was like, ‘Whoa, there is Dave Price.’”

Chris Pikula, Jon Finkel, Darwin Kastle, and all the other Invitational winners get asked to sign the Magic cards bearing their likenesses all the time. Aaron was hopeful that these player cards would open up a wider range of players to that experience. He also hoped that it would provide players on the PTQ level something to aspire to.

“These are great for our stars to show off to their friends and family who might not understand what they do. They are a great reward for our top players.”

You couldn't make this shit up.

I particularly enjoy thinking about how aspirational the idea of playing magic full time for 6 years in order to earn a salary of around $4.5k is.

[shiznitz]

I particularly enjoy thinking about how aspirational the idea of playing magic full time for 6 years in order to earn a salary of around $4.5k is.

But there's upside, man!

[Samprimary]

I think baseball cards worked because of the, uh .. athletic demographic of the featured individuals.

[eldaec]

Here's a fun thread on the subject...

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=18631&page=1&pp=15

...the posts from people complaining that someone they know might see one of these cards and discover they were right all along about Magic being a game for 14 year old nerds are espeicially amusing.

[Special J]

They can make cards of all sorts of action shots like untapping lands, or playing a creature, or staring at their cards.

They better have a hot chick on the PT.

[HaemishM]

Wait, wait. They think people actually want to SEE some kind of professional Magic catass player? What the fuck is next? The Shut-In Mama's Boy Chaser Card with special foil jizz stain?

[Roac]

Wait, wait. They think people actually want to SEE some kind of professional Magic catass player?

No.  They think it's an easy way to push out advertising to the tour, and get more people involved.  Considering other players have made a lot more than this guy, it's a way to get people to go "omg, I want to get rich playing Magic too!  Mooooooom!". 

[schild]

Think of it as chess. It's a hobby. He's made $27k on a hobby.

You people are snobs.

Edit: And yes, he is a chubby doofus tool.

[Bunk]

My chess set cost me about $35. My CCG collection - somewhere in the ball park of $3k I'd guess.

[Jain Zar]

Wow!  Buy a tournament pack and get a card showing 1 of 25 people most Magic players could care less about, and non Magic players that grew up with him probably picked on or shoved his head in a toilet.

[AOFanboi]

My chess set cost me about $35. My CCG collection - somewhere in the ball park of $3k I'd guess.

Ah, but $3k chess sets do exist - you simply chose not to play with more rare pieces.

And you can mix cards and chess using Knightmare Chess, which Steve Jackson Games has the English language license for. :)

[schild]

My Go set cost about $200 and change, but I don't have anyone to play Go with.   

[Margalis]

"Magic: Embrace your inner fat 16 year old nerd!"

It's pretty funny, how many people knew this was an awful idea and decided to let it go through. Either tons of people didn't speak up, or Wizards has gotten so inbred with the Pro Tour that they have no idea what's going on anymore.

[Strazos]

I at least give "pro" Magic players more credit than "pro" CounterStrike players.

[eldaec]

Shame wizards don't give them more credit than that picture suggests really.

[Margalis]

I give them credit where credit is due. They have skill and a ton of free time. It's nothing more or less than that. I don't think there is any real difference between pro magic players, pro CS players or pro connect-4 players. If someone is good at Magic and wants to be a pro that's fine, but the idea that people would want to collect their cards is absurd, especially given that Magic is a collectible card GAME and these cards are just collectible cards, no game attached.

I knew a Magic pro in college. He was an annoying tool. Just thought I'd add that.

[Sairon]

My Go set cost about $200 and change, but I don't have anyone to play Go with.   

Just out of curiosity, have you seen Hikkaru No Go?

[schild]

My Go set cost about $200 and change, but I don't have anyone to play Go with.   

Just out of curiosity, have you seen Hikaru No Go?

Yes. :-D

[Sairon]

My Go set cost about $200 and change, but I don't have anyone to play Go with.   

Just out of curiosity, have you seen Hikaru No Go?

Yes. :-D

Hehe everybody who watches it becomes go addict. http://kgs.kiseido.com/en_US/index.xhtml is great if you want to play some, just need to install a small java applet.

[Sobelius]

My Go set cost about $200 and change, but I don't have anyone to play Go with.   

My GO set did not cost $200 but I have been playing on and off for 15 years -- never really made it past about 15-18 kyu, though.

And you could always play online -- I haven't been on the IGS (International Go Server) in quite a while, though I have played on Yahoo Games occasionally.

I bought my wooden GO board and slate/ceramic pieces at a Korean grocery store for about $20.

[schild]

I've played on IGS before. Really though, I got into it because chess got boring. I even went as far to go to a go club just to find people to play with. But then I got back into Magic: Online. Lols.

[Strazos]

I give them credit where credit is due. They have skill and a ton of free time. It's nothing more or less than that. I don't think there is any real difference between pro magic players, pro CS players or pro connect-4 players. If someone is good at Magic and wants to be a pro that's fine, but the idea that people would want to collect their cards is absurd, especially given that Magic is a collectible card GAME and these cards are just collectible cards, no game attached.

I knew a Magic pro in college. He was an annoying tool. Just thought I'd add that.

I find the majority of CS "pros" to be jackass morons. At least Magic takes some intelligence.

[Sky]

I went to an incredible bookstore while on vacation. There was an entire shelf just dedicated to AD&D hardcovers. I hate WotC, the lewt grabbing whorebags. Maybe I'm just bitter that my 3.0 ed books are already obsolete.

Really, fuck WotC. I'll play 1st ed AD&D.

[Morfiend]

I like that they did this. Now MtG can really get the ridicule it deserves.

[schild]

I went to an incredible bookstore while on vacation. There was an entire shelf just dedicated to AD&D hardcovers. I hate WotC, the lewt grabbing whorebags. Maybe I'm just bitter that my 3.0 ed books are already obsolete.

Really, fuck WotC. I'll play 1st ed AD&D.

Most Borders have a shelf dedicated to overside WoTC RPG books. Many have at least one shelf of the hardcover stuff.

[Bunk]

I went to an incredible bookstore while on vacation. There was an entire shelf just dedicated to AD&D hardcovers. I hate WotC, the lewt grabbing whorebags. Maybe I'm just bitter that my 3.0 ed books are already obsolete.

Really, fuck WotC. I'll play 1st ed AD&D.

Trust me, it takes one night of torrent/file share searching to have yourself a folder full of .pdf's of all the current 3.5 stuff and suppliments. Everytime I feel bad about it, I look over at the stacks of boxes of Magic cards that WotC decided they would make obsolete every six months, then I don't feel so bad.

Also helps knowing a guy who can laser print out the books to his heart's content at work, and make hard copies for our whole group.

[Margalis]

The overwhelming reaction to these cards has been incredibly negative. Like 1 in every 100 people think they are a good idea.

[Llava]

The overwhelming reaction to these cards has been incredibly negative. Like 1 in every 100 people think they are a good idea.

[Margalis]

Yeah...it's funny. It's shocking to nobody, yet it was greenlighted.

[eldaec]

Wizards comment on the response....

First I would like to clear up a couple of misconceptions: 1) Pro Cards do not appear in booster packs and 2) Nothing was removed from the products these do appear in. You still get the same number of rares, uncommons, commons, and lands for the same price. (Note that since they only appear in tournament packs, theme decks, and the Fat Pack we think it will be hard enough to collect a set that they will have some decent trade value even for players who don't care about them.) Now on with the actual answer to your question …

"The thinking behind the Pro Player cards was that we really wanted a way to communicate the strength of Magic's Organized Play programs to players and potential players. We believe we have the best strategy game in the world and the most compelling tournament programs as well, but traditional forms of advertising (like magazine ads or website banners) can only go so far in delivering that message. In particular, lots of potential new Magic customers have trouble telling the difference between Magic and much more juvenile games like Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon. Any 15-year old who gets his hands on one of these is going to see two things right off the bat: 1) Adults play this game, not 4th graders. 2) Holy *&^% they give away a lot of money at Magic tournaments.



"Obviously we know that Magic has a lot more going on for it than the Pro Tour, and lots of players enjoy the game without ever even playing a single tournament. We use the Pro Tour to help market the game because of its symbolic value – it’s much easier to show that Magic is a game where creativity and intelligence are rewarded when the rewards are measured in dollars. The Pro Tour lifestyle also shows off how much fun Magic can be, how many friendships it creates, etc. None of that means we're ignoring the legions of casual players. We know that 'casual' players make up the majority of our audience and we care more about pleasing that segment of our audience than any other.

"At the end of the day, we are in the business of selling Magic cards and we thought this was a more useful way to spend our time and money than yet another ad in Inquest. For me personally, I care more about the game than I do about the company, but I still want Wizards to sell more cards because a) that means more people are playing the game that is such an important part of my life and b) more money coming in to Wizards means I can get more designers and developers into R&D to help make the game even better.

"Now I will admit that I was surprised by the size and volume of the reaction in the forums. On the one hand, I think we clearly led with the wrong card. We should have shown off one of the more normal cards (like Kai or Nassif) instead of Antonino's characteristically goofy pose. On the other hand, the feedback was loud enough that we’re not just chalking it up to a bad first impression – we’re actively reading and debating the points that have been raised. Our e-mail isn't nearly as negative as the forums, and we have talked to a number of players who do think these cards are cool, so for now we are taking a wait and see attitude. Hopefully this answer will help people understand what these cards are intended to do and why we think they’re good for the game. Meanwhile, this will definitely be one of the issues we'll be watching for at the prerelease this weekend."

[Llava]

we have talked to a number of players who do think these cards are cool

Who?

Do they work for you?  Did they, perhaps, propose this idea in the first place?

Also, it's not exactly a revelation that there are 20-something year old geeks out there who play these card games.  If you want to start showing off that adults play this game, I suggest showing as many well adjusted people as you can find- like husbands and wives who don't live with anyone's parents.

[Yegolev]

The two guys pictured in this thread look like supermodels compared to the upper-crust MtG players I used to roll with.  I don't know anyone who is truly competitive in MtG who is not also a complete tool, and I suspect that it is a required trait.  Psychology and whatnot.

[Ironwood]

In fairness, Kai is a magic demon.

[HaemishM]

Allow me to translate the PR person's doublespeak:

We know that people on the Internet don't like these things, but we think you are all fucking retards anyway. Fuck off and die, you pimply-faced little buttonpushers. Also, the ridiculous Pro Tour isn't getting the luv or attention we want it to, because our game isn't the new hotness anymore. So we figured we'd shove it down your throats while at the same time giving some of our finest and smelliest catasses some face time. We never knew that most people wouldn't give two shits, and we hoped that our overly Byzantine shell game of a tournament system wouldn't continually be ignored by the majority of people who play the game. Buy more cards, bitches, and play in tournaments that charge stupid amounts to get beat by some acne-riddled cockmnuncher whose genitalia are permanently mangled from stroking it in a mirror. We know you hate these arrogant douchetards so much that they can't get local opponents and we don't fucking care. Did I mention I get email from these people supporting me? Did I also mention I'm getting paid more than all of you? Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?