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Mar 29, 2012 -- 8:29PM, willpell wrote:

Doing this makes the cool stuff nigh-impossible to afford, starving players who want better than vanilla Limited jank without having to break their budget.  Also there are things like cards whose flavor text is a bad joke or a line of trash-talk (see the Fact or Fiction in Jace vs. Chandra for a particularly egregious example), designed to appeal to jock mentality and shattering the metaphor that the serious fantasy consumer wishes to completely immerse themself in.  To say nothing of the vast amount of wasted potential inherent in providing art and flavor text for cards like Lagac Lizard which could exist on any plane, and thus providing less detail specific to the particular plane of the set, which won't be seen again for years if ever.

I don't disagree with this. The game is certainly less appealing to me ever since they shifted to designing for Limited. However, my point was that it's not fair to say they're reducing the quality of the product. What they're doing now is just different, it's not better or worse; it just appeals to different types of players, not necessarily the "lowest common denominator".

They could operate on a donation basis, a la Kickstarter, instead of maintaining an ironclad release schedule.

Why should they have to, though, when it's easier and better to just market their product and make money off of it?

Nor does Magic for that matter.  If JRR Tolkien had dropped dead before publishing the Two Towers, there would still have been fans obsessing over the Fellowship of the Ring.  If Magic had closed its doors after M12 went out, Innistrad would never have happened, but every other plane would still resonate in the hearts of fans for the rest of their lives, and crop up among seekers of antique lore now and again even a century later, the way forgotten classics of the 1900s still manage to find a handful of fans.  This is far better than the mass-market model of disposable product which intentionally obsoletes itself in order to capture a fickle audience.

Fair enough. Especially with the "one year, one plane" mentality, your point is very accurate. Nonetheless, I'd rather Magic continue to stick around to tell stories than for it to end and to have to rely on the already-finished ones.

I don't advocate ignoring the gameplay entirely, just approaching it with a few different priorities.  But marketing is the process of manipulating people's opinions en masse by treating them as if they were nothing but data points on a graph.  It SHOULD be ignored - if not outlawed - by the entirety of society.  It is an intolerable insult to the entire human spirit and concept of individuality.

Marketing can be used for good, though, and I feel that the way Magic is marketed is one such example. As a game, it requires at least two people for anyone to enjoy it, so by reaching as large of an audience as possible, there's a greater change that you'll be able to play it. Furthermore, the more people who buy their product, the more money they make and the higher quality of work they can produce in the next iteration.

Not an attack, a criticism.  An assassin and a surgeon both come at you with a knife, but their intentions for cutting into you are very different.  And yes I criticize Doug Beyer, because at best he didn't always deliver a quality performance.  Sometimes he did good work, but more often he bumbled his way through things like that article about darksteel where he didn't even know the pre-established canonical answer to the question which was the entire point of his writing that week.  I'd rather he'd just admitted he didn't know, but instead he had to expose the fact that he couldn't be bothered to find out.  He deserves to be slammed for a goof like that, just as he deserves to be praised for his better answers (for example saying that the non-Flamekin creatures of Lorwyn with the Elemental type were "dream elementals", hence their distinctly non-elementish appearance - they were made of symbolism so they looked like symbols, that's genius, but too few of his articles managed such quality).

For me, Doug's articles hit far more often than they missed, so I consider him as having been a success. Furthermore, I think the timing of your criticism was mildly inappropriate. Doug is stepping down from a job he loved, and the decision to do so can't have been easy. I think it's a little insensitive to, that very day, then tell him that he didn't care enough, that you'd do better, and all the other things you said. Additionally, he's making this decision not because he doesn't care, but because he does care; he's leaving the column so that he can focus more on making Magic's flavor as great as possible.

They have such a way.  I would write next weeks StF for them, for free (and devoid of ranting against company policy, because that would be off-topic and would deprive my article of quality).  All they have to do is ask and it shall be done.  But they're going to follow corporate procedure instead, and not let anyone speak for them whom they can't control by withholding a paycheck if they refuse.

I'm not sure if it would even be possible for them to hire you for free; I'm sure there would be legal issues. Also, the position requires an insider, someone who was on the Creative Team for the sets being discussed, who knows all the flavor decisions made behind the scenes so that they can then share those decisions with the audience. I'm sure you'd be good for writing short stories set in their worlds, or analyzing the flavor of various colors, but that's not the only purpose of this column. Finally, since the article is on the official website, anything written in it is canon. To protect their IP, they would certainly need control over what is written here.

Is it a known fact that there was a different block planned before Mercadian that got scrapped?  I think it's more likely they planned Mercadia but were forced to take an axe to what should have been its defining theme (some kind of commerce-feeling ability which was probably an "engine" and thus inherently combo-y, hence them not daring to try it even ten years later).

Why should they have to, though, when it's easier and better to just market their product and make money off of it?

Refusing access to a quality product to those who want it but cannot afford to pay for it is never "better".

As a game, it requires at least two people for anyone to enjoy it,

Negative.  The Shandalar campaign in the old Microprose game was deeply satisfying; it didn't have a very good AI, but that was like 15 years ago and computer technology is still doubling every few years.  Playing magic indefinitely against a computer, with things like Planechase and Commander as options to enliven it, could easily provide a lifetime of entertainment for one.  The ability to play socially with other people is just gravy on top of the mechanical enjoyment of the game itself.

Additionally, he's making this decision not because he doesn't care, but because he does care; he's leaving the column so that he can focus more on making Magic's flavor as great as possible.

That much is true, and I applaud him for it (I believe that was my intent with the original post, though it may have gotten lost even then and certainly did thereafter, as I went into "rant mode").  And yes, I'm insentive.  I have never been the type to care about other people's feelings or to engage in diplomacy or politics; it's just the way I am, borderline autistic and caring only about hard data and my own feelings (and not expecting others to care about the latter).  AFAIC, right and wrong are clear and easily comprehended absolutes, and people are experts at coming up with justifications for doing things they know are wrong; I have no patience with this and thus tend to default to being blunt and impatient with them rather than risk letting them get away with lying and bloviating to my face.

I'm not sure if it would even be possible for them to hire you for free; I'm sure there would be legal issues.

Interesting, isn't it, how many laws there are against doing something that's beneficial for people who aren't lawyers or lawmakers.

Also, the position requires an insider, someone who was on the Creative Team for the sets being discussed, who knows all the flavor decisions made behind the scenes so that they can then share those decisions with the audience. I'm sure you'd be good for writing short stories set in their worlds, or analyzing the flavor of various colors, but that's not the only purpose of this column.

It would suffice for a couple of interim weeks while Brady is figuring out who can be the real columnist.  I'm just saying anything, even a nutcase like me, is better than just letting the column stand empty.  That should never even have been considered, let alone announced; it sends a huge "you guys really aren't our top priority" message.  Beyer should have found his replacement first and then retired, or better yet put out an open casting call for article submissions (even if only one person besides me volunteered, it'd be better than the current situation).

And as for canon, I expect there would be at least a minimal degree of editorial control.  Brady is doublessly busy but he could probably find five minutes to read a submitted article for goofs, even if he can't find an hour or two to write one.

Mar 30, 2012 -- 7:16AM, HavelockVetinari wrote:

Yeah, isn't it funny how the truth is always completely obvious, and everyone who disagrees with you is deluded?

Why not?  Stupidity is contagious.  The more people agree with an idea, the more likely it is that they're all wrong, having mostly just jumped on the bandwagon for the sake of being popular, and many of the others having promulgated the idea for selfish and corrupt reasons; almost none have usually put any thought whatsoever into the question, or there would be more diversity of opinion.  See our electoral process for clear proof of this principle.

Mar 31, 2012 -- 1:32AM, willpell wrote:

Mar 30, 2012 -- 9:39AM, Vestige wrote:

edit: did you just say you are proud of being unable to be a socially functional human being? That's horrifyingly depressing. 

You think social function is a positive?  Do the words "dragged down by those around you" ring a bell?  Striving for excellence has never been a group activity.  Well maybe in Japan, but certainly not here in Duhmerica.

Willpell, if you want to change the world, you're going to have to know how to change people. No matter how much excellence you achieve for yourself, it won't have much impact if you don't know how to properly appeal to others.