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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 12:50AM
#121
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Date Joined:
Nov 24, 2011
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I kind of liked today's column. Especially the narrative toying around with all the hidden combo's with the doll, good fun.
Spoiler:
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Obligatory and Preliminary Smiley Reservoir:
               
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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 6:50AM
#122
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Date Joined:
Dec 12, 2008
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I loved today's article. It was humorous, sure, but it was a pitch black humor. It wasn't silly in the slightest. There were a lot of sly jokes and puns, to be sure, but that gave a necessary personality to what is essentially an eternal, ageless, walking torture device.
And yeah, as far as the subject matter of the column goes... go read the Savor the Flavor and Taste the Magic archives. That has all sorts of information about the processes. But at the moment, we've got very little in the way of Magic fiction anymore, and I think a significant majority of flavor fans are looking for, well, more stories. That's what they're giving us.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 7:55AM
#123
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Date Joined:
Nov 25, 2009
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Could it be that you not liking Uncharted Realms is a problem of expectations? You want a "how does flavor/worlds get made"-column, and you get a storyline column. But we knew starting out that this would be a storyline-based affair, with only very occasionally some flavor-building explanation. I can understand being disappointed because you don't get "how we make flavor"-info, but let's be realistic, we weren't getting that with Savor the Flavor (with some exceptions). And this shouldn't take away from the quality of the column we do have. The goal of Uncharted Realms isn't to tell us how they do worldbuilding or something. It's to tell stories, and does so adequately. Faulting it because it doesn't explain flavor is like faulting a microwave for not doing the dishes.
"What is etherium but the next logical step?" It's all my fault.
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Hell, if they steal from us, we'd be honored.
oh my god, AWESOME!
Then changing the Slivers was your idea! haha
lol
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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 8:30AM
#124
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Date Joined:
May 28, 2009
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I admit, on first reading, I didn't "get" this column. It seemed a bit directionless, a nice emotional piece, but without much substance. Kind of like a Miyazaki film that was crunched into 5 minutes. However, after reading some comments, I really appreciate the subtlety and cute nods to the player base. Including references to well known combos and jabs at the whole nature of playing magic in general, it's really risen to one of the more clever stories that I have read.
As far as the purpose of the column, I do agree with you to some extent, chronego. I would love to have an inside look at the workings of the creative team, a kind of "Making Magic" for that side of the world. The problem was that, for whatever reason, I felt that StF hadn't been able to pull that off on a consistent basis for close to a year. I don't know if Doug had run out of ideas, or if he was burned out, but the column rarely treaded new ground, and frequently had little to do with actual creative. In many ways it served as a very poor man's design column. So, in short, I would love to see a delve into creative column, but only if the writer is convinced they will be able to make it right. I feel that Doug no longer believed in his own column, and that is why it failed.
Susan Summerson from the Hell breaks loose Flavorful Voting Game http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29076567/Hell_breaking_loose:_an_Avacyn_Restored_voting_game?pg=1 Click here for more Forum Games: Spoiler:
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Susan Summerson also appeared in the Innistrad Mafia Game
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/28609371/Innistrad_Mafia?pg=1
Writer of Nally Bear from The Gathering Flavorful Voting Game:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/28846821/The_Gathering:_M12_flavorful_voting_game?pg=1
Writer of Phyrex the Myr from Phyrexia Reborn:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/27993097/Phyrexia_Reborn:_A_Flavorful_Voting_Game?pg=1
Writer of Tinker the Myr from Legacy of Karn:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/26647005/Karns_Legacy_(A_flavorful_voting_game)
Writer of Crusader Tolkana, who has appeared in:
Eldrazi Awaken: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/24071149/Eldrazi_Awaken:_A_flavorful_voting_game?pg=1
Colors of Magic: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/25352501/Colors_of_Magic:_a_flavor_game?pg=1
Guildwars III:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/26082093/Guildwars_III:_Shattered_Pact_(A_flavorful_voting_game)?pg=1
Writer of Isaic from Treasures of Zendikar
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/22819881/Treasures_of_Zendikar?post_id=402182877#402182877
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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 8:50AM
#125
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Date Joined:
Dec 27, 2009
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I feel it is fair to point out to the lot of you, that should you have unanswered "how does Magic flavor" questions, Brady Dommermuth (head of creative) so graciously started a thread to ask those very questions: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...Also, I chuckled a bit when she mentioned Guilty Conscience  .
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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 12:44PM
#126
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Could it be that you not liking Uncharted Realms is a problem of expectations? You want a "how does flavor/worlds get made"-column, and you get a storyline column.
...
The goal of Uncharted Realms isn't to tell us how they do worldbuilding or something. It's to tell stories, and does so adequately. Faulting it because it doesn't explain flavor is like faulting a microwave for not doing the dishes.
This is all completely correct, but doesn't take away from my point.
Truth of the matter is, this isn't a stand-alone column; it's our replacement for Savor the Flavor. Therefore, it has to be judged against that column. No, it's not designed to serve the same purpose, but it still has to be judged against that purpose, since it's replacing the column which fulfilled it.
Here's the thing: Do we really need an in-house writer for a column like this? Is this the best use of a Creative Team member's time? This column doesn't provide anything that genuinely requires that inside info, which is only available to the Creative Team. Writing fiction doesn't require inside information; giving a glimpse behind the scenes of the Creative Team does.
Again, Uncharted Realms is entertaining, and serves the role for which it was made well. Again, I appreciate the effort put into writing it each week. But it is no substitute for a behind-the-scenes column.
I'm not saying there's no place for this column, nor am I saying that there isn't an audience for it. Obviously there is. I'm just upset that it's replacing Savor the Flavor (or some variant), rather than being an extra column in addition to it.
So to answer your simile: No, faulting it for not being like Savor the Flavor is more like faulting the ones you hired to remodel your kitchen because they tore out your dishwasher and installed a microwave in its place.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 1:13PM
#127
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Date Joined:
Dec 12, 2008
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Chronego, you're still missing two absolutely crucial points: virtually no one liked Savor the Flavor by the end, and this column is not just a replacement for Savor the Flavor but for an ENTIRE LINE OF NOVELS.
And honestly? Yes. Yes, these articles require inside information. Or did you not pick up on the fact that this column is now a carefully structured part of WotC's hype machine? That the articles are being used quite consciously to build anticipation for new sets while increasing nostalgia for old ones? That it is our ONE SINGULAR SOURCE of detailed storyline information now? All of that absolutely requires inside knowledge if it is to function as well as it currently does. You're basically looking at this column just as a column, and it isn't. It's also an advertisement and, frankly, a potentially lucrative propagandistic tool, just like SDCC is, for example.
And Yxoque is absolutely right: you're demanding this column to be something it's not. Savor the Flavor was a Vorthos column. That is literally its full job description. That's how broad it was. And this is a Vorthos column. Just because it's focusing on ONE of the many things Savor the Flavor focused on does not mean it is an inadequate replacement. It can't. Because Savor the Flavor was not what you're demanding. It wasn't anything like what you're demanding! During previews, half the time Doug would just write about decks you could build with the new cards! You had literally no reason to expect that a new column would focus exclusively or even primarily on issues of design, because the last column was very scattershot in its approach. By the same token, it would have been absurd for those of us who like the column to have complained if we DID get a creative design column, because we had no reason to expect this specific format.
I'm not saying it's wrong for you to say the column isn't for you, but on the other hand I think it's absurd to say that this is betraying your expectations somehow. You shouldn't have had any expectations to begin with, beyond presumably an expectation of some minimum level of quality.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 1:30PM
#128
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Chronego, you're still missing two absolutely crucial points:
Not missing them, not by any means. I just place more importance on the points I made than on these two points. I care about a different side of things than the rest of you guys seem to. I didn't post what I did to say anyone else was wrong, or even to try and get the column removed. I merely felt that, since nobody else was taking the other side, it needed to be said. Heck, even if I'm the only one in the entirety of the readership of this website, an opposing viewpoint is still important because it allows a new perspective that theoretically leads to improving the original.
virtually no one liked Savor the Flavor by the end
I'd love to see your source for this information. As I recall, a lot of people were very upset when Savor the Flavor was discontinued, and I'm certain not everyone was upset just because "Now there's no Vorthos column in any form!"
I'm not saying it's wrong for you to say the column isn't for you, but on the other hand I think it's absurd to say that this is betraying your expectations somehow. You shouldn't have had any expectations to begin with, beyond presumably an expectation of some minimum level of quality.
And I think you're wrong to say I shouldn't have had any expectations.
From its advent, the Magic website has had its golden triumvirate of Design Team Column, Creative Team Column, and Development Team Column. We got to see insiders discuss the inner workings of making Magic from the three different angles. We were promised a replacement for the Creative Team column, and what we got is this. It's a Vorthos column, but not the Vorthos column.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 2:17PM
#129
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Date Joined:
Dec 27, 2009
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I think part of the problem is that given Magic's recent refocussing on the importance of resonance, the line between Magic design from creative's point of view and Magic design from creative's point of view became a lot more blurred than it was back in the dark ages of the Mirari saga.
Is there still lots of stuff that creative and only creative does? Yes.
Is there enough of that stuff (I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!) to fulfill the demands of a weekly column? Not as sure.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 25, 2012 - 2:34PM
#130
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Date Joined:
Dec 12, 2008
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From its advent, the Magic website has had its golden triumvirate of Design Team Column, Creative Team Column, and Development Team Column. We got to see insiders discuss the inner workings of making Magic from the three different angles. We were promised a replacement for the Creative Team column, and what we got is this. It's a Vorthos column, but not the Vorthos column.
...Um, what? This is just wrong. I've been reading the Magic website since just about its start--I remember some of the earliest Odyssey-era Mark Rosewater columns. There was NEVER a dedicated flavor column until Matt Cavotta started Taste the Magic. The only flavor articles were the storyline updates for each set, and the content in Arcana--which, you will note, is still around, and still doing a lot of the same stuff it did waaaay back at the beginning.
And if you think back, a lot of the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the column came from the fact that we had just found out the novel line was cancelled, in an offhand way from MaRo, and then we found out that Savor the Flavor was over. Hell, even I was upset about that, and I had basically stopped reading the articles. People were upset because suddenly Savor the Flavor was the last thing we had, and it was being taken away, too.
But I can't recall seeing a single person saying anything to the effect that they were sad to see Doug Beyer stop writing the column, and things Brady has said suggest to me that it simply wasn't pulling in readership. There was actually a giant thread over in Salvation dedicated to how much people there hated the column.
That is why I said "virtually" though. Sure, there were fans. But they apparently weren't significant enough from a pageview standpoint to justify keeping the column running.
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