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11 months ago ::
Jul 27, 2012 - 10:51AM
#1
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This thread is for discussion of this week's Making Magic, which goes live Monday morning on magicthegathering.com.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 29, 2012 - 9:21PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Mar 19, 2007
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This was a very enjoyable article, honestly the first to truly pique my interest in a while. Thanks for sharing!  PS: FWIW, the overly-cute articles are the ones I find myself too lethargic (not quite the right word..) to read. the facebook post ones in particular. Just saying.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 29, 2012 - 9:34PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Oct 13, 2009
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You know, Mark, you seem to have a gift for making even the most mundane, boring topics interesting. I clicked on your article expecting this to be one of your less-enjoyable articles (no Magic design or game design, the topics I usually tune in for, along with a bunch of stuff on celebrities, i.e., people I don't really care about), and while I found the topic to be pretty much what I expected, the delivery was top-notch. So kudos on a job well done.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 29, 2012 - 9:48PM
#4
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I've read this article for almost as long as I've played magic (over a decade now) and I've come to appreciate the personal articles Mark does. Getting to know him through other facets of his life helps me understand him better when he talks about his ideas for design. This article didn't teach me that much about him (I already had the impression that he is a humble and appreciative guy), but it did serve to make me even more jealous of him. Comedy tips from Louis C.K.? Meeting Phil Hartman? That's pretty damn awesome. What takes the cake is that picture with Jim Henson. I grew up loving the muppets and the great man who made them come alive. I wish I could have met him before he passed. Kermit singing "A boy and his frog" choked me up the first time I heard it. If my life turns out as intersting as Mark's I'll know I've done my fair share of living.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 29, 2012 - 10:03PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jun 27, 2005
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This crystalizes a lot of the thoughts (and responses) I've had about the same topic. I very much enjoyed it.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 29, 2012 - 10:05PM
#6
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Mark Rosewater is one of the all-time great storytellers. He is proof that people connect with people, not with ideas.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 29, 2012 - 10:21PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Jan 12, 2010
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I've always had a preference for the more technical columns about the nuts and bolts of design, but this is the one article I like most out of all the columns Mark's written. (It doesn't hurt that I had a little frisson of emotional elevation the moment I clicked the link to show Jim Henson's picture—he's one of the purest icons of raw goodness our culture has produced, and I cannot see him without getting a lump in my throat.)
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11 months ago ::
Jul 29, 2012 - 11:11PM
#8
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I started follwowing this game back during Revised and my interest waxed and waned over the years, until it hit a low point last year and the absurdity of the dual faced cards made me drop the game completely. I have a huge bookshelf of cards that have been gathering dust for the better part of a year because of that design "oddity" in Innistrad.
But having followed the game for so many years and the website even more closely, I still find myself occasionally drawn back to this site to see what's going on. I still see them overlooking the obvious issues with new player acquisition and core set design, but damn, Mark Rosewater is still just an awesome sonofagun. And then dropping that Jim Henson pic on us. Damn.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 29, 2012 - 11:47PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Feb 26, 2004
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The flipside to what Mark says about being friendly and approachable and so forth is that he also has to be a guardian; he protects the company from possible threats, he protects the IP of magic, and there's an aspect of intimidation to that. He can't be too friendly because he needs to retain the ability to say "no"; otherwise I could just go shake his hand and then guilt him into turning Magic into an achingly complex simulationist game which sells an entire lifetime supply of cards in a single box for five dollars, which is what I and pretty much only I want the game to be, and Wotco would go out of business while also cheesing off nearly every other fan. So if I went and talked to Rosewater, there's a distinct limit to how pleasant he could be toward me.
My New Phyrexia Writing CreditsMy M12 Writing CreditsAs far as the benefit of the rest of Magic is concerned, gold cards in Legends were executed perfectly. They got all the excitement a designer could hope out of a splashy new mechanic without using up any of the valuable design space. Truly amazing.
--Aaron Forsythe's Random Card Comment on Kei Takahashi 
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11 months ago ::
Jul 30, 2012 - 12:08AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Apr 19, 2006
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I always enjoy reading Making Magic, but this was definitely one of the columns I've enjoyed most. Fascinating. That Jim Henson pic got a "holy cow" out of me.
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