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August 06, 2007
A Comic Dai Linked Triggered The Need To Rant
So maybe I take the game too seriously, but this comic isn't funny. Dai showed it to me, and thought as a Magic person, I'd find it entertaining. But it really just shows a lack of comic guy knowing anything about Magic, really. He read a press blurb about Future Sight and that was it.
There's two reasons that Future Sight is neat. One is that it really does give a glimpse about what space future cards are going to go into. Sure, we might get one printed again, but just thinking about what could be done with some of these 1-shot mechanics over a whole block is just awesome to ponder and debate. The second is that it continued the overall theme of the block, being Past Present Future. Now, I know I've talked about how much I dislike Planar Chaos before, and that probably still holds true. But the whole idea of the themes of the block I can get behind. I can completely get behind the reason they printed "Giant Growth, Only Red" and so on. It's a good reason. It's just not exciting to me as a player. As a concept, it's exciting. Views of the future as a concept and theme, that's a soild idea that deserved to be made. Magic Guy in the last panel is right. The concept of seeing the future of a game you love is cool.
The other part I dislike about the comic is how it talks about them reprinting cards as screwing the consumer over. There's always a chance that you'll get another copy of a card you already have a set of, sure. But there is a very powerful and thriving aftermarket for Magic cards, and you can sell it for a fair cost, or trade it for cards you do need with minimal hassle. Plus, reprinting cards is extremely important to the game. Without reprints, recruiting new players to expand your player base would be difficult. They'd be at an extreme disadvantage, because the only way to get key cards would be to pay extremely high secondary market prices for them. Also, from a design standpoint, when you make an incredibly utility-style card like Stone Rain, it's a card that might need to be in a set for balance. You can't make another Stone Rain, because anything else would need to cost more to be fair. You need Stone Rain to fill that specific slot. Also, such cards like Stone Rain are iconic, and establish a brand. When you play Magic, you expect to see iconic cards like Serra Angel, Shock, and Giant Growth. Everyone knows what those cards are, and people outside the game are more likely to recognize them. Keeping them in the game is important for that reason.
Anyway, there's a stupid rant I felt compelled to write. And Dai is disagreeing with me that the comic implies these things, which shi might be right on, but I need to stop the argument now before I start getting angry, because I always seem to be angry when I get into arguments with hir.
Posted by poetfox at August 6, 2007 03:01 PM
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