Hey Mark, the recent ask about player complaints reminded me of some things that have been irking me for some time now, and I feel it's time to get them off my chest. Apologies if this feels a bit rant-y, I will try to articulate my thoughts as best as I can: To me, card games (I'll try to give Magic examples but I think the general concepts of this can be applied to any card game) have always tried to be a lifestyle hobby. Something that continously puts out new content for the audience to engage with on a regular basis. Every week (or even every day ) you are able go on the official sites and check new card reveals, new annoucements or articles, check social media to see what other fans are posting, watch videos of your favorite youtubers engaging with the game, join online spaces where you can chat with likeminded people and share ideas, use an online database to find new cards for your deck ideas and brew new decks, go out every friday (or other days) to your locals and participate in regularly schelduled tournaments, become part of the local playing group, talk with your local group in their own private chat group, maybe organize some private events in days where the store isn't hosting any and keep playing even more that way. All of this over time becomes a habit, it becomes part of your weekly (or daily) routine. It's something you get used to doing on a regular basis, like going to work or going shopping and such, just that you do this for leisure instead of necessity. There's an entire culture that forms around card games that's arguably greater than the game itself. Saying things like "just ignore sets you don't like" feels dismissive of all of this. It feels dismissive of the way card games have been encouraging the audience to engage with them ,and of the entire culture that formed around them. Im not just being told to ignore the card sets themselves, im indirectly also being told to stop engaging with the game in the way that's become routine for me. I'm being told to ignore card reveals and other news that have to do with that set. I'm being told to stop going to local tournaments while that set is the current one. I'm being told to see my new friends less often.
Ignoring parts of a game you dont want works for something like a board game, where you buy the expansions you want, stash everything on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere, and only pull them out once in a blue moon when you have a big group of people at your house and you need something to entertain them. Once that's done , you stash everything back and don't think about it again until the next time youre in that situation. Card games, to me, just don't work that way. They're more than just a board game that uses paper cards as game pieces. Theyre not something i can just ignore for long periods of time and then jump back in like nothing happened. The main appeal of card games to me is the lifestyle hobby and community culture that forms around that. Ignoring the sets I don't like just isn't a good solution because it creates the even larger issue of making card games not be a lifestyle hobby anymore.
If I play along with this advice and try to only engage with the sets I like, the end result just doesn't feel the same. There is no more weekly routine now. Now instead there's chunks of time where I engage with the game like I used to, but also large chunks of time where I'm completely cut off from the game. Large chunks of time where there is no more routine. And now that the routine is broken, coming back feels a lot harder. The motivation isn't as strong anymore. There's so much stuff I missed I feel out of the loop. I almost feel like an outsider again. And this negative feedback loop feeds in on itself and makes me even less motivated to come back once I took a break. It just doesn't feel like a good solution to anything. It just makes things worse. Thanks for reading all of this and for always engaging with the playerbase in all the ways that you do, it makes a world of difference and it really makes Magic feel unique compared to other card games. Take care of yourself and have a nice day.
Not making use of elements you don’t want doesn’t mean stepping away from your routine or the game. For example, you can still meet up with friends and play your Commander game every week at the same time and the same place.
Your deck doesn’t need to have the latest thing for you to enjoy playing it. And if you want to explore, Magic has over 30,000 existing cards already printed that you can look through to find new things to do.
Magic has always been about customizing the elements you most enjoy to get a great game experience. Skipping the latest set, if that’s just not your thing, it just another kind of customization.
