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THEENKS
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who’s helped me create a community for MTG through this tumblr account.
My project was beautiful and my presentation went swimmingly thanks to all of your communication.
Im going to keep this blog up and running.
Have a few posts coming up!
My friend Charles surprised me at work with some booster packs.
Magic Players Spotlight
To get started, I would like to give a little preface for these questions. I am currently taking a class in digital media and have the task of creating a digital community and following over the course of the semester using a platform with a cause. With the help of my professor, I have chosen to concentrate on my experience, a woman’s journey, through the predominantly male oriented culture of Magic: The Gathering.
These questions will be the beginning of an outline, basic information-nothing too detailed. I will most likely follow up individually to continue a stronger narrative. Thank you, again, for being apart of this journey with me.
1. Please state your name, pseudo-name or preferred reference. Kim
2. What age did you begin playing MTG? 23 (I have been playing for a year and a half, I think)
3. Why did you become interested in MTG? I played for the first time with a couple friends in college. At the end of the year someone left all their Magic cards behind in a dorm, so I took them home, started building decks, and got hooked purchasing cards.
4. Do you remember your first experience of buying a pack of cards? Not specifically. But generally, it was maybe 15 years ago when I was a kid and the Pokemon TV show was popular. I was REALLY into collecting Pokemon cards, but I didn't play the game. When I got a little bit older Yu-Gi-Oh became a thing and I collected and did play that for a while. I knewMagic was a thing but I didn't have any interest in playing. No one my age played Magic. It seemed like a thing for grown ups.
5. What was your first game experience like? Good? Exciting? A disaster? Confusing? My first experience playing Magic was through a multi-player Commander game. I didn't really want to play, but I wanted to socialize and that's what my friends were doing, so I played. It was kind of fun, and I think I even won (I think they went easy on me). I wasn't planning on getting into Magic, but then I found those leftover cards in a dorm and it just sort of happened.
6. Who did you play with? I first played with some college friends, but I play again until I got those cards the summer after we graduated. All my college friends moved out of town so I started going to the local game shop where I met new people to play with.
7. Have you ever experienced a prejudice due to your gender? I don't think I've experienced any prejudice, though sometimes I wonder if people think things about me based on my gender, especially when I was first learning and was kind of slow to get the hang of it. Now I fit in like one of the guys.
8. Do you think gender influences game play at any point? When I started I felt like I had a lot more to prove because I was a girl. I was always the only girl at the shop I started playing at. Luckily this was in a very small town (rural Iowa, a town of 10,000 people) so I got to know everyone really quickly. Starting out it was kind of a weird environment for me. The environment was (and in my current location, is) extremely masculine (crude language, 99% guys, dirty/gross) but at the same time almost emasculated due to the fact that guys who play Magic are usually the opposite of what society (at least American society) considers the male archetype. All the crude language, tons of junk food, and obliviousness to issues of cleanliness was really weird to me at first. It was hard for me to be myself at first, so I was very shy and timid (and often confused). I'm not sure a guy playing for the same time would display these characteristics in this environment, and staying timid and quiet definitely came into my playing as I was learning. But now that I know every and everyone knows me I feel pretty at home in the game shop. The boys are crude. I've learned to love them anyway. I went back to my old game shop last week for the first time in months and was greeted by several fist bumps. I feel pretty at peace there now that I've established my niche. And now that I've proven that I'm smart and can make decent decks and can have fun, I feel like I'm totally accepted. But it's weird. It's like I'm accepted as one of the guys, not as a girl. I don't know if it's like that for other women who play Magic. I have a pretty masculine gender representation and everyone knows I'm pretty gay, so maybe that's why I feel like I fit in as one of the guys now. Idk. I don't feel like gender influences how I play the game anymore, at least not when I'm in a familiar space.
9. Are you apart of a local community of MTG where you live? I was when I still lived in my college town. Now I know a few people and see some of the same faces at the two shops in my new town, but these shops aren't small and local like my first shop, so it's harder to develop community. You don't get people walking a couple blocks from their homes and hanging out at the game shop all night like you did in my old town. Here people mostly come for tournaments or to buy specific cards, or they come with specific friends, whereas at my old shop everyone was friends with everyone. We would go to the shop to hang out even if we weren't playing Magic.
10. How often would you say you play? I usually play with a friend or two every weekend.
11. Do you follow any particular players on various platforms? No. I don't hardly follow Magic at all. I don't look up decks are anything like that, just put together my own decks and let my friends borrow them so we can play each other. I don't really have time or money to get too into it. I do enjoy following Mark Rosewater on Tumblr, though.
12. Do you play competitively? Not often. I find tournaments to be pretty stressful. Also, I don't like playing more than four rounds. My old shop would have three or four rounds, which was perfect. My new location usually has 6-8 rounds, and I just don't have 6-8 hours to spend at Magic tournaments. I love playing with my close friends in my apartment, though. It's very casual.
13. What has been your favorite card that you’ve encountered thus far? Oh god. What a hard question. I started at the Khans block, but I really love the Theros block, especially the gods. I love anything indestructible. I'm also really into tribal decks. You know what. Ezuri Renegade Leader is my favorite card. Great for legacy elf decks, commander decks, and tiny leaders decks. I also love little annoying deathtouch creatures. Typhoid Rats and Deadly Recluse for the win.
Thank You so very much! I appreciate your contribution!
***Magic player in Des Moines, IA***
Magic Players Spotlight
To get started, I would like to give a little preface for these questions. I am currently taking a class in digital media and have the task of creating a digital community and following over the course of the semester using a platform with a cause. With the help of my professor, I have chosen to concentrate on my experience, a woman’s journey, through the predominantly male oriented culture of Magic: The Gathering.
These questions will be the beginning of an outline, basic information-nothing too detailed. I will most likely follow up individually to continue a stronger narrative. Thank you, again, for being apart of this journey with me.
1. Please state your name, pseudo-name or preferred reference. Melanie or asketchyeducation
2. What age did you begin playing MTG? I start playing around 22 (I'm 24 now)
3. Why did you become interested in MTG? My boyfriend heavily encouraged me to play even though I was very intimidated by it all. But once I built my own deck, I was hooked.
4. Do you remember your first experience of buying a pack of cards? My first buys were mostly single cards to supplement my boyfriend's collection. But I did buy my own deck builder box eventually. The bookstore I work at sells them so it wasn't intimidating.
5. What was your first game experience like? Good? Exciting? A disaster? Confusing? I had to read all the text a million times because I was playing my boyfriend's (fairly complicated) zombie deck. And of course I basically had to play with an open hand because I had to show him the cards so could explain them to me. I'm pretty sure he let me win though? I've since learned that that is his strategy for getting new players to keep wanting to play--let them win the first time. Haha, it worked.
6. Who did you play with? I play mostly with my boyfriend and also his cousins when we go to visit them. Otherwise, we've started a MTG game night at my work. It's mostly coworkers and their SOs right now, but we're getting other people from the community. I'd like to keep it very casual and unintimidating, but I'm not in charge.
7. Have you ever experienced a prejudice due to your gender? Not directly, but I know I'm not interested in playing in big tournament and the like because I am a casual player and female. I've seen enough white boy gatekeepers online in other games/fandoms to be wary.
8. Do you think gender influences game play at any point? With the women I play with, I think it effects our deck building and accordingly our play. Some (not all) of us female players value the aesthetics and thematic quality of cards that we put in our decks. Being cutthroat winner isn't our only goal, we also want to build a deck that is cohesive thematically--and has great art.
9. Are you apart of a local community of MTG where you live? The group I mentioned above is the closest to a community albeit a fledgling one.
10. How often would you say you play? It tends to ebb and flow, but recently it's been three or more times a week, ranging from one game to hours of games.
11. Do you follow any particular players on various platforms? I follow some people on Tumblr, but I've only just started to.
12. Do you play competitively? No
13. What has been your favorite card that you’ve encountered thus far? My friend gave me a foil Serra Angel with artwork by Rebecca Guay. It's gorgeous and fairly hard to get a hold of (it was part of a From the Vault release), so it's one of my favorites. I also love my Terminus card. It kills all creatures on the field, so it's an exciting game disrupter.
Thank You so very much! I appreciate your contribution!
**Magic Player from Seattle, WA**
(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OufI4Hdps_c)
Actually won my first game with Nahiri. Probably one of the COOLEST moments in my journey through nerdom because my blog is named after her.
My room is being consumed by various stacks of Magic cards. Any recommendations on how to properly store them?
Me and my friend Travis playing at our local game shop, The Arena. Enjoying the new packs for The Shadows over Innistrad release this weekend. Anyone else gotten a chance to see the new cards?
