The FlavOracle was an experiment launched back in 2002 on the original Magic: the Gathering official website.
The objective of the experiment was relatively simple, but ambitious for its time. It would provide official flavor text for Magic cards that lacked space for flavor text on the physical card.
To add an extra layer of both complexity and awesomeness, fans would be able to submit ideas for flavor text, and then vote on their favorites.
This wasn’t just meant to be “honorary flavor text” either, it would be the real thing. Winning submissions would be included in Oracle, the official database of all Magic cards.
So what happened to The FlavOracle?
In brief, the experiment was a failure.
Keep in mind that as stated earlier, The FlavOracle was incredibly ambitious for its time. It was launched at a time when a website was more a destination, rather than a place to interact. Early social media sites like MySpace existed, but they weren’t prevalent like today, and definitely not a tool used by respectable companies like Wizards of the Coast.
Basically, the concept was fantastic, but it lacked the technology to succeed in its time.
If The FlavOracle failed, why talk about it now?
Because it is no longer 2002, and technology and internet culture have both advanced more than a decade since the original experiment concluded.
It’s time to launch The FlavOracle again, and see if it can reach its true potential.
To start off, let’s keep things simple. Each week this blog will post a card that lacks flavor text. Fans will be able to submit their flavor text suggestions as comments or (preferably) reblogs of the post. Submissions will be open for one week from the initial post.
After that, a compilation post will be made with all submissions (excluding submissions with profanity or offensive content) for fans to vote on. Voting will be open for one week, and fans can vote for as many submissions as they choose, but should not vote more than once for a single submission.
Votes will be tallied and a winner announced at the end of the week.
So at the beginning of each week, there will be three posts to expect:
A Magic card lacking flavor text, open for submissions
A compilation of the submissions for the card from the previous week, open for voting
Announcement of the winning flavor text from the card posted two weeks prior
What happens to the winning flavor text?!
At this point… not much besides a feeling of satisfaction and fun. This time the experiment is being started by fans, not official Wizards of the Coast staff, so there’s no current path to get the flavor text officially added to Oracle.
If this whole thing is unofficial, then what’s the point?
Well for starters, it’s meant to be fun. As with many projects among the fandom, the chance to be creative and engage with other fans is the real drive and motivation here.
In addition to the fun, it’s also meant to illustrate to actual Wizards of the Coast employees that this IS something that fans want enough to engage this time around. After all, it’s one thing to ask for something, but actions speak louder than words.
So instead of asking, let’s just work our own magic and bring The FlavOracle back to life!!