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[Nightstalkers]

I have been noticing that some of the local stores are hosting tournaments of MagiNation, Mage Knight, and Lord of the Rings CCG. Now to the point, we need more life blood so we get somepeople who understand this game just as well as some of us (you not us) understand magic. Brilliant! We'll have the place teaming with life once again.

Sorry for the long off period, our new system seems to have just one more bug. No matter how much Raid we spray in there.

 

[Notepad]

You bring up another cruel outside influence, Nightstalkers, that of kiddie games. Damn, I go to my local card shop and YuGiOh makes it so the Magic players always get pushed off to the side, sometimes having to take refuge in the junk area of the store.

Then again, Magic is weak right now, anyway. Were those YuGiOh players not there, we'd be something like 3-7 players (varies by week) not able to run a tourney, and with the sudden focus of the store owner on us, we'd be kicked out rather than cloaked by the YuGis.

The solution, I think, is not in converting other gamers, but in somehow appealing two two different categories: The heart of what we love; and the common link we may share with other gamers.

This is not to say we should cover other games. A few months ago I woulda been like "Hell yes!" to the idea, and slapping up Jyhad articles. Now though, I have a better perspective with dealing in newspaper media during crisis.

The solution isn't in getting people to like you in the first place, its getting them to like about you what you already do, even if you have to tweak what you do a little bit.

Damn, its three thirty in the morning, I'm about to call in sick to work (I hate the friggen super flu, or whatever the hell this is), plus I wouldn't have any ideas normally. But, when I asked Spidey what had larger readership that normal here, he mentioned interviews.

Could somebody among us work on getting interviews? It will be hard, certainly. But when you look at it, its appealing to people who already like us, and not trying to convert the alien masses.

Rather than trying to set a standard, or be a focus of hardcore casual gaming (please forbid the idea from ever manifesting...the "regulation" of casual gaming is something I fear), or cover other games in the hope of getting new readers, we should just stick to what we've liked the best.

Interviews are one way. And since I'm tired and lazy right now, all I'm gonna try to think far enough to mention. What makes you warm and fuzzy when you read it? What makes you read an article over any other? What is it you would come back weekly, or even daily, to see?

If we can answer those questions as they pertain to our general audience, I think we can work on a solution.

My two cents, though. Tired, momentarily uncreative, and ready to puke up my medication...

-SeFRo

Ferret: Sorry man, we had two reporter openings, but they've been filled. We do have openings a lot, though...but a high turnover rate (and me being senior reporter) sort of say something...maybe. There is currently a desk receptionist position open, if you wanna be a secretary, though

 

[Notepad]

To quote the movie "Hook" up there in the title. The site, and accordingly to a small degree, the content of this site, needs direction.

That means an active editor, and most certainly a copy editor. An editor would do so much for helping the site have a vision to follow, post up "needed articles", and to diplomatically work with other sites. A copy editor would help just as much, as we really need to clean up the articles that do make it up, and we need to clean them up a lot.

This is not a solution to the problem, but it helps a lot, as we sort of do need a focus-leader.

The hitch, however, is finding someone insane enough to work as either position as a volunteer.


-SeFRo
...who is smacking his head in pain from the lightning bolt...

 

[Spiderman]

The "lull" I'm talking about deals strictly with here - this site specifically. There hasn't been any substantial ongoing Magic discussions here in quite a while. I don't know about Magic in general and other sites since they are tourney based and that's not really my interest. Maybe there's a Magic "lull" game-wide, who knows. But if this is supposed to be the casual site, there really shouldn't be a "lull"; tourneys happen at specific times but everyone should be able to get together with their friends and play some games or two.

The problem with casual, though, is it has no focus whatsoever. Everyone has their take on "how to really play casual." Everyone and their dogs makes up stupid formats (myself included...anybody remember Type X?) that have no purpose except to waste the reader's time. Its only the formats that get money backing (5 Color) or the ones which WotC backs (Highlander/Casual Format One) stick around for anybody to actually try out, and work out the kinks so they're worth playing.

This however pretty much nails it on the head. Since casual is so disorganized, people might not care about other people's games and if the people writing don't get any feedback or comments, they might conclude that it's a waste of time to write.

I don't see what's wrong if we open this to other games - say CCGS and Pokemon and YGO and happen to get some of them interested in Magic. I remember somebody saying that they outgrew Pokemon and Harry Potter and wanted to know what Magic was all about. I also think it's curious that Pokemon and YGO came from a caroton that hooked kids first to get interested in the card game, while Magic just really has... the card game.

I would gladly step aside if someone wants to do those editor things; I think they should be done also and I just don't have the time to do those either. I just have enough to approve or reject articles

 

[train]

I'm starting weekly and daily articles... so I'll do anything I can.

 

[Nightstalkers]

I'm not sneaking back into WotC to get any interviews! not since they caught me making out with a box load of foil promo's from the back office's. Those were the good times.

We have a wierd internet connection and don't have the resources to stay up to date with the CPA anymore. We've been out for about a week the last time the system went down and still have a network to repair as it is, so don't expect anything.

I think that we need to get back to our roots and have people appreciate the Type I tournaments instead of the money grabbing Type II monster. The point is, Type II is great, but it you keep buying the cards for the deck, you've got about a year until you get screwed outta your money and have to sell them and buy from the newer set just to participate in the new tourney.

Most people think that Type I is dead, while some would scoff at the idea that you had even brought up Type I in a conversation. The point to all things magic is the attempt at having an enjoyable game. Just last week I had participated in an event that was Type II; The player count was 7 until a security guard stepped in and desided to play for sure. Now I'm an experienced gamer from the Type I area and think that twenty people is alittle small to be having just one tournament, but eight is like having a crumb off the cookie for me.

Try to be kindly to your fellow Magic players, and be nice to the different types of play. You never know what might strike your fancy one of these days and have you kicked out for being mean to the players.

This is your friendly Stalker, Nightstalker, signing out.

 

[Jigglypuff]

On the subject of articles, I could start writing my article series again, except that I'd have to change it to just "Hidden Gems" because I don't get to play MP as much anymore.

(- Steve -)

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

Spiderman: I really understand your concern about this. So instead of arguing about yes other games! or no other games! like I did last time (I think I was for them but I don't remember) I'm just going to suggest something.

Originally posted by SeFRo
From my experience in newspapering, when editorial says "Readers, we really want to know what you think" it really means "Readers, we need you to submit filler."

I agree.
But this site has always been filler. Interesting filler but filler.
Because what is "filler" can be fabulously interesting but not directly related to the topic.
So we need to let people come and post filler. With the intention of posting filler. Magic-related filler.

Originally posted by SeFRo
Why? I think its because they overspecialized. I think Ferret is wrong on what killed Dojo. It wasn't expansion, it was overspecialization. Getting rid of the humor area and stiffling casual articles, and a tighter focus on hardcore tourney coverage destroyed them. We see it with Star City and Brainburst now.

Overspecialization is bad. So is underspecialization.
We need a focus. But not too large a focus.



So we should focus on having not ONE focus, but a bunch of different foci (focuses), dictated by us forum members.
(After all this site is effectively maintained by a guy who says very little -- not that there's anything wrong with that Ed, seriously -- and the most frequent poster, who disagreed some with the founders in the first place but decided to come along... I don't know if we can get much founder input, let alone follow it. Of course you can talk too Ed, and Ferret you were a founder right? but Zadok and baron sengir and child of gaea and those people aren't really here.)


I just had a sudden idea for a way to do this. Each week (or two weeks or something) we could make a list of a bunch of ideas... and make a new forum section (Magic related at least for now) by voting on what it should be. Then at the end of the week we can move those posts to an archive for this sort of thing. If you have to move all the threads manually then we could limit the number of threads, or we could just put it all in one forum and ask people to spill over into other places for discussion later.
Or we could... make things interesting... and delete it.



What we definitely need to do is ignore specialization and write.
We have a large enough membership for this for now... IF we get people to stay here, and talk.

EVERYONE READING THIS POST!
Hi.
Go post something about Magic.

We'll look at it and we may agree or disagree but it will be something interesting that comes out of it. We may learn stuff; you may learn stuff. No one will yell at you.


We can and should appeal to all kinds of script kiddies, as long as we don't bring them all at once. Because with every 10 (or whatever) script kiddies is an interesting person who might stay awhile. But (s)he might only come after hearing of this place somewhere else.

At some point we need to get the word out like we did at the dojo.

 

[train]

"Magic: The Gathering" has 17 letters and 1 punctuation mark in it's game title...

There - I posted something about Magic!!!...

Seriously though - I'm trying... how many others are submitting articles...

Maybe we can have so much to read that people browsing through Magic sites get trapped here forever...

Oooohhhh... Perish that thought... We don't need a lot of Kobolds running around...

 

[Ferret]

Okay, fine. I give in! Let's just ditch Magic and set it on an equal plane w/ all other games.

Let's open up a forum for all other card games w/ specific ones for games that are selling more than Magic these days - after all, money is everything.

While we're at it, let's open up a video games forum. I want to tell everyone how kewel my Diablo II character is. While I'm at it, I'll challenge everyone to deathmatch duels w/ Unreal. Yeah, I'm loving this.

Even better idea: Let's ditch the whole 'casual' thing. I mean if someone doesn't have the time to focus his whole life on the game then why should they be allowed to have a place to post their opinions. Yeah, this is great. We can affiliate ourselves w/ a company that throws tourneys so we can gain even more prestige.

Soon, we'll have 2000 new messages a day, at least 20 articles, and thousands of users that none of us will know or will ever want to meet in our lives.

What a brilliant idea!

-Ferret

"...mmmm! That's good satire!"

 

[Nightstalkers]

*Turns Ferret into a burnt muffin*

Spidey, you need to close the doors to the mental institution or start handing out riddlin to some of us unbelievers.

 

[Notepad]

Hey, Thallid Ice Cream Man, you seem to be going in the right direction. Lemme piggy-back and alter a bit: How about a writer team forum, where we can discuss whats needed, or discuss our ideas ahead of time. Only authorized writers (featured writers...as other sites have) could acces it. I have seen this limited access stuff done in other vBoard forums, so it can easily be done here.

On other things, I still agree with Ferret. We need to keep away from other games.

What do we do? We do need some sort of focus. How about we write casual articles only for a certain set of known casual formats. All other rules sets can be covered as house rules rather than new formats.

I suggest:
-General Type I casual (just casual gaming in the broad Type 1 field)
-MTGO formats (a few of them now, and certainly we can fetch a lot of support there, especially since they are supported by WotC, and online, both of which mean a constant feed for us if we can access that niche)

Anybody have any other ideas? I think we should focus there.

 

[Spiderman]

Ferret: You make me LOL. Here we are, with me saying *I* give up about trying to change this place and others making suggestions, and here's your post about (sarcastically) changing your mind and opening up the site more. Which pretty much comes out of the blue...

Soon, we'll have 2000 new messages a day, at least 20 articles, and thousands of users that none of us will know or will ever want to meet in our lives.

I can guarantee this will never happen even if we open this to all games. Guarantee.

TICM: I'm not sure I understand what you mean by voting on topics of discussion and making a new forum of them? Why not just keep the ones we have and sort the threads there?

Jigglypuff: That'd be great!

SeFRo: I think that'd be fine, only like you said before, how can you "write" about casual Magic? I mean, you have the house rules and you just.... play. Do you write about interesting decks? Interesting plays during a game? Bad plays during a game but still made you laugh? Not laugh? Cards that should be banned in some house rule format?

BTW, I still have your cards for a writing contest...

I will do all I can to support y'all in this "Magic revival" despite my private opinions, but forgive me if I remain pessimistic; like I said before, I've seen this all before last year and people said they'd write and post, yadda yadda, and nothing happened. I think the same is going to happen here so please prove me wrong.

 

[Ferret]

As I said before, I invite a compromise:

Expand the forums to allow more topics. Set up additional forums for other CCG's. I have no problem w/ that. Expand the 'General Gaming' to RPG's, Video Games, and even table top games - just keep them as general as possible as most games (with the exception of mainstays like D&D don't last that long in the popularity department).

-Ferret

"Fair enough?"

 

[Spiderman]

I appreciate the offer, but I feel more is needed to support it or else it's really not worth doing. For instance, changing the mission statement to allow front-page articles about games. Merely adding forums won't do that much and right now with our low traffic they can easily be handled in General Gaming.

I'd rather just focus on one area (in this case, Magic for now) than trying to do both "half-baked"

 

[Ferret]

For instance, changing the mission statement to allow front-page articles about games.

Let's get something straight here: The Mission Statement SHOULD NOT CHANGE! The front page should remain Magic Oriented. What part of that do you not understand????

This is a site created by Casual Players, of Casual Players and for Casual Players. This site was created to be a haven for people who play Magic for casual reasons. It is the only site of its kind. There are literaly THOUSANDS of websites dedicated to video games where anyone can post a review. There are THOUSANDS of fan-sites for other card games (none as popular as ours). If someone wants to post on one of those boards, let them. But, I prefer (as do many other people that have chimed in) that we keep the site focused on M:TG. Maybe, one day, when Wizards decides to retire the game then we can change our mission statement.

-Ferret

"what a great site! I can't help noticing how much you look like everyone else!"

 

[train]

I can't help noticing how much you look like everyone else

I try to blend in... bu tsometimes my Texan mouth and attitude set me apart from everyone else!...

I'd agree on the mission statement statement that Ferret made...

There could be a Line or two on the front page that says we also dabble in other games/archtypes... but nothing that should take up much space...

 

[Spiderman]

I disagree. Most of the Founders have moved on. I don't see why it's too hard to understand that perhaps the site ought to move on as well.

I get the impression you think it's going to turn into something like Gamespy or such. All I'm envisioning is "little" articles about other games that members here play and what to talk about. I dabble in Warhammer - perhaps I write an article concerning dwarf tactics and against other races. And other people here who play might respond with their own. It doesn't necessarily mean we go out to the official Warhammer forums and drag everyone here...

Keeping the mission statement is fine, but when it's inhibiting potential growth, there's nothing wrong in revising it. And IMO, this site needs it. It's just stagnating at best, slipping into its dotage at worst. Kind of reminds me of the Dojo...

 

[Nightstalkers]

Having small articles about other games is just fine with me, even the others are slowly agreeing with your ideas. But my main worry is having another slum in something else and getting swamped in another.

Why can't we just try to get people into the other games as well? Hm, what an idea. Currently known games: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: The Gathering, Dragon Ball Z, Marvel Hero Clix, Legend of the Five Rings.

Here is a suggestion, if you learn magic, you will most certainly pick up on another CCG just as quickly,

 

[Ferret]

Here is a suggestion, if you learn magic, you will most certainly pick up on another CCG just as quickly,

There's a big difference between 'learning' a new CCG and actually playing it. In order to play another CCG you have to make a rather sizeable investment in the new game - and the average Casual Player does not have that kind of dough to throw around...

Here is a suggestion, if you learn magic, you will most certainly pick up on another CCG just as quickly,

All of the Founding Fathers of the United States have been dead for about 200 years - does this mean we should go ahead and re-write the Constitution? No. The spirit of the site must continue. I'm still here. TheOrgg will return soon, and of course Ed Sullivan is always watching over us.

-Ferret

"Hey! Mom & Dad are on vacation! Let's wreck the house and see if they notice."