Entropy

[theBruce58]

Hey, gang--

I've noticed a disturbing trend across the 'net. Hopefully this post will jinx it all, and the posting will return...

For the past week or so, there has been *nothing* to look at, unless its been at the CPA. (That other website) that I write for has been "temporarily" closed for nearly a month. The other big names have posted nothing but tournament reports and 'tech chatter for so long, it makes you want to retch.

So, that brought me to expand my search and jump out onto all the major search engines: Yahoo! MSN, Webcrawler, Excite, etc, etc.

I put in a search for Magic: the Gathering+fan fiction, just to see if there's anything out there. Surprisingly enough, there wasn't.

So, I expanded to just Magic: the Gathering, and got the same twenty or so websites that haven't been updated since last year, plus the usuals, which we've seen the same type of report over and over and over and over and over again on...

Shoot, just today, I was looking through (another website) and found a report on tinker. Well, tinker being one of my favorite decks, I read a bit about it, and apparently, there was a big duel between the two legendary players Maher and Finkel both using a tinker deck. That sounded kind of cool, so I searched, but couldn't find any trace of this legendary battle. So, when the actual really cool duels take place, you can't find them (easily), but when so-and-so from another anonymous PTQGrandPrixInvitationalWorldInternationalWhatHaveYouChampionship rambles for two paragraphs about 'tech, hey, they've got that!

Basically, this leads me to the conclusion that the quality of "stuff" out there (outside the CPA) regarding Magic has dwindled to such an abysmal point, I'm not anticipating the future of the game.

So; do y'all feel that there are two distinct camps? The tournament folks and everyone else? Do y'all feel that Magic is returning to a stable, limited kind of environment with the same amount of players or do y'all feel it's dying or at an all-time high or what? Seems to me it's gotten pretty stagnant, just wanted to touch base with the folks outside my head,

 

[Hetemti]

There are three kinds of magic players.
1)
Living on the net, copying the decks, winning the PTQs, "Good" players have said so much, told so much, and expounded so much that they have run out of things to write about.
2)
Playing at lunch, using commons for bookmarks, and enjoying the many uses of cards like Tarpan, "scrubs" don't care what John Finkel was wearing or where Zvi went to eat before he came up with a deck that everyone will play next week, and frankly don't care if The Dojo, The CPA, Magic Campus, Phyrexia, MtgNews, ad nausium cease to exist or even ever existed.
3)
Us.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

[FoundationOfRancor]

Im number 2 except for the whole not caring about CPA.
I do hope things pick up once the invasion set comes out or we hear more aobut it.

 

[theBruce58]

FoR--

The press for Invasion is touting it as "the bomb." While we don't have the benefit of the actual cards, there are several card leaks that seem pretty nice. The counterspells listed on MTGnews seem pretty wicked, indeed.

However, I recall one of the artists for Wizards commenting on a card he had rendered called "Death Bomb." If they print something called "Death Bomb," I think I'll risk the law suit to spam the beejeezus out of Wizards. This card was obviously invisioned by a 13-year-old with an IQ to match his shoe-size. Might be Rosewater.

The precon deck names I have to admit are likewise unappealing. Wizards target audience is obviously not me, or anyone I know, if this is the kind of flotsam that makes it past their editors.

And "Kicker"? This is an ability? I thought it was a punchline to a joke, or perhaps a position on a football team? Ugh...

I don't know. Maybe I'm just not interested in the whole thing anymore. It seems like every idea they come up with makes me more and more ashamed of this game.

And, to be honest, I would assume that Wizards target audience is most likely your typical high-school level male, which I'm not, and have not been for a long time.

Maybe I should take up chess?

 

[nodnarb24]

Tag Guard

You should take up chess it is a cool game. I am a typical high-school level male. From what i have seen invasion looks like a cool set and i'm lookin forward to it.

 

[Spiderman]

In answer to the first post, I only really check the Dojo and we all know how that has been lately with the turnover in editors. Regarding websites in general, it could be just a matter of the people-in-charge being slow to update (unless they have a history of updating daily and then suddenly slack off). For instance, I'm sure the Dojo gets tons of stuff from people but only a small matter (if any) is put up. In other words, people have stuff to say but the website is the choke point.

On the other hand, perhaps there IS nothing to say. Either people ARE mindless zombies and are waiting from the "pros" the latest tech (and the pros are reluctant/tired of dishing it out) or nothing really new has been added. Who knows?

Regarding your reply, I'd personally reserve opinions until the actual set comes out, not basing it on rumors. For instance, artists are almost never given the real name of the card, they're given the playtest name and a description. So Death Bomb may or may not actually be in the set. Same goes with mechanics. Cycling was originally "planeshift" while testing, and shadow went through numerous names like ethereal and astral.

When Invasion comes out and the names are the same, then you can re-post your concerns.

 

[Gizmo]

The MBC block has odne a lot to smash internet stuff for Magic. The set is so bad there is literally nothing to say - there are no new decks to make from the cards since Parallax Tide gave us a good Replenish deck - that`s 6 months. I was a regular feature writer for Starcity, but since February haven`t been able to find a single thing worth writing about.

And MTGNews have (somehow) got hold of a commons sheet for Invasion so we know a little bit about the new set.

 

[FoundationOfRancor]

I persoanlly think theres alot to say with MBC, I love it.

On Topic (Sorta):
I agree with you on "kicker" Bruce! I think it should be named "reserve"-that makes sense and it doesent sound as dumb. I dunno...

 

[Cateran Overlord]

MM is an excellent set, much better Urza's evil garbage. The point of MBC was to try and make creative decks possible again Gizmo, not just give us more 'net BS.

Actually look at the cards and try, don't just take up the crappy 'net player attitude and write it off as terrible.

 

[nodnarb24]

Tag Guard

You know what overlord, your in the tag game which i just figured out so i tag you by reaping your soul with my soul reaver.

 

[theBruce58]

Folks--

I have an update. Meridian Magic, aka Cathy Nicoloff, is shutting its doors on internet Magic. Kind of ironic, hot on the heels of this thread, huh?

Seriously, lets re-examine the effects of entropy, one of my most morbid interests in thermo-dynamics. Entropy never stops, never ceases, until a state is equally distributed throughout an environment.

For example, throw a pocket of heat-energy into a sealed environment of cold. Will the environment get warm? Nah. It'll equally distribute, dilute, until it is imperceptible, and therefore, things have changed, but only in so much as the heat-energy was able to dilute equally throughout the environment.

Equating that with this thread; internet Magic is the sealed environment. Right now, its cold, without a doubt. We're all hoping for Invasion to introduce a massive pocket of heat-energy into the environment to warm things up. The problem is, we have no idea how hot or cold this set is going to be, so we're left with the cold environment.

Some would criticize speculating on this. Perhaps, but who cares? This is a discussion forum, so we discuss. We speculate. We muse. What will it amount to? Not a damn thing, but, again, who cares? These are airy nothings in a life without substance.

Now, back to the example; Cathy made some valid points in her "sign-off," but, I don't think she was completely aware of it at the time. The major sites are turning more and more into "portal" sites, what I call "link hoes." (Actually, I don't use the word "hoes," I use something worse, but I won't post it here, ) Which are all fine and good, but what's the point of a link-exchange if there's nothing to link to?

It seems, more and more, everytime a new article is put up, it's linked across every major site like carrion waiting for a bit of fresh meat. To put things simply, the environment right now is so slow, so cold, there is absolutely nothing else to do. Once something new comes up, its big news, even if its nothing more than garbage, content-wise.

So, we've identified the problem. What will it effect? Not a thing, really. The tournament crap (or lack thereof) is probably *killing* the tournament crowd, but for the casual folks, and the folks who don't even care about the internet Magic scene, this amounts to less than nothing.

Which kind of comes back to something that I've already posted an article about; casual folks will be around a lot longer than the tournament crowd will. When the sales drop and the pro-tour prizes get scarce, the tourney crowd will abandon it. They simply won't care, it won't be worth their time, they'll all be out collecting baseball cards or something. They'll sell their collections on eBay for a pittance (wow, can't wait for that!).

And, the casual crowd will go right on like nothing ever happened,

 

[Phyrexian Pie-Eater]

Angus. In that movie the lead character by some freakish coincdint(and movie magic) manages to counter enthropy. A little red dot placed in a pool of white stuff takes over the white and wham! its all red. just saying.

 

[Duel]

I'm a high-class scrub: I use Rares for bookmarks!

Right now, I'm reading Eon, and it has an alladin's lamp stuck in it.