hmmmm this might be the right forum to post this its kind of a rant

[magicman_moe]

ive been thinkin after i visited the flamers forum
and after what one of members here
said something about wishing all the pokemon
players in his town would turn to mtg players well,
i think that it would be a good idea for mtg
to just stay where it is.
becaus of some good reasons:

1.it will become trendy.
thats reason enough to hate anything and i dont want that to happen to one of my favorite things in the world. just look at how pokemon is now. id play it if it was actually good,but i kinda think its sorta stupid anyways

2.if it became a trend wotc would start mass producing too many cards.
hmmmmm im not sure if i put that right heres what i mean.
wotc would be so rushed over the new found popularity of
mtg that they would start producing too many cards. and what would happen is that they would do it too quickly and start to burn out of ideas and start printing crap cards that have no real meaning just to produce their product
and then mtg would lose its real credibility as a good game,mtg stock(if they have one that is) would plummet,etc bsbsbsbs

3.PRICES WILL GO UP!
and i think yall know what that means. we would haveta quit temporarily or permantly
cuz heres an example
mtg booster pack 3.99 to 2.99
pokemon booster pack 15.00
(now im about to use one of the 7 dirty words here youve been warned eheh)
now i say FUCK that big time! that would be totally uncalled for. besides me and you guys know we dont wanna shell out anymore money for our mtg habit(god im makin it sound like a drug habit heheh)

and finally
4.wotc would ultimatly just shut down
i think that explains it all
the cards no matter what set even alpha would be worth toilet paper
imagin seeing someone you know wiping their butt with a mox or a black lotus
wouldnt that piss ya off?!
well i think that im done with this rant i thought this would be the appropriate forum to post it
what im trying to get across is
JUST KEEP MTG UNDERGROUND MAN
this should be as good as it gets for us the loyal mtg players i dont wanna see snot nosed kids with a shivan dragon in their hands EVER!
ok im really done better post this damn thing before i go off again heeh
GIMME FEEDBACK IM STARVED FOR OTHER OPINIONS ON THIS SUBJECT

 

[Seeker of Truth]

magician_moe:

I want to reply to what you said, but I'm having a hard time finding the words at the moment. Suffice it to say that I think your estimation of the disaster that awaits Magic if it goes "mainstream" is a very typical idea among the younger generation, one that not only applies to Magic, but to many things that younger people hold dear, like music, TV shows, places to hang out, etc.

What is so wrong with having a little bit of societal acceptance for a change? Do we all need to remain locked in our little shell, with the same clique of 5 or 6 players, and keep our little secret locked away from the rest of society? Is that what we want? Well, perhaps it is what some people want. And that is the whole point, isn't it? That in the end, we don't want other people stumbling in on our little secret, because the more people that know about it, the more we risk having the cover blown off our game, and then, ruination!

(Extended analogy alert) This situation with the "mainstreaming" of Magic is kind of like the life of a vampire. The vampire likes its cover of darkness, it keeps its movements hidden from most of the world, except a few knowledgeable souls, and it shuns the harsh sunlight, for it would mean certain death, and discovery of the vampire's secret life would also lead to that same fate, so the vampire prefers to remain in hiding, in secret.

However, there is a problem in the vampire's undergroud life. It needs to feed. It needs new blood to keep itself alive. As much as the sunlight would destroy it, it also would wither away and perish if it cannot seek out new victims. Those victims, having been drained of their blood, become vampires themselves, joining the small circle of those who know the secrets of the darkness.

Eventually, two things can happen. One, someone discovers the vampires' secret, exposing them to the light of society, which destroys them, or, there would come a time when everyone in the world would be a vampire, all part of the same underground society.

And I think that that's the goal of WotC with Magic. Vampiric imagery notwithstanding, I'm sure it's not in WotC's plans to suddenly try to make Magic "turn pop" by totally dumbing it down or "cutesifying" it; rather, WotC is hoping that we, the players, don't just stick to our little cliques and not share our secrets with others. When no new players come to the game, the game eventually withers and dies, as older players gradually move on to other things, leaving fewer and fewer players to play the game. Thus, we NEED new players in order to keep the game alive.

To say that us older players are all we need to keep Magic going is short-sighted. What you describe is stagnation, and such a situation would be just as devastating to Magic as a total commercialization would be. It's really important to get MORE people involved in Magic, not less, otherwise, the game cannot possibly survive.

So fine, keep Magic "underground" if you want. Just don't sit around with your weekly gaming group and complain about the fact that no one is playing Magic anymore; get out there and invite more people into this little web of shadows we call Magic.

By the way, I hope the vampire analogy didn't confuse anyone too much...

 

[Spiderman]

Hehehe...

I must say, magic_moe, that what you wish will not be, simply because it IS a goal of WOTC to make Magic "mainstream" (however you may define the term). You can tell this by the evolving nature of the tourney scene and simply by the establishment of the Pro Tour (and ESPN2 coverage and apparently, commercials though I have yet to see one).

Aside from that, I don't think your 2 is going to happen because even in Magic's "heyday" (I guess the boom during Ice Age - '95) they didn't mass-produce cards (and I guess you need to define how much is "mass-produced"). Apparently they're keeping to their 3 expansions a year schedule.

3 will happen a little, no matter what, that's inflation. But I can tell you again that early expansion booster prices rivaled that of Pokemon's of which you quote (Arabian Nights to The Dark). Basically Pokemon is at that stage.

But nice rant!

 

[magicman_moe]

thanks for the comments
hey seeker thanks for the comments too i like what ya said and no it didnt confuse me at all hehe
what i was sayin though i dont hmmmm
well if it went mainstream that would be kinda cool cuz id have more people to play and junk like that
but
im talkin about the big mainstream
where its just popular for but then just dies out and some of the older players get pissed off about that and just quit playin altogether
i kinda know people like that and id hate to see that happen
cuz i guess its just me or something i tend to like underground stuff more than mainstream junk
well thats it for now
yall gimme more comments i think i started something good here like a good debate tell me what yall think man you guys can do better than 2 replies hehehehe
i know yall can ive seen stuff like the pie post get more replies than anything sides the card suggestions and stuff like that

 

[Duel]

Look, there's a difference between a game that starts out outside, and makes it without any major renovations, and one that's made for the mainstream. Music is a perfect example. Look at the boy bands (Backdoor boys, N'suck), look at brittany spears, christena aguilaera, brittany spears, jessica simpson and brittany spears (I'm upset. I just heard her reffered to as "the voice of a generation") And you think "Mainstream's awful." Then look at Eric clapton. Look at the beatles. Look at Wierd Al! He's mainstream, now! Look at the fantastic bands and artists that are mainstream because MAINSTREAM CAME TO THEM. That's what should and will happen to magic.

 

[Seeker of Truth]

Duel:

I think you've got the right attitude about what should be considered "mainstream". Although I don't have anything against pop music (off topic), I get what you're saying that sometimes there are things that start off trying to be mainstream, but not in the "hey, look, we're mainstream! You have to like us!" kind of way.

So in that sense, magician_moe, I think that Magic is supposed to become "mainstream", because it has been a goal of the powers that be that Magic become widely accepted. However, the way Magic is becoming "mainstream" is through the praise and interest of people who came to Magic out of their own accord, not because they were told that this is the next big thing. And there's nothing wrong with that, because Magic has grown the "right" way.

 

[magicman_moe]

ok ok i see yalls points
very good i think though im kinds dissapointed this is all this topic got is just 5 replies minus my replies oh well i guess but i guess its all cool