As sent to one Mr. Mark Rosewater.
Mr. Rosewater,
I have played Magic: The Gathering for a very long time now. I have been playing almost since its inception; I was a week too late to buy Arabian Nights boosters, but I've been a regular customer ever since. I have given everything to this game; my apartment is littered with commons that may never again see the light of day, the #1 thing that always stays in my backpack is my trade binder, and I have enough war stories from multiplayer games, tournaments, and other such things to fill up an entire e-mail of my own.
That's not the only way in which Magic has influenced my life. I was trading online long before there was a MOTL, in rec.games.iforgetthefullstring.etc. I far predate the Casual Players Alliance, though I am a moderator there (Istanbul) and am a regular contributor to MTG Salvation (same name). I wrote the prize-winning tutorial on how to play Magic (intended for someone who was searching the web for magic tricks and just sort of stumbled across the site) for the now-defunct magiccampus.com. I have organized tournaments in local game shops, I have organized casual get-togethers in which multiplayer games took place that were so large that you could end your turn, stand up, walk to the store, buy a drink, and return before your turn came around again.
And that's not even all for online. I was one of the original people in the Magic Online beta. I cheered when each and every Odyssey card got coded in, I was present for the Onslaught pre-release. I snickered to myself when Chuck's Virtual party (you know, the one to make up for all the crashes) crashed, I stared slack-jawed as the price of a Pernicious Deed hit the triple-digits in dollars.
I've been there. Black Summer, ProsBloom, blinding speed in Tempest and Urza block, the parachute that was Masques block, and the slow recovery of Magic that Invasion, Odyssey, Onslaught, and yes, even Mirrodin block represented. I've stood by Magic through its highs and its lows, played combo and control and aggro and loved all three of them, gone to conventions to play, discussed the game with people who didn't even know what Magic was. I've taught countless people to play the game - yes, I was a Guru - and bought box after box of product. I even collect Kezzerdrixes - 119 of the little fellas and counting.
So this is the part where you wonder what the heck I'm getting at. (Actually, that probably came quite a while ago, but bear with me.) This e-mail is in regards to the latest article in which Mike Long is nominated - yes, even being nominated is enough - for Hall of Fame status.
I am WOUNDED to the core, Mr. Rosewater. It cuts me to the quick to know that the game I love, the game I've dedicated more than a decade of my life to, has been reduced to this. Are we to welcome with open arms as one of the greatest people ever to play the game a man who might never have even gotten that far if he hadn't cheated? Let me say that again: CHEATED. There can be no denial that Mike Long was a good player, but if he had never cheated, or if he had been caught and enough action had been taken soon enough, he might never have gotten to where he did.
Was Mike Long influential? Oh, yes. Very much so. Mike Long was the first person to teach me that professional play came down to who could cheat the most without getting caught. He taught me that professional players could and would do anything, absolutely *anything* to win, including but not limited to cheating, harassment, and any of a number of other depsicable acts, and that Wizards of the Coast would politely turn their heads and just mutter under their breath, "Yeah, but look at the publicity he's generating!". Mike Long showed me that professional Magic play was not for me; that it was a cutthroat, no-fun, nasty version of Magic where you did whatever it took to win, bar none.
Is that the kind of person you want to commemorate in the Hall of Fame? Do you really want the first inductee to the Hall of Fame to be the man who forever soiled the concept of professional Magic: The Gathering play with subterfuge, chicanery, and other such behavior? In any other sport, they sure as heck don't reward you for cheating. In the Olympics, if they find out that you've been doing drugs, guess what? Those gold medals you won? GONE. In chess, if your opponent turns around and you switch the position of two pieces? You just forfeited the match. Mr. Rosewater, even CHILDREN...young children, playing on a playground...know that cheating is wrong and shouldn't be rewarded. Take a child to his peers and tell him to cheat, and you can count the minutes until he comes back crying because nobody will play with him anymore. Cheating removes the honor and honesty from a sport. It should never be celebrated or welcomed, and it should certainly never earn you a spot among the highest ranks of a sport's players! I consider cheating to be a cardinal sin, Mr. Rosewater. Akin to murder, if you like; rather than destroying a life, you've destroyed a game. And since the game, and the love of the same, is what we're talking about here...isn't that what the most relevant criteria should be?
The fact that Mike Long is even being considered seriously, truly hurts my feelings, Mr. Rosewater. It says a lot about Wizards of the Coast as a company that you would consider someone who has dishonored the game for its highest accolade. I urge you - I PLEAD with you - change your mind, don't further erode what respect I still have for Wizards of the Coast as a company.
Don't turn the Hall of Fame into a joke. Do the right thing.
