The new Duelist...

[Dune Echo]

Has anyone seen the new Duelist mag called Top Deck? Sounds just like what it used to be. Check it out on New Wave's front page.
God, discontinuing the Duelist was a freakin' joke and I'm not laughing. (Free booster with every issue!) Shoot me now. We have got to give WotC the kick in the pants before the mess up so far that our game is gone.

 

[Ferret]

I can understan why they did it this way: people were complaining about the dwindling coverage of Magic in the original Duelist, but WotC didn't want to relent while they had another hot product like Pokemon out. They want to milk Pokemon for what it's worth before it becomes another Netrunner or Battletech...now, they can have little or no Magic coverage and say "hey, we never promised full Magic coverage! Btw, heres a free Pokemon booster - why not buy more!!!"

-ferret

"...Marketing: the next great Evil..."

 

[TomB]

I think another reason for the switch in their minds was the fact that web sites like the Dojo and New Wave were so much more on top of things, like the Decks To Beat, and current strategy in the metagame. I think they just got tired of people making fun of their features like Picks and Tricks, Mr. Suitcase, etc. and they've decided to try and be more cutting edge.

I have to agree with Dune Echo on this. I feel that the Duelist should have remained a resource for people like us (even if we sometimes made fun of it! :-D), and if they wanted an online publication that was cutting edge they should have created a new one. By using the old name I'm sure they're just trying to get us to come over and check it out. What I saw of it wasn't terribly impressive, in fact it kinda' looks like the Dojo, but with a different color scheme.

Oh, and Ferret, have you priced Pokemon lately? Believe me, they won't be giving it away anytime soon, if a 200% markup (at least!) from MSRP is any indication. Those cards are already more valuable, as "in prints", than any Magic set I was around for, when it was "in print"! They even get 50 cents apiece for the energy cards (the Pokemon equivalent of lands in Magic)!

In fact, I seriously doubt that Pokemon will ever turn into a game like Netrunner, or Battletech, for a very important reason:

WotC R&D has nothing to do with it.

TomB
CPA Member
"I do not teach. I simply reveal."
-Daudi, Femeref tutor

 

[Ferret]

I'm still not holding my breath. Over the years there have been some pretty good games that filled the number 2 slot like Star Wars, Middle Earth, Star Trek, etc...the fun will fade - at least on this side of the Pacific in a few months...

-ferret

"...of course, the Japanese will keep it strong well into the next Century..."

 

[Waubers]

What I got from the woman at the WotC both is topdeck will be more humorus and have a lighter approch to Magic....hmmm just like inquest. I also head a rumor that IQ was out selling the Dulist 2 to 1. The inquest guys said that sales really picked up after they started covering comp games. And look WotC is now releasing computer games that they will surely cover. It sounds to me like Topdeck is WotC's answer to inquest. Personnaly I buy an IQ every month. Its really entertaining to read even if the decks they print suck. In my opinion IQ is written for the casual player, they publish articles on how a gamer should pick up chicks.

Waubers

Any mag that covers how to pick up chicks and the best Destiny cards has to be worth reading.

 

[Ferret]

I've always loved InQuest - I started reading it starting w/ the Premier issue and started buying it every month since Issue 3 (I also started buying The Duelist w/ Issue 3). InQuest has always been obnoxious and taken a "lighter look" at the world of gaming. At first they were just an attempt by Wizard Press to compete w/ Scrye by making a pricing guide. Since they had been doing price guides for comic books for many many years they felt they knew the topic the best, but you can tell they wanted to do more than just a copy-cat magazine, so they threw in weird articles like Total Chaos where they took the best card games out there such as Magic, Highlander, Spellfire!, and even Uno - Magic won that first year, but lost the next year to Rage of all things...

...and while The Duelist started moving way from the players and more toward the pros - and Scrye became nothing more than a quarterly piece of pulp that wasn't even that good as fire lighters - InQuest got better. Since they were a monthly (while The Duelist was just a Bi-monthly) they had to fill up their pages w/ articles so they talked about all card games - not just Magic (although, Magic will always be their favourite). When Magic articles started getting old they started covering RPG's and eventually computer games, and the mag kept getting better and better...

...meanwhile The Duelist knew they were losing the game. They changed to a monthly, but had nothing really good to show, so they brought in Pros to write for them. This was the beginning of their decline. They stopped articles about casual play like House Rules and began alinating a majority of their users: The Casual Players. Meanwhile, InQuest continues to embrace them.

The last gasps of The Duelist was when they tried to review computer games. I remember reading a review of Final Fantasy VII something like five months after it came out - and they got tons of the names wrong!

No, I don't think TopDeck will be another Duelist, and their Duelist Online will not be another Dojo. WotC lacks objectivity and I believe that they have no vision for this kind of thing...

-ferret

"Hell, I think we might get more hits than they will..."

 

[nekrataal]

I resubscribed to the Duelist right when they quite and they sent me a letter saying they'd give me my money back or subscribe me to Top Deck. In the letter they said that Top Deck will have a booster every issue, free pull out stuff that is hole punched for a binder (oh boy), 20+ Magic specific pages an issue and an occasional foil. I never particularly cared for the Duelist before, but I'm going to give Top Deck a chance.

 

[Tobold]

I found the "how to pick up chicks" article in the latest Inquest pretty insulting and condescending. "You're a gamer? You play both Magic and computer games? Then you surely need advice on how to talk to a girl!" How stereotype!

 

[Ferret]

Of course, it is! InQuest has always been sexist. They get mail (and print it) from lots of female gamers every month get hit with tons of bad press about it...but instead of appologizing or cowing to their readers...sure, it's childish, immature, and definitely sexist, but it shows a kind of integrity that I can admire - yet, still be disgusted by it...

-ferret

"...and they're usually kidding - about EVERYTHING!"