A new leaf
December 22nd 2011 01:32
Observations not only disturb what is to be measured, they produce it.
-- Pascual Jordan
Most areas of gaming have what you might call “vintage enthusiasts.” There are still people playing Dungeons and Dragons with the first or second edition of the rules. For every obsolete video gaming system, there is a community devoted to its games (very devoted). As such, the Magic world’s obsession with the most recent of everything truly stands out.
Sure, we have formats like Vintage and Legacy and Commander and Modern that make use of older cards, but we don’t have a structured way of playing that truly appreciates older cards. We don’t have a movement whose goal is to explore and enjoy vintage Magic sets beyond the five to ten cards per set that were “pushed” for competitive constructed. This is, apparently, an inevitable consequence of structured ways of playing: they attract the competitive element (which overlaps largely, but not completely, with tournament players), who are driven to “solve” the format.
2012 is just around the corner, and I think it’s time for Magic to return to its roots. Not in the M10 sense, which Aaron Forsythe and friends hyped so greatly before distancing themselves from its principles in the next two core sets, but in terms of our relationship to the various expansion sets and to Wizards of the Coast itself. When you buy a product, you become its owner, and are legally and morally entitled to play with it however you want, not based on what the DCI says is legal or on what Luis Scott-Vargas says is good. This year, let’s all try to use the internet a little less and our own judgment a little more. Let’s try to pick cards based on what we like, not on the date printed on the bottom of the card or how many of them were counted in the last tournament. Let’s try to make Magic our game again, instead of someone else’s that we aspire to.
Happy holidays.
-- Pascual Jordan
Most areas of gaming have what you might call “vintage enthusiasts.” There are still people playing Dungeons and Dragons with the first or second edition of the rules. For every obsolete video gaming system, there is a community devoted to its games (very devoted). As such, the Magic world’s obsession with the most recent of everything truly stands out.
Sure, we have formats like Vintage and Legacy and Commander and Modern that make use of older cards, but we don’t have a structured way of playing that truly appreciates older cards. We don’t have a movement whose goal is to explore and enjoy vintage Magic sets beyond the five to ten cards per set that were “pushed” for competitive constructed. This is, apparently, an inevitable consequence of structured ways of playing: they attract the competitive element (which overlaps largely, but not completely, with tournament players), who are driven to “solve” the format.
2012 is just around the corner, and I think it’s time for Magic to return to its roots. Not in the M10 sense, which Aaron Forsythe and friends hyped so greatly before distancing themselves from its principles in the next two core sets, but in terms of our relationship to the various expansion sets and to Wizards of the Coast itself. When you buy a product, you become its owner, and are legally and morally entitled to play with it however you want, not based on what the DCI says is legal or on what Luis Scott-Vargas says is good. This year, let’s all try to use the internet a little less and our own judgment a little more. Let’s try to pick cards based on what we like, not on the date printed on the bottom of the card or how many of them were counted in the last tournament. Let’s try to make Magic our game again, instead of someone else’s that we aspire to.
Happy holidays.
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