A question of an answer no-one asked
August 23rd 2010 05:15
"It's a mystery. Broken into a jigsaw puzzle. Wrapped in a conundrum. Hidden in a Chinese box."
-- The Riddler, in Batman: The Long Halloween
I had this whole huge thing planned for a new Orb of Insight post. I was going to compare the struggle to keep Magic interesting and novel to other franchises, toss in a cool preview picture from Batman: Arkham City as part of some kind of elaborate example, and profit. However, Wizards of the Coast announced something on their website today that pushed that idea clear out of my head.
The announcement in question was for something called ”Grab ‘n’ Go Event Decks,” and the problem is not just that I resent clicking that link after seeing the Announcing logo and expecting something about Scars of Mirrodin or Elspeth vs. Tezzeret.
I also feel the need to point out that this is a perfect example of the contradictory messages I mentioned last week. Selling things that promise to be “strong, capable Standard-legal decks” smacks of pandering to the people who go on certain threads on certain forums to complain about the price of competitive Magic.
With all the discussion of Arkham City and the generally busy release schedule for the XBox and PS3, someone in the company may have done the math and figured out that this medium is far cheaper than competitive Magic. But as a market retention move, this is very misguided. If people do jump ship from tournament Magic to console gaming, it’s not likely to be solely because they can’t win. It’s also going to be because an immersive, interactive game world offers a greater return on investment, paid in daily installments of fun, than adding and subtracting one card at a time from your sideboard. And it’s going to be because they don’t know that there are other ways to enjoy Magic.
Grab ‘n’ Go Event Decks reinforce a model and style of gameplay that is disadvantageous to both players and to Wizards of the Coast. And since the company should also know a thing or two about collectability (cf. the Reserved List), they are not even likely alleviate the problems of mythic cards’ availability cited in those certain threads on certain forums. Why exactly do they even exist, other than to prove me right about conflicting marketing messages?
-- The Riddler, in Batman: The Long Halloween
I had this whole huge thing planned for a new Orb of Insight post. I was going to compare the struggle to keep Magic interesting and novel to other franchises, toss in a cool preview picture from Batman: Arkham City as part of some kind of elaborate example, and profit. However, Wizards of the Coast announced something on their website today that pushed that idea clear out of my head.
Well, mostly.
The announcement in question was for something called ”Grab ‘n’ Go Event Decks,” and the problem is not just that I resent clicking that link after seeing the Announcing logo and expecting something about Scars of Mirrodin or Elspeth vs. Tezzeret.
I also feel the need to point out that this is a perfect example of the contradictory messages I mentioned last week. Selling things that promise to be “strong, capable Standard-legal decks” smacks of pandering to the people who go on certain threads on certain forums to complain about the price of competitive Magic.
With all the discussion of Arkham City and the generally busy release schedule for the XBox and PS3, someone in the company may have done the math and figured out that this medium is far cheaper than competitive Magic. But as a market retention move, this is very misguided. If people do jump ship from tournament Magic to console gaming, it’s not likely to be solely because they can’t win. It’s also going to be because an immersive, interactive game world offers a greater return on investment, paid in daily installments of fun, than adding and subtracting one card at a time from your sideboard. And it’s going to be because they don’t know that there are other ways to enjoy Magic.
Grab ‘n’ Go Event Decks reinforce a model and style of gameplay that is disadvantageous to both players and to Wizards of the Coast. And since the company should also know a thing or two about collectability (cf. the Reserved List), they are not even likely alleviate the problems of mythic cards’ availability cited in those certain threads on certain forums. Why exactly do they even exist, other than to prove me right about conflicting marketing messages?
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