Abandonment
February 5th 2010 01:06
Remember when you showed up at the Worldwake pre-release this weekend past, and the organizers put you in an un-air conditioned room with only a couple of posters, made you sit still at little desks, and ordered you to “stop talking while the man at the front of the room is talking,” sending you on a long, psychotropic flashback to the hellish years of high school?
No?
Must just have been Tom Haddy and the other judges at Melbourne High, then.
Magic tournaments have always had annoying aspects to them: waiting for stallers and illiterates to finish their games before you could go on to the next round was always my least favorite. But Melbourne’s pre-releases have gotten a lot worse since I’ve been going to them. It doesn’t help that they used to be at places like RMIT’s main cafeteria or the Abbotsford Convent, where you were shielded from the elements and there were things to look at and places to eat, and are now in a spare room at a private school where all the doors are locked and the Jam Factory is just far enough away to make you miss the next round if you walk over.
It’s more than that. We used to have door prizes – for about two sets, until the organizers apparently decided it was too much trouble. We used to have representatives of stores set up at tables where you could buy, sell, and trade – until Chris and Isaac decided Meta Games was just for them and their friends. We used to not even feel the time passing – until some of the players at these things decided that conversation distracted them from “optimizing” a deck whose contents are based 100% on luck.
I’m a longtime player with a huge investment in Magic, and even I am fed up. Can you imagine a new player turning up last Saturday? What would someone like that decide Magic is like? You don’t need an MBA to know that running tournaments as though they were a day camp for high school students is bad marketing. It’s time for everyone who’s a serious fan to vote with their feet and with their money, and not give any of it to Russell Alphey or any other Melbourne pre-release organizer until they decide to treat us like serious fans.
No?
Must just have been Tom Haddy and the other judges at Melbourne High, then.
Magic tournaments have always had annoying aspects to them: waiting for stallers and illiterates to finish their games before you could go on to the next round was always my least favorite. But Melbourne’s pre-releases have gotten a lot worse since I’ve been going to them. It doesn’t help that they used to be at places like RMIT’s main cafeteria or the Abbotsford Convent, where you were shielded from the elements and there were things to look at and places to eat, and are now in a spare room at a private school where all the doors are locked and the Jam Factory is just far enough away to make you miss the next round if you walk over.
It’s more than that. We used to have door prizes – for about two sets, until the organizers apparently decided it was too much trouble. We used to have representatives of stores set up at tables where you could buy, sell, and trade – until Chris and Isaac decided Meta Games was just for them and their friends. We used to not even feel the time passing – until some of the players at these things decided that conversation distracted them from “optimizing” a deck whose contents are based 100% on luck.
I’m a longtime player with a huge investment in Magic, and even I am fed up. Can you imagine a new player turning up last Saturday? What would someone like that decide Magic is like? You don’t need an MBA to know that running tournaments as though they were a day camp for high school students is bad marketing. It’s time for everyone who’s a serious fan to vote with their feet and with their money, and not give any of it to Russell Alphey or any other Melbourne pre-release organizer until they decide to treat us like serious fans.
“I leave it in your hands.” – Alan Moore, Watchmen
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