Human capital
May 14th 2008 02:31
Fantasy settings are generally populated by the “standard” creatures – elves, goblins, dragons, fairies. Magic: the Gathering has all these and then some. Why should it matter in our context what creature type your cards are? Because some cards care about creature types, and give bonuses or penalties based on it.
Of course, there is another “standard” fantasy creature: the human. It’s the default race in games ranging from Dungeons and Dragons to Ultima Online to Morrowind. So when did the first card with the type human appear in Magic?
2003.
Is that the first time they made a card that depicts a human character? Oh my, no. There have been humans in the game since the beginning. It just took them ten years to acknowledge it mechanically. Shortly after the release of Mirrodin in 2003, an article on the Wizards of the Coast web site explained that in the beginning, they assumed that being a human was “implied” – if a card showed a human in its artwork and specified no other sentient race, it was a human and didn’t need to have the word on the type line. They were perhaps acting in accordance with their Dungeons and Dragons roots by assuming so, but I would argue they were actually moving closer to those roots by putting “human” on the type line of such cards as Dark Confidant. Race is also mechanically significant in Dungeons and Dragons, after all. Rangers are allowed to choose humans, or indeed any player-character species, as their racial enemy.
This would be the end of the story if Wizards of the Coast hadn’t been so timid on following through. The company’s articles have explained on a few occasions that they “can’t” give cards abilities like “Sacrifice a Human” or “Destroy target Human.” (Eldreth Veluuthra would not be happy with that decision.) I’ve often wondered why the heck not.
Is it because they don’t want children to be exposed to such things? Well, no. For every set since Ravnica, the boosters have had a little warning on them that recommend the game be played by people aged 13 or older. The rules are much too complicated to just jump straight in from the My Little Pony TCG, anyway.
Is it because they don’t want the game to have such a violent image? Well, no. They have plenty of cards that depict murder, war, torture, genocide, and people being set on fire.
Is it because they think that murder, war, torture, genocide, and immolation are acceptable as long as the victims are non-humans? Well, now we’re sort of getting somewhere – in the old days, some Christians didn’t like Magic because they thought it was linked to the occult, sort of a gateway activity to witchcraft. And one of the supposed practices of witchcraft is human sacrifice.
Some of the art from the old days didn’t exactly help, either.
Even this doesn’t entirely hold water, though. Take a look at the images of the cards Incinerate and Rout above. Did you notice that the guy being flash-fried and the crowd getting dive-bombed by the Phyrexian horrors both look decidedly human? I could get more examples, even. Which leaves one possibility: specific phrases like “Sacrifice a Human” and “Destroy target Human” are anathema in and of themselves. Which seems patently ridiculous, considering that Wizards also owns Dungeons and Dragons – in addition to Eldreth Veluuthra, the setting also features the human-eating Sahuagin, human-enslaving mind flayers, and human-sacrificing-to-gods-tha t-look-like-spiders Drow. Maybe they are intended for different audiences, but does it seem likely that there’s some part of the market for fantasy entertainment that is so much more resilient to things like that?
I’d venture to say that if humans aren’t going to be used in the same ways as other races, there’s not much point in having them in the game at all. I guess Wizards of the Coast needs to decide which is stupider: having to “assume” that certain creatures and characters are a certain race, or having a race that does nothing mechanically and takes up space on cards that could be used for other things.
Of course, there is another “standard” fantasy creature: the human. It’s the default race in games ranging from Dungeons and Dragons to Ultima Online to Morrowind. So when did the first card with the type human appear in Magic?
2003.
Is that the first time they made a card that depicts a human character? Oh my, no. There have been humans in the game since the beginning. It just took them ten years to acknowledge it mechanically. Shortly after the release of Mirrodin in 2003, an article on the Wizards of the Coast web site explained that in the beginning, they assumed that being a human was “implied” – if a card showed a human in its artwork and specified no other sentient race, it was a human and didn’t need to have the word on the type line. They were perhaps acting in accordance with their Dungeons and Dragons roots by assuming so, but I would argue they were actually moving closer to those roots by putting “human” on the type line of such cards as Dark Confidant. Race is also mechanically significant in Dungeons and Dragons, after all. Rangers are allowed to choose humans, or indeed any player-character species, as their racial enemy.
Dirty secret: most human creatures are not as good as this one
This would be the end of the story if Wizards of the Coast hadn’t been so timid on following through. The company’s articles have explained on a few occasions that they “can’t” give cards abilities like “Sacrifice a Human” or “Destroy target Human.” (Eldreth Veluuthra would not be happy with that decision.) I’ve often wondered why the heck not.
Is it because they don’t want children to be exposed to such things? Well, no. For every set since Ravnica, the boosters have had a little warning on them that recommend the game be played by people aged 13 or older. The rules are much too complicated to just jump straight in from the My Little Pony TCG, anyway.
Is it because they don’t want the game to have such a violent image? Well, no. They have plenty of cards that depict murder, war, torture, genocide, and people being set on fire.
Is it because they think that murder, war, torture, genocide, and immolation are acceptable as long as the victims are non-humans? Well, now we’re sort of getting somewhere – in the old days, some Christians didn’t like Magic because they thought it was linked to the occult, sort of a gateway activity to witchcraft. And one of the supposed practices of witchcraft is human sacrifice.
Some of the art from the old days didn’t exactly help, either.
Enchanted creature becomes a target of picketing by Billy Graham
Even this doesn’t entirely hold water, though. Take a look at the images of the cards Incinerate and Rout above. Did you notice that the guy being flash-fried and the crowd getting dive-bombed by the Phyrexian horrors both look decidedly human? I could get more examples, even. Which leaves one possibility: specific phrases like “Sacrifice a Human” and “Destroy target Human” are anathema in and of themselves. Which seems patently ridiculous, considering that Wizards also owns Dungeons and Dragons – in addition to Eldreth Veluuthra, the setting also features the human-eating Sahuagin, human-enslaving mind flayers, and human-sacrificing-to-gods-tha t-look-like-spiders Drow. Maybe they are intended for different audiences, but does it seem likely that there’s some part of the market for fantasy entertainment that is so much more resilient to things like that?
I’d venture to say that if humans aren’t going to be used in the same ways as other races, there’s not much point in having them in the game at all. I guess Wizards of the Coast needs to decide which is stupider: having to “assume” that certain creatures and characters are a certain race, or having a race that does nothing mechanically and takes up space on cards that could be used for other things.
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Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
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Fat Cult
Techbreak
Interesting point about the humans, though... I can see where they'd be reluctant to use people in the game...
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
Fun post, thanks for getting the Magic juices flowing again