By itself, this information is of limited value. We don't know, for example, how much of this increase is from the past year — or even if sales went up at all in the last year.
Don't you think this would've been announced last year if they had pulled it off then?
Stores being below, at or above capacity is only telling for the local scene in regards to players willing/interested in playing/trading at those venues. Personally I only set foot in mine when I want to buy something, and since most of my singles are bought online, that's pretty infrequently. I don't play there either, most of my games take place at a friend's kitchen table.
Not buying magic doubling again thing. Cities can only support so many LGS, and most LGS I go to are at 90-120% capacity when they rung magic events.
Also: the majority of my store's boxes (cases as of Innistrad) are sold to people who never show up to FNM. Kitchen table players who are intimidated by FNMs (lol) and shut-ins who buy cases and never play with other human beings are probably an invisible majority, before you factor in the people who pour money into digital content like DotP and MODO or what have you.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Underling Ethu's 263rd report read simply "Yes, my lord.Overwhelmingly, my lord." This marked the end of the Mirran-Phyrexian War.
If Hasbro had a $1 for every time someone said, I'd play MTGO if they had a new client... its comming. Just keep that in mind, and its going to be a lot more than $1.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
To realign to better support the program and help organized and premier play appeal to the most players, and make it an even more useful tool. If people are that serious that they're already trying to plan flights, vacation days and scheduling their life around the events, they probably should be following Maro and Aaron Forsythe's twitters as well.
But, "Everybody Panic" is more fun.
Yeah, it's rough, and the communication of it all left a lot to be desired, but if you actually go and read their twitter feeds, they're falling on their swords, admitting mistakes where they can, and trying to share as much information as they are allowed to. It's kinda hard to root against the guys because an angry mob that is a lot less impacted by the changes than they think or ever will are calling for blood and panic in the streets.
The comment in the last paragraph that the average tenure is 8 years somewhat calls unto question their claim that their marketing strategy is based around constancy pulling in new players because players dont play the game for long.
Eight years is a long time for someone to play a game. That, coupled with the claim that individual spending has gone up almost 20% calls into question the validity of the current changes, since, rather obviously, the previous sales model was working. Aaron Forsythe claims that the changes to the OP structure are designed to appeal to the greatest volume of players, but most people within WotC admit that casual players represent the gross majority of players. If the largest volume of players aren't playing tournaments and the bulk of money is made from them, why claim you're changing OP to benefit them?
That's interesting.. 16-24?
I've played from 16-18. From 20-24 and from 29-33.
The increase in spending is easily accounted for by 1) Mythic Rarity and 2) People with real paying jobs who think $100 for a box every few months is cheep because they are blowing that much or more at happy hour or at the links every week.
Is there a CCG that appeals to more older people than MTG?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
I've played from 16-18. From 20-24 and from 29-33.
The increase in spending is easily accounted for by 1) Mythic Rarity and 2) People with real paying jobs who think $100 for a box every few months is cheep because they are blowing that much or more at happy hour or at the links every week.
Is there a CCG that appeals to more older people than MTG?
Thats anything close to as widely popular as MTG? I would wager to educatedly guess, No. We regularly have fathers and sons and even entire families coming down to play in tournaments or otherwise. Magic is one of those games that even if you take a break from it for a few years, people have a tendency to come back to it. As other games wane in general popularity for those from ages 18+, magic continues to pile on the new and old players, which begets adding more of both, as magic is one of the few games of such that you rarely will ever not find someone to play with. Half of my sales of singles come from casual players/collectors, 40% come from standard players, and the other 10% come from legacy/Modern. And thats based off of a projected $150k in singles sales alone at the shop I sell at for this year. Since 2008 my sales have shown similar growth trends and the sheer amount of new players and old returning players has also mirrored this growth in the game. To me its nice seeing that magic has now so thoroughly cemented itself as the top CCG in all the world, and that the game continues to see such terrific growth, even after being around for over 18 years is danged impressive.
"Sales", while an important metric, doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. I'm sure if Ford sold all their card for $100, sales would go through the roof.
It's profit that matters, and Hasbro isn't making 80% greater profit since 2008.
"Sales", while an important metric, doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. I'm sure if Ford sold all their card for $100, sales would go through the roof.
It's profit that matters, and Hasbro isn't making 80% greater profit since 2008.
We dont know what their profits are. If you figure that their profit margins (a key metric) are approx the same, then, as their sales increase, so should the amount of their profits. Their margins may not increase, but the total profits would.
That said, the increase in sales can, Im sure, be attributed in part to many of the new products they have been putting out over the last few years, and of course with those you are going to have additional costs associated with them. Thusly its likely that with the increased sales its possible that their margins may have decreased some, though not likely significantly, but enough to probably not cause their profits to increase at the same rate as their sales increase.
I wonder how the global economy has affected this which tanked at the time their sales picked up.
... Cutting programs won't sell more product. What kind of logic is this? Sales is not the same as net profit.
And I'm fairly certain they've changed how they've spent money, not removed it entirely. Remember the free minimasters tournament they held?
The global economy tanking helped to consolidate the gaming market considerably. Those games that were doing well, but whos playerbase didnt hold a candle to the top games like magic, and yugioh, took massive hits (and many of such games eithor went out of business or stopped being produced during that time) and magic was there to pick up the players. Magic actually benefitted in its own way a great deal from the global economic issues, its also far better than most CCGs in one's ability to be able to cash back out their collection when cash is needed for much closer to full value. That, and even during recessions/depressions, people still look for ways to entertain themselves, so the popular games will continue to remain popular, as clearly evidenced by how well magic held up (and significantly increased in popularity) over that period of time.
Actually it's super easy. They buy product when they want, and keep a light tab on things like spoilers and "major" news like this. I have friends who haven't baught a pack since Ice Age that still play. I have friends that buy a box of each set yet never set foot into a shop to play. That's the thing with casual players... they are "untrackable" since many don't even have DCI numbers.
I have friends like that, they completely oblivious to what set magic is up to and refers to the current set as whatever they last bought which could be months or years off. When i see and invite them to come to prerelease/launch they join, they have no clue what they are walking into but enjoy magic as magic. I don't see them as the claimed 8 year consumer. Technically, I had cards pre urza block and didn't play till MTGO beta and actually bought consistent product from Rav forward without missing a set, except for cold snap. That would make me like a 6 yr player. I have friends that drop and come back in stretches, they don't add up to 8 either.
Keep in mind that a number of players who are casual players now may have been competitive players for a couple of years prior, and are now just enjoying slinging their EDH/Commander decks around the kitchen table or doing cube drafts.
Anyways, it's great to see Magic doing so well, particularly in light of the troubled economy. I've been playing the game since Revised came out (I was fourteen at the time) and it's been a part of my life ever since, and I can't see my interest waning anytime soon. It's probably people like me who skew the average span of interest upwards.
Everyone can't continually play magic as they use to unless it becomes their job, but would you say in terms of your approach to magic, playing/acquring, does it change to that of a casual player?
I think you might be defining casual and competitive differently than Wizards does - could be wrong though. I was shocked to find out that me, a guy that played tier 1 decks at FNMs every week for 2 years, was in fact "casual." I thought I was competitive but I was being competitive in a casual setting. There is the obvious "kitchen table" and EDH casual, but all those people that show up to weekly events and don't dedicate resources to PTQs, Pro Tours, and big events like that are still "casual."
So, pretty much 95% of MTGS.
That is a interesting point, although i would say if you play a competitive deck, you are a competitive player, you don't play jank decks because you care about winning. Whether or not its in tournament or amongst your friends. I think the concept of a competitive player has become viewed as someone trying to go pro or is pro.
My understanding of a competitive player is the same as hardcore gamer. A hardcore gamer can tell you multiple aspects of the game, a casual player will simply state i like this deck because, its cool in this way. Someone who is highly knowledgable and plays the game in the way the game was made to be played. You can tell someone is competitive if they can hold up a conversation and still make the right play compared to someone talking and basically they stop playing. I would consider you as a player running Tier 1 as someone who is competitive, but just doesn't go into alot of tournaments.
That is a interesting point, although i would say if you play a competitive deck, you are a competitive player, you don't play jank decks because you care about winning. Whether or not its in tournament or amongst your friends. I think the concept of a competitive player has become viewed as someone trying to go pro or is pro.
My understanding of a competitive player is the same as hardcore gamer. A hardcore gamer can tell you multiple aspects of the game, a casual player will simply state i like this deck because, its cool in this way. Someone who is highly knowledgable and plays the game in the way the game was made to be played. You can tell someone is competitive if they can hold up a conversation and still make the right play compared to someone talking and basically they stop playing. I would consider you as a player running Tier 1 as someone who is competitive, but just doesn't go into alot of tournaments.
I would disagree. People seem to miss the deliniation between a "competitive mindset" and "competitive". If you're taking Tier 1 decks to an FNM to win, or you play highly tuned decks against your friends because you like to win, that means you have a "competitive mindset"... you're the sort of player that fits well into the "Spike" psychological profile.
You're not a competitive player unless you turn in actual results against legitimate competition. Sure, the competitiveness of a FNM will vary wildly from shop to shop, but even if you win, you've still just won a small local tournament- with no real meaning other than bragging rights, a few Planeswalker points, and your share of what prize support was.
Unless you're playing at the higher levels of the game, you're not a competitive player. Unless you're testing for the bigger tournaments, you go on try at those big events, try to grind your points up, or do all of the things necessary to make your game the best it can be and be on the pro tour, you're not different than the guy on the golf course that brags about his single-digit handicap- despite the fact he's never played around anywhere other than the course down the street from his house, while cleaning his 30 grand set of Homna 5-Stars, the moving on to bragging endlessly about how he once beat the club pro.
Sure, the guy's got a MASSIVE competitive streak, has a decent bit of skill, but he is in NO way a competitive golfer. He doesn't even have a legitimate claim to even amateur titles.
You're not a competitive player unless you turn in results. Just like in golf, people are delusional about their success, and think they're much better than they are. Adopting the label "competitive" makes them feel better about themselves, just like many are thrilled to adopt the "spike" label.
Of course, that's a big reason why lots of these players ONLY will take teir 1 decks to FNMs and nothing further- they don't want to be shown they aren't legitimate competitive players. The big fish, small pond principle.
Looking to extend the reach of Organized Play actually could do well here- if you can get some of those "Big fish in a small pond" to leave their comfy little pond to try out the more open waters, you keep those small ponds from getting overfished, and make it a safer environment for guppies and minnows to start swimming into. Noone likes to lose- it's a fact that keeps those "casual competitive" players only at FNM level, and their presence keeps the "Kitchen table, uncertain of tournament play" out of the FNMs.
To another point, Knowledgable isn't the same as competitive. Is every judge a competitive player? Their whole raison d'etre is to be MORE knowledgable of the rules than the players, but unless they're taking a break from judging for a couple months to take a run at some PTQs, I don't really think you'd call them competitive players either.
All said, maybe it's a bias of mine that so many people just adopt the "competitive" and "spike" labels as a form of ego stroking, brag about how awesome they are, and then just turn every FNM into a less-skillfully played version of the latest actually competitive event.
Well someone is full of **** then, because the two facts don't add up. 80% of your base is new since 2008 = 3 year tenure. You'd need a much longer tenure than magic's full lifespan to make that 20% push the average to 8.
Also: the majority of my store's boxes (cases as of Innistrad) are sold to people who never show up to FNM. Kitchen table players who are intimidated by FNMs (lol) and shut-ins who buy cases and never play with other human beings are probably an invisible majority, before you factor in the people who pour money into digital content like DotP and MODO or what have you.
Yes, but doubling again is just absurd. To double again youre going to see close to double the amount of MTGO and FNM/tournament players as well then. There just isnt the infrastructure to support this in most areas. There wasnt even enough infrastructure to support the INN pre-release. All the MTGO PTQs are hitting the player cap already. There is definitely room for further growth, but not for it to double again.
That the player avg is 8 years thing is true, but the conclusion is entirely wrong. The avg length someone plays magic is growing all the time, because the original numbers are all based from the past. People just don't ever really quit magic. The avg length of time a person plays magic is there lifetime. There are large patches where they don't play, but that's not the point. Magic is not basketball, you don't get aged out of it. Ive seen guys in there 50 and 60s playing, and I think this will more and more become the norm as magic continues to stick around.
Well someone is full of **** then, because the two facts don't add up. 80% of your base is new since 2008 = 3 year tenure. You'd need a much longer tenure than magic's full lifespan to make that 20% push the average to 8.
They said that it grew 80% in the past 3 years. So if there were 100 people in 2008, then in 2011. there's 180 players now. The 8 year average is historical data from the player prior to the growth, and that they are using it to project the span of a new player. Granted they don't explain how they got the 8 year average but the data they used is possible since magic has been around for more than 8 years.
Core Game Brand: Mtg is important, right next to battleship the movie.
41% COS, now you know how much measure their approximate profits from revenue.
Random slides of mtg, very little mentioning of how mtg works or why. Leads me to believe that Hasbro sees mtg as a magical function box that spits out money.
If Hasbro had a $1 for every time someone said, I'd play MTGO if they had a new client... its comming. Just keep that in mind, and its going to be a lot more than $1.
Yup, this is exactly where I am about MTGO. It's not available on macs and it's still so needlessly complicated to use.
I would disagree. People seem to miss the deliniation between a "competitive mindset" and "competitive". If you're taking Tier 1 decks to an FNM to win, or you play highly tuned decks against your friends because you like to win, that means you have a "competitive mindset"... you're the sort of player that fits well into the "Spike" psychological profile.
Pretty much what you said. Mindset does not classify you in the eyes of Wizards of the Coast - tournament caliber and results does.
I play with some pretty hardcore competitive guys... that are not Competitive.
Yes, but doubling again is just absurd. To double again youre going to see close to double the amount of MTGO and FNM/tournament players as well then. There just isnt the infrastructure to support this in most areas. There wasnt even enough infrastructure to support the INN pre-release. All the MTGO PTQs are hitting the player cap already. There is definitely room for further growth, but not for it to double again.
I see what you mean. Doubling over the course of 3 years though doesn't seem as difficult... I would have to think that introducing a new rarity, and then printing Wallet Sculptor really did push that much product, but that seems like a stretch. The only thing I feel confident in see as a doubling factor is DOTP and it's online distribution. I don't feel as confident as using my demo as a measuring stick, but a lot of people I know have DotP on at least one console they own, and most of them haven't played Magic since 2003.
"Doubling volume" sounds vague enough. I'm not a business student or anything, so I'm not sure exactly what that means. Hell, for all I know, doubling the volume of MTG just means that they increased cardstock orders since 2008. Striking creatures indeed.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Underling Ethu's 263rd report read simply "Yes, my lord.Overwhelmingly, my lord." This marked the end of the Mirran-Phyrexian War.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Don't you think this would've been announced last year if they had pulled it off then?
Maybe it was. Is there coverage of what they said last year anywhere?
Practice for Khans of Tarkir Limited:
Draft: (#1) (#2) (#3) (#4) (#5)
and the ones around here are at maybe 30-40% so you can't really use it as a representative example of the whole.
My wife was on MTV with this video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUutIZg2EpU
WCommander EeshaBDrana, Kalastria BloodchiefBGGlissa, the TraitorBWVish Kal, Blood ArbiterRUNin, the Pain Artist
UGEdric, Spymaster of TrestWRBasandra, Battle SeraphBGWDoran, the Siege TowerBGWGhave, Guru of Spores
RGWUril, the MiststalkerGUBThe MimeoplasmUWGRafiq of the ManyWUBRGSliver Overlord
Also: the majority of my store's boxes (cases as of Innistrad) are sold to people who never show up to FNM. Kitchen table players who are intimidated by FNMs (lol) and shut-ins who buy cases and never play with other human beings are probably an invisible majority, before you factor in the people who pour money into digital content like DotP and MODO or what have you.
To realign to better support the program and help organized and premier play appeal to the most players, and make it an even more useful tool. If people are that serious that they're already trying to plan flights, vacation days and scheduling their life around the events, they probably should be following Maro and Aaron Forsythe's twitters as well.
But, "Everybody Panic" is more fun.
Yeah, it's rough, and the communication of it all left a lot to be desired, but if you actually go and read their twitter feeds, they're falling on their swords, admitting mistakes where they can, and trying to share as much information as they are allowed to. It's kinda hard to root against the guys because an angry mob that is a lot less impacted by the changes than they think or ever will are calling for blood and panic in the streets.
That's interesting.. 16-24?
I've played from 16-18. From 20-24 and from 29-33.
The increase in spending is easily accounted for by 1) Mythic Rarity and 2) People with real paying jobs who think $100 for a box every few months is cheep because they are blowing that much or more at happy hour or at the links every week.
Is there a CCG that appeals to more older people than MTG?
Thats anything close to as widely popular as MTG? I would wager to educatedly guess, No. We regularly have fathers and sons and even entire families coming down to play in tournaments or otherwise. Magic is one of those games that even if you take a break from it for a few years, people have a tendency to come back to it. As other games wane in general popularity for those from ages 18+, magic continues to pile on the new and old players, which begets adding more of both, as magic is one of the few games of such that you rarely will ever not find someone to play with. Half of my sales of singles come from casual players/collectors, 40% come from standard players, and the other 10% come from legacy/Modern. And thats based off of a projected $150k in singles sales alone at the shop I sell at for this year. Since 2008 my sales have shown similar growth trends and the sheer amount of new players and old returning players has also mirrored this growth in the game. To me its nice seeing that magic has now so thoroughly cemented itself as the top CCG in all the world, and that the game continues to see such terrific growth, even after being around for over 18 years is danged impressive.
It's profit that matters, and Hasbro isn't making 80% greater profit since 2008.
Where is this coming from? It's completely incongruos with the claim that 80% of the doubling is from new players since 2008.
We dont know what their profits are. If you figure that their profit margins (a key metric) are approx the same, then, as their sales increase, so should the amount of their profits. Their margins may not increase, but the total profits would.
That said, the increase in sales can, Im sure, be attributed in part to many of the new products they have been putting out over the last few years, and of course with those you are going to have additional costs associated with them. Thusly its likely that with the increased sales its possible that their margins may have decreased some, though not likely significantly, but enough to probably not cause their profits to increase at the same rate as their sales increase.
... Cutting programs won't sell more product. What kind of logic is this? Sales is not the same as net profit.
And I'm fairly certain they've changed how they've spent money, not removed it entirely. Remember the free minimasters tournament they held?
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
The global economy tanking helped to consolidate the gaming market considerably. Those games that were doing well, but whos playerbase didnt hold a candle to the top games like magic, and yugioh, took massive hits (and many of such games eithor went out of business or stopped being produced during that time) and magic was there to pick up the players. Magic actually benefitted in its own way a great deal from the global economic issues, its also far better than most CCGs in one's ability to be able to cash back out their collection when cash is needed for much closer to full value. That, and even during recessions/depressions, people still look for ways to entertain themselves, so the popular games will continue to remain popular, as clearly evidenced by how well magic held up (and significantly increased in popularity) over that period of time.
Read the OP's Link of the full interview?
Magic is starting to look more like WoW, the mmo not the tcg.
I have friends like that, they completely oblivious to what set magic is up to and refers to the current set as whatever they last bought which could be months or years off. When i see and invite them to come to prerelease/launch they join, they have no clue what they are walking into but enjoy magic as magic. I don't see them as the claimed 8 year consumer. Technically, I had cards pre urza block and didn't play till MTGO beta and actually bought consistent product from Rav forward without missing a set, except for cold snap. That would make me like a 6 yr player. I have friends that drop and come back in stretches, they don't add up to 8 either.
Everyone can't continually play magic as they use to unless it becomes their job, but would you say in terms of your approach to magic, playing/acquring, does it change to that of a casual player?
That is a interesting point, although i would say if you play a competitive deck, you are a competitive player, you don't play jank decks because you care about winning. Whether or not its in tournament or amongst your friends. I think the concept of a competitive player has become viewed as someone trying to go pro or is pro.
My understanding of a competitive player is the same as hardcore gamer. A hardcore gamer can tell you multiple aspects of the game, a casual player will simply state i like this deck because, its cool in this way. Someone who is highly knowledgable and plays the game in the way the game was made to be played. You can tell someone is competitive if they can hold up a conversation and still make the right play compared to someone talking and basically they stop playing. I would consider you as a player running Tier 1 as someone who is competitive, but just doesn't go into alot of tournaments.
I would disagree. People seem to miss the deliniation between a "competitive mindset" and "competitive". If you're taking Tier 1 decks to an FNM to win, or you play highly tuned decks against your friends because you like to win, that means you have a "competitive mindset"... you're the sort of player that fits well into the "Spike" psychological profile.
You're not a competitive player unless you turn in actual results against legitimate competition. Sure, the competitiveness of a FNM will vary wildly from shop to shop, but even if you win, you've still just won a small local tournament- with no real meaning other than bragging rights, a few Planeswalker points, and your share of what prize support was.
Unless you're playing at the higher levels of the game, you're not a competitive player. Unless you're testing for the bigger tournaments, you go on try at those big events, try to grind your points up, or do all of the things necessary to make your game the best it can be and be on the pro tour, you're not different than the guy on the golf course that brags about his single-digit handicap- despite the fact he's never played around anywhere other than the course down the street from his house, while cleaning his 30 grand set of Homna 5-Stars, the moving on to bragging endlessly about how he once beat the club pro.
Sure, the guy's got a MASSIVE competitive streak, has a decent bit of skill, but he is in NO way a competitive golfer. He doesn't even have a legitimate claim to even amateur titles.
You're not a competitive player unless you turn in results. Just like in golf, people are delusional about their success, and think they're much better than they are. Adopting the label "competitive" makes them feel better about themselves, just like many are thrilled to adopt the "spike" label.
Of course, that's a big reason why lots of these players ONLY will take teir 1 decks to FNMs and nothing further- they don't want to be shown they aren't legitimate competitive players. The big fish, small pond principle.
Looking to extend the reach of Organized Play actually could do well here- if you can get some of those "Big fish in a small pond" to leave their comfy little pond to try out the more open waters, you keep those small ponds from getting overfished, and make it a safer environment for guppies and minnows to start swimming into. Noone likes to lose- it's a fact that keeps those "casual competitive" players only at FNM level, and their presence keeps the "Kitchen table, uncertain of tournament play" out of the FNMs.
To another point, Knowledgable isn't the same as competitive. Is every judge a competitive player? Their whole raison d'etre is to be MORE knowledgable of the rules than the players, but unless they're taking a break from judging for a couple months to take a run at some PTQs, I don't really think you'd call them competitive players either.
All said, maybe it's a bias of mine that so many people just adopt the "competitive" and "spike" labels as a form of ego stroking, brag about how awesome they are, and then just turn every FNM into a less-skillfully played version of the latest actually competitive event.
Well someone is full of **** then, because the two facts don't add up. 80% of your base is new since 2008 = 3 year tenure. You'd need a much longer tenure than magic's full lifespan to make that 20% push the average to 8.
Yes, but doubling again is just absurd. To double again youre going to see close to double the amount of MTGO and FNM/tournament players as well then. There just isnt the infrastructure to support this in most areas. There wasnt even enough infrastructure to support the INN pre-release. All the MTGO PTQs are hitting the player cap already. There is definitely room for further growth, but not for it to double again.
They said that it grew 80% in the past 3 years. So if there were 100 people in 2008, then in 2011. there's 180 players now. The 8 year average is historical data from the player prior to the growth, and that they are using it to project the span of a new player. Granted they don't explain how they got the 8 year average but the data they used is possible since magic has been around for more than 8 years.
Bruce Willis in GI Joe, awesome!
Core Game Brand: Mtg is important, right next to battleship the movie.
41% COS, now you know how much measure their approximate profits from revenue.
Random slides of mtg, very little mentioning of how mtg works or why. Leads me to believe that Hasbro sees mtg as a magical function box that spits out money.
Just because your LGS is packed for FNM doesn't mean magic can't double it's sales.
Yup, this is exactly where I am about MTGO. It's not available on macs and it's still so needlessly complicated to use.
Pretty much what you said. Mindset does not classify you in the eyes of Wizards of the Coast - tournament caliber and results does.
I play with some pretty hardcore competitive guys... that are not Competitive.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
I see what you mean. Doubling over the course of 3 years though doesn't seem as difficult... I would have to think that introducing a new rarity, and then printing Wallet Sculptor really did push that much product, but that seems like a stretch. The only thing I feel confident in see as a doubling factor is DOTP and it's online distribution. I don't feel as confident as using my demo as a measuring stick, but a lot of people I know have DotP on at least one console they own, and most of them haven't played Magic since 2003.
"Doubling volume" sounds vague enough. I'm not a business student or anything, so I'm not sure exactly what that means. Hell, for all I know, doubling the volume of MTG just means that they increased cardstock orders since 2008. Striking creatures indeed.