Actually, bending and damaged cards are classed as faulty because they can't be used in a deck. If the damage is severe enough to tell cards apart, which with bending cards from amonket they are, it is a big problem long term.
They are going to have to reprint the majority of the cards from the last few blocks on new card stock.
On the subject of employees not liking how the company is run, I wonder...
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Actually, bending and damaged cards are classed as faulty because they can't be used in a deck. If the damage is severe enough to tell cards apart, which with bending cards from amonket they are, it is a big problem long term.
They are going to have to reprint the majority of the cards from the last few blocks on new card stock.
On the subject of employees not liking how the company is run, I wonder...
This might be a good excuse to ensure that every existing Magic Rare and Mythic is reprinted with a holo-stamp foil in order to prevent counterfeiting as daunting of a task that would be especially in regards to the kind of repercussions it would have toward players and collectors. It'd be like paid DLC in video games, nobody would want to repay the same or different amount for something they'd already own unless the DCI or Sheldon Menery's EDH Rules Committee says that it's a requirement in order to play said formats casually and/or competitively.
In regards to the subject matter of WotC Employees not liking how the company they work for is being ran, I think DesolatorMagic's videos speak for themselves when it comes to this sort of thing as he and others like Jeremy from UnsleevedMedia / TheQuartering haven't been afraid to call out on the company's incompetence in regards to all this. I feel as though other established Magic YouTubers aren't being honest and truthful about this either because they were probably either paid or told to keep quiet about it in fears that they'd end up losing subscribers and sponsors.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Sounds like a lot of doomsayers saying doom. I've played MtG for a long time, and I have not gotten any warped cards, nor have I noticed a decline in quality. I'm not into card-printing, just the game, so I wouldn't notice tiny stock differences, but neither would most people. If they've been making mistakes, let them correct those mistakes and go on. Wizards might have a variety of internal problems, but that's nothing new.
People hoping for an expanded reserved list (or worse for the game to die so their cards will appreciate) are the scum of the earth. Go eat a tree, and stop hoarding game pieces.
Sounds like a lot of doomsayers saying doom. I've played MtG for a long time, and I have not gotten any warped cards, nor have I noticed a decline in quality. I'm not into card-printing, just the game, so I wouldn't notice tiny stock differences, but neither would most people. If they've been making mistakes, let them correct those mistakes and go on. Wizards might have a variety of internal problems, but that's nothing new.
People hoping for an expanded reserved list (or worse for the game to die so their cards will appreciate) are the scum of the earth. Go eat a tree, and stop hoarding game pieces.
No one is doom saying. We literally just had Mark Rosewater on Twitter say they were down 8 million active players since 2014. Sweet mercy, that's when I came back to the game! No wonder I felt like the game was going through an apocalypse the entire time I've been playing again.
So does this mean that wizards now officially spoils its own cards AND does it's own doomsaying?
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Alright. So I guess the obvious followup is asking about a link to the comment where he said there were 20 million players as this link doesn't actually say they are down 8 million.
This math seems pretty suspect. If that is where people are getting "Magic is down 8 million players" I'm not even worried. The dude's not even talking about attendance, he's just throwing out numbers.
Alright. So I guess the obvious followup is asking about a link to the comment where he said there were 20 million players as this link doesn't actually say they are down 8 million.
I don't know about where people got 20 million, but here's MaRo clarifying a bit more.
donovanthepizzaguy asked: URGENT: The other day in your fantastic smack-down of someone over Spike's depiction, you cited lots of great data. However, you cited the active playerbase as 12,000,000 people strong. But the last released numbers put it much closer to the lauded 20,000,000 mark. This has prompted some discussion to start, most visibly in Rudy's new video. Has the playerbase REALLY shrunk by up to 40%, or is this just citing the 'visible' players as the topic was competitive play? Please clarify this ASAP.
There are numerous ways to count the player base. Active participation and awareness tend to be the ends of the spectrum. I leaned towards the active participation number because when proving a point, I usually take the lower number.
Alright. So I guess the obvious followup is asking about a link to the comment where he said there were 20 million players as this link doesn't actually say they are down 8 million.
It seems that without a definition on what "active" players mean (my guess would be related to using the DCI numbers) I don't think there is much here. It seems really hard to know a total of players that just collect or play at home with friends.
I think Rudy straight up admitted that he doesn't play Magic.
To that end, it seems that Rudy is a good example of the contradictory desires of investors and the needs of players.
People like him use their Patreon money and endorsements from bigger companies in order to buy out Reserved List cards as a way to incite fear among the Magic community. They do it to make players and collectors feel that they have to buy Reserved List cards today or it will be out of reach tomorrow. Wizards of the Coast might be in on it too since this could be an attempt to cash in on the game before it dies (If it does).
I'd happily keep playing in the ruins and I'm sure at least some others would too.
EDH doesn't even need any more cards. It'd remain fun indefinitely with current pool, especially with price barriers reduced or eliminated.
Magic is the lifeblood of the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game industry, without it local game stores would go out of business, the Secondary Market for the industry would tank, and all Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games currently competing against Magic that are still in circulation would cease to exist.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
As I said in the other thread, the silver lining to the entire thing is that this is MaRo we are talking about and their is no way to know how accurate his numbers are. However, he is putting out an estimate and even if we say that he is talking about "total players" and "total active players", he is saying there is a total of 8 million people that don't actively play magic but have bought products in the past. If a few people buying or actively playing the game that isn't a problem: It is a problem when 8 million people are not considered to be actively playing MTG even if someone were to say about 2 million is from the typical up and down pattern of competitive play. This feels like Warlords of Draenor after the Wrath of the Lich King boom in World of Warcraft, and the company is going crazy trying to print too many products to generate interest. Rudy has some legitimate fears regardless of what people think of him because if the game goes the way he is thinking, even if he has gone to reserved list cards only that is just a way to cauterize his financial bleeding.
Also, I'm going to point this out that if panic happens in the investor market and people dive into RL cards, it could very well result in the same conditions that devastated the comic book industry. My guess is Rudy did his video to try and force wizards hand and get them to actually say something on this stuff. It's better if wizards clarifies what is going on with the numbers than letting people stew into a panic and blow things up. Not sure it had the effect he might have been after at this point.
Also, in case anyone is wondering how numbers can be down but financial hasbro figures are up, it's because they reconfigured the game over the last couple years to maximize the profits they get off of sealed products. They didn't experiment with killing core sets and pooling high value cards into luxury sets to keep products on the shelves. They did it because by forcing people to have to go to those luxury sets, they make a lot more profit for less work. I'm also pretty sure the card quality issues are part of a cost cutting effort to push profits even higher and it backfired spectacularly.
Basically, even without further evidence from wizards, there are enough examples in the past of companies doing what wizards is doing and the results of it that I'm quite ticked off at the company management. It's like they decided they just wanted to give up on the game and run the wells dry. I'm even more ticked off that I basically got to come back to the game when it was at it's high point and instead of living through a great time in MtG, got to play through arguably the second dark age this game has just been forced through. This is like if someone just came back to the game right before Mirrodin broke everything with Affinity.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
If Wizards of the Coast does go under and ends up selling the Magic: The Gathering IP to Hasbro or some other company, what kind of message does it send to other competing companies who could end up getting away with similar kinds of business practices? We're all pretty much aware of Konami's mismanagement with Yu-Gi-Oh! for years now and yet somehow the game managed to survive like a cockroach despite all the negative criticism it got with a 35% drop in it's active player base compared to Magic's 40% drop from losing 8 million players in the last 3 years. So what's different this time?
I think it may have actually been Hasbro's idea to have Wizards of the Coast indoctrinate their propaganda and business decisions for Magic: The Gathering in an attempt to get players and collectors up in arms with Wizards of the Coast over something that wasn't their fault in the first place. Perhaps Wizards of the Coast was forced to agree upon it with Hasbro knowing full well that they were going against the best interests of the Magic community. Hasbro only cares about money, they could care less If Wizards of the Coast are trying to promote and sell a Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
If Wizards of the Coast does go under and ends up selling the Magic: The Gathering IP to Hasbro or some other company, what kind of message does it send to other competing companies who could end up getting away with similar kinds of business practices? We're all pretty much aware of Konami's mismanagement with Yu-Gi-Oh! for years now and yet somehow the game managed to survive like a cockroach despite all the negative criticism it got with a 35% drop in it's active player base compared to Magic's 40% drop from losing 8 million players in the last 3 years. So what's different this time?
I think it may have actually been Hasbro's idea to have Wizards of the Coast indoctrinate their propaganda and business decisions for Magic: The Gathering in an attempt to get players and collectors up in arms with Wizards of the Coast over something that wasn't their fault in the first place. Perhaps Wizards of the Coast was forced to agree upon it with Hasbro knowing full well that they were going against the best interests of the Magic community. Hasbro only cares about money, they could care less If Wizards of the Coast are trying to promote and sell a Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game.
Let me put it this way: In the end it doesn't really matter who manipulated who. The problem is wizards needs to get rid of luxury sets, spread out high value cards they piled into those sets into other products to distribute the value, and create a more balanced ecosystem for players. The entire reason they are having problems is due to the reconfiguration of their product line that they started with Origins and BFZ.
I mean, I went back and looked through the articles dating to the time I came back, and there wasn't any up in arms fires going on outside of complaints about Kahns standard being expensive thanks to three color mana bases. The price issues didn't really start going off the walls until about a year later after the product line got reconfigured and wizards started messing around with prize support + appearance fees. In three years, WoTC has caused more controversy in their game than the five years prior. The closest thing I could find was some stuff with Modern Masters 2013 not having enough supply and causing prices on singles to go through whiplash. Also that masters set was far better priced as I think it was 180 msrp?
Basically, my feeling is that MTG just had it's Warlords of Draenor happen. Even if wizards bounces back to doing things the way it did before, the game is never going to be the same again because they hurt their core audience so badly across so many fronts the memory is going to stick. No one is going to forget over priced masters sets, the massive overprinting of box sets, the stripping of good long term staples from secondary products, and the overproduction of secondary products. That is not even going into the prize support changes, standard bannings, and other issues.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The biggest issue with the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game Market right now is over-saturation. Long gone are the days of the big three with Magic, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! with just a few other options cropping up then phasing out. These days there's a lot of options, the big three still stand but then you have Bushiroad splurging out their Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games over focusing on the one's they already have with Vanguard and BuddyFight. You also have Force of Will TCG and Final Fantasy TCG where as the Living Card Game Market is starting to see a growth in it's consumer base with games like L5R and Star Wars and despite all that it still pales in comparison to the growth of Digital Card Games such as Hearthstone even though it's technically a Video Game yet apparently they don't want to call it that.
That being said the long term health of the consumer base is in question here since younger players aren't learning how to play Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games as much as the previous generation did back in the early 2000's. So If we put together older players having less time with the lower pick up rate of a new generation of players eventually the market is going to shrink. A friend of mine believes that there's going to be a total collapse of the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game Market through a corporate buyout between Konami, Wizards of the Coast, and Hasbro. As an end result everyone would be left with card collections from discontinued Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games holding little resale value except for the Reserved List cards in Magic.
Another theory is that Hasbro is purposely trying to shutdown all local game stores as a means of creating their own local game store to monopolize the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game Market. This would just be the beginning. Hasbro board members don't care unless it's their bottom line. The Reserved List would be next or soon. They probably already have their lawyers lined up highly trained in this type of environment looking at all the different scenarios. Hasbro doesn't care about a legal contract Wizards of the Coast made with people who've invested in Magic over the last 25 years. All the signs are there about making as much money as they can If they can figure out a way to sell $30 packs where people can access Reserved List cards, they're more than likely to do it.
At the end of the day the big box retailers gain the most benefit out of all of this because when local game stores and brick and mortar stores have gone the way of Blockbuster Video and Toys R Us the only places that you'll be able to buy from are big box stores or the stores that Hasbro creates. You'll end up with no choice with Hasbro making all the money. Hasbro would also have a monopoly over other competing Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game companies like Konami, Bushiroad, etc. to the point where you're forced to buy product from them with no place to actually play. They don't care about players socially interacting with their community during the weekends instead of being stuck at home glued to a tablet, smartphone, or computer playing games with no one to actually hang out with.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
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They are going to have to reprint the majority of the cards from the last few blocks on new card stock.
On the subject of employees not liking how the company is run, I wonder...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
In regards to the subject matter of WotC Employees not liking how the company they work for is being ran, I think DesolatorMagic's videos speak for themselves when it comes to this sort of thing as he and others like Jeremy from UnsleevedMedia / TheQuartering haven't been afraid to call out on the company's incompetence in regards to all this. I feel as though other established Magic YouTubers aren't being honest and truthful about this either because they were probably either paid or told to keep quiet about it in fears that they'd end up losing subscribers and sponsors.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Fire the coaching staff.
Fire the GM.
Trade away all the players for picks and prospects.
It's time for a rebuild.
People hoping for an expanded reserved list (or worse for the game to die so their cards will appreciate) are the scum of the earth. Go eat a tree, and stop hoarding game pieces.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
No one is doom saying. We literally just had Mark Rosewater on Twitter say they were down 8 million active players since 2014. Sweet mercy, that's when I came back to the game! No wonder I felt like the game was going through an apocalypse the entire time I've been playing again.
So does this mean that wizards now officially spoils its own cards AND does it's own doomsaying?
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
I don't know about where people got 20 million, but here's MaRo clarifying a bit more.
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/167602330593/urgent-the-other-day-in-your-fantastic
Here's a reddit thread that kind of talks about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/7df43d/did_magic_lose_up_to_8_million_players_40_in_the/
It seems that without a definition on what "active" players mean (my guess would be related to using the DCI numbers) I don't think there is much here. It seems really hard to know a total of players that just collect or play at home with friends. People like him use their Patreon money and endorsements from bigger companies in order to buy out Reserved List cards as a way to incite fear among the Magic community. They do it to make players and collectors feel that they have to buy Reserved List cards today or it will be out of reach tomorrow. Wizards of the Coast might be in on it too since this could be an attempt to cash in on the game before it dies (If it does). Magic is the lifeblood of the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game industry, without it local game stores would go out of business, the Secondary Market for the industry would tank, and all Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games currently competing against Magic that are still in circulation would cease to exist.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Also, I'm going to point this out that if panic happens in the investor market and people dive into RL cards, it could very well result in the same conditions that devastated the comic book industry. My guess is Rudy did his video to try and force wizards hand and get them to actually say something on this stuff. It's better if wizards clarifies what is going on with the numbers than letting people stew into a panic and blow things up. Not sure it had the effect he might have been after at this point.
Also, in case anyone is wondering how numbers can be down but financial hasbro figures are up, it's because they reconfigured the game over the last couple years to maximize the profits they get off of sealed products. They didn't experiment with killing core sets and pooling high value cards into luxury sets to keep products on the shelves. They did it because by forcing people to have to go to those luxury sets, they make a lot more profit for less work. I'm also pretty sure the card quality issues are part of a cost cutting effort to push profits even higher and it backfired spectacularly.
Basically, even without further evidence from wizards, there are enough examples in the past of companies doing what wizards is doing and the results of it that I'm quite ticked off at the company management. It's like they decided they just wanted to give up on the game and run the wells dry. I'm even more ticked off that I basically got to come back to the game when it was at it's high point and instead of living through a great time in MtG, got to play through arguably the second dark age this game has just been forced through. This is like if someone just came back to the game right before Mirrodin broke everything with Affinity.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I think it may have actually been Hasbro's idea to have Wizards of the Coast indoctrinate their propaganda and business decisions for Magic: The Gathering in an attempt to get players and collectors up in arms with Wizards of the Coast over something that wasn't their fault in the first place. Perhaps Wizards of the Coast was forced to agree upon it with Hasbro knowing full well that they were going against the best interests of the Magic community. Hasbro only cares about money, they could care less If Wizards of the Coast are trying to promote and sell a Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Let me put it this way: In the end it doesn't really matter who manipulated who. The problem is wizards needs to get rid of luxury sets, spread out high value cards they piled into those sets into other products to distribute the value, and create a more balanced ecosystem for players. The entire reason they are having problems is due to the reconfiguration of their product line that they started with Origins and BFZ.
I mean, I went back and looked through the articles dating to the time I came back, and there wasn't any up in arms fires going on outside of complaints about Kahns standard being expensive thanks to three color mana bases. The price issues didn't really start going off the walls until about a year later after the product line got reconfigured and wizards started messing around with prize support + appearance fees. In three years, WoTC has caused more controversy in their game than the five years prior. The closest thing I could find was some stuff with Modern Masters 2013 not having enough supply and causing prices on singles to go through whiplash. Also that masters set was far better priced as I think it was 180 msrp?
Basically, my feeling is that MTG just had it's Warlords of Draenor happen. Even if wizards bounces back to doing things the way it did before, the game is never going to be the same again because they hurt their core audience so badly across so many fronts the memory is going to stick. No one is going to forget over priced masters sets, the massive overprinting of box sets, the stripping of good long term staples from secondary products, and the overproduction of secondary products. That is not even going into the prize support changes, standard bannings, and other issues.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
That being said the long term health of the consumer base is in question here since younger players aren't learning how to play Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games as much as the previous generation did back in the early 2000's. So If we put together older players having less time with the lower pick up rate of a new generation of players eventually the market is going to shrink. A friend of mine believes that there's going to be a total collapse of the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game Market through a corporate buyout between Konami, Wizards of the Coast, and Hasbro. As an end result everyone would be left with card collections from discontinued Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games holding little resale value except for the Reserved List cards in Magic.
Another theory is that Hasbro is purposely trying to shutdown all local game stores as a means of creating their own local game store to monopolize the Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game Market. This would just be the beginning. Hasbro board members don't care unless it's their bottom line. The Reserved List would be next or soon. They probably already have their lawyers lined up highly trained in this type of environment looking at all the different scenarios. Hasbro doesn't care about a legal contract Wizards of the Coast made with people who've invested in Magic over the last 25 years. All the signs are there about making as much money as they can If they can figure out a way to sell $30 packs where people can access Reserved List cards, they're more than likely to do it.
At the end of the day the big box retailers gain the most benefit out of all of this because when local game stores and brick and mortar stores have gone the way of Blockbuster Video and Toys R Us the only places that you'll be able to buy from are big box stores or the stores that Hasbro creates. You'll end up with no choice with Hasbro making all the money. Hasbro would also have a monopoly over other competing Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game companies like Konami, Bushiroad, etc. to the point where you're forced to buy product from them with no place to actually play. They don't care about players socially interacting with their community during the weekends instead of being stuck at home glued to a tablet, smartphone, or computer playing games with no one to actually hang out with.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta