]This argument doesn't make sense, media (except pop music) has been getting steadily more complex year over year. Games are getting more elaborate, books are getting more intricate and television doesn't have to turn every episode into a self contained story.
Is that so? If anything, the only good (or appreciative) thing today about story content is that complex technology has aided in our visual perception. Could you imagine what Loovecraft and the classic writers could achieve with today's technology?
Compare the films a decade ago to today's popcorn churning speed. Paper-thin plots. It's really too easy to draw folks with grade A CGI.
The same for written literature. Stories are getting bite-sized; we cannot finish 10 lines of text without looking at some visual graphic. Our weekly UR is one of them.
That said, it's just the reality we live in today. There's too much going on.
Uh, yes? They're calling it the Golden Age of Television for a reason. Jessica Jones. Mad Men. Breaking Bad. True Detective.
As for movies well take the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure the individual stories are straight forward (and structurally formulaic outside of the new Netflix shows) but the undertaking as a whole dwarfs any other project of the kind. It is probably the most complex story ever put together for visual media. Now you may dislike it or think its stupid but if you want intricate and complex look no further.
Could you imagine what Loovecraft and the classic writers could achieve with today's technology?
I'm sure he'd love having a digital thesaurus, that's about it. Nothing that Lovecraft wrote couldn't have been filmed during his lifetime, except a few stories that are inherently unfilmable like A Color Out of Space.
It continues to baffle me that people think Lovecraft's stories are about giant monsters and big set pieces rather than creeping soul drowning horror. Like, honestly, the plot of original Innistrad resembles Lovecraft far more than anything on Zendikar. Vampires are really corrupted humans. Humanity's sole protector was created by a vampire to preserve humans as food.
Eldrazi kill a plane by eating all mana on the plane. I'm pretty sure that is still canon. I don't really understand how they can eat the mana, but leave stuff to grow again.
There was a reason Kozilek was underground. The Eldrazi on the surface are ONLY consuming the surface. Kozi was underground consuming the rest. Kozi's work was much slower, and Zen's mana runs deeper than most. Also - it's made clear in the Art Book that a large part of it is Zen's unique nature and the Khalni hearts that are helping everything regrow.
Looks like this thread needs to renamed "Official Magic Fiction Discussion"...
Such a soulless unemotional name for lore. Real sad change on WotC's part.
But market research shows "official magic fiction" to be well liked, just like liking the zendikar art book=liking where story is headed, or liking jace the card= liking jace the character,and how about bad sales= cards getting spoiled early.
Looks like this thread needs to renamed "Official Magic Fiction Discussion"...
I figure they needed to make the name very clear but that title is lacking some creativity. Suggestions to creative (who I know aren't listening):
"Tales from the Multiverse"
"Magic Fiction Hub"
"Planeswalker Tales"
"Planechasers"
"Ravnican Bar Stories"
"Fiction Fix"
"That Sweet Shot of Fiction"
"Magical High"
"What is Shandalar?"
"Days of our Mana"
Wow... thats.... wow. I've stuck with them through everything that everyone had said was the downfall of Magics story. But this? This is a bad decision.
Looks like this thread needs to renamed "Official Magic Fiction Discussion"...
I figure they needed to make the name very clear but that title is lacking some creativity. Suggestions to creative (who I know aren't listening):
"Tales from the Multiverse"
"Magic Fiction Hub"
"Planeswalker Tales"
"Planechasers"
"Ravnican Bar Stories"
"Fiction Fix"
"That Sweet Shot of Fiction"
"Magical High"
"What is Shandalar?"
"Days of our Mana"
The trouble is that, aside from "Magic Fiction Hub" (which I don't think is any more flavorful than "Official Magic Fiction"), none of those does the job they wanted a new title to do. Clearly they wanted to remove any and all guesswork from identifying the fiction column, so any random kid loading up the web page for the first time and wondering "Hey, is there story stuff around here?" will recognize it immediately.
I actually think the clear-cut title would be better for the Vorthos Community's growth in the long run. I definitely don't have numbers, but I won't be surprised if there's quite the amount of casual players that simply never found Uncharted Realms and just decided to follow the story via the cards, which we all know to be not exactly accurate.
Sure, we lost a creative title for the articles, but if a boring, clear-cut title meant more Vorthos players (or at least more lore-savvy players), which would in turn means more Vorthos support, I think I'll take that over a fancy article title. The true effects are yet to be seen, but it's still a largely positive "risk" (of fancy titles) I'm supportive of.
But in the packs, on most of the ad cards, it says you can follow the story in Uncharted Realms. I really can't understand why they felt the need to change it.
But in the packs, on most of the ad cards, it says you can follow the story in Uncharted Realms. I really can't understand why they felt the need to change it.
People learn to ignore advertising pretty early on so I don't think casual players pay any attention to those cards.
Regardless I think it's a pretty poor excuse. It's not hard to take 2 seconds and click this article that you don't know about and see that it's a story. Or just Google. Cater to new player, sure. That's fine. But when you start making people out to be too stupid to find your story you're taking it a bit far. I mean they have it in the front page of the website for God's sake. The BFZ and OGW pages are right there. It's literally two clocks from the home page to find the story for this block. I'm not one to think highly of people but the MtG subset tends to be, at least to some reasonable amount, intelligent. And to feel like you have to take the heart out of your product so people can find it is insulting. It's already been suggested twice on MaRos blog that "Official Magic Fiction" could have been a subtitle. That would have been fine.
Maybe because 'Uncharted Realms' may sound exotic (or 'passionate') without actually providing any sort of clue or context as to what's inside? It's descriptive but not particularly informational.
What part of 'Uncharted Realms' suggests 'Supplemental storyline content'?
This new name certainly does fix that.
Quote from Gutterstorm »
But in the packs, on most of the ad cards, it says you can follow the story in Uncharted Realms.
I'm not one to think highly of people but the MtG subset tends to be, at least to some reasonable amount, intelligent.
...have you read some of the posts in this forum? I long ago gave up thinking Magic was the pastime of best and brightest.
Personally, I think this change is for the best. Yes, it's a dry and flavorless name, but if you take a player who's never been exposed to the WotC website, handed them a mouse, and said "find the story of Magic" they wouldn't go "oh, Uncharted Realms sounds like where they would keep the fiction." They're going to see a bunch of columns, none of which have the word story in the name, and get confused. There's a fine line between flavorful naming and obfuscation.
I'm fine with the name change. The content will remain and others will know where to find the story. As morphling stated, "Uncharted Realms" doesn't quite fit. And now that major plot is being explored in and on cards, the stories are no longer "uncharted." A vanilla title is fine if the content remains.
As for the Dead Zone of Ulgrotha and the Eldrazi Wastes....
I know card mechanics and continuity don't always jive, but WotC has given us a pseudo-sixth color, caused by the Eldrazi. In this regard, the land is still producing mana--it's just colorless. The Eldrazi (game-wise) are not destroying lands (the original "annihilator" mechanic may have, but I think the Eldrazi have since shifted). Instead, they are sapping the color from the mana and physically altering the lands accordingly.
I wonder if their destruction of a plane happens after they have voided all the mana in the land to colorless.
In this regard, I think we are not getting Dead Zones as we had in prerevisionist Ulgrotha (where a lack of mana equated to death), but we are instead getting barren wastes which can only allow access to colorless mana.
Also, I am very aware referencing previsionist, pre-Mending continuity is tricky. Trust me; I've done it my whole Magic-online-community life. However, I think toying with these ideas can be enlightening and fun. In this contrast, I would say we get an suggestion that the Eldrazi devouring of a world is a separate occurrence (or a Phase 2) from its draining the color of mana (Phase 1).
Thoughts?
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Dominian Scholar of the Old Guard, specializing in pre-revisionist (Armada comics) and revisionist (Brothers' War through Apocalypse)history
I like the strangeness of the Waste mana. I'd love to see the minor Eldrazi left to their own devices. I'm curious to see what a plane of these things would look like. I think you're right on your last point - mana drained of color can still be paid with any color, while Waste mana costs can only be paid with Waste mana.
re the new name: I don't care what they call it so long as they give me some good stories.
EPISODE 04: THE BLIGHT WE WERE BORN FOR
Disaster has struck the Zendikari forces, with Gideon, Jace, Chandra, Kiora, and Nissa either missing or dead, and the Eldrazi titans Ulamog and Kozilek loose and rampaging amidst the devastated Zendikari army. The hopes of Zendikar rest on an unlikely hero, one who long ago lost her own hope...
EPISODE 04: THE BLIGHT WE WERE BORN FOR
Disaster has struck the Zendikari forces, with Gideon, Jace, Chandra, Kiora, and Nissa either missing or dead, and the Eldrazi titans Ulamog and Kozilek loose and rampaging amidst the devastated Zendikari army. The hopes of Zendikar rest on an unlikely hero, one who long ago lost her own hope...
Who do we think this "unlikely hero" is? Tazri?
Definitely, last UR reveled Tazri command zen forces.
EPISODE 04: THE BLIGHT WE WERE BORN FOR
Disaster has struck the Zendikari forces, with Gideon, Jace, Chandra, Kiora, and Nissa either missing or dead, and the Eldrazi titans Ulamog and Kozilek loose and rampaging amidst the devastated Zendikari army. The hopes of Zendikar rest on an unlikely hero, one who long ago lost her own hope...
Compare the films a decade ago to today's popcorn churning speed. Paper-thin plots. It's really too easy to draw folks with grade A CGI.
The same for written literature. Stories are getting bite-sized; we cannot finish 10 lines of text without looking at some visual graphic. Our weekly UR is one of them.
That said, it's just the reality we live in today. There's too much going on.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Uh, yes? They're calling it the Golden Age of Television for a reason. Jessica Jones. Mad Men. Breaking Bad. True Detective.
As for movies well take the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure the individual stories are straight forward (and structurally formulaic outside of the new Netflix shows) but the undertaking as a whole dwarfs any other project of the kind. It is probably the most complex story ever put together for visual media. Now you may dislike it or think its stupid but if you want intricate and complex look no further.
I'm sure he'd love having a digital thesaurus, that's about it. Nothing that Lovecraft wrote couldn't have been filmed during his lifetime, except a few stories that are inherently unfilmable like A Color Out of Space.
It continues to baffle me that people think Lovecraft's stories are about giant monsters and big set pieces rather than creeping soul drowning horror. Like, honestly, the plot of original Innistrad resembles Lovecraft far more than anything on Zendikar. Vampires are really corrupted humans. Humanity's sole protector was created by a vampire to preserve humans as food.
This is true.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Such a soulless unemotional name for lore. Real sad change on WotC's part.
But market research shows "official magic fiction" to be well liked, just like liking the zendikar art book=liking where story is headed, or liking jace the card= liking jace the character,and how about bad sales= cards getting spoiled early.
That really lacks passion
"Tales from the Multiverse"
"Magic Fiction Hub"
"Planeswalker Tales"
"Planechasers"
"Ravnican Bar Stories"
"Fiction Fix"
"That Sweet Shot of Fiction"
"Magical High"
"What is Shandalar?"
"Days of our Mana"
No, that's not what it means at all.
Sure, we lost a creative title for the articles, but if a boring, clear-cut title meant more Vorthos players (or at least more lore-savvy players), which would in turn means more Vorthos support, I think I'll take that over a fancy article title. The true effects are yet to be seen, but it's still a largely positive "risk" (of fancy titles) I'm supportive of.
What part of 'Uncharted Realms' suggests 'Supplemental storyline content'?
This new name certainly does fix that.
Surely they'll be changing this.
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Personally, I think this change is for the best. Yes, it's a dry and flavorless name, but if you take a player who's never been exposed to the WotC website, handed them a mouse, and said "find the story of Magic" they wouldn't go "oh, Uncharted Realms sounds like where they would keep the fiction." They're going to see a bunch of columns, none of which have the word story in the name, and get confused. There's a fine line between flavorful naming and obfuscation.
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As for the Dead Zone of Ulgrotha and the Eldrazi Wastes....
I know card mechanics and continuity don't always jive, but WotC has given us a pseudo-sixth color, caused by the Eldrazi. In this regard, the land is still producing mana--it's just colorless. The Eldrazi (game-wise) are not destroying lands (the original "annihilator" mechanic may have, but I think the Eldrazi have since shifted). Instead, they are sapping the color from the mana and physically altering the lands accordingly.
I wonder if their destruction of a plane happens after they have voided all the mana in the land to colorless.
In this regard, I think we are not getting Dead Zones as we had in prerevisionist Ulgrotha (where a lack of mana equated to death), but we are instead getting barren wastes which can only allow access to colorless mana.
Also, I am very aware referencing previsionist, pre-Mending continuity is tricky. Trust me; I've done it my whole Magic-online-community life. However, I think toying with these ideas can be enlightening and fun. In this contrast, I would say we get an suggestion that the Eldrazi devouring of a world is a separate occurrence (or a Phase 2) from its draining the color of mana (Phase 1).
Thoughts?
re the new name: I don't care what they call it so long as they give me some good stories.
EPISODE 04: THE BLIGHT WE WERE BORN FOR
Disaster has struck the Zendikari forces, with Gideon, Jace, Chandra, Kiora, and Nissa either missing or dead, and the Eldrazi titans Ulamog and Kozilek loose and rampaging amidst the devastated Zendikari army. The hopes of Zendikar rest on an unlikely hero, one who long ago lost her own hope...
Who do we think this "unlikely hero" is? Tazri?
Definitely, last UR reveled Tazri command zen forces.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Iona? Linvala?