I think it was the closest to a compromise that they were willing to go. Cards depicting story moments aren't going anywhere, but revealing the story before the cards are fully released means it's easier to avoid seeing them. Best guess as to the reasoning at least. Or something along those lines.
Well, looks like your typical "trying to do two things at once but mess up both" dilemma. I think they need to commit to one thing and since they are adamant about showing story-relevant moments on cards (a notion I can't entirely disagree with) they just need to bite the bullet and make their story more "predictable".
They should probably take a look at how movies handle historic stories. If you already know Ceasar is going to be murdered, the final moment isn't interesting to you because of what happens but how it's done. And all the build-up to that point is not you trying to figure out what's going to happen, but you enjoying the ride. Such stories probably take a different approach to introducing characters, structuring arcs and dealing with the conclusion of the climax. Maybe it makes sense to structure the Magic stories similarly.
I'm not sure being predictable/not is the primary issue with this latest block though. It's the pacing/rushed nature of it. I agree that if Eldritch Moon is the result of their experiment at trying to not spoil the block as much and have story cards that it was a failure, just don't really agree with what seems to be your reasoning.
The pacing is (apparently) a direct result of them trying not to spoil the story too early. So yeah, it's related.
Also, personally, I don't care TOO terribly about not spoiling the story. However, I do realize that the story is more interesting if things happen that I didn't know before. There's a difference between something being bad and something else being better. I don't think having the story spoilt makes for an inherently bad reading experience, but it's certainly a more engaging one if the key moments and outcomes are not spoilt.
Imagine the BFZ storyline in a hypothetical scenario where we genuinely didn't know all planeswalkers would survive and what would happen to the titans. That might have have been a very interesting read, at least more compelling and engaging than the thing we got. Of course that isn't possible due to how the game itself works, so they should rather focus on the other part of stories. The one that can be good regardless of predictability.
In response to a lot of the discussion on the previous pages of the last EMN story and Jace finding himself annoying feels a bit like the writers have been reading the forums and it makes me laugh a fair bit.
In response to a lot of the discussion on the previous pages of the last EMN story and Jace finding himself annoying feels a bit like the writers have been reading the forums and it makes me laugh a fair bit.
Yeah, I always enjoy it when they make fun of their own characters.
we can? it seems to me like all of the fights were important and you trying to make one out as more important and the others as not mattering is problem that starts and most likely ends with you.
Anyone else facepalmed hard when during their PT coverage the casters continued to celebrate how flavorful it was that Liliana defeats Emrakul with her zombies (emblem)?
The plot twist in the last story article was nice, but I'd argue that the majority of their audience will never know about it.
On that side their "telling the story through the cards" approach utterly failed.
The people who only want to know the gist of the story get that Liliana helped defeat Emrakul.
For Vorthos like us, the twist is there to give us extra flavor and give us more depth than what's on the cards.
They should probably take a look at how movies handle historic stories. If you already know Ceasar is going to be murdered, the final moment isn't interesting to you because of what happens but how it's done. And all the build-up to that point is not you trying to figure out what's going to happen, but you enjoying the ride. Such stories probably take a different approach to introducing characters, structuring arcs and dealing with the conclusion of the climax. Maybe it makes sense to structure the Magic stories similarly.
Also, personally, I don't care TOO terribly about not spoiling the story. However, I do realize that the story is more interesting if things happen that I didn't know before. There's a difference between something being bad and something else being better. I don't think having the story spoilt makes for an inherently bad reading experience, but it's certainly a more engaging one if the key moments and outcomes are not spoilt.
Imagine the BFZ storyline in a hypothetical scenario where we genuinely didn't know all planeswalkers would survive and what would happen to the titans. That might have have been a very interesting read, at least more compelling and engaging than the thing we got. Of course that isn't possible due to how the game itself works, so they should rather focus on the other part of stories. The one that can be good regardless of predictability.
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
For Vorthos like us, the twist is there to give us extra flavor and give us more depth than what's on the cards.
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