Not the ones I respect/value. From my perspective - and I'm not alone - intellectual property is about as unethical as it gets. But this isn't the place for that discussion. There's another forum for that.
As before, props to the leakers. Regardless of moral considerations, they're giving us information we want to have.
Leakers are stealing site hits from the websites that have been chosen to reveal these cards. There is literally no reason to look at any of the sites that will be leaking mythics for Oath. That decreases their revenue.
And I thought I remember there being a video or picture of some of the leaks with prerelease packs being opened. Opening them before the street date is definitely illegal.
If WOTC wants to control the message better, their spoiler season should start much sooner than they currently do. Start the "leaks" much sooner, make the tease a lot longer.
Trick Jarrett actually addresses that in this tweet, in a thread about said article.
It wouldn't have to be full card - WOTC themselves have done things were they show parts of cards or incomplete cards, they could also tease story beats or returning characters. I stand by my assertion that periods of famine followed by periods of feast create a beast that's always starving for more info.
This website has historically been all about leaks. Complaining about leaks and leakers on MTGSalvation strikes me as bizarre. I mean, I know things have changed and that the site currently takes a firm stake in favor of WotC's intellectual property claims, but come on.
Yeah, I don't want to take anything away from WOTC, but the community sites have always been the driver of discussion. Too many corporations are simply coming to the social media table too late, and they still want to follow the old rules of PR.
And it is particularly odd to see that kind of discussion on this of all websites.
Now, if the person that leaked these turns out to have violated some kind of NDA or such, that's within WOTC's right to prosecute (legally that is, like Incanur said in post# 447, there are serious ethical issues with how intellectual property is handled, but this isn't the place for that discussion.)
But I still maintain this won't hurt sales. My general approach to every Magic release is that I try to buy at least a few packs of each set so I have something from every set. A leak could possibly increase my anticipation for a set, and make me want to buy more, but so would seeing those cards on WOTC's specific schedule. Seeing that a set is, not quite so interesting, on any schedule, will only keep me at my "buy a few packs for my collection" level, it will never take it below that level (that point will only come when I'm absolutely done with the game, and that will be a completely different problem. )
Anecdotal evidence aside, I can't see how the schedule of seeing the cards affects sales, *unless* WOTC is counting on hype to make people pre-order cards before they can be more thoroughly discussed, and then you're into the realm of trying to sell a sub-par product, and that's whole other discussion.
This website has historically been all about leaks. Complaining about leaks and leakers on MTGSalvation strikes me as bizarre. I mean, I know things have changed and that the site currently takes a firm stake in favor of WotC's intellectual property claims, but come on.
It's true that we take full advantage of the leaks and probably encourage them by engaging in discussions about the leaked information.
I personally don't care that much about the sanctity of spoiler season as the thing in itself, but it bothers me that people attack Wizards out of some misguided notion of supporting the little guy against some Big Scary Evil Corporation, when in this case it's quite clear that the Big Scary Evil Corporation is in the right.
The article presents a lot of the author's opinions as facts. OK. That is how you and WotC FEEL about it, but that does not necessarily reflect the feelings of the community at large. I concede that the theft of intellectual property portion has a factual basis, and WotC can punish offenders as they see fit. However, early spoilers have never negative influenced my planned purchases of sealed product upon release. Neither has it done that to anybody I know in the local community. Sorry Wizards, I'll pass on the Kool-Aid.
Nowhere in that article does the author claim that leaks are bad because they affect sales, so I'm not sure why you bring that up.
There's little opinion misrepresented as fact, let alone biased opinion at all. When you read,
When leaks happen, the Magic community gets bits of information out of order instead of the experience we work so hard to create for you.
you can dismiss the idea that the experience is valuable, but you can't deny the fact that somebody worked on a thing and somebody else disrupted that work by doing something dishonest.
I'm sure some of the responses here are a bit tongue-in-cheek, but come on guys. We're not talking about WikiLeaks here. This situation is cut and dried. Complain about Wizards all you want about whatever you want, but when you act like that the person or people leaking these cards are some sort of working class heroes, you sound a little ridiculous. At the very least, they broke Wheaton's Law, and it's probably pretty easy to prove they committed a crime.
There is a large amount of opinion presented as fact when you later read:
Why?
There are literally hundreds of Wizards team members around the world working hard to create amazing gaming experiences for you, the Magic community. This is our passion. When leaks occur, it damages our hard work and robs the Magic community of these experiences.
Leaks create an unfair advantage as—because they do not go out over official channels—they are not as widely distributed to less-enfranchised players, thus creating an unfair advantage for some players.
Leaks often lead to bad first impressions. Not always. But it is unrealistic (and would be unhealthy for the game) for every card to be designed in such a way that it would be 100% exciting when viewed out of context and on its own. That would force power creep in design to levels that would surely ruin the game.
You are seriously misinformed if you believe that WotC doesn't believe their marketing scheme is the most effective way to drive sales. They can say all they want about experiences, hard work, disruption, unfair advantages, etc., but the bottom line is: Did they sell enough packs to make Hasbro happy? Period. Nobody is working at WotC for free. Granted some might work there partially for the love of the game, but that doesn't put a roof over your head or food on your plate. Again, people are entitled to their opinions, but WotC shouldn't be surprised that the community at large doesn't fall on their knees and repent of their leaking and leak enjoying ways because some WotC employees FEEL their work was but for naught.
Leakers are stealing site hits from the websites that have been chosen to reveal these cards. There is literally no reason to look at any of the sites that will be leaking mythics for Oath. That decreases their revenue.
Spoilers come from all over the place, yes I only go to MTGS for spoilers. I'm not reading every japanese, italian, germand, french, portuguese, you name it site that talks about Magic The Gathering to find spoilers. I don't even know them. I just go to MTGS. To that regard, I don't think these sites lose that much.
For those that defend WOTC, I would like to point out an interesting fact. When they put misleading information on the holiday gift box, a product already on the market likely to be bought by many players, it gets a slight mention on one of their blogs. When a minority of the community start digging up leaks, the post a feature article. This isn't about ethics, its about Wizards trying to keep us from knowing what exactly we are opening.
Holy S***, it really sounds like a lot of people HATE WotC...yet commit a lot of their spare time to one of their products...sounds weird to me. The statements about intelectual property are even weirder...if WotC shouldn´t protect their intelectual property, everyone had to work for free and live from sunshine and happiness?!
There are plenty of people, like me, who love the game but will call out on flaws when they see them, because we know the game can be better.
Oh boy...i am generally not the kind to give detailed point-by-point responses, but this passive-aggressive guilt-tripping article from WotC surely deserves it.
It's an enormously complex project getting the content laid out such that we can present the set to the Magic community.
In other words, they do work very hard to hype the **** out of every new set in order to persuade the players into making impulsive decisions which generally involve the investment of good sums of money. Honestly? Every successful company puts a lot of effort into marketing their products and services, and that's perfectly fine. Yeah, it is fine. As a consumer, you are the one to blame if you buy a product before careful consideration of its real value. However, do not try to sugar-coat your marketing strategies and put on an entertainer mask pretending you are so preoccupied with our amusement. There is no fooling us: you are just salty about us getting the raw deal, an actual preview without a whole article rationalizing the cards value and artificially inflating its price.
Magic's entire premise is that of constant change, and this tantalizing premise creates a constant tension between our storytelling and players wanting to know what comes next.
Let's not kid ourselves here. Magic is like porn: a very pleasureful hobby that (almost) no one plays for the story.
Furthermore, due to how the game is played, the flavor of individual cards is far more important than the story as a whole. Years of build-up around Planeswalkers and their sets combined still don't hold a candle to Kamigawa. And even if i am appreciative of flavorful sets, still having my bottom tier Kamigawa cards, such aspect ranks nowhere near Magic's core premises.
As a person who used to run a fan site that would occasionally leak something, I know the lure for content creators.
Well, there goes your moral high ground. Nothing like getting a taste of your own medicine, am i right?
There's no secret exposé about the working conditions of goblins on Ravnica, or the water quality on Zendikar, or the climate change on Mirrodin (though that one might have something). Leaks are all things that the public will find out eventually.
I know, right? What would be the meaning of our lives if we didn't get a professional report on Zendikar's water quality?! There is no doubt that whatever year that was, someone stole your Nobel Prize for unveiling us such crucial bit of information!
Would you go on your friend's Facebook page and announce a pregnancy if you found a positive pregnancy test in their bathroom? No, that would make you a terrible human being! Because it's not your news to give, and when the world gets to know it is up to that person and their significant other.
Not only this example is completely out of place, it doesn't even help the point he is trying to make. Getting angry at having your pregnancy "spoiled" would be such an infantile reaction from an actually selfish human being, since the conception of a new human life is something that everyone close to the couple should know as soon as possible. Life should be celebrated, not hidden from people who care about it.
This was a really cheap attempt to guilt trip us for enjoying the spoilers, and makes me think about who is really behaving like a "terrible human being". Keep it classy, Mr. Jarrett.
Unfortunately though, much of the community had already seen Kozilek. So his rising out of the ocean at Sea Gate? Not that exciting. Our revealing of him on stream? Boring. The presence of the colorless mana symbol? Confusing. Because it was done out of context and out of order, the entire plan suffered and our fans were cheated out of the best experience we could deliver.
You couldn't be further from the truth.
Compared to other Eldrazi, Kozilek is a relatively weak, boring card. No matter how much you try to enhance the frame, the picture is simply not that good. A Hollywood World Premiere of Kozilek would still be less exciting than a casually revealed Emrakul. The content is far more important than the context.
Secondly, the leak was actually much more exciting and controversial than your planned reveal could ever hope to be. Immediately explaining the new mana symbol would prevent a lot of interesting discussions that happened all over the internet.
When it comes to hearing about an upcoming movie, which would you rather see: A prepared movie trailer crafted by artists and directors and marketers to most hype you about the film? Or would you prefer to read early drafts of the script that cover several key story moments?
Except movies are all about the story, so spoiling it can effectively ruin the experience. Magic is mostly about the game itself, so spoiling yourself can actually improve your experience, as there is a lot of concentrated discussion about the new cards before you can get to play them.
Other than that, it is worth noting that in both examples the consumer goes all the way to spoil himself. It was a risk he was willing to take, so whether his experience ended up being ruined or not is none of your business.
We have and will continue to not just ban leakers from the DCI and cancel their Planeswalker Points accounts, but pursue whatever criminal and civil actions necessary to protect our intellectual property and the Magic community.
This is where you show off your true colors. After writing so many paragraphs about improving our experiences, caring about the fans and whatnot, you enforce your position to sue the leakers and prevent them from playing the game, a clearly unproportional reaction given the fact that most people who have been spoiled are not complaining at all. Make no mistake: it's not about our interest as players.
Leaks create an unfair advantage as—because they do not go out over official channels—they are not as widely distributed to less-enfranchised players, thus creating an unfair advantage for some players.
Wait, what?! If leaks were harmful as it was claimed during the whole article up until this paragraph, why are they suddenly an "unfair advantage" in favor of those who were spoiled? Wouldn't it be the opposite: an advantage to those who don't see it and get the full experience as it was intended?
I really, really hope he is not referring to gameplay advantage, as it would award it the title of single worst article of the year. In the past, The Rumor Mill was spoiler heaven. Entire sets getting leaked before Wizards could finish the last article of their first preview week. And guess what? No unfair advantages! No one started winning every subsequent tournament because of this sub-forum.
And even if there was some advantage to gain, competitive players would be the first ones to spoil themselves.
Leaks often lead to bad first impressions. Not always. But it is unrealistic (and would be unhealthy for the game) for every card to be designed in such a way that it would be 100% exciting when viewed out of context and on its own. That would force power creep in design to levels that would surely ruin the game.
Is he admitting that power levels in Magic: The Gathering can be forced by hype - or the lack of - alone? I mean, it was pretty obvious for anyone playing this game for years, put feels pretty bad to see an official article confirming it.
When a set is well designed from both gameplay and flavor perspectives, it doesn't matter what the first impressions are. People will buy it, play it and enjoy the heck out of it. The original Ravnica, for example, was spot on in all aspects and ended up as one of the most popular blocks of all time; deservedly so, in my opinion. Battle for Zendikar, on the other hand, was disappointing and no amount of Gideon first impressions could save it.
The MtG Community is smart and more than mature enough to accurately evaluate a set's worth for the competitive scene, casual play, collection and speculation values. We don't need good first impressions. What we need - desperately so - is a good set that addresses the problems BFZ had and hopefully alleviates some bad trends we have going on for years (such as the power creep of creature cards or the abuse of chase-mystics).
I love Magic. After playing it for more than 15 years and still caring about the game, i can't help but feel sad about this article, as it reveals some questionable design decisions and shows that developers are clearly focusing on the wrong issues...
Anyway, thank you Mr. Leaker for the damn good job. I would gladly give you an OGW box before anyone else could get it, if i could.
There is a large amount of opinion presented as fact when you later read:
Why?
There are literally hundreds of Wizards team members around the world working hard to create amazing gaming experiences for you, the Magic community. This is our passion. When leaks occur, it damages our hard work and robs the Magic community of these experiences.
Leaks create an unfair advantage as—because they do not go out over official channels—they are not as widely distributed to less-enfranchised players, thus creating an unfair advantage for some players.
Leaks often lead to bad first impressions. Not always. But it is unrealistic (and would be unhealthy for the game) for every card to be designed in such a way that it would be 100% exciting when viewed out of context and on its own. That would force power creep in design to levels that would surely ruin the game.
I'm trying my hardest to find the opinion presented as fact your upset about but can't. The only thing that comes close it the thought that their work is damaged by leaks and as he is talking specifically about their work to reveal then this isn't opinion. If you mean the whole unfair advantage then again not opinion though possible not relevant. You can't be talking about the whole bad first impressions because he states it doesn't happen all the time. Or do you mean the all cards shouldn't be exciting on their own because power creep yada yada, once more can't find opinion presented as fact. Or possible the most ridiculous thing to call out that there are hundreds of team members working around the world to create an amazing gaming experience. I would really like to see this opinion presented as fact you are so upset about but I just can't find it.
Allow me to spell it out for the willfully ignorant:
it damages our hard work and robs the Magic community of these experiences
This is an opinion. It can't be proven or disproven. Facts are universal and can be proven.
Leaks create an unfair advantage as—because they do not go out over official channels—they are not as widely distributed to less-enfranchised players, thus creating an unfair advantage for some players.
Again, opinion. Unless somebody can demonstrate a documented instance where a leak actually gave a measurable advantage to a person in a magic tournament, this is just a red herring for "Everybody should find out the exact same information at the exact time under our benevolent giuidance."
Leaks often lead to bad first impressions. Not always. But it is unrealistic (and would be unhealthy for the game) for every card to be designed in such a way that it would be 100% exciting when viewed out of context and on its own. That would force power creep in design to levels that would surely ruin the game.
And finally, another opinion. Granted, he qualified the first part with a weak "Not Always". But the rest of this point contains no objective data, no verifiable scientific studies, and no reliable metrics to back it up. Just a copious amount of subjective company marketing, design, and development guidelines. In short, he is parroting the danger of spoilers in terms we have heard previously from Maro and others. That is fine. If that is the company line WotC wants its employees to tow, they are signing the paychecks. Power Creep is always the big bad boogeyman they throw out whenever they can't satisfactorily prove the underlying reason why controversy X is so detrimental to the game.
I can´t believe people defending this thinks it´s actually alright and perfectly okay for people just to leak stuff like what has happening.
When reading
Let me lay out the plan we had to reveal Kozilek and highlight how we had built the context around our previews, had he not leaked early. First, after weeks of telling the story of the Gatewatch’s battles against Ulamog and his brood on Zendikar, we lined up the story in Uncharted Realms toofficially reveal Kozilek and his mischief on Wednesday, December 9. This date would have given the community a few days to talk about him, take contextual clues from the story as to what his card might do, and try to guess what he was going to look like. Then, the following weekend at the World Magic Cup, we would have revealed the full card and explained the new colorless mana symbol. Once we explained Kozilek and the new colorless mana symbol, we would then have shown you, as we did, Ancient Tomb’s new Zendikar Expedition printing, which prominently featured the colorless mana symbol.
I feel so bad for them because this sounds so cool both for them and the community.
I, for instance, makes short movies and would hate if people leaked some of the film, spoiling something great without any context.
As Wizards said, the reason why so many is confused about the new colorless mana is because it came out of context. It would have been much cooler if nothing was leaked and people got the see the new mana and read about it right away.
So no, I dont get peoples "Lol lol lol it´s wizards own fault, because they are *****ty at doing certain things therefor they should pay" I mean grow up people
The article presents a lot of the author's opinions as facts. OK. That is how you and WotC FEEL about it, but that does not necessarily reflect the feelings of the community at large. I concede that the theft of intellectual property portion has a factual basis, and WotC can punish offenders as they see fit. However, early spoilers have never negative influenced my planned purchases of sealed product upon release. Neither has it done that to anybody I know in the local community. Sorry Wizards, I'll pass on the Kool-Aid.
Why is it so hard for some people to acknowledge that their personal experience is not the universal response? Hell, the stuff that drives us psychologically is rarely known to us. It would be like saying "I don't have a problem eating peanuts, and neither does anyone I know. Sorry, I am not buying that peanut allergies exist." If you take the time to learn about it there are a lot of psychological studies that show that how we feel about something is directly tied to how it is presented to us.
It is their information to release. I am continually surprised by how many geek communities display no ability to consider how things impact others or wider implications, just as long as they themselves get what they want. I have always waved my geek flag high, but this kind of thing makes certain communities an embarrassment to be apart of.
Looks like Wizards needs to re-evaluate WHO they are releasing these cards to. Clean up their own house first and these things will take care of themselves.
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STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
The article presents a lot of the author's opinions as facts. OK. That is how you and WotC FEEL about it, but that does not necessarily reflect the feelings of the community at large. I concede that the theft of intellectual property portion has a factual basis, and WotC can punish offenders as they see fit. However, early spoilers have never negative influenced my planned purchases of sealed product upon release. Neither has it done that to anybody I know in the local community. Sorry Wizards, I'll pass on the Kool-Aid.
One issue with this logic is that you assume Wizards doesn't have information on the impact. There is probably a huge pile of information from the NPH leak and how it affected that set. And before people jump in with how that information was just about NPH, any reasonable information would be compared in a meaningful way--so they would look to a set's metrics that are most similar to NPH and compare. I know lots of people like to talk about Wizards as though they are incompetent (unless, of course, you need to discuss some maniacal scheme) but the facts are simple--Magic is bigger than it's ever been and it has survived for 22+ years when dozens of other games haven't. An incompetent company would not be able to pull that off for that long.
So, just because you are not privy to all of the facts Wizards has, does not conclusively mean they do not exist.
It's an enormously complex project getting the content laid out such that we can present the set to the Magic community.
In other words, they do work very hard to hype the **** out of every new set in order to persuade the players into making impulsive decisions which generally involve the investment of good sums of money. Honestly? Every successful company puts a lot of effort into marketing their products and services, and that's perfectly fine. Yeah, it is fine. As a consumer, you are the one to blame if you buy a product before careful consideration of its real value. However, do not try to sugar-coat your marketing strategies and put on an entertainer mask pretending you are so preoccupied with our amusement. There is no fooling us: you are just salty about us getting the raw deal, an actual preview without a whole article rationalizing the cards value and artificially inflating its price.
This is insanely cynical. Meet Rosewater in person and honestly tell me he doesn't care about player's amusement. Same goes for a lot of Wizards employees. But, if you cannot see that, or believe it, then perhaps you need to find a better use for your time.
Magic's entire premise is that of constant change, and this tantalizing premise creates a constant tension between our storytelling and players wanting to know what comes next.
Let's not kid ourselves here. Magic is like porn: a very pleasureful hobby that (almost) no one plays for the story.
Mmm empirical data. Look at this forum--there are more threads in the story section than in the digital forums and the Vintage forums. The Alesha story got media attention outside of Magic circles. Read MaRo's blog and consider how often he discusses story. So, thanks for projecting here.
As a person who used to run a fan site that would occasionally leak something, I know the lure for content creators.
Well, there goes your moral high ground. Nothing like getting a taste of your own medicine, am i right?
Mmm karma.
Would you go on your friend's Facebook page and announce a pregnancy if you found a positive pregnancy test in their bathroom? No, that would make you a terrible human being! Because it's not your news to give, and when the world gets to know it is up to that person and their significant other.
Not only this example is completely out of place, it doesn't even help the point he is trying to make. Getting angry at having your pregnancy "spoiled" would be such an infantile reaction from an actually selfish human being, since the conception of a new human life is something that everyone close to the couple should know as soon as possible. Life should be celebrated, not hidden from people who care about it.
This was a really cheap attempt to guilt trip us for enjoying the spoilers, and makes me think about who is really behaving like a "terrible human being". Keep it classy, Mr. Jarrett.
Here is where you really lose me. From this reply, I'm guessing you have not had the actual experience of telling about a pregnancy. First, most tests happen a few weeks into development, and usually before going to a doctor. So, if someone finds a test in the trash can and spoils it, it may not actually be confirmed. Next, up until about 12 weeks is the riskiest period for an embryo/fetus. A lot can go wrong. Next, what if that test was put in the trash can so the woman could go get an abortion? So, the presumption that it will be okay for that to be spoiled is not correct, because the 'celebration' you mention may very well be premature and unfounded.
Onto Trick's usage, I agree it is inappropriate, not because it is an inaccurate conceptual tool, but because it is a tool out of the scope of the leak. His example is too extreme. Here is a more appropriate one if you like: Imagine you have something you are going to give away at party in a few weeks. You put effort into this through thought, money, and time. You are genuinely excited to share it with people. Someone breaks in and steals it. Technically, you were going to give it away, so did you lose anything? Would you still be upset that someone broke the law--broke into your house, invaded your rights, and stole your property? What if that ends up at the party anyway, but now there is no wow factor or buzzing discussion at its reveal because the thief let everyone know? What if the reveal was the part of the point of spending thought, time, and money? What if the thief gave no information or context and just let everyone to their own whims in understanding it fully?
Secondly, the leak was actually much more exciting and controversial than your planned reveal could ever hope to be. Immediately explaining the new mana symbol would prevent a lot of interesting discussions that happened all over the internet.
"Interesting discussions?" You know those could happen regardless of the leak, right? Further, the 'intersting discussions' were mostly speculating what the mechanic was. Instead, the discussions could have been the merits and implications of the change. Now, a lot of people are burnt out on the topic, smug at being right, or upset at being wrong. Any of those lessens the value of the conversation.
We have and will continue to not just ban leakers from the DCI and cancel their Planeswalker Points accounts, but pursue whatever criminal and civil actions necessary to protect our intellectual property and the Magic community.
This is where you show off your true colors. After writing so many paragraphs about improving our experiences, caring about the fans and whatnot, you enforce your position to sue the leakers and prevent them from playing the game, a clearly unproportional reaction given the fact that most people who have been spoiled are not complaining at all. Make no mistake: it's not about our interest as players.
So, you are upset that Wizards is enforcing their rights? Upset that Wizards is showing community content creators who probably will loss traffic (and potential business) that they will work to protect the process? This just screams that Wizards could do nothing right in your mind (which is cynical when it comes to Wizards). Would it be better for Wizards to never punish and risk losing contractual rights (if they stop enforcing, before a court, a violator could argue under equity that the clause is null because it is inconsistently applied)?
Leaks create an unfair advantage as—because they do not go out over official channels—they are not as widely distributed to less-enfranchised players, thus creating an unfair advantage for some players.
Wait, what?! If leaks were harmful as it was claimed during the whole article up until this paragraph, why are they suddenly an "unfair advantage" in favor of those who were spoiled? Wouldn't it be the opposite: an advantage to those who don't see it and get the full experience as it was intended?
I really, really hope he is not referring to gameplay advantage, as it would award it the title of single worst article of the year. In the past, The Rumor Mill was spoiler heaven. Entire sets getting leaked before Wizards could finish the last article of their first preview week. And guess what? No unfair advantages! No one started winning every subsequent tournament because of this sub-forum.
And even if there was some advantage to gain, competitive players would be the first ones to spoil themselves.
While overstated, I agree with your concept here. It just seems trying to evoke some of the NPH leak.
Anyway, thank you Mr. Leaker for the damn good job. I would gladly give you an OGW box before anyone else could get it, if i could.
I don't think leaks are that big a deal. Do we really influence our opinions on NPH off it? Did it make the set significantly worse, or better? Nah. In a years time, we'll have forgotten about this leak, and it won't be remembered, but the shiny little pieces of cardboard will still clutter tables. To me, the only question really meaningful is whether theres good design or not. And BFZ was a stinking pile of trash, made even worse in retrospect now we know it consciously was printed with obsolete templating that needs errata. But by that same token, these spoilers say OGW has a much better chance to be a well designed set and the call is still up in the air to whether it will deliver, something we can't know off these few cards alone. But its certainly better designwise than having snow mana.
MaRo has said that there was a significant financial impact to the godbook episode. You can choose to think he is a liar, and since most people think they know how to make the game better than WotC does even though WotC are the ones that see all of the market research and financial data, I have no doubt that many here do. Do you really think that WotC would have a marketing department that they spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars on if all they had to do was dump cards on the internet without any context or build up? The things they do are driven by previous success. Think logically.
Having read Trick Jarrett's article, I'm stuck on the same sentence many others are.
Quote from Trick Jarrett »
We have and will continue to not just ban leakers from the DCI and cancel their Planeswalker Points accounts, but pursue whatever criminal and civil actions necessary to protect our intellectual property and the Magic community.
Your intellectual property? I'm sorry?
Your copyright mark and the various company legal details remain sprawled all over the bottom of those cards. About the only IP the leaker is breaking is that they're maybe stealing hits from your website. They're not printing wads of the things and flogging them on eBay. Good luck proving loss of income on that one in court. IP, my hat.
And protecting the Magic community? From what? From the horrible Spoiler Mafia Goons?
The rest, I get. I get that a bunch of people working at WotC have just had their elaborate spoilerage plans turned on their head. But that happens in life, unfortunately. Is it right? Probably not. But it doesn't mean you throw all your toys out the pram and complain about it, you suck it up and do a better job of ensuring it doesn't happen a second time. At the moment, it's like suiting up your Enchantress deck to watch the guy across the table spend two turns dropping Aura of Silence followed by Aura Shards. You can choose to politely take it for a game, or you can do the real-life equivalent of "STFU n00b \ragequit". I know which one looks classier, and I know which one I expect out of a large corporation wholly invested in creating an enjoyable experience for millions across the globe.
If you're going to make the argument an ethical one, ethics are a two-way street. As much as the average Leaker Joe may have an ethical responsibility to look out for WotC's interests in creating an enjoyable experience, it's also WotC's ethical responsibility to not threaten to lawyer up everytime someone bats an eyelid at them the wrong way.
Most likely, yes. Although given that we have had small sets in the past where one colour doesn't get a mythic, and that this set is heavily invested in colourless mana, another colourless mythic instead would not be a total surprise.
Holy S***, it really sounds like a lot of people HATE WotC...yet commit a lot of their spare time to one of their products...sounds weird to me. The statements about intelectual property are even weirder...if WotC shouldn´t protect their intelectual property, everyone had to work for free and live from sunshine and happiness?!
There are plenty of people, like me, who love the game but will call out on flaws when they see them, because we know the game can be better.
Calling out flaws when you see them is good and healthy for the game. But when someone perpetrates a criminal act that hurts Wizards financially, disrespects their intellectual work, diminishes the enjoyment of the game(if not for everyone, then at least a portion of the fanbase, of which I am one), and helps nobody, and people are praising them for it and hailing them as heroes, I think accusations of hate are warranted.
I'm really not understanding how seeing a card (or cards) early affects people's enjoyment of the game. Shouldn't the quality of the cards and set overall be more influential?
I'm really not understanding how seeing a card (or cards) early affects people's enjoyment of the game. Shouldn't the quality of the cards and set overall be more influential?
Some people find spoiler season an enjoyable experience, and leaks take that away from them. Some people don't like knowing core cards of the set a month early without any of the context surrounding it. Some people aren't comfortable with seeing creative work shown against the will of their creators. I understand that not everyone feels that way, but it is part of the experience of a lot of people, and it is part of the experience that Wizards wants to craft.
Sure, the quality of the set should be more influential, but that does not equate to the experience of the release having no influence.
Out of curiosity how many people here would rather we kept the 3-set block structure but only 2 of the sets are standard and 1 is modern/legacy? That way you can reprint cards like Snapcaster/Lili of the Veil without affecting standard but a easy to acquire product. That way rotation is the same as three set blocks but wizards won't have to work hard to make enough cards for three sets. Also means they can print cards that utilise the new mechanics/keywords that are legacy/modern viable.
Please apply for a job at Wizards. I play exclusively Legacy, but you'd figure if they planned on making Modern into a format which would be, you know, much easier to get into rather than similarly as difficult as Legacy, that they would make such cards readily available in a fashion such as the one you mentioned. Instead, I'll enjoy my once-every-two-year MYTHIC Grizzly Bears from a $12 pack, which has 85% likelihood of being worth the cardboard it's printed on.
The direction this game has taken in the past year has made me almost consider selling my Legacy cards (won't actually happen).....if Wizards even supported the format anymore.
Wizards is a multimillion dollar company. If the biggest hit they take all year is being less disappointed than I was by the inclusion of Dust Bowl and Kor Haven as Expeditions (which I do not think are bad cards by any stretch), then I don't care to hear it.
Merry Christmas Wizards, since I know you're posting these articles as a sob show for your 4th quarter profits being 10% lower than expected.
These leaks make OGW look even more exciting than BFZ
Agreed. For me, BFZ was one disappointment after another with its slow, paced leaks. If anything, each paced leak had me anticipating something better on the horizon, only to continue being frustrated as the piecewise set churned out one miss after another. Kiora was the only good leak for me personally, for flavor and story reasons. Otherwise, I just kept building up resentment for BFZ one set of spoilers at a time until finally when the entire set was leaked I took a step back and thought to myself, "really?" It was one of the most irritating experiences. If anything, seeing a set piecewise is more harmful than seeing the whole thing at once in my experience. The delayed Commander spoilers this year also severely damaged anticipation for the product, which fell immensely short of building expectations.
Frankly I don't read the articles or explanations and I don't buy into being told what to like, want or how to think. I will be the one who ultimately decides what satisfies my own personal, pre-determined set of interests. I'm a Vorthos and I know what I'm looking for. WOTC either created what I want, or it did not. No amount of marketing is changing how I feel or what I know about myself. When I look at a complete spoiler and count up the cards I want, and see that I want quite a number of cards (as I did for Theros block, and Magic Origins, etc), I can effectively judge the set for myself. When I see parts of a set either through partial leaks, controlled spoilers, or otherwise, it only facilitates missing the big picture of a complete work. People stand back and look at paintings, not stare at individual brush strokes and make an opinion of the whole. Especially in instances like BFZ when the entire experience was a long string of disappointments followed by the final splatter of one massive hot mess. Four worthy cards out of an entire large set, two of which are commons? No article was changing my mind about the reality that BFZ was just undesirable for me. And even after all the articles and stories, I still feel the same about what I liked and did not.
So really this article was nonsense to me. If anything, getting a massive leak like we did for OGW did more good for the set than not. I didn't sit around getting my enthusiasm poisoned with cards I could care less about before I finally saw cards like the new Nissa, or the new Octopus and Sphinx mythics that I do actually want and inspire me to invest in the set. But by all means make everyone wait weeks to throw darts around. We all saw how well that worked for the sister set of OGW that everyone is still complaining about.
Having read Trick Jarrett's article, I'm stuck on the same sentence many others are.
Quote from Trick Jarrett »
We have and will continue to not just ban leakers from the DCI and cancel their Planeswalker Points accounts, but pursue whatever criminal and civil actions necessary to protect our intellectual property and the Magic community.
Your intellectual property? I'm sorry?
Your copyright mark and the various company legal details remain sprawled all over the bottom of those cards. About the only IP the leaker is breaking is that they're maybe stealing hits from your website. They're not printing wads of the things and flogging them on eBay. Good luck proving loss of income on that one in court. IP, my hat.
And protecting the Magic community? From what? From the horrible Spoiler Mafia Goons?
The rest, I get. I get that a bunch of people working at WotC have just had their elaborate spoilerage plans turned on their head. But that happens in life, unfortunately. Is it right? Probably not. But it doesn't mean you throw all your toys out the pram and complain about it, you suck it up and do a better job of ensuring it doesn't happen a second time. At the moment, it's like suiting up your Enchantress deck to watch the guy across the table spend two turns dropping Aura of Silence followed by Aura Shards. You can choose to politely take it for a game, or you can do the real-life equivalent of "STFU n00b \ragequit". I know which one looks classier, and I know which one I expect out of a large corporation wholly invested in creating an enjoyable experience for millions across the globe.
If you're going to make the argument an ethical one, ethics are a two-way street. As much as the average Leaker Joe may have an ethical responsibility to look out for WotC's interests in creating an enjoyable experience, it's also WotC's ethical responsibility to not threaten to lawyer up everytime someone bats an eyelid at them the wrong way.
Are you serious? Really?
Yes. Magic the Gathering is intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast. They and they alone should decide how, when, or even if information surrounding it gets revealed. It is confidential information and there are laws to prove it. It's similar to how a doctor can't discuss a patient's medical information. It is unlawful and unethical to reveal information that belongs to someone else.
This is elementary school ethics, people. Come on.
And how is it unethical to threaten to take legal action when someone does stuff like that? Wouldn't you want to take some kind of legal action if someone, for example, revealed your name and social security number on the internet?
Leakers are stealing site hits from the websites that have been chosen to reveal these cards. There is literally no reason to look at any of the sites that will be leaking mythics for Oath. That decreases their revenue.
And I thought I remember there being a video or picture of some of the leaks with prerelease packs being opened. Opening them before the street date is definitely illegal.
It wouldn't have to be full card - WOTC themselves have done things were they show parts of cards or incomplete cards, they could also tease story beats or returning characters. I stand by my assertion that periods of famine followed by periods of feast create a beast that's always starving for more info.
Yeah, I don't want to take anything away from WOTC, but the community sites have always been the driver of discussion. Too many corporations are simply coming to the social media table too late, and they still want to follow the old rules of PR.
And it is particularly odd to see that kind of discussion on this of all websites.
Now, if the person that leaked these turns out to have violated some kind of NDA or such, that's within WOTC's right to prosecute (legally that is, like Incanur said in post# 447, there are serious ethical issues with how intellectual property is handled, but this isn't the place for that discussion.)
But I still maintain this won't hurt sales. My general approach to every Magic release is that I try to buy at least a few packs of each set so I have something from every set. A leak could possibly increase my anticipation for a set, and make me want to buy more, but so would seeing those cards on WOTC's specific schedule. Seeing that a set is, not quite so interesting, on any schedule, will only keep me at my "buy a few packs for my collection" level, it will never take it below that level (that point will only come when I'm absolutely done with the game, and that will be a completely different problem. )
Anecdotal evidence aside, I can't see how the schedule of seeing the cards affects sales, *unless* WOTC is counting on hype to make people pre-order cards before they can be more thoroughly discussed, and then you're into the realm of trying to sell a sub-par product, and that's whole other discussion.
There is a large amount of opinion presented as fact when you later read:
You are seriously misinformed if you believe that WotC doesn't believe their marketing scheme is the most effective way to drive sales. They can say all they want about experiences, hard work, disruption, unfair advantages, etc., but the bottom line is: Did they sell enough packs to make Hasbro happy? Period. Nobody is working at WotC for free. Granted some might work there partially for the love of the game, but that doesn't put a roof over your head or food on your plate. Again, people are entitled to their opinions, but WotC shouldn't be surprised that the community at large doesn't fall on their knees and repent of their leaking and leak enjoying ways because some WotC employees FEEL their work was but for naught.
Spoilers come from all over the place, yes I only go to MTGS for spoilers. I'm not reading every japanese, italian, germand, french, portuguese, you name it site that talks about Magic The Gathering to find spoilers. I don't even know them. I just go to MTGS. To that regard, I don't think these sites lose that much.
EDIT: Grammar
There are plenty of people, like me, who love the game but will call out on flaws when they see them, because we know the game can be better.
In other words, they do work very hard to hype the **** out of every new set in order to persuade the players into making impulsive decisions which generally involve the investment of good sums of money. Honestly? Every successful company puts a lot of effort into marketing their products and services, and that's perfectly fine. Yeah, it is fine. As a consumer, you are the one to blame if you buy a product before careful consideration of its real value. However, do not try to sugar-coat your marketing strategies and put on an entertainer mask pretending you are so preoccupied with our amusement. There is no fooling us: you are just salty about us getting the raw deal, an actual preview without a whole article rationalizing the cards value and artificially inflating its price.
Let's not kid ourselves here. Magic is like porn: a very pleasureful hobby that (almost) no one plays for the story.
Furthermore, due to how the game is played, the flavor of individual cards is far more important than the story as a whole. Years of build-up around Planeswalkers and their sets combined still don't hold a candle to Kamigawa. And even if i am appreciative of flavorful sets, still having my bottom tier Kamigawa cards, such aspect ranks nowhere near Magic's core premises.
Well, there goes your moral high ground. Nothing like getting a taste of your own medicine, am i right?
I know, right? What would be the meaning of our lives if we didn't get a professional report on Zendikar's water quality?! There is no doubt that whatever year that was, someone stole your Nobel Prize for unveiling us such crucial bit of information!
Not only this example is completely out of place, it doesn't even help the point he is trying to make. Getting angry at having your pregnancy "spoiled" would be such an infantile reaction from an actually selfish human being, since the conception of a new human life is something that everyone close to the couple should know as soon as possible. Life should be celebrated, not hidden from people who care about it.
This was a really cheap attempt to guilt trip us for enjoying the spoilers, and makes me think about who is really behaving like a "terrible human being". Keep it classy, Mr. Jarrett.
You couldn't be further from the truth.
Compared to other Eldrazi, Kozilek is a relatively weak, boring card. No matter how much you try to enhance the frame, the picture is simply not that good. A Hollywood World Premiere of Kozilek would still be less exciting than a casually revealed Emrakul. The content is far more important than the context.
Secondly, the leak was actually much more exciting and controversial than your planned reveal could ever hope to be. Immediately explaining the new mana symbol would prevent a lot of interesting discussions that happened all over the internet.
Except movies are all about the story, so spoiling it can effectively ruin the experience. Magic is mostly about the game itself, so spoiling yourself can actually improve your experience, as there is a lot of concentrated discussion about the new cards before you can get to play them.
Other than that, it is worth noting that in both examples the consumer goes all the way to spoil himself. It was a risk he was willing to take, so whether his experience ended up being ruined or not is none of your business.
This is where you show off your true colors. After writing so many paragraphs about improving our experiences, caring about the fans and whatnot, you enforce your position to sue the leakers and prevent them from playing the game, a clearly unproportional reaction given the fact that most people who have been spoiled are not complaining at all. Make no mistake: it's not about our interest as players.
Wait, what?! If leaks were harmful as it was claimed during the whole article up until this paragraph, why are they suddenly an "unfair advantage" in favor of those who were spoiled? Wouldn't it be the opposite: an advantage to those who don't see it and get the full experience as it was intended?
I really, really hope he is not referring to gameplay advantage, as it would award it the title of single worst article of the year. In the past, The Rumor Mill was spoiler heaven. Entire sets getting leaked before Wizards could finish the last article of their first preview week. And guess what? No unfair advantages! No one started winning every subsequent tournament because of this sub-forum.
And even if there was some advantage to gain, competitive players would be the first ones to spoil themselves.
Is he admitting that power levels in Magic: The Gathering can be forced by hype - or the lack of - alone? I mean, it was pretty obvious for anyone playing this game for years, put feels pretty bad to see an official article confirming it.
When a set is well designed from both gameplay and flavor perspectives, it doesn't matter what the first impressions are. People will buy it, play it and enjoy the heck out of it. The original Ravnica, for example, was spot on in all aspects and ended up as one of the most popular blocks of all time; deservedly so, in my opinion. Battle for Zendikar, on the other hand, was disappointing and no amount of Gideon first impressions could save it.
The MtG Community is smart and more than mature enough to accurately evaluate a set's worth for the competitive scene, casual play, collection and speculation values. We don't need good first impressions. What we need - desperately so - is a good set that addresses the problems BFZ had and hopefully alleviates some bad trends we have going on for years (such as the power creep of creature cards or the abuse of chase-mystics).
I love Magic. After playing it for more than 15 years and still caring about the game, i can't help but feel sad about this article, as it reveals some questionable design decisions and shows that developers are clearly focusing on the wrong issues...
Anyway, thank you Mr. Leaker for the damn good job. I would gladly give you an OGW box before anyone else could get it, if i could.
I'm trying my hardest to find the opinion presented as fact your upset about but can't. The only thing that comes close it the thought that their work is damaged by leaks and as he is talking specifically about their work to reveal then this isn't opinion. If you mean the whole unfair advantage then again not opinion though possible not relevant. You can't be talking about the whole bad first impressions because he states it doesn't happen all the time. Or do you mean the all cards shouldn't be exciting on their own because power creep yada yada, once more can't find opinion presented as fact. Or possible the most ridiculous thing to call out that there are hundreds of team members working around the world to create an amazing gaming experience. I would really like to see this opinion presented as fact you are so upset about but I just can't find it.
This is an opinion. It can't be proven or disproven. Facts are universal and can be proven.
Again, opinion. Unless somebody can demonstrate a documented instance where a leak actually gave a measurable advantage to a person in a magic tournament, this is just a red herring for "Everybody should find out the exact same information at the exact time under our benevolent giuidance."
And finally, another opinion. Granted, he qualified the first part with a weak "Not Always". But the rest of this point contains no objective data, no verifiable scientific studies, and no reliable metrics to back it up. Just a copious amount of subjective company marketing, design, and development guidelines. In short, he is parroting the danger of spoilers in terms we have heard previously from Maro and others. That is fine. If that is the company line WotC wants its employees to tow, they are signing the paychecks. Power Creep is always the big bad boogeyman they throw out whenever they can't satisfactorily prove the underlying reason why controversy X is so detrimental to the game.
When reading
I feel so bad for them because this sounds so cool both for them and the community.
I, for instance, makes short movies and would hate if people leaked some of the film, spoiling something great without any context.
As Wizards said, the reason why so many is confused about the new colorless mana is because it came out of context. It would have been much cooler if nothing was leaked and people got the see the new mana and read about it right away.
So no, I dont get peoples "Lol lol lol it´s wizards own fault, because they are *****ty at doing certain things therefor they should pay" I mean grow up people
Why is it so hard for some people to acknowledge that their personal experience is not the universal response? Hell, the stuff that drives us psychologically is rarely known to us. It would be like saying "I don't have a problem eating peanuts, and neither does anyone I know. Sorry, I am not buying that peanut allergies exist." If you take the time to learn about it there are a lot of psychological studies that show that how we feel about something is directly tied to how it is presented to us.
It is their information to release. I am continually surprised by how many geek communities display no ability to consider how things impact others or wider implications, just as long as they themselves get what they want. I have always waved my geek flag high, but this kind of thing makes certain communities an embarrassment to be apart of.
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STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
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So, just because you are not privy to all of the facts Wizards has, does not conclusively mean they do not exist.
This is insanely cynical. Meet Rosewater in person and honestly tell me he doesn't care about player's amusement. Same goes for a lot of Wizards employees. But, if you cannot see that, or believe it, then perhaps you need to find a better use for your time.
Mmm empirical data. Look at this forum--there are more threads in the story section than in the digital forums and the Vintage forums. The Alesha story got media attention outside of Magic circles. Read MaRo's blog and consider how often he discusses story. So, thanks for projecting here.
Mmm karma.
Here is where you really lose me. From this reply, I'm guessing you have not had the actual experience of telling about a pregnancy. First, most tests happen a few weeks into development, and usually before going to a doctor. So, if someone finds a test in the trash can and spoils it, it may not actually be confirmed. Next, up until about 12 weeks is the riskiest period for an embryo/fetus. A lot can go wrong. Next, what if that test was put in the trash can so the woman could go get an abortion? So, the presumption that it will be okay for that to be spoiled is not correct, because the 'celebration' you mention may very well be premature and unfounded.
Onto Trick's usage, I agree it is inappropriate, not because it is an inaccurate conceptual tool, but because it is a tool out of the scope of the leak. His example is too extreme. Here is a more appropriate one if you like: Imagine you have something you are going to give away at party in a few weeks. You put effort into this through thought, money, and time. You are genuinely excited to share it with people. Someone breaks in and steals it. Technically, you were going to give it away, so did you lose anything? Would you still be upset that someone broke the law--broke into your house, invaded your rights, and stole your property? What if that ends up at the party anyway, but now there is no wow factor or buzzing discussion at its reveal because the thief let everyone know? What if the reveal was the part of the point of spending thought, time, and money? What if the thief gave no information or context and just let everyone to their own whims in understanding it fully?
"Interesting discussions?" You know those could happen regardless of the leak, right? Further, the 'intersting discussions' were mostly speculating what the mechanic was. Instead, the discussions could have been the merits and implications of the change. Now, a lot of people are burnt out on the topic, smug at being right, or upset at being wrong. Any of those lessens the value of the conversation.
So, you are upset that Wizards is enforcing their rights? Upset that Wizards is showing community content creators who probably will loss traffic (and potential business) that they will work to protect the process? This just screams that Wizards could do nothing right in your mind (which is cynical when it comes to Wizards). Would it be better for Wizards to never punish and risk losing contractual rights (if they stop enforcing, before a court, a violator could argue under equity that the clause is null because it is inconsistently applied)?
While overstated, I agree with your concept here. It just seems trying to evoke some of the NPH leak.
Nothing like supporting illegal activity.
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Your intellectual property? I'm sorry?
Your copyright mark and the various company legal details remain sprawled all over the bottom of those cards. About the only IP the leaker is breaking is that they're maybe stealing hits from your website. They're not printing wads of the things and flogging them on eBay. Good luck proving loss of income on that one in court. IP, my hat.
And protecting the Magic community? From what? From the horrible Spoiler Mafia Goons?
The rest, I get. I get that a bunch of people working at WotC have just had their elaborate spoilerage plans turned on their head. But that happens in life, unfortunately. Is it right? Probably not. But it doesn't mean you throw all your toys out the pram and complain about it, you suck it up and do a better job of ensuring it doesn't happen a second time. At the moment, it's like suiting up your Enchantress deck to watch the guy across the table spend two turns dropping Aura of Silence followed by Aura Shards. You can choose to politely take it for a game, or you can do the real-life equivalent of "STFU n00b \ragequit". I know which one looks classier, and I know which one I expect out of a large corporation wholly invested in creating an enjoyable experience for millions across the globe.
If you're going to make the argument an ethical one, ethics are a two-way street. As much as the average Leaker Joe may have an ethical responsibility to look out for WotC's interests in creating an enjoyable experience, it's also WotC's ethical responsibility to not threaten to lawyer up everytime someone bats an eyelid at them the wrong way.
Most likely, yes. Although given that we have had small sets in the past where one colour doesn't get a mythic, and that this set is heavily invested in colourless mana, another colourless mythic instead would not be a total surprise.
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Some people find spoiler season an enjoyable experience, and leaks take that away from them. Some people don't like knowing core cards of the set a month early without any of the context surrounding it. Some people aren't comfortable with seeing creative work shown against the will of their creators. I understand that not everyone feels that way, but it is part of the experience of a lot of people, and it is part of the experience that Wizards wants to craft.
Sure, the quality of the set should be more influential, but that does not equate to the experience of the release having no influence.
Please apply for a job at Wizards. I play exclusively Legacy, but you'd figure if they planned on making Modern into a format which would be, you know, much easier to get into rather than similarly as difficult as Legacy, that they would make such cards readily available in a fashion such as the one you mentioned. Instead, I'll enjoy my once-every-two-year MYTHIC Grizzly Bears from a $12 pack, which has 85% likelihood of being worth the cardboard it's printed on.
The direction this game has taken in the past year has made me almost consider selling my Legacy cards (won't actually happen).....if Wizards even supported the format anymore.
Wizards is a multimillion dollar company. If the biggest hit they take all year is being less disappointed than I was by the inclusion of Dust Bowl and Kor Haven as Expeditions (which I do not think are bad cards by any stretch), then I don't care to hear it.
Merry Christmas Wizards, since I know you're posting these articles as a sob show for your 4th quarter profits being 10% lower than expected.
Agreed. For me, BFZ was one disappointment after another with its slow, paced leaks. If anything, each paced leak had me anticipating something better on the horizon, only to continue being frustrated as the piecewise set churned out one miss after another. Kiora was the only good leak for me personally, for flavor and story reasons. Otherwise, I just kept building up resentment for BFZ one set of spoilers at a time until finally when the entire set was leaked I took a step back and thought to myself, "really?" It was one of the most irritating experiences. If anything, seeing a set piecewise is more harmful than seeing the whole thing at once in my experience. The delayed Commander spoilers this year also severely damaged anticipation for the product, which fell immensely short of building expectations.
Frankly I don't read the articles or explanations and I don't buy into being told what to like, want or how to think. I will be the one who ultimately decides what satisfies my own personal, pre-determined set of interests. I'm a Vorthos and I know what I'm looking for. WOTC either created what I want, or it did not. No amount of marketing is changing how I feel or what I know about myself. When I look at a complete spoiler and count up the cards I want, and see that I want quite a number of cards (as I did for Theros block, and Magic Origins, etc), I can effectively judge the set for myself. When I see parts of a set either through partial leaks, controlled spoilers, or otherwise, it only facilitates missing the big picture of a complete work. People stand back and look at paintings, not stare at individual brush strokes and make an opinion of the whole. Especially in instances like BFZ when the entire experience was a long string of disappointments followed by the final splatter of one massive hot mess. Four worthy cards out of an entire large set, two of which are commons? No article was changing my mind about the reality that BFZ was just undesirable for me. And even after all the articles and stories, I still feel the same about what I liked and did not.
So really this article was nonsense to me. If anything, getting a massive leak like we did for OGW did more good for the set than not. I didn't sit around getting my enthusiasm poisoned with cards I could care less about before I finally saw cards like the new Nissa, or the new Octopus and Sphinx mythics that I do actually want and inspire me to invest in the set. But by all means make everyone wait weeks to throw darts around. We all saw how well that worked for the sister set of OGW that everyone is still complaining about.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Are you serious? Really?
Yes. Magic the Gathering is intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast. They and they alone should decide how, when, or even if information surrounding it gets revealed. It is confidential information and there are laws to prove it. It's similar to how a doctor can't discuss a patient's medical information. It is unlawful and unethical to reveal information that belongs to someone else.
This is elementary school ethics, people. Come on.
And how is it unethical to threaten to take legal action when someone does stuff like that? Wouldn't you want to take some kind of legal action if someone, for example, revealed your name and social security number on the internet?