While the story / marketing team at Wizards surely felt robbed of their plan for the Kozilek reveal, let's not deform reality: the unexplained new mana symbol on the leaked Kozilek generated way more buzz than they would have ever achieved with their plan. The thread discussing it got very large and people passionately dissected it and provided their own reasoning in favour of the various possibilities.
The uncharted realm story? People speculate every week on them. I don't see much buzz outside of the flavour forum. Immediately explaining the new mana symbol? There would be a small thread about it, no more. It's a small evolution of colorless mana.
In the end though, I find it hard to be moved by a company marketing plan being damaged.
This is what kills me, they just let it go on, sticking to their current schedule. I can't help but think that a more dynamic marketing department would have seen all the discussion going on and moved up their plans to seize that energy and take it for themselves.
The more I stew on this issue, the more that response from Trick Jarret annoys me. I can't help but think of the Coldsnap debacle. "Oh, we found it in a filing cabinet and polished it up" story. I not only believed it, but I also defended WOTC, over and over and over on the old official forums (where did those go? Oh, they shut them down, another brilliant marketing strategy ). I fought tooth and nail against the doubters, knowing in my heart that WOTC wouldn't make up a story like that, and they sure as heck did.
Will somebody get in trouble for the leak? Yes. Is that understandable, yes.
Does the community deserve to be "shamed" for enjoying and spreading the information? Go pound sand.
I didn't see that article as shaming the community at all. There's been a little of that here on this forum, but not in the article itself. He was certainly shaming the person who leaked the cards, but I do not in any way see that as shaming the community at large and I'm having a little trouble understand why so many people seem to be taking it this way.
The only thing I didn't like about Trip's article was the "unfair advantage" bit because it sounds like bs to me. Other than that it all seemed pretty kosher. Someone, somwhere, stole these cards and images from Wizards in one way or another to post them online. This person wasn't leaking dirty secrets Wizards was hiding from us, unethical things that they were caught doing, or uncovering some hidden conspiracy, they were just getting attention for themselves. Will I still start brewing and speculating about cards as we get them, no matter how we get them? Absolutely. Does that mean I have to applaud the people leaking or even approve at all what they're doing? Not at all.
If this were an era where we didn't know anything about the set until it was on sale or if Wizards was hiding something about it for whatever reason, or if they actually tried some sort of legal action against people/sites that talk about the cards that get spoiled early, I might have a different opinion on this matter. As it stands, though, we always have the full set officially spoiled a week before the set goes on sale. Not only that, Wizards also crafts a spoiler season, which many people actually enjoy, and even give cards to prominent sites and people in the community to spoil to help bolster their views for a bit, which helps them make a profit and keep them doing what they're doing. At this point, people that spoil stuff early are just breaking the law to feed their own ego, and I don't think they should be congratulated or defended for that.
Except you're missing the detail where the vast majority of these spoilers are posted anonymously because of the risk involved. I know for a fact one of the stores in my area had already heard a great deal about the rares in the set weeks AHEAD of the spoilers, and refused to say a word to anyone. That, while admirable, places a significant advantage on the producer (WotC), the distributor, and the LGS. Basically, everyone is well-informed if this set is crap or not, and I have basically the final week of spoilers to prepare myself for purchases through preorder or whatnot. I'm not just talking about singles here, either, they have plenty of inflated hysteria on their own, and sometimes a really appealing card just doesn't stick anywhere (Drana, I'm looking at you). I'm talking about preordering a box. There were no major leaks beyond the lands and expeditions going into spoiler week. Then the 'good stuff' started rolling out. By day 2, the bombs looked kinda meh. By Day 5, everyone in my LGS is like 'is it me or is this really dumbed down?' and by the full spoil, we knew they had botched this hotly anticipated return set.
Quite honestly, if the article wants to say, 'Hey, we put a lot of work into this design, and you people looking at spoilers ruined it!', then I'd simply counter that I worked my behind off for the money I put into preordering a few boxes of your set. You broke my trust, so I'd rather see spoilers enough in advance to make an informed decision so you don't burn me again.
"Unfair advantage" wasn't just bs, it was hypocrisy. If everyone but the customer knows what they'll be purchasing well ahead of time, who has the unfair advantage?
While the story / marketing team at Wizards surely felt robbed of their plan for the Kozilek reveal, let's not deform reality: the unexplained new mana symbol on the leaked Kozilek generated way more buzz than they would have ever achieved with their plan. The thread discussing it got very large and people passionately dissected it and provided their own reasoning in favour of the various possibilities.
The uncharted realm story? People speculate every week on them. I don't see much buzz outside of the flavour forum. Immediately explaining the new mana symbol? There would be a small thread about it, no more. It's a small evolution of colorless mana.
In the end though, I find it hard to be moved by a company marketing plan being damaged.
This is what kills me, they just let it go on, sticking to their current schedule. I can't help but think that a more dynamic marketing department would have seen all the discussion going on and moved up their plans to seize that energy and take it for themselves.
The more I stew on this issue, the more that response from Trick Jarret annoys me. I can't help but think of the Coldsnap debacle. "Oh, we found it in a filing cabinet and polished it up" story. I not only believed it, but I also defended WOTC, over and over and over on the old official forums (where did those go? Oh, they shut them down, another brilliant marketing strategy ). I fought tooth and nail against the doubters, knowing in my heart that WOTC wouldn't make up a story like that, and they sure as heck did.
Will somebody get in trouble for the leak? Yes. Is that understandable, yes.
Does the community deserve to be "shamed" for enjoying and spreading the information? Go pound sand.
I didn't see that article as shaming the community at all. There's been a little of that here on this forum, but not in the article itself. He was certainly shaming the person who leaked the cards, but I do not in any way see that as shaming the community at large and I'm having a little trouble understand why so many people seem to be taking it this way.
The only thing I didn't like about Trip's article was the "unfair advantage" bit because it sounds like bs to me. Other than that it all seemed pretty kosher. Someone, somwhere, stole these cards and images from Wizards in one way or another to post them online. This person wasn't leaking dirty secrets Wizards was hiding from us, unethical things that they were caught doing, or uncovering some hidden conspiracy, they were just getting attention for themselves. Will I still start brewing and speculating about cards as we get them, no matter how we get them? Absolutely. Does that mean I have to applaud the people leaking or even approve at all what they're doing? Not at all.
If this were an era where we didn't know anything about the set until it was on sale or if Wizards was hiding something about it for whatever reason, or if they actually tried some sort of legal action against people/sites that talk about the cards that get spoiled early, I might have a different opinion on this matter. As it stands, though, we always have the full set officially spoiled a week before the set goes on sale. Not only that, Wizards also crafts a spoiler season, which many people actually enjoy, and even give cards to prominent sites and people in the community to spoil to help bolster their views for a bit, which helps them make a profit and keep them doing what they're doing. At this point, people that spoil stuff early are just breaking the law to feed their own ego, and I don't think they should be congratulated or defended for that.
Except you're missing the detail where the vast majority of these spoilers are posted anonymously because of the risk involved. I know for a fact one of the stores in my area had already heard a great deal about the rares in the set weeks AHEAD of the spoilers, and refused to say a word to anyone. That, while admirable, places a significant advantage on the producer (WotC), the distributor, and the LGS. Basically, everyone is well-informed if this set is crap or not, and I have basically the final week of spoilers to prepare myself for purchases through preorder or whatnot. I'm not just talking about singles here, either, they have plenty of inflated hysteria on their own, and sometimes a really appealing card just doesn't stick anywhere (Drana, I'm looking at you). I'm talking about preordering a box. There were no major leaks beyond the lands and expeditions going into spoiler week. Then the 'good stuff' started rolling out. By day 2, the bombs looked kinda meh. By Day 5, everyone in my LGS is like 'is it me or is this really dumbed down?' and by the full spoil, we knew they had botched this hotly anticipated return set.
Quite honestly, if the article wants to say, 'Hey, we put a lot of work into this design, and you people looking at spoilers ruined it!', then I'd simply counter that I worked my behind off for the money I put into preordering a few boxes of your set. You broke my trust, so I'd rather see spoilers enough in advance to make an informed decision so you don't burn me again.
"Unfair advantage" wasn't just bs, it was hypocrisy. If everyone but the customer knows what they'll be purchasing well ahead of time, who has the unfair advantage?
I don't see how your lgs knowing cards in the set ahead of time actually helps them. Nor how not knowing hurts you. Everywhere I know, if you preorder a box and then spoilers come around and you decide the set's not worth it, you can simply cancel your preorder at no loss to you (aside from maybe having to drive out to the store).
Except you're missing the detail where the vast majority of these spoilers are posted anonymously because of the risk involved. I know for a fact one of the stores in my area had already heard a great deal about the rares in the set weeks AHEAD of the spoilers, and refused to say a word to anyone. That, while admirable, places a significant advantage on the producer (WotC), the distributor, and the LGS. Basically, everyone is well-informed if this set is crap or not, and I have basically the final week of spoilers to prepare myself for purchases through preorder or whatnot. I'm not just talking about singles here, either, they have plenty of inflated hysteria on their own, and sometimes a really appealing card just doesn't stick anywhere (Drana, I'm looking at you). I'm talking about preordering a box. There were no major leaks beyond the lands and expeditions going into spoiler week. Then the 'good stuff' started rolling out. By day 2, the bombs looked kinda meh. By Day 5, everyone in my LGS is like 'is it me or is this really dumbed down?' and by the full spoil, we knew they had botched this hotly anticipated return set.
Quite honestly, if the article wants to say, 'Hey, we put a lot of work into this design, and you people looking at spoilers ruined it!', then I'd simply counter that I worked my behind off for the money I put into preordering a few boxes of your set. You broke my trust, so I'd rather see spoilers enough in advance to make an informed decision so you don't burn me again.
"Unfair advantage" wasn't just bs, it was hypocrisy. If everyone but the customer knows what they'll be purchasing well ahead of time, who has the unfair advantage?
By what metric are you getting burned if you pre-order a booster box you don't like? If you're buying a box the generate a profit, having leaks this far in advance doesn't help you at all; the value is going to be determined by the market prices for the singles, which is constantly changing. If that's honestly your concern, I would recommend taking a look at Saffron's Olive's financial analysis articles over on MtG Goldfish. He's got a knack for compiling a whole lot of information in an easily digested blog post and giving you an idea of whether you're going to make or lose money.
If you're speaking of getting cards for Standard Constructed, you could be doing that in a more cost-effective manner. Look at the spoilers during spoiler season, do some legwork to figure out what you're going to play, then buy just those cards when you're released. That's what I do; the last time I bought a booster box was when Khans came out, because I was getting back into Standard and just wanted a critical mass of new cards to play with. But for the most part, I buy or trade for the rares and mythics I want, and pick up the commons and uncommons for free by rummaging in the free bin. If you're buying a booster box looking for enough Constructed playables to get your money's worth, you're burning yourself. Not always, but usually. Unless you're someone who does a lot of buying, selling, and trading of singles and have thus means to leverage the fluctuation in singles prices.
I mean, if you just like the ritual of sitting down and opening packs and sorting cards, no one but you can put a price tag on that. But it really doesn't have to do with what's in the set. If you want some prior knowledge, I can help you out --- spoiler ahead -- a box of Oath of the Gatewatch contains a bunch of random cards that are mainly only relevant for limited play. Beyond that, you'll get some full-art basics, which might be a good place to hold some value in the long term, a couple rares and mythics that could be in high demand, but only one or two that carries a price tag of $20 or more, and there's a small but not insignificant chance that you'll get a chase foil that can be sold for a lot of money or traded for a lot of playables. That's typically the case for any unopened booster box, so I don't see what the big mystery is. What's in the box? Most likely $80 - $90 worth of Magic cards.
So I'm just not buying the argument that the company releasing an entire list of everything in the set a week before the set is available for purchase is not enough advance information. I'm going to see The Force Awakens next week; is it logical for me to demand I get a chance to read the screenplay before I buy my ticket? Because I was certainly burned with The Phantom Menace, I'm understandably skeptical. I wish some forward-thinking rebel was brave enough to speak truth to power and show us that script...
Except you're missing the detail where the vast majority of these spoilers are posted anonymously because of the risk involved. I know for a fact one of the stores in my area had already heard a great deal about the rares in the set weeks AHEAD of the spoilers, and refused to say a word to anyone. That, while admirable, places a significant advantage on the producer (WotC), the distributor, and the LGS. Basically, everyone is well-informed if this set is crap or not, and I have basically the final week of spoilers to prepare myself for purchases through preorder or whatnot. I'm not just talking about singles here, either, they have plenty of inflated hysteria on their own, and sometimes a really appealing card just doesn't stick anywhere (Drana, I'm looking at you). I'm talking about preordering a box. There were no major leaks beyond the lands and expeditions going into spoiler week. Then the 'good stuff' started rolling out. By day 2, the bombs looked kinda meh. By Day 5, everyone in my LGS is like 'is it me or is this really dumbed down?' and by the full spoil, we knew they had botched this hotly anticipated return set.
Quite honestly, if the article wants to say, 'Hey, we put a lot of work into this design, and you people looking at spoilers ruined it!', then I'd simply counter that I worked my behind off for the money I put into preordering a few boxes of your set. You broke my trust, so I'd rather see spoilers enough in advance to make an informed decision so you don't burn me again.
"Unfair advantage" wasn't just bs, it was hypocrisy. If everyone but the customer knows what they'll be purchasing well ahead of time, who has the unfair advantage?
By what metric are you getting burned if you pre-order a booster box you don't like? If you're buying a box the generate a profit, having leaks this far in advance doesn't help you at all; the value is going to be determined by the market prices for the singles, which is constantly changing. If that's honestly your concern, I would recommend taking a look at Saffron's Olive's financial analysis articles over on MtG Goldfish. He's got a knack for compiling a whole lot of information in an easily digested blog post and giving you an idea of whether you're going to make or lose money.
If you're speaking of getting cards for Standard Constructed, you could be doing that in a more cost-effective manner. Look at the spoilers during spoiler season, do some legwork to figure out what you're going to play, then buy just those cards when you're released. That's what I do; the last time I bought a booster box was when Khans came out, because I was getting back into Standard and just wanted a critical mass of new cards to play with. But for the most part, I buy or trade for the rares and mythics I want, and pick up the commons and uncommons for free by rummaging in the free bin. If you're buying a booster box looking for enough Constructed playables to get your money's worth, you're burning yourself. Not always, but usually. Unless you're someone who does a lot of buying, selling, and trading of singles and have thus means to leverage the fluctuation in singles prices.
I mean, if you just like the ritual of sitting down and opening packs and sorting cards, no one but you can put a price tag on that. But it really doesn't have to do with what's in the set. If you want some prior knowledge, I can help you out --- spoiler ahead -- a box of Oath of the Gatewatch contains a bunch of random cards that are mainly only relevant for limited play. Beyond that, you'll get some full-art basics, which might be a good place to hold some value in the long term, a couple rares and mythics that could be in high demand, but only one or two that carries a price tag of $20 or more, and there's a small but not insignificant chance that you'll get a chase foil that can be sold for a lot of money or traded for a lot of playables. That's typically the case for any unopened booster box, so I don't see what the big mystery is. What's in the box? Most likely $80 - $90 worth of Magic cards.
So I'm just not buying the argument that the company releasing an entire list of everything in the set a week before the set is available for purchase is not enough advance information. I'm going to see The Force Awakens next week; is it logical for me to demand I get a chance to read the screenplay before I buy my ticket? Because I was certainly burned with The Phantom Menace, I'm understandably skeptical. I wish some forward-thinking rebel was brave enough to speak truth to power and show us that script...
I'm sorry, but I just don't agree with that line of thinking at all, and especially not that ridiculous apples-to-oranges bit at the end. You don't have to read the script for a film to make informed decisions, read a review. The price of a ticket to a movie doesn't wildly fluctuate based on how good/bad it is. The fact you even made such a comparison really undermines what was otherwise a seemingly well-thought out point.
What does change wildly with time, unlike ticket prices, is the prerelease hysteria that's not only become more prevalent as time has gone on, but leaves more losers than winners. 2-3 weeks of testing and grinding would have shown Drana to be a bad buy in the meta. Instead, she started as a dark horse ($7), swung to psychotic highs ($24) and back to normal ($8). How many sets back do you want to go with examples of that trend? And those examples have every bit as much to do with hype as they do with proper time for testing.
As for a box EV, well, you're also missing 1 important detail. Yes, I can absolutely expect $80-90 in value out of a box. What you're leaving out is how much of that is imaginary money. I can say I have $30 of BFZ rares in my binder, but if that's 60 rares no one wants, who the hell am I trading those to? Take that as opposed to $30 of rares during RTR standard in my binder and all of a sudden I have no issue making trades for what I want. If the set is top-heavy, like BFZ or MM15, the ability to move the card and it's 'real-world value' isn't just diminished, it's non-existent. Saying it's a 50 cent rare is saying what it retails for if you want one, not what it's worth to anyone. Knowing what a set looks like, distribution-wise, is every bit as important as having a decent time to analyze and test with a new set.
So yeah, I'll take the early spoiler every time and make better decisions.
As for a box EV, well, you're also missing 1 important detail. Yes, I can absolutely expect $80-90 in value out of a box. What you're leaving out is how much of that is imaginary money. I can say I have $30 of BFZ rares in my binder, but if that's 60 rares no one wants, who the hell am I trading those to? Take that as opposed to $30 of rares during RTR standard in my binder and all of a sudden I have no issue making trades for what I want. If the set is top-heavy, like BFZ or MM15, the ability to move the card and it's 'real-world value' isn't just diminished, it's non-existent. Saying it's a 50 cent rare is saying what it retails for if you want one, not what it's worth to anyone. Knowing what a set looks like, distribution-wise, is every bit as important as having a decent time to analyze and test with a new set.
What you're describing is the risk of paying for an unopened box of magic cards. The rules of supply and demand suggest that you can only get about what you put into it, on average, unless you are well-informed and move quickly. There are so many other people with access to the same commodity that you better know (or at least have a good idea) what cards are going to rise and what cards are going to fall. This is a whole different ballgame with different sets, but the principles at work are relatively consistent.
But you know this. Your statements show you're fully aware of the risks and rewards involved in opening sealed product. I wasn't being sarcastic when I asked what your metric was; it wasn't clear from your initial post.
Now that you've explained, I can certainly understand that you want to be shrewd and exploit all the information possible. Anyone would. What I take issue with it the entitled tone. A week is plenty of time to analyze a set, make predictions based on constructed play, proxy some decks and test, and decide whether to invest. And unless you live somewhere where it's prohibitively expensive to ship boxes of Magic cards, you're not going to find yourself unable to buy the product if this is a hot one. So if your stance is "I need more than a week to decide whether I'm going to make my money back, and Wizards is not giving me enough information," it might be you expect a wee-bit too much. Furthermore, I'd suggest that if you got what you wanted and everyone had full access to this information a month or two in advance, the same market you want to exploit to save/make money would look quite different, because the timing of the information flow is one of the factors that you're taking into account.
I can understand using whatever tools are available for your own personal interest, but "I work hard for my money" is inconsistent with "don't tell me not to look at spoilers, Wizards!" because the second part is a thing you made up. What the article did was criticize the leakers for ruining WotC's employees work. To suggest they're attacking you for being self-interested comes off as very defensive, and if you really understand the value of hard work, then surely you can see things from the perspective of someone at WotC whose work week was just ruined? Or is that person just a super-villain trying to pawn off a bunch of Barrage Tyrants?
Trick Jarred's article was so miserable that I kinda enjoyed it. It's the age of information and maybe wizards should think about revising their spoiler strategy instead of whining. I can't even begin to comment Jarred's totally unfounded claims that this is damaging MtG's image and sales. Is there a metric?A survey?
Even his baby analogy can only be translated as ''the person who did this is a total jerk''. Actually now that I think of it the whole article tries to say this thing. Wow. Huge Marketing #fail in my opinion.
As for a box EV, well, you're also missing 1 important detail. Yes, I can absolutely expect $80-90 in value out of a box. What you're leaving out is how much of that is imaginary money. I can say I have $30 of BFZ rares in my binder, but if that's 60 rares no one wants, who the hell am I trading those to? Take that as opposed to $30 of rares during RTR standard in my binder and all of a sudden I have no issue making trades for what I want. If the set is top-heavy, like BFZ or MM15, the ability to move the card and it's 'real-world value' isn't just diminished, it's non-existent. Saying it's a 50 cent rare is saying what it retails for if you want one, not what it's worth to anyone. Knowing what a set looks like, distribution-wise, is every bit as important as having a decent time to analyze and test with a new set.
What you're describing is the risk of paying for an unopened box of magic cards. The rules of supply and demand suggest that you can only get about what you put into it, on average, unless you are well-informed and move quickly. There are so many other people with access to the same commodity that you better know (or at least have a good idea) what cards are going to rise and what cards are going to fall. This is a whole different ballgame with different sets, but the principles at work are relatively consistent.
But you know this. Your statements show you're fully aware of the risks and rewards involved in opening sealed product. I wasn't being sarcastic when I asked what your metric was; it wasn't clear from your initial post.
Now that you've explained, I can certainly understand that you want to be shrewd and exploit all the information possible. Anyone would. What I take issue with it the entitled tone. A week is plenty of time to analyze a set, make predictions based on constructed play, proxy some decks and test, and decide whether to invest. And unless you live somewhere where it's prohibitively expensive to ship boxes of Magic cards, you're not going to find yourself unable to buy the product if this is a hot one. So if your stance is "I need more than a week to decide whether I'm going to make my money back, and Wizards is not giving me enough information," it might be you expect a wee-bit too much. Furthermore, I'd suggest that if you got what you wanted and everyone had full access to this information a month or two in advance, the same market you want to exploit to save/make money would look quite different, because the timing of the information flow is one of the factors that you're taking into account.
I can understand using whatever tools are available for your own personal interest, but "I work hard for my money" is inconsistent with "don't tell me not to look at spoilers, Wizards!" because the second part is a thing you made up. What the article did was criticize the leakers for ruining WotC's employees work. To suggest they're attacking you for being self-interested comes off as very defensive, and if you really understand the value of hard work, then surely you can see things from the perspective of someone at WotC whose work week was just ruined? Or is that person just a super-villain trying to pawn off a bunch of Barrage Tyrants?
You're overanalyzing the wrong cat, sir. I have no expectations of information widely in advance...but I'll damn sure take advantage when I see it, largely because I don't agree with the policies WotC has adopted and fostered during spoilers. If SCG wasn't immediately price-setting any given walker, regardless of power level, at preorder of $30, I wouldn't care. If they would give a tiny bit of insight like, 'hey, we're slamming on the brakes with this set to slow power creep' ahead of time so that it's not such a shock, I wouldn't care. If it wasn't for one top-heavy set after another, I wouldn't care. Quite the opposite, actually, I'd very much love for spoilers to be wrapped in lore and spoiled through stories and all that fun stuff. Instead, they set it up for a trickle of 'set-sellers', and lately just dump the rest of the limited crap on us in one fell swoop, trying to sift through what feels like a larger and larger amount of fodder with each set, trying to weed out the gems and staple cards.
Also, you mentioned making money, I didn't. I have no illusions that I'm ever getting anything out of Magic financially (not even what i put into it), so whether it's Mythic or Common, it's all just cardboard to me. What I want to be sure of is that when I have to throw my money at that cardboard, I'm not playing a friggin' lottery for 3-4 cards in the set that make any given pack worth opening. I'm sick and tired of having a playset of Helm of the Gods and at least 20 other rares in my binder that no one is ever going to want, and I'm really tired of the fact that it's happening more now than it was just a couple of years ago.
This leak showed we have yet another lottery, this time for Legacy staples. It also showed that a good portion of the mythics are utter crap. The 'hard work' WotC seems to be doing is figuring out how to psychologically create an atmosphere where a crap set can still break record sales numbers. And you know what? They're succeeding.
I like how he worries about underprivileged players when Wizards continues to print some of the set's best cards at the highest rarity so most players will never be able to afford a set or how they think $12 limited supply booster packs loaded with .25 rares are the best way to reprint Modern staples.
The part about unfair advantages is great too, considering for years Wizards gave pro players the godbook ahead of everyone else getting to see the new set so they could write articles about the upcoming cards and totally get a big headstart on deck brewing and cornering the market on cards that would inevitably spike due to certain spoilers.
A universal experience? You mean like when the author states:
You really want to argue against spoilers in a Thread dedicated to spoilers, in a Forum dedicated to spoilers, on a Site that grew up on spoilers? I have a hard time taking your argument seriously when you obviously read the spoiler threads too.
I am a part of this site to talk about MTG. I visit this sub forum to read discussion on revealed cards, ideally from official sources. I generally stay away from things that are obvious unofficial leaks for as long as I can, but since this site now has a policy that it allows the discussion of leaked and revealed cards in any of it's forums, it is often hard to not see them. In the past they only allowed discussion here or with the use of spoiler tags, but the policy changed a year or two ago. Once a discussion about a card in, for example, a Modern deck thread comes about I will pop over here to at least know what they are talking about, but if I had my way the conversation would not leak over to the rest of the site until officially leaked. I understand that is like trying to hold water in your hands, so I also get why MTGS has changed it's policy, but it does bother me that it happens.
I fail to see how I am significantly contributing to the problem. I did not read Jarret's article as shaming the whole community, I read it as shaming all of the people who are essentially saying "**** Wizards...we should have more people releasing unofficial spoilers and I will do what I can to promote it." I am not significantly supporting spoilers by being practical and reading up a little about something that is disseminated to a place that I am reading with another intent entirely. I
To take your peanut allergy analogy (say that 5 times fast) a bit further your argument reminds me of the person who says "Well, I have a peanut allergy so peanuts must be bad for everyone. Therefore, nobody should be allowed to eat peanuts. In fact, all people who grow peanuts, process peanuts, distribute peanuts, purchase peanuts, and consume peanuts are ruining life for those with peanut allergies. However, I refuse to take any personal responsibility myself and avoid locations where I may be exposed to peanuts. It's on everybody else to keep peanuts away from me."
You are using the peanut allergy analogy in a way utterly unlike I did. The analogy, as I used it, was pointing out the absurdity of denying that a thing really exists, because you yourself do not appear to experience it, in the face of it's provable existence. Everyone wants to believe that they are not influenced by marketing strategies and the psychology that is used, but these things are used because they work- and not just for cynically driving sales. They are also used to influence how we experience a product and how satisfied with it. In short, an important part of why we like a luxury product is determined by how it is presented to us. Marketing cannot make us enjoy something that we are opposed to enjoying, but it can (and does) increase our enjoyment of something we are inclined to enjoy in ways that we may not be aware of. WotC's careful and deliberate release of new information about cards is a strategy that clearly works as evidenced by the excitement leading up to a new release, and it does contribute to how much players enjoy that set even if it is not readily apparent to the individual. Denying that is denying quite a lot of scientific research and assuming a multi-billion dollar advertising industry is just mindlessly flushing money down the toilet.
Your use of the analogy is not only entirely different, it assumes that I am promoting some draconian idea. All I am pointing out is that it is their information to release, and that how they release it is strategic and intended to get people maximally enthusiastic about new releases. That excitement you feel during a official spoiler season and even the satisfaction you have with the set after is not just due to the card, it is also due to how it was presented to you, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.
So, you proof that they exist relies on the fact that I can't prove they don't? Look, I agree that WotC likely does have marketing research that they have interpreted to mean one thing or another about spoilers. A significant issue I take with the whole article is that no objective data is mentioned or referenced in the entire article. However, assuming that the data exists, what is the source of the data? Is it the opinion polls on the home site? I can state with a high degree of confidence that if that is the data they rely on, it is not a random sampling of MtG players and has an ample amount of bias. Simple matter of fact is, by your own argument, WotC has survived 22+ years even after spoilers and the internet became things. As long as they continue to design a game that the community as whole will spend money on, their long term viability is assured independent of spoilers.
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As much as I would like to think it is all about the show and presentation, I'm thinking it has more to do with $$$. NO, wait! Making money is not a bad thing, it's what businesses have to do to stay open. I run my own small business, so I don't begrudge any company for covering costs, making payroll and making a profit. But more and more, I find myself wondering who is actually in control of Magic: WotC or the big secondary market players like SCG. Face it, the likes of SCG and CF are most likely the single largest purchaser of Magic Sealed Products from WotC. They buy crates of boxes to crack to find the big dollar rares to sell at a huge mark up.
The planned spoiler season leaves a lot of room for hyped pre-orders for the singles. The more pre-orders for certain cards, the more sealed boxes the big sites have to crack to cover.
Which, stay with me, is why I think we are seeing WotC making ever increasingly "top heavy" sets. You have demand for Gideon out of BFZ? Of course you do, he's by far the best card out of the set and is a 4-of in like three tier one archetypes or so. You've got to crack, what? Two, maybe three boxes of boosters to get one. Now, yes, this doesn't include them buying Gideons from players; but the ratio holds true. Someone is having to buy the sealed product to get at those few in-demand cards.
Yes, there has always been these cards in Magic. I started back in 3rd myself. I do think, though, that WotC is feeding this a bit too much. Focusing on sales to the secondary market and making sets that are super top heavy to push those sales. Which, in all honesty, they have the demand. People have and seem to keep dropping big money on these cards. I feel really, really bad (and confused) at those guys that are going to drop $30 for a Chandra or Nissa out of this set on pre-sale. I would love to see how this sort of bulk spoiler leak does effect the per-release sales and, as a consequence, the sealed orders. Lord knows BFZ isn't helping sales of Oath a bit.
I'm also very curious as to what the long-term effects, if any, will be from this new top-heavy set structure. Sure, it pushes sealed product sales; but only as long as people want to keep paying for the product. There is a point where a certain mass of customers just give it up (it being magic) that then does drastically affect the secondary market. Just not sure where that point is. As for my area, MtG is really getting killed by Force of Will in the last 8 months or so. Not sure if it is just the new or if it has legs. What I do know, is that a big part of the reason is just how much more enjoyable it seems to be to crack product! Seriously, they are all a LOT more excited opened boosters of FoW. They get rares! And you know what? The rares are playable!!! You don't have the dump pile of crap cards left in the middle of the store tables like you do with magic. Who knows, I haven't seen the numbers from WotC, maybe the model of feeding SCG and the secondary market is great.
You're overanalyzing the wrong cat, sir. I have no expectations of information widely in advance...but I'll damn sure take advantage when I see it, largely because I don't agree with the policies WotC has adopted and fostered during spoilers. If SCG wasn't immediately price-setting any given walker, regardless of power level, at preorder of $30, I wouldn't care.
Okay, but isn't that basically what Scatter to the Winds was? About three weeks before Battle for Zendikar went on sale, we were made aware that Scatter was replacing Dissolve and Ruinous Path was replacing Hero's Downfall. The writing was on the wall that they were watering down Standard. Some of the first official spoilers were the ones that showed how weak the set would be for Constructed play. And this is if you didn't already see this coming when WotC said they wouldn't be replacing Mystic Sage. So you knew what you wanted to know, and it didn't require leakers to get the information out there. You just had to pay attention.
I'd very much love for spoilers to be wrapped in lore and spoiled through stories and all that fun stuff. Instead, they set it up for a trickle of 'set-sellers', and lately just dump the rest of the limited crap on us in one fell swoop, trying to sift through what feels like a larger and larger amount of fodder with each set, trying to weed out the gems and staple cards.
Also, you mentioned making money, I didn't. I have no illusions that I'm ever getting anything out of Magic financially (not even what i put into it), so whether it's Mythic or Common, it's all just cardboard to me. What I want to be sure of is that when I have to throw my money at that cardboard, I'm not playing a friggin' lottery for 3-4 cards in the set that make any given pack worth opening. I'm sick and tired of having a playset of Helm of the Gods and at least 20 other rares in my binder that no one is ever going to want, and I'm really tired of the fact that it's happening more now than it was just a couple of years ago.
That's opening any box of any set. I can't speak to specifically 3-4 years ago, as I wasn't paying much attention to that particular moment, but this hasn't really changed much throughout the history of magic. Opening packs of sealed product is a crapshoot. You don't have to throw your money away at cardboard. Don't, if you don't want to.
It's kind of bizarre and weird that they do that still after all these years -- most of the games that used to use this model have reinvented themselves into Living Card Games, where you just buy whatever expansion and then you have those cards -- but the fact that Magic is the only major random-pack CCG left that isn't marketed specifically towards children is probably due to the fact that they have a rigorous and healthy Limited environment. All the frustration I have when opening prize packs is worth it when I sit down and play a draft and marvel at the fact that, from the perspective of a drafter, the exact opposite of what you're saying is true. There's a smaller and smaller amount of fodder in each passing set. Battle for Zendikar is a really solid draft experience. And that makes total sense from a business perspective, because the best way to keep people buying packs is to support a game format where opening them makes logical sense.
I mean, it's like the old joke about the patient who says "doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Stop doing that." You can't stand at the counter paying money to play the lottery and then complain that you lost. If you don't like the lottery, stop playing. Let the collectors and the stores and the drafters do that for you, and just buy the singles you want from them.
Don't open packs if you don't want to. Nobody's forcing you. You can still play Magic without buying booster boxes. I can't remember the last time I opened a pack of Magic outside of a draft that wasn't a prize pack or a gift or something.
Really, guys? Like REALLY?You don't have anything better to do than arguing about whether leaks are ok or not? Nobody thought about this for years!The leaks are here and that's all that is to it. Discuss the nice cards,the strategy or whatever you want about MTG and NOT about some legal stuff you know nothing about. Discuss MTG the game or lock this thread already!
What, you don´t thing it´s an important topic to discuss whether it´s okay to leak stuff or not?
What I do know, is that a big part of the reason is just how much more enjoyable it seems to be to crack product! Seriously, they are all a LOT more excited opened boosters of FoW. They get rares! And you know what? The rares are playable!!! You don't have the dump pile of crap cards left in the middle of the store tables like you do with magic.
Last weekend in the Vegas SGC Open, I won enough tickets in side events to get about half a box worth of boosters. I picked Origins to play the Jace lottery (as opposed to BFZ for Gideon/Expeditions, because I've been disappointed enough already by cracking BFZ packs). I ended up with maybe 20 or so "I don't have to throw these away" cards and maybe 4 or 5 cards worth more than $3. I had a stack about 8" high that I threw in their donation box, which apparently gets donated to shelters and daycares for kids to play with or something (great idea, actually, and I very much support the use of junk cards for casual kids' play). But yeah, horrendously disappointing experience cracking packs ever since KTK stopped being the main squeeze.
You're overanalyzing the wrong cat, sir. I have no expectations of information widely in advance...but I'll damn sure take advantage when I see it, largely because I don't agree with the policies WotC has adopted and fostered during spoilers. If SCG wasn't immediately price-setting any given walker, regardless of power level, at preorder of $30, I wouldn't care.
Okay, but isn't that basically what Scatter to the Winds was? About three weeks before Battle for Zendikar went on sale, we were made aware that Scatter was replacing Dissolve and Ruinous Path was replacing Hero's Downfall. The writing was on the wall that they were watering down Standard. Some of the first official spoilers were the ones that showed how weak the set would be for Constructed play. And this is if you didn't already see this coming when WotC said they wouldn't be replacing Mystic Sage. So you knew what you wanted to know, and it didn't require leakers to get the information out there. You just had to pay attention.
I'd very much love for spoilers to be wrapped in lore and spoiled through stories and all that fun stuff. Instead, they set it up for a trickle of 'set-sellers', and lately just dump the rest of the limited crap on us in one fell swoop, trying to sift through what feels like a larger and larger amount of fodder with each set, trying to weed out the gems and staple cards.
Also, you mentioned making money, I didn't. I have no illusions that I'm ever getting anything out of Magic financially (not even what i put into it), so whether it's Mythic or Common, it's all just cardboard to me. What I want to be sure of is that when I have to throw my money at that cardboard, I'm not playing a friggin' lottery for 3-4 cards in the set that make any given pack worth opening. I'm sick and tired of having a playset of Helm of the Gods and at least 20 other rares in my binder that no one is ever going to want, and I'm really tired of the fact that it's happening more now than it was just a couple of years ago.
That's opening any box of any set. I can't speak to specifically 3-4 years ago, as I wasn't paying much attention to that particular moment, but this hasn't really changed much throughout the history of magic. Opening packs of sealed product is a crapshoot. You don't have to throw your money away at cardboard. Don't, if you don't want to.
It's kind of bizarre and weird that they do that still after all these years -- most of the games that used to use this model have reinvented themselves into Living Card Games, where you just buy whatever expansion and then you have those cards -- but the fact that Magic is the only major random-pack CCG left that isn't marketed specifically towards children is probably due to the fact that they have a rigorous and healthy Limited environment. All the frustration I have when opening prize packs is worth it when I sit down and play a draft and marvel at the fact that, from the perspective of a drafter, the exact opposite of what you're saying is true. There's a smaller and smaller amount of fodder in each passing set. Battle for Zendikar is a really solid draft experience. And that makes total sense from a business perspective, because the best way to keep people buying packs is to support a game format where opening them makes logical sense.
I mean, it's like the old joke about the patient who says "doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Stop doing that." You can't stand at the counter paying money to play the lottery and then complain that you lost. If you don't like the lottery, stop playing. Let the collectors and the stores and the drafters do that for you, and just buy the singles you want from them.
Don't open packs if you don't want to. Nobody's forcing you. You can still play Magic without buying booster boxes. I can't remember the last time I opened a pack of Magic outside of a draft that wasn't a prize pack or a gift or something.
I'm sorry, but you just completely missed the point there. Like so much so I can't even recap it all. Yes, every pack is a risk. No, it was not always like that through Magic's history for as long as I've been playing (2004), unless you mean there's always junk rares, which is an understood, but the volume is way off. Can't agree with you that BFZ is fun to draft with (it was solved by the end of prerelease weekend, I have no idea what you're talking about), and I have no idea what you're saying that there's less draft fodder as of late. Go clean up a table or two after a draft. 99% of the murdered trees are being left behind. Or don't take my word for it - the LGS owner above your post, countless 'everything wrong with BFZ threads', the financial speculation articles that say it's bad and full of draft fodder, the upward trend toward top-heavy sets, etc.
Lastly, the 'you don't have to buy it if you don't want to' implied I am buying it. I'm not. It's also about the dumbest defense to a complaint about playability distribution you can make. Voting with your wallet hurts the LGS first. It does not send a message to WotC, because SCG and CF are buying way more in one block from them than you and I will in our combined lifetimes. Seeing a decline in quality of a product I enjoy and spend money on and desiring a change isn't entitlement, it's feedback. Since the advent of 'big secondary market Magic', I honestly wonder if anyone there is listening to regular customers at all anymore.
A lot of hate for Chandra. Which is clearly as good as jace the mind sculptor in many situations. Multicolored decks with red will play 4. I would not be surprised if it was $80+ in standard. Two 3/1 hasted creatures also threaten opposing planeswalkers well. 0 to draw a card is what all decks want. Not to mention feeding graveyard strategies with haste.
A lot of hate for Chandra. Which is clearly as good as jace the mind sculptor in many situations. Multicolored decks with red will play 4. I would not be surprised if it was $80+ in standard. Two 3/1 hasted creatures also threaten opposing planeswalkers well. 0 to draw a card is what all decks want. Not to mention feeding graveyard strategies with haste.
Not sure if you read the card, but it costs 4RR, not 2RR. Elspeth never got above $40 and she's miles better than this new Chandra.
A lot of hate for Chandra. Which is clearly as good as jace the mind sculptor in many situations. Multicolored decks with red will play 4. I would not be surprised if it was $80+ in standard. Two 3/1 hasted creatures also threaten opposing planeswalkers well. 0 to draw a card is what all decks want. Not to mention feeding graveyard strategies with haste.
I think Chandra is being somewhat underestimated and I know I have a couple decks to put her in for EDH. However, this post seems to go to the other extreme. I don't think she will be seen anywhere in Modern and even Standard might be too fast for a 6 drop that does at most 6 points of damage or draws a card. Her "ultimate" can help protect her, but coming in at turn 6 to get maybe 2 Pyroclasms (or two Kozilek's Return for a Standard comparison) seems like a bad deal.
Maybe I am wrong, and I agree that she may not be as bad as some think, but she is nowhere near Jace, the Mind Sculptor level of power.
I'm sorry, but you just completely missed the point there. Like so much so I can't even recap it all. Yes, every pack is a risk. No, it was not always like that through Magic's history for as long as I've been playing (2004), unless you mean there's always junk rares, which is an understood, but the volume is way off.
I didn't open any packs for about 5 years or so in there, so I might have missed some milk & honey times where every pack cracked was sweet sweet deals, but do you think it might be possible you're romanticizing the past a bit? Every pack has always been a bit of a risk - it becomes more or less so with the times. Opening packs is a frustrating gamble; on this we agree. I'm not going to pretend it's different than it was when I started playing; more likely what's changed is I'm not sixteen anymore and I'm more interested in the playing than the collecting (also, opening a booster box was the most reliable way for a high school kid on dialup to get a set "spoiled," but that's a tangent).
I have no idea what you're saying that there's less draft fodder as of late. Go clean up a table or two after a draft. 99% of the murdered trees are being left behind. Or don't take my word for it - the LGS owner above your post, countless 'everything wrong with BFZ threads', the financial speculation articles that say it's bad and full of draft fodder, the upward trend toward top-heavy sets, etc.
No, I said the opposite of what you're complaining about in Constructed is true in Draft. In a given pack lately their have been fewer cards that are completely useless no matter what archetype you're in. A larger proportion of the cards have some application to some strategy and there are fewer complete duds. That's certainly more true of Modern Masters 2015, Magic Origins, and Battle for Zendikar than it was for Dragons of Tarkir, to suggest a short-term trend. I've only been back since about Gatecrash or so, so maybe there were brilliant and wonderful draft seasons that I wasn't privy to.
My point is that many of these cards that you think are useless are quite functional within the context of booster draft, a format that was clearly at the forefront of the design team's minds. Most of the people I talk to about the format love it, and yes, we throw most of our cards in the free bin at the end of the night - just like with any other draft format - but I personally don't care because I'm not paying for cards; I'm paying for the experience of hanging out with my friends and playing some challenging games of Magic.
Is it obvious that most of the cards in this set are irrelevant in Standard? Yes, absolutely. I totally agree with you there. I just feel like that's a temporary problem and a necessary evil, because they're obviously setting the power-level of Standard back a bit. I have confidence that when Shadows Over Innistrad drops, many more BfZ/Oath cards will become more playable.
Lastly, the 'you don't have to buy it if you don't want to' implied I am buying it. I'm not. It's also about the dumbest defense to a complaint about playability distribution you can make. Voting with your wallet hurts the LGS first. It does not send a message to WotC, because SCG and CF are buying way more in one block from them than you and I will in our combined lifetimes. Seeing a decline in quality of a product I enjoy and spend money on and desiring a change isn't entitlement, it's feedback. Since the advent of 'big secondary market Magic', I honestly wonder if anyone there is listening to regular customers at all anymore.
Okay. You're not buying it. Fine.
But I guess I still don't get the point. What is it you want? You want them to stop focusing so much on Limited? You want them to guarantee that every fifth card will be tournament worthy? All I'm hearing is that the Big Bad Wizard hurt you but I don't really get what you want to see change, or what seeing things six weeks in advance rather than three weeks does to alleviate your anger. If you're not going to buy the set, what does it matter what's in it?
i am a consumer of your product. don't you ******* shame me for wanting to know about it early. spoilers have no bearing on if i buy product or not. the quality of that set does. you spoil the set anyway before it launches, so its not like this information is some great mystery on the day the product goes on sale. i get that people spent time and money to make that hype train move, but maybe your product should be aiming for quality so that it doesn't need to ride a massive hype train to make an initial sale. these aren't video games where if it sucks well too bad, you got on the hype train and spent your money up front. these are packs of cards, these are cards i'm going to draft, packs i'm going to crack with winnings, or on a whim at the grocery store, or whatever. the quality of that set determines how long, and how frequently i will buy it, not the hype train. don't you try to shame me because i want to know about your product and you have obvious internal leaks. seal the cracks, or change the way spoilers work.
"Well, it's just they weren't really cool with the whole 'Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness' thing..."
"But that's one of the most important ones!"
"Yeah, I know, I get it, and I tried, and some of 'em were like, "yeah, got it," but some of 'em got really defensive and said I was the one lying, and then some others started ranting about some totally unrelated topics."
"I see."
"I mean, I see what you're trying to do here, and I think it's a great idea, but maybe they're not ready for an entire Ten. Could we maybe start with two or three, try to work up to it?"
"Hmmmm... did you at least make the point about Coveting Thy Neighbor's Goods?"
"Ooh boy. Well, about that..."
--------------------------------------
Just a little PSA to remind you Wizards didn't event moral behavior.
The article says "lying and stealing is wrong, we'll find the liars and stealers, sorry about the confusion." That's not exactly breaking news.
Unless you are one of the leakers, no one's attacking you or MtGSalvation as a website. If you're feeling Trick Jarrett is personally trying to shame you, it's probably because you're self-conscious about things you're doing that are worthy of being shamed... such as running around loudly and rudely reporting that people do not deserve to be treated fairly if they happen to work in advertising.
Well, from the spoilers so far I think this set will turn out like the first: five decent cards and the rest are going to go to the bargain bin once rotation hits. I still want to open more Kahns block over this, but at least they got a good planeswalker in the form of the new Nissa.
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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 article says "lying and stealing is wrong, we'll find the liars and stealers, sorry about the confusion." That's not exactly breaking news.
Unless you are one of the leakers, no one's attacking you or MtGSalvation as a website. If you're feeling Trick Jarrett is personally trying to shame you, it's probably because you're self-conscious about things you're doing that are worthy of being shamed... such as running around loudly and rudely reporting that people do not deserve to be treated fairly if they happen to work in advertising.
No, it's not because I'm self-conscious about such things.
It's because God says the former in the Bible, and Trick Jarrett is trying to sound like God in the latter. That I don't appreciate.
"Well, it's just they weren't really cool with the whole 'Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness' thing..."
"But that's one of the most important ones!"
"Yeah, I know, I get it, and I tried, and some of 'em were like, "yeah, got it," but some of 'em got really defensive and said I was the one lying, and then some others started ranting about some totally unrelated topics."
"I see."
"I mean, I see what you're trying to do here, and I think it's a great idea, but maybe they're not ready for an entire Ten. Could we maybe start with two or three, try to work up to it?"
"Hmmmm... did you at least make the point about Coveting Thy Neighbor's Goods?"
"Ooh boy. Well, about that..."
--------------------------------------
Just a little PSA to remind you Wizards didn't event moral behavior.
The article says "lying and stealing is wrong, we'll find the liars and stealers, sorry about the confusion." That's not exactly breaking news.
Unless you are one of the leakers, no one's attacking you or MtGSalvation as a website. If you're feeling Trick Jarrett is personally trying to shame you, it's probably because you're self-conscious about things you're doing that are worthy of being shamed... such as running around loudly and rudely reporting that people do not deserve to be treated fairly if they happen to work in advertising.
or we feel like we're being shamed because rather than roll with it the company had to go and have an article written that basically says how awful we as its fan base are for not letting their spoilers play out the way they want, for creating the desire for cards to be spoiled early. there were tons of ways to deal with this leak, but writing an article about "why" its bad for the community/game isn't one of them.
"Well, it's just they weren't really cool with the whole 'Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness' thing..."
"But that's one of the most important ones!"
"Yeah, I know, I get it, and I tried, and some of 'em were like, "yeah, got it," but some of 'em got really defensive and said I was the one lying, and then some others started ranting about some totally unrelated topics."
"I see."
"I mean, I see what you're trying to do here, and I think it's a great idea, but maybe they're not ready for an entire Ten. Could we maybe start with two or three, try to work up to it?"
"Hmmmm... did you at least make the point about Coveting Thy Neighbor's Goods?"
"Ooh boy. Well, about that..."
--------------------------------------
Just a little PSA to remind you Wizards didn't event moral behavior.
The article says "lying and stealing is wrong, we'll find the liars and stealers, sorry about the confusion." That's not exactly breaking news.
Unless you are one of the leakers, no one's attacking you or MtGSalvation as a website. If you're feeling Trick Jarrett is personally trying to shame you, it's probably because you're self-conscious about things you're doing that are worthy of being shamed... such as running around loudly and rudely reporting that people do not deserve to be treated fairly if they happen to work in advertising.
or we feel like we're being shamed because rather than roll with it the company had to go and have an article written that basically says how awful we as its fan base are for not letting their spoilers play out the way they want, for creating the desire for cards to be spoiled early. there were tons of ways to deal with this leak, but writing an article about "why" its bad for the community/game isn't one of them.
I suppose there is a difference between some vague text "leaks" for a few cards that are debatably in believable, and images of literally 40+ high-profile and "special" cards like mythics, planeswalkers, and Expeditions. If this were my company and I had a release schedule I had spent months working out, I would be furious if someone broke contract and leaked the information. This is an extremely large and exaggerated case that is difficult for WotC to ignore. Kozilek and Wastes were already a thorn in the side, then another 35 or so images came out. How would you deal with it? How would you then have to handle future leaks? Would you need to confirm or deny every little rumor everyone presented to you?
or we feel like we're being shamed because rather than roll with it the company had to go and have an article written that basically says how awful we as its fan base are for not letting their spoilers play out the way they want, for creating the desire for cards to be spoiled early. there were tons of ways to deal with this leak, but writing an article about "why" its bad for the community/game isn't one of them.
Just roll with it?
You understand that Wizards is a large company with a very public image, right? The situation in the last month or so has made Wizards look bad. There's still people that are confused about the new symbol for colorless mana, and that's a direct result of someone sneaking Kozilek out early with no explanation. Lots of people thinking their game is more complicated then it is isn't good for them. So given the magnitude of this leak -- which I'm sure we can all agree is more than usual -- they felt it necessary to make a public statement saying "This was done against our wishes and without our knowledge. We want to assure the people involved in the process that it won't happen again, and clarify what our stance is on the matter."
There is nothing in that article shaming the fanbase for being impatient for cards to be spoiled. You're reading that into it. The only people being shamed are those who did something shameful -- those who broke their word and treated the people who trusted them with important information like dirt.
You can be uninterested in the drama they're trying to create during the set release, but that's on you -- it doesn't make it reasonable for you to say someone's wrong in saying "I created this thing, I legally own it, I'm going to dictate how it is carried out." Speaking as an artist: no. You're wrong. That is the company's legal and moral right.
Minimizing the problem, blaming the victim, and justifying this incident based on past areas where you feel Wizards screwed you are all failures of moral reasoning and signs that you're not mature enough to realize their are other people involved in this situation who have valid interests. So again, if the magic community needs to be shamed, it's for moments like these -- where people fail to look past their own noses and exercise a little human decency -- that make the rest of us look bad.
On a more positive note, listening to people actually involved in the biz made me realize that there a lot of people in the community who benefit from the way the system is structured - like the people tapped to reveal the cards on schedule. So when the Buy-a-Box promo was spoiled, I made a point to click and see what Jarvis Yu had to say. Sure it's easy to just come to one place and read all the stuff at once, but I figured it's one little way to act more like a community.
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Except you're missing the detail where the vast majority of these spoilers are posted anonymously because of the risk involved. I know for a fact one of the stores in my area had already heard a great deal about the rares in the set weeks AHEAD of the spoilers, and refused to say a word to anyone. That, while admirable, places a significant advantage on the producer (WotC), the distributor, and the LGS. Basically, everyone is well-informed if this set is crap or not, and I have basically the final week of spoilers to prepare myself for purchases through preorder or whatnot. I'm not just talking about singles here, either, they have plenty of inflated hysteria on their own, and sometimes a really appealing card just doesn't stick anywhere (Drana, I'm looking at you). I'm talking about preordering a box. There were no major leaks beyond the lands and expeditions going into spoiler week. Then the 'good stuff' started rolling out. By day 2, the bombs looked kinda meh. By Day 5, everyone in my LGS is like 'is it me or is this really dumbed down?' and by the full spoil, we knew they had botched this hotly anticipated return set.
Quite honestly, if the article wants to say, 'Hey, we put a lot of work into this design, and you people looking at spoilers ruined it!', then I'd simply counter that I worked my behind off for the money I put into preordering a few boxes of your set. You broke my trust, so I'd rather see spoilers enough in advance to make an informed decision so you don't burn me again.
"Unfair advantage" wasn't just bs, it was hypocrisy. If everyone but the customer knows what they'll be purchasing well ahead of time, who has the unfair advantage?
I don't see how your lgs knowing cards in the set ahead of time actually helps them. Nor how not knowing hurts you. Everywhere I know, if you preorder a box and then spoilers come around and you decide the set's not worth it, you can simply cancel your preorder at no loss to you (aside from maybe having to drive out to the store).
By what metric are you getting burned if you pre-order a booster box you don't like? If you're buying a box the generate a profit, having leaks this far in advance doesn't help you at all; the value is going to be determined by the market prices for the singles, which is constantly changing. If that's honestly your concern, I would recommend taking a look at Saffron's Olive's financial analysis articles over on MtG Goldfish. He's got a knack for compiling a whole lot of information in an easily digested blog post and giving you an idea of whether you're going to make or lose money.
If you're speaking of getting cards for Standard Constructed, you could be doing that in a more cost-effective manner. Look at the spoilers during spoiler season, do some legwork to figure out what you're going to play, then buy just those cards when you're released. That's what I do; the last time I bought a booster box was when Khans came out, because I was getting back into Standard and just wanted a critical mass of new cards to play with. But for the most part, I buy or trade for the rares and mythics I want, and pick up the commons and uncommons for free by rummaging in the free bin. If you're buying a booster box looking for enough Constructed playables to get your money's worth, you're burning yourself. Not always, but usually. Unless you're someone who does a lot of buying, selling, and trading of singles and have thus means to leverage the fluctuation in singles prices.
I mean, if you just like the ritual of sitting down and opening packs and sorting cards, no one but you can put a price tag on that. But it really doesn't have to do with what's in the set. If you want some prior knowledge, I can help you out --- spoiler ahead -- a box of Oath of the Gatewatch contains a bunch of random cards that are mainly only relevant for limited play. Beyond that, you'll get some full-art basics, which might be a good place to hold some value in the long term, a couple rares and mythics that could be in high demand, but only one or two that carries a price tag of $20 or more, and there's a small but not insignificant chance that you'll get a chase foil that can be sold for a lot of money or traded for a lot of playables. That's typically the case for any unopened booster box, so I don't see what the big mystery is. What's in the box? Most likely $80 - $90 worth of Magic cards.
So I'm just not buying the argument that the company releasing an entire list of everything in the set a week before the set is available for purchase is not enough advance information. I'm going to see The Force Awakens next week; is it logical for me to demand I get a chance to read the screenplay before I buy my ticket? Because I was certainly burned with The Phantom Menace, I'm understandably skeptical. I wish some forward-thinking rebel was brave enough to speak truth to power and show us that script...
I'm sorry, but I just don't agree with that line of thinking at all, and especially not that ridiculous apples-to-oranges bit at the end. You don't have to read the script for a film to make informed decisions, read a review. The price of a ticket to a movie doesn't wildly fluctuate based on how good/bad it is. The fact you even made such a comparison really undermines what was otherwise a seemingly well-thought out point.
What does change wildly with time, unlike ticket prices, is the prerelease hysteria that's not only become more prevalent as time has gone on, but leaves more losers than winners. 2-3 weeks of testing and grinding would have shown Drana to be a bad buy in the meta. Instead, she started as a dark horse ($7), swung to psychotic highs ($24) and back to normal ($8). How many sets back do you want to go with examples of that trend? And those examples have every bit as much to do with hype as they do with proper time for testing.
As for a box EV, well, you're also missing 1 important detail. Yes, I can absolutely expect $80-90 in value out of a box. What you're leaving out is how much of that is imaginary money. I can say I have $30 of BFZ rares in my binder, but if that's 60 rares no one wants, who the hell am I trading those to? Take that as opposed to $30 of rares during RTR standard in my binder and all of a sudden I have no issue making trades for what I want. If the set is top-heavy, like BFZ or MM15, the ability to move the card and it's 'real-world value' isn't just diminished, it's non-existent. Saying it's a 50 cent rare is saying what it retails for if you want one, not what it's worth to anyone. Knowing what a set looks like, distribution-wise, is every bit as important as having a decent time to analyze and test with a new set.
So yeah, I'll take the early spoiler every time and make better decisions.
What you're describing is the risk of paying for an unopened box of magic cards. The rules of supply and demand suggest that you can only get about what you put into it, on average, unless you are well-informed and move quickly. There are so many other people with access to the same commodity that you better know (or at least have a good idea) what cards are going to rise and what cards are going to fall. This is a whole different ballgame with different sets, but the principles at work are relatively consistent.
But you know this. Your statements show you're fully aware of the risks and rewards involved in opening sealed product. I wasn't being sarcastic when I asked what your metric was; it wasn't clear from your initial post.
Now that you've explained, I can certainly understand that you want to be shrewd and exploit all the information possible. Anyone would. What I take issue with it the entitled tone. A week is plenty of time to analyze a set, make predictions based on constructed play, proxy some decks and test, and decide whether to invest. And unless you live somewhere where it's prohibitively expensive to ship boxes of Magic cards, you're not going to find yourself unable to buy the product if this is a hot one. So if your stance is "I need more than a week to decide whether I'm going to make my money back, and Wizards is not giving me enough information," it might be you expect a wee-bit too much. Furthermore, I'd suggest that if you got what you wanted and everyone had full access to this information a month or two in advance, the same market you want to exploit to save/make money would look quite different, because the timing of the information flow is one of the factors that you're taking into account.
I can understand using whatever tools are available for your own personal interest, but "I work hard for my money" is inconsistent with "don't tell me not to look at spoilers, Wizards!" because the second part is a thing you made up. What the article did was criticize the leakers for ruining WotC's employees work. To suggest they're attacking you for being self-interested comes off as very defensive, and if you really understand the value of hard work, then surely you can see things from the perspective of someone at WotC whose work week was just ruined? Or is that person just a super-villain trying to pawn off a bunch of Barrage Tyrants?
Even his baby analogy can only be translated as ''the person who did this is a total jerk''. Actually now that I think of it the whole article tries to say this thing. Wow. Huge Marketing #fail in my opinion.
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You're overanalyzing the wrong cat, sir. I have no expectations of information widely in advance...but I'll damn sure take advantage when I see it, largely because I don't agree with the policies WotC has adopted and fostered during spoilers. If SCG wasn't immediately price-setting any given walker, regardless of power level, at preorder of $30, I wouldn't care. If they would give a tiny bit of insight like, 'hey, we're slamming on the brakes with this set to slow power creep' ahead of time so that it's not such a shock, I wouldn't care. If it wasn't for one top-heavy set after another, I wouldn't care. Quite the opposite, actually, I'd very much love for spoilers to be wrapped in lore and spoiled through stories and all that fun stuff. Instead, they set it up for a trickle of 'set-sellers', and lately just dump the rest of the limited crap on us in one fell swoop, trying to sift through what feels like a larger and larger amount of fodder with each set, trying to weed out the gems and staple cards.
Also, you mentioned making money, I didn't. I have no illusions that I'm ever getting anything out of Magic financially (not even what i put into it), so whether it's Mythic or Common, it's all just cardboard to me. What I want to be sure of is that when I have to throw my money at that cardboard, I'm not playing a friggin' lottery for 3-4 cards in the set that make any given pack worth opening. I'm sick and tired of having a playset of Helm of the Gods and at least 20 other rares in my binder that no one is ever going to want, and I'm really tired of the fact that it's happening more now than it was just a couple of years ago.
This leak showed we have yet another lottery, this time for Legacy staples. It also showed that a good portion of the mythics are utter crap. The 'hard work' WotC seems to be doing is figuring out how to psychologically create an atmosphere where a crap set can still break record sales numbers. And you know what? They're succeeding.
The part about unfair advantages is great too, considering for years Wizards gave pro players the godbook ahead of everyone else getting to see the new set so they could write articles about the upcoming cards
and totally get a big headstart on deck brewing and cornering the market on cards that would inevitably spike due to certain spoilers.Trades
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I am a part of this site to talk about MTG. I visit this sub forum to read discussion on revealed cards, ideally from official sources. I generally stay away from things that are obvious unofficial leaks for as long as I can, but since this site now has a policy that it allows the discussion of leaked and revealed cards in any of it's forums, it is often hard to not see them. In the past they only allowed discussion here or with the use of spoiler tags, but the policy changed a year or two ago. Once a discussion about a card in, for example, a Modern deck thread comes about I will pop over here to at least know what they are talking about, but if I had my way the conversation would not leak over to the rest of the site until officially leaked. I understand that is like trying to hold water in your hands, so I also get why MTGS has changed it's policy, but it does bother me that it happens.
I fail to see how I am significantly contributing to the problem. I did not read Jarret's article as shaming the whole community, I read it as shaming all of the people who are essentially saying "**** Wizards...we should have more people releasing unofficial spoilers and I will do what I can to promote it." I am not significantly supporting spoilers by being practical and reading up a little about something that is disseminated to a place that I am reading with another intent entirely. I
You are using the peanut allergy analogy in a way utterly unlike I did. The analogy, as I used it, was pointing out the absurdity of denying that a thing really exists, because you yourself do not appear to experience it, in the face of it's provable existence. Everyone wants to believe that they are not influenced by marketing strategies and the psychology that is used, but these things are used because they work- and not just for cynically driving sales. They are also used to influence how we experience a product and how satisfied with it. In short, an important part of why we like a luxury product is determined by how it is presented to us. Marketing cannot make us enjoy something that we are opposed to enjoying, but it can (and does) increase our enjoyment of something we are inclined to enjoy in ways that we may not be aware of. WotC's careful and deliberate release of new information about cards is a strategy that clearly works as evidenced by the excitement leading up to a new release, and it does contribute to how much players enjoy that set even if it is not readily apparent to the individual. Denying that is denying quite a lot of scientific research and assuming a multi-billion dollar advertising industry is just mindlessly flushing money down the toilet.
Your use of the analogy is not only entirely different, it assumes that I am promoting some draconian idea. All I am pointing out is that it is their information to release, and that how they release it is strategic and intended to get people maximally enthusiastic about new releases. That excitement you feel during a official spoiler season and even the satisfaction you have with the set after is not just due to the card, it is also due to how it was presented to you, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.
So, you proof that they exist relies on the fact that I can't prove they don't? Look, I agree that WotC likely does have marketing research that they have interpreted to mean one thing or another about spoilers. A significant issue I take with the whole article is that no objective data is mentioned or referenced in the entire article. However, assuming that the data exists, what is the source of the data? Is it the opinion polls on the home site? I can state with a high degree of confidence that if that is the data they rely on, it is not a random sampling of MtG players and has an ample amount of bias. Simple matter of fact is, by your own argument, WotC has survived 22+ years even after spoilers and the internet became things. As long as they continue to design a game that the community as whole will spend money on, their long term viability is assured independent of spoilers.
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As much as I would like to think it is all about the show and presentation, I'm thinking it has more to do with $$$. NO, wait! Making money is not a bad thing, it's what businesses have to do to stay open. I run my own small business, so I don't begrudge any company for covering costs, making payroll and making a profit. But more and more, I find myself wondering who is actually in control of Magic: WotC or the big secondary market players like SCG. Face it, the likes of SCG and CF are most likely the single largest purchaser of Magic Sealed Products from WotC. They buy crates of boxes to crack to find the big dollar rares to sell at a huge mark up.
The planned spoiler season leaves a lot of room for hyped pre-orders for the singles. The more pre-orders for certain cards, the more sealed boxes the big sites have to crack to cover.
Which, stay with me, is why I think we are seeing WotC making ever increasingly "top heavy" sets. You have demand for Gideon out of BFZ? Of course you do, he's by far the best card out of the set and is a 4-of in like three tier one archetypes or so. You've got to crack, what? Two, maybe three boxes of boosters to get one. Now, yes, this doesn't include them buying Gideons from players; but the ratio holds true. Someone is having to buy the sealed product to get at those few in-demand cards.
Yes, there has always been these cards in Magic. I started back in 3rd myself. I do think, though, that WotC is feeding this a bit too much. Focusing on sales to the secondary market and making sets that are super top heavy to push those sales. Which, in all honesty, they have the demand. People have and seem to keep dropping big money on these cards. I feel really, really bad (and confused) at those guys that are going to drop $30 for a Chandra or Nissa out of this set on pre-sale. I would love to see how this sort of bulk spoiler leak does effect the per-release sales and, as a consequence, the sealed orders. Lord knows BFZ isn't helping sales of Oath a bit.
I'm also very curious as to what the long-term effects, if any, will be from this new top-heavy set structure. Sure, it pushes sealed product sales; but only as long as people want to keep paying for the product. There is a point where a certain mass of customers just give it up (it being magic) that then does drastically affect the secondary market. Just not sure where that point is. As for my area, MtG is really getting killed by Force of Will in the last 8 months or so. Not sure if it is just the new or if it has legs. What I do know, is that a big part of the reason is just how much more enjoyable it seems to be to crack product! Seriously, they are all a LOT more excited opened boosters of FoW. They get rares! And you know what? The rares are playable!!! You don't have the dump pile of crap cards left in the middle of the store tables like you do with magic. Who knows, I haven't seen the numbers from WotC, maybe the model of feeding SCG and the secondary market is great.
Okay, but isn't that basically what Scatter to the Winds was? About three weeks before Battle for Zendikar went on sale, we were made aware that Scatter was replacing Dissolve and Ruinous Path was replacing Hero's Downfall. The writing was on the wall that they were watering down Standard. Some of the first official spoilers were the ones that showed how weak the set would be for Constructed play. And this is if you didn't already see this coming when WotC said they wouldn't be replacing Mystic Sage. So you knew what you wanted to know, and it didn't require leakers to get the information out there. You just had to pay attention.
That's opening any box of any set. I can't speak to specifically 3-4 years ago, as I wasn't paying much attention to that particular moment, but this hasn't really changed much throughout the history of magic. Opening packs of sealed product is a crapshoot. You don't have to throw your money away at cardboard. Don't, if you don't want to.
It's kind of bizarre and weird that they do that still after all these years -- most of the games that used to use this model have reinvented themselves into Living Card Games, where you just buy whatever expansion and then you have those cards -- but the fact that Magic is the only major random-pack CCG left that isn't marketed specifically towards children is probably due to the fact that they have a rigorous and healthy Limited environment. All the frustration I have when opening prize packs is worth it when I sit down and play a draft and marvel at the fact that, from the perspective of a drafter, the exact opposite of what you're saying is true. There's a smaller and smaller amount of fodder in each passing set. Battle for Zendikar is a really solid draft experience. And that makes total sense from a business perspective, because the best way to keep people buying packs is to support a game format where opening them makes logical sense.
I mean, it's like the old joke about the patient who says "doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Stop doing that." You can't stand at the counter paying money to play the lottery and then complain that you lost. If you don't like the lottery, stop playing. Let the collectors and the stores and the drafters do that for you, and just buy the singles you want from them.
Don't open packs if you don't want to. Nobody's forcing you. You can still play Magic without buying booster boxes. I can't remember the last time I opened a pack of Magic outside of a draft that wasn't a prize pack or a gift or something.
What, you don´t thing it´s an important topic to discuss whether it´s okay to leak stuff or not?
Last weekend in the Vegas SGC Open, I won enough tickets in side events to get about half a box worth of boosters. I picked Origins to play the Jace lottery (as opposed to BFZ for Gideon/Expeditions, because I've been disappointed enough already by cracking BFZ packs). I ended up with maybe 20 or so "I don't have to throw these away" cards and maybe 4 or 5 cards worth more than $3. I had a stack about 8" high that I threw in their donation box, which apparently gets donated to shelters and daycares for kids to play with or something (great idea, actually, and I very much support the use of junk cards for casual kids' play). But yeah, horrendously disappointing experience cracking packs ever since KTK stopped being the main squeeze.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
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I'm sorry, but you just completely missed the point there. Like so much so I can't even recap it all. Yes, every pack is a risk. No, it was not always like that through Magic's history for as long as I've been playing (2004), unless you mean there's always junk rares, which is an understood, but the volume is way off. Can't agree with you that BFZ is fun to draft with (it was solved by the end of prerelease weekend, I have no idea what you're talking about), and I have no idea what you're saying that there's less draft fodder as of late. Go clean up a table or two after a draft. 99% of the murdered trees are being left behind. Or don't take my word for it - the LGS owner above your post, countless 'everything wrong with BFZ threads', the financial speculation articles that say it's bad and full of draft fodder, the upward trend toward top-heavy sets, etc.
Lastly, the 'you don't have to buy it if you don't want to' implied I am buying it. I'm not. It's also about the dumbest defense to a complaint about playability distribution you can make. Voting with your wallet hurts the LGS first. It does not send a message to WotC, because SCG and CF are buying way more in one block from them than you and I will in our combined lifetimes. Seeing a decline in quality of a product I enjoy and spend money on and desiring a change isn't entitlement, it's feedback. Since the advent of 'big secondary market Magic', I honestly wonder if anyone there is listening to regular customers at all anymore.
Not sure if you read the card, but it costs 4RR, not 2RR. Elspeth never got above $40 and she's miles better than this new Chandra.
Maybe I am wrong, and I agree that she may not be as bad as some think, but she is nowhere near Jace, the Mind Sculptor level of power.
I didn't open any packs for about 5 years or so in there, so I might have missed some milk & honey times where every pack cracked was sweet sweet deals, but do you think it might be possible you're romanticizing the past a bit? Every pack has always been a bit of a risk - it becomes more or less so with the times. Opening packs is a frustrating gamble; on this we agree. I'm not going to pretend it's different than it was when I started playing; more likely what's changed is I'm not sixteen anymore and I'm more interested in the playing than the collecting (also, opening a booster box was the most reliable way for a high school kid on dialup to get a set "spoiled," but that's a tangent).
No, I said the opposite of what you're complaining about in Constructed is true in Draft. In a given pack lately their have been fewer cards that are completely useless no matter what archetype you're in. A larger proportion of the cards have some application to some strategy and there are fewer complete duds. That's certainly more true of Modern Masters 2015, Magic Origins, and Battle for Zendikar than it was for Dragons of Tarkir, to suggest a short-term trend. I've only been back since about Gatecrash or so, so maybe there were brilliant and wonderful draft seasons that I wasn't privy to.
My point is that many of these cards that you think are useless are quite functional within the context of booster draft, a format that was clearly at the forefront of the design team's minds. Most of the people I talk to about the format love it, and yes, we throw most of our cards in the free bin at the end of the night - just like with any other draft format - but I personally don't care because I'm not paying for cards; I'm paying for the experience of hanging out with my friends and playing some challenging games of Magic.
Is it obvious that most of the cards in this set are irrelevant in Standard? Yes, absolutely. I totally agree with you there. I just feel like that's a temporary problem and a necessary evil, because they're obviously setting the power-level of Standard back a bit. I have confidence that when Shadows Over Innistrad drops, many more BfZ/Oath cards will become more playable.
Okay. You're not buying it. Fine.
But I guess I still don't get the point. What is it you want? You want them to stop focusing so much on Limited? You want them to guarantee that every fifth card will be tournament worthy? All I'm hearing is that the Big Bad Wizard hurt you but I don't really get what you want to see change, or what seeing things six weeks in advance rather than three weeks does to alleviate your anger. If you're not going to buy the set, what does it matter what's in it?
**** this bull*****.
i am a consumer of your product. don't you ******* shame me for wanting to know about it early. spoilers have no bearing on if i buy product or not. the quality of that set does. you spoil the set anyway before it launches, so its not like this information is some great mystery on the day the product goes on sale. i get that people spent time and money to make that hype train move, but maybe your product should be aiming for quality so that it doesn't need to ride a massive hype train to make an initial sale. these aren't video games where if it sucks well too bad, you got on the hype train and spent your money up front. these are packs of cards, these are cards i'm going to draft, packs i'm going to crack with winnings, or on a whim at the grocery store, or whatever. the quality of that set determines how long, and how frequently i will buy it, not the hype train. don't you try to shame me because i want to know about your product and you have obvious internal leaks. seal the cracks, or change the way spoilers work.
"Um... er..."
"Is there a problem?"
"Well, it's just they weren't really cool with the whole 'Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness' thing..."
"But that's one of the most important ones!"
"Yeah, I know, I get it, and I tried, and some of 'em were like, "yeah, got it," but some of 'em got really defensive and said I was the one lying, and then some others started ranting about some totally unrelated topics."
"I see."
"I mean, I see what you're trying to do here, and I think it's a great idea, but maybe they're not ready for an entire Ten. Could we maybe start with two or three, try to work up to it?"
"Hmmmm... did you at least make the point about Coveting Thy Neighbor's Goods?"
"Ooh boy. Well, about that..."
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Just a little PSA to remind you Wizards didn't event moral behavior.
The article says "lying and stealing is wrong, we'll find the liars and stealers, sorry about the confusion." That's not exactly breaking news.
Unless you are one of the leakers, no one's attacking you or MtGSalvation as a website. If you're feeling Trick Jarrett is personally trying to shame you, it's probably because you're self-conscious about things you're doing that are worthy of being shamed... such as running around loudly and rudely reporting that people do not deserve to be treated fairly if they happen to work in advertising.
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!
No, it's not because I'm self-conscious about such things.
It's because God says the former in the Bible, and Trick Jarrett is trying to sound like God in the latter. That I don't appreciate.
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or we feel like we're being shamed because rather than roll with it the company had to go and have an article written that basically says how awful we as its fan base are for not letting their spoilers play out the way they want, for creating the desire for cards to be spoiled early. there were tons of ways to deal with this leak, but writing an article about "why" its bad for the community/game isn't one of them.
I suppose there is a difference between some vague text "leaks" for a few cards that are debatably in believable, and images of literally 40+ high-profile and "special" cards like mythics, planeswalkers, and Expeditions. If this were my company and I had a release schedule I had spent months working out, I would be furious if someone broke contract and leaked the information. This is an extremely large and exaggerated case that is difficult for WotC to ignore. Kozilek and Wastes were already a thorn in the side, then another 35 or so images came out. How would you deal with it? How would you then have to handle future leaks? Would you need to confirm or deny every little rumor everyone presented to you?
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
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Just roll with it?
You understand that Wizards is a large company with a very public image, right? The situation in the last month or so has made Wizards look bad. There's still people that are confused about the new symbol for colorless mana, and that's a direct result of someone sneaking Kozilek out early with no explanation. Lots of people thinking their game is more complicated then it is isn't good for them. So given the magnitude of this leak -- which I'm sure we can all agree is more than usual -- they felt it necessary to make a public statement saying "This was done against our wishes and without our knowledge. We want to assure the people involved in the process that it won't happen again, and clarify what our stance is on the matter."
There is nothing in that article shaming the fanbase for being impatient for cards to be spoiled. You're reading that into it. The only people being shamed are those who did something shameful -- those who broke their word and treated the people who trusted them with important information like dirt.
You can be uninterested in the drama they're trying to create during the set release, but that's on you -- it doesn't make it reasonable for you to say someone's wrong in saying "I created this thing, I legally own it, I'm going to dictate how it is carried out." Speaking as an artist: no. You're wrong. That is the company's legal and moral right.
Minimizing the problem, blaming the victim, and justifying this incident based on past areas where you feel Wizards screwed you are all failures of moral reasoning and signs that you're not mature enough to realize their are other people involved in this situation who have valid interests. So again, if the magic community needs to be shamed, it's for moments like these -- where people fail to look past their own noses and exercise a little human decency -- that make the rest of us look bad.
On a more positive note, listening to people actually involved in the biz made me realize that there a lot of people in the community who benefit from the way the system is structured - like the people tapped to reveal the cards on schedule. So when the Buy-a-Box promo was spoiled, I made a point to click and see what Jarvis Yu had to say. Sure it's easy to just come to one place and read all the stuff at once, but I figured it's one little way to act more like a community.