Nah. If anything, it's the DoJ stepping in to put Obama's heat down to protect his retirement fund scheme.
#It'sNotAlwaysAConspiracy
Love the avatar, suits you. To anyone who has been paying attention to this scandal, it is clear that there is a leak involving Eternal Masters. If you don't care, or would rather make light of a crappy situation, that is your perogative. Personally, it pisses me off that a select few individuals are taking advantage of the Magic community at large.
It hurts the game that we all love, and that is a bad thing. Many with rose-colored glasses on (or should I say Sunglasses of Urza on?) like to pretend like conspiracies don't exist because it is a much more comfortable reality to live in. Denial is a powerful thing, and important (at least from an evolutionary perspective). The scope of this type of problem & the damage it brings has gotten larger within MTG over the past couple years. Personally, I'd like to see some justice. And please WOTC, plug those *$%@ leaks!
Many with rose-colored glasses on (or should I say Sunglasses of Urza on?) like to pretend like conspiracies don't exist because it is a much more comfortable reality to live in.
And many other people can't walk out the door of their house without saying, "Clouds like slightly different today, OMG IT MUST BE CHEMTRAILS, MONSANTO, BIG PHARMA, THE CIA AND LIZARD-MEN FROM NIBIRU! SAVE US JENNY MCCARTHY! SAVE US ALEX JONES!!"
Do conspiracies exist? Sure. Are they as prevalent as conspiracy theorist nuts would have us believe? Definitely not. As with many things, reality is somewhere in between.
Many with rose-colored glasses on (or should I say Sunglasses of Urza on?) like to pretend like conspiracies don't exist because it is a much more comfortable reality to live in.
And many other people can't walk out the door of their house without saying, "Clouds like slightly different today, OMG IT MUST BE CHEMTRAILS, MONSANTO, BIG PHARMA, THE CIA AND LIZARD-MEN FROM NIBIRU! SAVE US BILL O'REILLY! SAVE US ALEX JONES!!"
Do conspiracies exist? Sure. Are they as prevalent as conspiracy theorist nuts would have us believe? Definitely not. As with many things, reality is somewhere in between.
LOL, yes, the truth is somewhere in between. Just like how about half of the examples you listed are actually something to worry about:
Chemtrails? No idea.
Monsanto? Demonstrably bad.
Big Pharma? Demonstrably bad.
The CIA and Lizard-Men from Nibiru? No.
Save us Bill O'Reilly? No.
Save us Alex Jones? No.
(and the on-topic conspiracy you left out) Magic leaks harming the game? Yes.
You see? It is possible to replace your hyperbole with reasoning and discernment and begin to make sense out of things.
Honestly, considering there is so much money being tossed around in this completely unregulated market i am not surprised at all of the "scumminess" happening. If you think all these businesses arent willing to get their hands on such info to get ahead of the market and if anyone thinks these businesses have some sort of "honor" then i'd say they are either naive or delusional. This whole backtracking on their statements trying to resolve it with a "quick fix" is a telltale sign of someone either lying or being told to lie and i personally don't believe this was some sort of gag (harmful or otherwise) played on this individual. Bottomline is multiple independent sources knew of the Eternal Masters set and did in fact act on it, to what extent it will probably be never known. I'm not quite sure what to take from this incident, personally it doesn't effect me much but i know now going forward not to look through rose colored glasses when it comes to mtg vendors and to be a little more cynical.
Nah. If anything, it's the DoJ stepping in to put Obama's heat down to protect his retirement fund scheme.
#It'sNotAlwaysAConspiracy
To anyone who has been paying attention to this scandal, it is clear that there is a leak involving Eternal Masters. If you don't care, or would rather make light of a crappy situation, that is your prerogative. Personally, it pisses me off that a select few individuals are taking advantage of the Magic community at large.
It hurts the game that we all love, and that is a bad thing. Many with rose-colored glasses on (or should I say Sunglasses of Urza on?) like to pretend like conspiracies don't exist because it is a much more comfortable reality to live in. Denial is a powerful thing, and important (at least from an evolutionary perspective). The scope of this type of problem & the damage it brings has gotten larger within MTG over the past couple years. Personally, I'd like to see some justice. And please WOTC, plug those *$%@ leaks!
#OstrichGonnaOstrich
There was a vendor response yesterday that, for the life of me, I cannot find now (it might have been part of the Twitter business that's now gone). Maybe you saw it. He was commenting in response to people claiming that someone knew of the Eternal Masters name and made card purchases ahead of time because some people were floating the exact name of the set long before it was announced. Paraphrasing his response, he simply said that they read between the lines of Wizards' announcements and made some guesses about what Wizards was going to release. I took the implication to be that vendors were receiving marketing material/announcements that they used to piece together what was coming. It's not an unreasonable scenario to consider.
I would never dismiss the possibility of a conspiracy out of hand, but I am also tired of this board always flying the conspiracy flag in response to every perceived slight or injustice - whether real or not - when they don't have full clarity into the underlying situation. Looking at this situation, the best evidence of a full-blown, market-fixing conspiracy has just been revealed to be a total fabrication. Maybe it's time to dial down the conspiracy rhetoric. Sometimes, things just happen on accident or out of dumb luck or as part of normal mechanisms we don't fully understand from our outsider perspective or just super weird coincidence, or... just not a conspiracy.
I still think Wizards just needs to consider releasing the full card set as soon as they send it to the printer, since they can't seem to lock things down after that (and understandably so). But that doesn't require me to assume there is a conspiracy to worry my soul over.
So what happened to all of @Vendorleaks other accusations? Did he just forget that he also accused people of laundering drug money, cheating customers and each other, and having leaks of previous sets?
Also, his follow list where he called out innocent people that he claimed witnessed the shadiness and kept quiet, telling them to come forward. One of my personal friends was on that list and now his twitter handle along with a dozen other uninvolved vendors handles are on imgur albums all over relating them to this garbage. This guy is getting sued for libel, real soon, unless all of the people involved are very forgiving. I'm sure he had fun playing Deepthroat and probably really enjoyed himself while he was stirring up drama but he might have to face some consequences soon. To think, if he had just gone privately to Wizards with his info like an adult...
So what happened to all of @Vendorleaks other accusations? Did he just forget that he also accused people of laundering drug money, cheating customers and each other, and having leaks of previous sets?
Also, his follow list where he called out innocent people that he claimed witnessed the shadiness and kept quiet, telling them to come forward. One of my personal friends was on that list and now his twitter handle along with a dozen other uninvolved vendors handles are on imgur albums all over relating them to this garbage. This guy is getting sued for libel, real soon, unless all of the people involved are very forgiving. I'm sure he had fun playing Deepthroat and probably really enjoyed himself while he was stirring up drama but he might have to face some consequences soon. To think, if he had just gone privately to Wizards with his info like an adult...
If he had gone to wizards in private "like an adult" there's very much a chance it would just get swept under the rug. And while his statements probably do meet the four-pronged test for slander/libel (Must be untrue, must be published, must be directed at person/people, must cause damage) he also has protection under whistle-blower laws, granting him qualified immunity from defamation as long as he prints a retraction and the statements weren't made specifically to harm - which he did. He's got a solid defense should a suit come up.
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If he had gone to wizards in private "like an adult" there's very much a chance it would just get swept under the rug. And while his statements probably do meet the four-pronged test for slander/libel (Must be untrue, must be published, must be directed at person/people, must cause damage) he also has protection under whistle-blower laws, granting him qualified immunity from defamation as long as he prints a retraction and the statements weren't made specifically to harm - which he did. He's got a solid defense should a suit come up.
It just did get swept under the rug anyway, so I'm not sure what your point is with the first part. As to the 4 points for libel, the 12 people on his follow list felt like that was pretty directly pointed at them, and it was very much public on twitter to many thousands of people and, by his own words, very much untrue. Proving damages can often be nebulous depending on the type of damage claimed, but having your name viewed thousands of times alongside accusations that you witnessed criminal activity and said nothing is pretty cut and dry damage to your reputation. If you don't end up blowing the whistle on anyone, I'm not sure whistleblower laws apply but I am not a lawyer. None of us know his true motivations yet, so we can't say for sure why he did all of this. He might have a decent defense but the harmed parties certainly also have a decent case against him, depending on what facts come out. According to yet more rumors, this was all orchestrated by the party that sent the faked screenshot to @Vendorleak as a way to discredit other vendors. We just really don't know very much and probably won't ever know unless Wizards makes use of the Investigate mechanic and teams up with Jace to really do some hardcore sleuthing.
Conspiracies help justify a confusing and frustratingly random world. It's easier to think there's a panel of grand manipulators rather than a bunch of flawed humans running around in the dark, breaking things.
Any of you will buy less/not buy Eternal Masters or any other Magic product because of this? The answer will be "no" for the majority of people and WOTC won't care
I still think Wizards just needs to consider releasing the full card set as soon as they send it to the printer, since they can't seem to lock things down after that (and understandably so). But that doesn't require me to assume there is a conspiracy to worry my soul over.
Given the trouble they sometimes have keeping hype up for two weeks, trying to make it work from the inception of printing seems like a good way to reduce sales.
I still think Wizards just needs to consider releasing the full card set as soon as they send it to the printer, since they can't seem to lock things down after that (and understandably so). But that doesn't require me to assume there is a conspiracy to worry my soul over.
Given the trouble they sometimes have keeping hype up for two weeks, trying to make it work from the inception of printing seems like a good way to reduce sales.
No more a reduction than if the set was spoiled by other entities.
They could still do their release marketing, but instead of making things a big reveal, they could focus on talking about other aspects of the game.
I think someone in this thread mentioned the guess of Travis Woo. i think there was also mention that someone tweeted (did I say that right?) "hi Travis" to the twitter. That guess seems to make a lot of sense to me on how this all went down.
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It hurts the game that we all love, and that is a bad thing. Many with rose-colored glasses on (or should I say Sunglasses of Urza on?) like to pretend like conspiracies don't exist because it is a much more comfortable reality to live in. Denial is a powerful thing, and important (at least from an evolutionary perspective). The scope of this type of problem & the damage it brings has gotten larger within MTG over the past couple years. Personally, I'd like to see some justice. And please WOTC, plug those *$%@ leaks!
#OstrichGonnaOstrich
And many other people can't walk out the door of their house without saying, "Clouds like slightly different today, OMG IT MUST BE CHEMTRAILS, MONSANTO, BIG PHARMA, THE CIA AND LIZARD-MEN FROM NIBIRU! SAVE US JENNY MCCARTHY! SAVE US ALEX JONES!!"
Do conspiracies exist? Sure. Are they as prevalent as conspiracy theorist nuts would have us believe? Definitely not. As with many things, reality is somewhere in between.
GGG [Primer] Omnath, Big Green Beatstick Machine GGG
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Chemtrails? No idea.
Monsanto? Demonstrably bad.
Big Pharma? Demonstrably bad.
The CIA and Lizard-Men from Nibiru? No.
Save us Bill O'Reilly? No.
Save us Alex Jones? No.
(and the on-topic conspiracy you left out)
Magic leaks harming the game? Yes.
You see? It is possible to replace your hyperbole with reasoning and discernment and begin to make sense out of things.
There was a vendor response yesterday that, for the life of me, I cannot find now (it might have been part of the Twitter business that's now gone). Maybe you saw it. He was commenting in response to people claiming that someone knew of the Eternal Masters name and made card purchases ahead of time because some people were floating the exact name of the set long before it was announced. Paraphrasing his response, he simply said that they read between the lines of Wizards' announcements and made some guesses about what Wizards was going to release. I took the implication to be that vendors were receiving marketing material/announcements that they used to piece together what was coming. It's not an unreasonable scenario to consider.
I would never dismiss the possibility of a conspiracy out of hand, but I am also tired of this board always flying the conspiracy flag in response to every perceived slight or injustice - whether real or not - when they don't have full clarity into the underlying situation. Looking at this situation, the best evidence of a full-blown, market-fixing conspiracy has just been revealed to be a total fabrication. Maybe it's time to dial down the conspiracy rhetoric. Sometimes, things just happen on accident or out of dumb luck or as part of normal mechanisms we don't fully understand from our outsider perspective or just super weird coincidence, or... just not a conspiracy.
I still think Wizards just needs to consider releasing the full card set as soon as they send it to the printer, since they can't seem to lock things down after that (and understandably so). But that doesn't require me to assume there is a conspiracy to worry my soul over.
Also, his follow list where he called out innocent people that he claimed witnessed the shadiness and kept quiet, telling them to come forward. One of my personal friends was on that list and now his twitter handle along with a dozen other uninvolved vendors handles are on imgur albums all over relating them to this garbage. This guy is getting sued for libel, real soon, unless all of the people involved are very forgiving. I'm sure he had fun playing Deepthroat and probably really enjoyed himself while he was stirring up drama but he might have to face some consequences soon. To think, if he had just gone privately to Wizards with his info like an adult...
If he had gone to wizards in private "like an adult" there's very much a chance it would just get swept under the rug. And while his statements probably do meet the four-pronged test for slander/libel (Must be untrue, must be published, must be directed at person/people, must cause damage) he also has protection under whistle-blower laws, granting him qualified immunity from defamation as long as he prints a retraction and the statements weren't made specifically to harm - which he did. He's got a solid defense should a suit come up.
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
It just did get swept under the rug anyway, so I'm not sure what your point is with the first part. As to the 4 points for libel, the 12 people on his follow list felt like that was pretty directly pointed at them, and it was very much public on twitter to many thousands of people and, by his own words, very much untrue. Proving damages can often be nebulous depending on the type of damage claimed, but having your name viewed thousands of times alongside accusations that you witnessed criminal activity and said nothing is pretty cut and dry damage to your reputation. If you don't end up blowing the whistle on anyone, I'm not sure whistleblower laws apply but I am not a lawyer. None of us know his true motivations yet, so we can't say for sure why he did all of this. He might have a decent defense but the harmed parties certainly also have a decent case against him, depending on what facts come out. According to yet more rumors, this was all orchestrated by the party that sent the faked screenshot to @Vendorleak as a way to discredit other vendors. We just really don't know very much and probably won't ever know unless Wizards makes use of the Investigate mechanic and teams up with Jace to really do some hardcore sleuthing.
The fact that there is a huge community wide discussion on the topic means it was not and cannot be swept under a rug.
Think before you post.
The increasing number of candlejack'd reddit threads say hi. The permanence of any thread discussing this topic is uncertain.
Whooboy, that's extremely debatable. But that's a discussion for another place and time.
GGG [Primer] Omnath, Big Green Beatstick Machine GGG
Considering buying more because of this.
Drama sets are the best sets.
Given the trouble they sometimes have keeping hype up for two weeks, trying to make it work from the inception of printing seems like a good way to reduce sales.
No more a reduction than if the set was spoiled by other entities.
They could still do their release marketing, but instead of making things a big reveal, they could focus on talking about other aspects of the game.
I'm not asking for anyone to dox anyone else here. Just curious if the name is already out there and what their relationship was to the other parties.
We know that they were a vendor. Last I heard, there were some guesses as to who it was, but not any real confirmation. Unless I missed something.