After having worked in retail for 18 years I've seen people complain about a wide array of different things. They unload on front-end workers who have little to zero involvement in decision making, and can get belligerent in the process.
The FE staff do have the ability to raise the issues with their respective direct management, and are a "face" of the brand at that particular interaction, but for the most part I've found custies are only doing it as a way to voice frustration without any real desire to change things. They just want to vent. Then proper customer service directives usually kick in afterwards.
That said, though, is that MaRo is the face of the brand but also is the head designer. Lead designer. His title seems to change a lot. Anyway, because MaRo is in a position of both a decision-maker and the public face, he does warrant any feedback that comes his way, patronizing or otherwise.
A lot of times change can happen so long as you aren't a pompous ********
'buster
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
I think that Maro underplays the balance issues that magic has had over the past year. Currently more than half the sets in Standard have a banned card from them and all but M21 has a banned card in some format, although that's going to be easy considering they've added a couple formats rather recently. It used to be bannings in Standard were rather historic, but now it's practically expected thanks to the power spike we have had in about the last year and that doesn't even account for how some of those bans were done so late, like the most recent wave of bans in Standard. Seems like the new playtest team really procrastinated at their job if they let through so many Oko- I mean obvious mistakes.
The one thing I was not happy to see was the collector boosters did well. I knew they sold well enough, but I was hoping to hear "They sold, but not to our liking" and maybe they'd disappear soon. Hopefully theme boosters get out soon as well.
The cashier at Arby's is the most prominent audience-facing member of their staff and thus they should be held accountable for the pricing and quality of items!
I'm glad we could step back and realize this profound truth. That because someone in a company interacts with the public all of the company's decisions must be considered their personal decisions and they must take responsibility for them. I assumed that a person should only be held responsible for things they did or held influence over not anything that I wanted to attribute to them.
Maro is not a cashier. He is the de facto spokesperson for the Magic brand as a whole and frequently claims responsibility for major decisions. So yes, I'll continue to hold him accountable for things he did, and I'm not attributing to him anything he did not claim to be responsible for. He was behind (or participated in designing if you're triggered by that wording) several of the problematic products released this year. He, along with anyone else responsible, should be held accountable. This has happened repeatedly. His leadership of various teams, whether its vision design or anything else, whether uniquely his idea or merely a suggestion, his handiwork is behind some of the worst years of magic design. He's also behind some of the best. Choose to ignore the former if you wish, but imo you should not.
@Flossed_Beaver I'm upset by that wording in particular because its a classic non-apology; the implication from that alone is that the inherent advantage of having an 8 card opening hand is not actually the problem, and the set/environment it was printed in is why it was overpowered, which is factually and unequivocally BS (It even says so elsewhere in the article). Maybe he meant "Companion, with revisions" but he didn't say that. He said that it shouldn't have been printed in the same set as mutate. Hope that answers your question.
This means I can start blaming Neil Degrasse Tyson for any science-related problems such as global warming, pluto not being a planet, and our general lack of flying personal vehicles? He is the most audience-facing member of science so it sticks right?
Point yourself at a wall my dude, you're projecting.
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Latest proof this forum is a trashfire:
Your authoritarianism will be the reason the company suffers another 60M in losses.
Maro is not a cashier. He is the de facto spokesperson for the Magic brand as a whole and frequently claims responsibility for major decisions. So yes, I'll continue to hold him accountable for things he did, and I'm not attributing to him anything he did not claim to be responsible for. He was behind (or participated in designing if you're triggered by that wording) several of the problematic products released this year. He, along with anyone else responsible, should be held accountable. This has happened repeatedly. His leadership of various teams, whether its vision design or anything else, whether uniquely his idea or merely a suggestion, his handiwork is behind some of the worst years of magic design. He's also behind some of the best. Choose to ignore the former if you wish, but imo you should not.
I choose to ignore neither. And I have no problem placing blame where blame is due. My only problem was with the idea "He is the face so its his fault for thing that he has nothing to do with." That is a huge problem and such ideology should be stamped out whenever it surfaces.
You can think that a particular area of botched whatever is not his fault, and it doesn't matter. He is the prominent audience-facing member of staff,
You see this; which was said by you. That it doesn't matter if something isn't his fault because he is the "face". That is a problem.
As long as you understand that there is a massive division of labor and responsibility in a product as large as magic and appropriately assign blame there are no problems. But the moment you say "Its not his fualt but let's blame him anyways" you have massive problems.
If you dont understand what a person does and thus don't know what blame to assign them. It is fine to ask and learn. If you didn't like the concept or execution of monster world then that is on Maro. He even admits that they messed up setting expectations. It should have been "build monsters" rather than "giant monsters are here". If you didn't like the obviously incomplete cycles such as the titans or the gods that is also on Maro. Neither of these are entirely on Maro as he works with a team that also has input but at least you are blaming the correct things rather than "mechanic C was too pushed" "product X is too expensive" or "there are too many products" which Maro has no input on.
@Flossed_Beaver I'm upset by that wording in particular because its a classic non-apology; the implication from that alone is that the inherent advantage of having an 8 card opening hand is not actually the problem, and the set/environment it was printed in is why it was overpowered, which is factually and unequivocally BS (It even says so elsewhere in the article). Maybe he meant "Companion, with revisions" but he didn't say that. He said that it shouldn't have been printed in the same set as mutate. Hope that answers your question.
I took it to mean that they overextended their ability to provide adequate balance by including not one but two overly ambitious and complicated mechanics in the same set, which sort of dovetails with their general complaint about 'adapting to a blockless world.' So in a way you're right - 'having an 8 card opening hand is not actually the problem' so much as individual card balance is. The fact that only some of the companions were banned should bear this out.
You left out the second part of the sentence, though. And my second post. In context, that is not what I said. And if it is, its not what I meant.
To be perfectly clear: I'm saying that if you think it is not his fault, it doesn't matter. He is partly responsible, and should be viewed as such. Add to that the fact that he takes credit for many of the well-received decisions, but doesn't seem to realize the actual problems with the current state of the game, nor the role he played in making them a reality, then we agree that none of these are entirely on Maro. That doesn't mean it isn't his fault.
If this article is his internalization of recent feedback from players, then he has filtered out most of the recommendations that would improve the game imo.
To be perfectly clear: I'm saying that if you think it is not his fault, it doesn't matter. He is partly responsible, and should be viewed as such. Add to that the fact that he takes credit for many of the well-received decisions, but doesn't seem to realize the actual problems with the current state of the game, nor the role he played in making them a reality, then we agree that none of these are entirely on Maro. That doesn't mean it isn't his fault.
If this article is his internalization of recent feedback from players, then he has filtered out most of the recommendations that would improve the game imo.
I feel like a pretty good example of just how far removed MaRo is from the entirety of WotC's inner workings was the article where he mistakenly explained mutate wrong, because (as he later admitted) he hadn't interacted with the mechanic for a whole year. That's quite telling, I think.
The games industry in general faces a problem with criticism slung towards employees, which is why they generally do not interact with the public that much. Demanding the few that have not retreated back into quasi-anonymity due to the way gamers as a whole treat them, to be held responsible for company wide shortcomings because they're the only ones who interact with the public is... insane.
Also, companion is not an inherently broken mechanic. I've never seen anyone play Kaheera outside of limited and Keruga like once in constructed, which durdled and did nothing.
Companion is a problem when the card it is printed on is a combo piece, like Gyruda and Lurrus. Nobody cares about Jegantha or Umori, because those cards weren't broken. The issue isn't companion so much but the fact that the mechanic requires a very carefully selected host of cards to appear on. A kind of build-around-but-not-actually-combo-piece. But this is a lesson that needed to be learned first, and as Maro stated, the development team was likely overtaxed during Ikoria, which is why this issue slipped through.
The FE staff do have the ability to raise the issues with their respective direct management, and are a "face" of the brand at that particular interaction, but for the most part I've found custies are only doing it as a way to voice frustration without any real desire to change things. They just want to vent. Then proper customer service directives usually kick in afterwards.
That said, though, is that MaRo is the face of the brand but also is the head designer. Lead designer. His title seems to change a lot. Anyway, because MaRo is in a position of both a decision-maker and the public face, he does warrant any feedback that comes his way, patronizing or otherwise.
A lot of times change can happen so long as you aren't a pompous ********
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
The one thing I was not happy to see was the collector boosters did well. I knew they sold well enough, but I was hoping to hear "They sold, but not to our liking" and maybe they'd disappear soon. Hopefully theme boosters get out soon as well.
How absurd.
Maro is not a cashier. He is the de facto spokesperson for the Magic brand as a whole and frequently claims responsibility for major decisions. So yes, I'll continue to hold him accountable for things he did, and I'm not attributing to him anything he did not claim to be responsible for. He was behind (or participated in designing if you're triggered by that wording) several of the problematic products released this year. He, along with anyone else responsible, should be held accountable. This has happened repeatedly. His leadership of various teams, whether its vision design or anything else, whether uniquely his idea or merely a suggestion, his handiwork is behind some of the worst years of magic design. He's also behind some of the best. Choose to ignore the former if you wish, but imo you should not.
@Flossed_Beaver I'm upset by that wording in particular because its a classic non-apology; the implication from that alone is that the inherent advantage of having an 8 card opening hand is not actually the problem, and the set/environment it was printed in is why it was overpowered, which is factually and unequivocally BS (It even says so elsewhere in the article). Maybe he meant "Companion, with revisions" but he didn't say that. He said that it shouldn't have been printed in the same set as mutate. Hope that answers your question.
Point yourself at a wall my dude, you're projecting.
You see this; which was said by you. That it doesn't matter if something isn't his fault because he is the "face". That is a problem.
As long as you understand that there is a massive division of labor and responsibility in a product as large as magic and appropriately assign blame there are no problems. But the moment you say "Its not his fualt but let's blame him anyways" you have massive problems.
If you dont understand what a person does and thus don't know what blame to assign them. It is fine to ask and learn. If you didn't like the concept or execution of monster world then that is on Maro. He even admits that they messed up setting expectations. It should have been "build monsters" rather than "giant monsters are here". If you didn't like the obviously incomplete cycles such as the titans or the gods that is also on Maro. Neither of these are entirely on Maro as he works with a team that also has input but at least you are blaming the correct things rather than "mechanic C was too pushed" "product X is too expensive" or "there are too many products" which Maro has no input on.
I took it to mean that they overextended their ability to provide adequate balance by including not one but two overly ambitious and complicated mechanics in the same set, which sort of dovetails with their general complaint about 'adapting to a blockless world.' So in a way you're right - 'having an 8 card opening hand is not actually the problem' so much as individual card balance is. The fact that only some of the companions were banned should bear this out.
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#BLM
#DefundThepolice
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#BLM
#DefundThePolice
You left out the second part of the sentence, though. And my second post. In context, that is not what I said. And if it is, its not what I meant.
To be perfectly clear: I'm saying that if you think it is not his fault, it doesn't matter. He is partly responsible, and should be viewed as such. Add to that the fact that he takes credit for many of the well-received decisions, but doesn't seem to realize the actual problems with the current state of the game, nor the role he played in making them a reality, then we agree that none of these are entirely on Maro. That doesn't mean it isn't his fault.
If this article is his internalization of recent feedback from players, then he has filtered out most of the recommendations that would improve the game imo.
hhhhhh. I remember why I stopped posting now.
I feel like a pretty good example of just how far removed MaRo is from the entirety of WotC's inner workings was the article where he mistakenly explained mutate wrong, because (as he later admitted) he hadn't interacted with the mechanic for a whole year. That's quite telling, I think.
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
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#BLM
#DefundThePolice
Also, companion is not an inherently broken mechanic. I've never seen anyone play Kaheera outside of limited and Keruga like once in constructed, which durdled and did nothing.
Companion is a problem when the card it is printed on is a combo piece, like Gyruda and Lurrus. Nobody cares about Jegantha or Umori, because those cards weren't broken. The issue isn't companion so much but the fact that the mechanic requires a very carefully selected host of cards to appear on. A kind of build-around-but-not-actually-combo-piece. But this is a lesson that needed to be learned first, and as Maro stated, the development team was likely overtaxed during Ikoria, which is why this issue slipped through.