He may not have been a developer, but creative is actually fairly involved in design and development of Planeswalker cards more so than any other type of card, as Planeswalkers are creative's domain so to speak.
According to him, he specifically pressed the development team of Worldwake "more than once" to ensure that Mind Sculptor was "not weak or unplayable"
According to him, he specifically pressed the development team of Worldwake "more than once" to ensure that Mind Sculptor was "not weak or unplayable"
The irony in calling out Tibalt specifically was that Creative had less to do with him than design did.
Tamiyo and Tibalt were part of an experiment between the departments. Tamiyo was created by Creative and Design did Tibalt as an experiment if they could do a 2 drop walker.
I would guess that it's just a part of general corporate layoffs. Some bean counter saying, why are we paying this guy $80,000 (or whatever) to do what we can just get the people who actually make the cards do. All the back stories are just generic cookie cutter fantasy fluff anyway. MaRo and Co. were doing the difficult work of coming up with the theme for the world, anyone could populate that world with cookie cutter characters and random fantasy tropes.
Have you actually written speculative fiction? No? Then shut up.
Brady is apparently responsible for most of the creative direction of the Ravnica guilds. I appreciate his work if only for that.
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The wedding is over. Now it's time for the honeymoon.
He was the dude in charge of flavor and everything surrounding PWs, and his job in flavoring them initially was fairly sloppy and kinda bland.
For example: Liliana is supposed to be a Necromancer, none of her PW cards actually reflect this, and this identity was pinned down AFTER she was printed in Lorwyn.
Jace, Chandra, and Garruk were fairly stereotypical mages in their color. They didn't have much more going for them than "She likes to blow things up! He's a beastmaster! He's a broody 18-20something who is constantly battling with using his special talent for good or evil!"
Ajani was arguably the most fleshed out: His brother was leader of the group he took over, and he focused on honoring that legacy by bringing out the best in people. He's also an albino runt, and does everything in his power to prove himself to his group, even losing his eye in the process. (His brother was also murdered, and so he went on a revenge quest to fix it, but that's later.)
It was really the initially bland and fairly sloppy handling of walkers that draws fire. Creative got a good deal better as time went on (Ignoring Nissa Ravine)
This is a fairly ignorant post, and to top it, almost nothing of it is true.
The man has been in charge of the WHOLE Creative for a long time (ten years, give or take some). You are taking a single of the many things he was responsible of and making a bad example out of all that. Moreover, his ability to influence the card form of the walkers was limited.
He and his team created many interesting worlds and populated them with story and characters, kept the line concerning individual characters, etc. Without him, the flavortext writers would not know what to write, the artists would lack styleguides. Heck, Ravnica guilds and Alara shards would not exist without him.
But it is a logical result of recent years...books were axed, even planeswalker novels were axed, we are getting less and less of story and more and more of generic worldbuilding.
My greatest fear is following: Brady kept a tight grip when it concerned story,deaths of important characters, and their permanence. Without such a guidance, Magic lore can devolve into the stupidity of Marvel and DC Comics storylines, where any character can be resurrected as the authors want, each time in a more convoluted explanation. This was a thing that differed Magic story from others.
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Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
My greatest fear is following: Brady kept a tight grip when it concerned story,deaths of important characters, and their permanence. Without such a guidance, Magic lore can devolve into the stupidity of Marvel and DC Comics storylines, where any character can be resurrected as the authors want, each time in a more convoluted explanation. This was a thing that differed Magic story from others.
For a similar example, see Games Workshop with Warhammer 40,000. Because the fluff writers are forced to keep the plot line static and to keep popular named characters active, you get ridiculous stuff like most of the good Primarchs being only "potentially" dead (And ready to be unleashed in the fluff and model lines when sales start sinking).
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The wedding is over. Now it's time for the honeymoon.
For a similar example, see Games Workshop with Warhammer 40,000. Because the fluff writers are forced to keep the plot line static and to keep popular named characters active, you get ridiculous stuff like most of the good Primarchs being only "potentially" dead (And ready to be unleashed in the fluff and model lines when sales start sinking).
I agree with this, and why I liked it when Urza died. However, Urza himself had a very long life with multiple identities. He was Blind See in card form, yet his brother got Mishra, Artificer Prodigy. There, frankly, is little reason why not having special product that goes to the "past" such as a Mishra vs. Urza set at the time when they were Tocasia's apprentices or during the Brother's War. This is no different than the Planechase Ninja deck, that used ninjutsu and created some descent cards for casual, Legacy, and Commander as well.
While I've given up the possibilities of ever seeing an Urza Planeswalker card, I do agree that the "static" storylines to keep certain persons alive is crude, but Time Spiral introduced one of multiple ways to introduce new cards that use old flavor while maintaining the storyline.
I would certanly understand such a fear about ten years ago, when the continuity was generally cohesive. We had the Karona problem and some others, but the general mass of flavor was about all right. But now - it is really worth troubling yourself? While I don't see MtG's continuity as beyond reparation, not much of real value was added during last years, and there are no signs of improvement in the foreseeable future. We'll just have Dack Fayden hunting Sifa Grent forever.
Tempest through Invasion was good, because they knew what direction they were going specifically storyline wise. I believe they just need to implement more into their six year plan with the storyline and creating legends. Having fixed set objects such as specific main characters and using ebook serialized novellas is good for certain ones.
However, from a marketing stand point one of the specifics with the Vaults from the Fall Out series was to allow for fan fiction. My own belief is that they could allow for some planes to go "unvisited" and hold contests and the like to have storylines bundled together. Such as the "best" Shandalar story continues that plane's storyline and other such things, while using smaller product cycles (decks, kit boxes, promos) to promote some of the characters and themes within the set. "Canon fan fiction" and giving some "worlds" up to the masses would be interesting, especially with what they did with Commander.
"You handle the format, we print cards k thx bye."
Bit more complex for intellectual property rights, and probably require more contract but that's why they have lawyers to work for them.
While I doubt if anyone would write a book without a contract, but short stories and the like to flesh out certain cards? Wouldn't be too bad for them to exploit. Especially since publishers are more and more using fan fiction to scout for writers, but that's where Fifty Shades of Grey came from...
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Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
Link to my post in Magic Storyline. I interviewed for a position at WoTC and gained some insight into their recent reorganization that might be the reason for all this
In Magic, dead is dead (so long as the death was significant.)
Brady and MaRo were both huge proponents towards that.
Brady might not be around anymore, but Mark is, and he'd fight to keep that policy intact.
meh. bad explanation. i have a character who can create planes with a snap of his fingers, change form with the blink of his eyes and have access to the most powerful spells of his color. and his card only mill 7? underwhelming.
i's like saying: "look! this is the best green creature ever, the king of all the beasts, but since it is so powerful it will give you only a small fraction of its power and it's a vanilla 4/4. bad
You must never have read any ancient Greek or Roman poetry.
According to him, he specifically pressed the development team of Worldwake "more than once" to ensure that Mind Sculptor was "not weak or unplayable"
The irony in calling out Tibalt specifically was that Creative had less to do with him than design did.
Tamiyo and Tibalt were part of an experiment between the departments. Tamiyo was created by Creative and Design did Tibalt as an experiment if they could do a 2 drop walker.
Back on topic though; it sucks being let go because a company needs to cut a % of its workforce and had nothing to do with your job performance.
Maybe someone should alert Hasbro that if they told WotC to abolish the reserved list and reprint more Legacy staples that they would make more money.
WBG Karador GBW
R Daretti R
RG Omnath GR
WRG Modern Burn GRW
WB Modern Tokens BW
DCI Rules Advisor as of 5/18/2015
Have you actually written speculative fiction? No? Then shut up.
Brady is apparently responsible for most of the creative direction of the Ravnica guilds. I appreciate his work if only for that.
Thanks to Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery Signatures!
This is a fairly ignorant post, and to top it, almost nothing of it is true.
The man has been in charge of the WHOLE Creative for a long time (ten years, give or take some). You are taking a single of the many things he was responsible of and making a bad example out of all that. Moreover, his ability to influence the card form of the walkers was limited.
He and his team created many interesting worlds and populated them with story and characters, kept the line concerning individual characters, etc. Without him, the flavortext writers would not know what to write, the artists would lack styleguides. Heck, Ravnica guilds and Alara shards would not exist without him.
But it is a logical result of recent years...books were axed, even planeswalker novels were axed, we are getting less and less of story and more and more of generic worldbuilding.
My greatest fear is following: Brady kept a tight grip when it concerned story,deaths of important characters, and their permanence. Without such a guidance, Magic lore can devolve into the stupidity of Marvel and DC Comics storylines, where any character can be resurrected as the authors want, each time in a more convoluted explanation. This was a thing that differed Magic story from others.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
For a similar example, see Games Workshop with Warhammer 40,000. Because the fluff writers are forced to keep the plot line static and to keep popular named characters active, you get ridiculous stuff like most of the good Primarchs being only "potentially" dead (And ready to be unleashed in the fluff and model lines when sales start sinking).
Thanks to Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery Signatures!
I agree with this, and why I liked it when Urza died. However, Urza himself had a very long life with multiple identities. He was Blind See in card form, yet his brother got Mishra, Artificer Prodigy. There, frankly, is little reason why not having special product that goes to the "past" such as a Mishra vs. Urza set at the time when they were Tocasia's apprentices or during the Brother's War. This is no different than the Planechase Ninja deck, that used ninjutsu and created some descent cards for casual, Legacy, and Commander as well.
While I've given up the possibilities of ever seeing an Urza Planeswalker card, I do agree that the "static" storylines to keep certain persons alive is crude, but Time Spiral introduced one of multiple ways to introduce new cards that use old flavor while maintaining the storyline.
Tempest through Invasion was good, because they knew what direction they were going specifically storyline wise. I believe they just need to implement more into their six year plan with the storyline and creating legends. Having fixed set objects such as specific main characters and using ebook serialized novellas is good for certain ones.
However, from a marketing stand point one of the specifics with the Vaults from the Fall Out series was to allow for fan fiction. My own belief is that they could allow for some planes to go "unvisited" and hold contests and the like to have storylines bundled together. Such as the "best" Shandalar story continues that plane's storyline and other such things, while using smaller product cycles (decks, kit boxes, promos) to promote some of the characters and themes within the set. "Canon fan fiction" and giving some "worlds" up to the masses would be interesting, especially with what they did with Commander.
"You handle the format, we print cards k thx bye."
Bit more complex for intellectual property rights, and probably require more contract but that's why they have lawyers to work for them.
While I doubt if anyone would write a book without a contract, but short stories and the like to flesh out certain cards? Wouldn't be too bad for them to exploit. Especially since publishers are more and more using fan fiction to scout for writers, but that's where Fifty Shades of Grey came from...
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=10107939&postcount=93
That's actually amusing given that Dack killed her in the last issue.
And we are talking really dead, saw the body, and everything dead.
Well, there's dead, and there's comic book dead
In Magic, dead is dead (so long as the death was significant.)
Brady and MaRo were both huge proponents towards that.
Brady might not be around anymore, but Mark is, and he'd fight to keep that policy intact.
For all we know he was transferred out the Magic division of Wizards and transferred to somewhere else within the company.
708th at Grand Prix: Toronto 2013
Modern: U/R Delver, RUG Scapeshift, Pod
Standard: Jeskai Tempo
Legacy: Dredge, Burn
Pauper: Mono-U Delver
EDH: Ghave, Token Master
You must never have read any ancient Greek or Roman poetry.
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