Just curious what the groupthink is on why these forums have lost the majority of their usage over the past 5 years or so. 5 - 10 years ago the number of threads here, the number of posts, the number of active participants, it was all an order of magnitude or more larger than what is here now. Where did all of that discussion go? Is it happening in another venue that I don't know about (maybe reddit?) Or is Magic just being played less so there are fewer people to discuss it?
It's weird, a new set is coming out so I figured there'd be a lot of discussion. Maybe people are waiting till they can actually play the cards to discuss?
Lately, I have been going to reddit r/lrcast for discussion, but even that isn't overly active.
I think, in part, it is due to a flourishing of videos/podcasts/articles on limited strategy. Time was, forums were one of the only sources available for limited strategy... now you can't throw a bitcoin without hitting 1-3 videos and articles published within the day on the most up-to-date info from the pros.
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My helpy helpdesk of helpfulness.
My Decks: EDH: Sygg, River Cutthroat , Road to Scion
Grimgrin, Corpseborn Modern: Polytokes IRL: Progenitus Polymorph , Goblins
I know for me personally, I spend about the same amount of time talking and thinking about Magic as I did a few years ago when I was much more active on these forums, but now most of my attention is on CF material.
It's a vicious circle: I come here less because there's less to see, so I also post here less, which means there's less to see for everyone else, too.
EDIT: Actually, thinking about it, it's pretty clear there was a fairly dramatic drop in activity around March or April of last year, specifically, and the forum (at least specifically this subforum) never recovered. I'm not sure what caused it, but it was probably something you could point to, given the relative suddenness.
I know something happened, but for the life of me I can't remember exactly what it was. I'm wondering if it was some kind of reorganization thing where threads got shuffled around? I know activity dropped very abruptly.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
Just my opinion, and nothing to truly back up my facts other than its my general "feeling" on the situation.
1. Mtgsalvation going to the new website-thing (sorry, I literally don't know what to describe it as; literally the site went through a change of format). I remember this caused players to be kicked off, it didn't load for others, and there was a general negative reaction from a lot of people. A lot of forum topics got mixed around or lost. Not saying it was a bad decision, but I remember it making some people sour.
2. Sets have become "less interesting" for a lot of people. As a primarily Limited and commander player, I haven't felt the affects of this much till Kaladesh (see point 3) but I know a lot of players feel things are a bit boring. Till standard bannings, discussion of new standard decks were dwindling. Mtgsalvation has often been a forum of general pessimism towards cards and sets (a trend, not a rule) so I could see that causing a downward trend.
3. In regards to specifically the Limited forum, where I frequent often for ideas/trying to help newbs: Kaladesh has just been a very easy format to swallow for those willing to put up with it, and a format easy for people to drop if they don't want to work with it. I understand both trains of thought, even though I'm with the former. This set has a /lot/ of swing to it, and for some people that doesn't equal to a good experience. I understand. So the forum has been quite silent, especially the random card of the day forum (RIP) which was one of my favorites.
4. Reddit is gaining a significant amount of traffic in recent years. I'm sure this has something to do with it.
I've been coming here for years - lost my account in the curse gaming site transition mentioned above and had to make a new one. It used to be you'd come here on a day like today and get lots of reports from international players who had already done their prerelease - now you're lucky if you find even one such early report to get an edge in your own prerelease the next day.
I've also seen a pretty major deterioration on the quality of posts in the deck threads (i follow a bunch of modern ones). It used to be most of what I found here was insightful or at least useful, now 9/10 times I see people proposing just blatantly bad ideas and bad decklists. Usually you have 1-2 insightful players commenting on the deck, and then a dozen randoms proposing silly things diluting the content.
Why did it happen? Probably just the rapid expansion of other places for mtg content - streaming etc. At first this and "mtgnews" were the only 2 sites I used - then I started reading starcity games articles, now there's modern nexus and reddit and mtggoldfish that I check out pretty regularly. Just not as much time to put in here - vicious cycle as described above, less content because less visitors - less visitors because less content.
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Modern
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
Could spoilers have something to do with it? I could be misremembering, but 5 - 10 years ago wasn't mtgsalvation the first place to get most spoilered cards? I would expect that would drive a lot of people to the site and this would spill over into other forums.
It seems to me like lots of places get the spoilered cards at the same time now. Is my perception off base here?
Could spoilers have something to do with it? I could be misremembering, but 5 - 10 years ago wasn't mtgsalvation the first place to get most spoilered cards? I would expect that would drive a lot of people to the site and this would spill over into other forums.
It seems to me like lots of places get the spoilered cards at the same time now. Is my perception off base here?
No, that perception is definitely correct. Back in the day, certain moderators of this site had "informants" who took advantage of this site's policies about rumors and spoilers as a way to scoop almost every other site almost every time. Certain lawsuits happened and policies changed and now MTGS is just not a good place to leak information. Almost everything that isn't sanctioned information comes as cross-posts from reddit.
Lately, I have been going to reddit r/lrcast for discussion, but even that isn't overly active.
My Decks:
EDH: Sygg, River Cutthroat , Road to Scion
Grimgrin, Corpseborn
Modern: Polytokes
IRL: Progenitus Polymorph , Goblins
Just a friendly reminder that I will drive this car off a bridge
It's a vicious circle: I come here less because there's less to see, so I also post here less, which means there's less to see for everyone else, too.
EDIT: Actually, thinking about it, it's pretty clear there was a fairly dramatic drop in activity around March or April of last year, specifically, and the forum (at least specifically this subforum) never recovered. I'm not sure what caused it, but it was probably something you could point to, given the relative suddenness.
1. Mtgsalvation going to the new website-thing (sorry, I literally don't know what to describe it as; literally the site went through a change of format). I remember this caused players to be kicked off, it didn't load for others, and there was a general negative reaction from a lot of people. A lot of forum topics got mixed around or lost. Not saying it was a bad decision, but I remember it making some people sour.
2. Sets have become "less interesting" for a lot of people. As a primarily Limited and commander player, I haven't felt the affects of this much till Kaladesh (see point 3) but I know a lot of players feel things are a bit boring. Till standard bannings, discussion of new standard decks were dwindling. Mtgsalvation has often been a forum of general pessimism towards cards and sets (a trend, not a rule) so I could see that causing a downward trend.
3. In regards to specifically the Limited forum, where I frequent often for ideas/trying to help newbs: Kaladesh has just been a very easy format to swallow for those willing to put up with it, and a format easy for people to drop if they don't want to work with it. I understand both trains of thought, even though I'm with the former. This set has a /lot/ of swing to it, and for some people that doesn't equal to a good experience. I understand. So the forum has been quite silent, especially the random card of the day forum (RIP) which was one of my favorites.
4. Reddit is gaining a significant amount of traffic in recent years. I'm sure this has something to do with it.
Anyway, like I said, opinions.
I've also seen a pretty major deterioration on the quality of posts in the deck threads (i follow a bunch of modern ones). It used to be most of what I found here was insightful or at least useful, now 9/10 times I see people proposing just blatantly bad ideas and bad decklists. Usually you have 1-2 insightful players commenting on the deck, and then a dozen randoms proposing silly things diluting the content.
Why did it happen? Probably just the rapid expansion of other places for mtg content - streaming etc. At first this and "mtgnews" were the only 2 sites I used - then I started reading starcity games articles, now there's modern nexus and reddit and mtggoldfish that I check out pretty regularly. Just not as much time to put in here - vicious cycle as described above, less content because less visitors - less visitors because less content.
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
It seems to me like lots of places get the spoilered cards at the same time now. Is my perception off base here?
No, that perception is definitely correct. Back in the day, certain moderators of this site had "informants" who took advantage of this site's policies about rumors and spoilers as a way to scoop almost every other site almost every time. Certain lawsuits happened and policies changed and now MTGS is just not a good place to leak information. Almost everything that isn't sanctioned information comes as cross-posts from reddit.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).