Where did all the promises of reprints go? Theros block came and went without an obvious Serum Visions reprint, Khans only gave us half of the fetches, now it looks like Zendikar is about to come and go without Goblin Guide, Enemy Fetches, or even an Inquisition of Kozilek...in a set that features a battle against him? This has gone beyond missing obvious chances, and is starting to feel like it's being done on purpose.
It doesn't matter if you're being paid or not. If you elect to be a judge for Wizards events, you're agreeing to represent the company and uphold its image. If you're doing something counterproductive to their designs, they have every right in the world to disassociate themselves from you. It doesn't matter if leaks hurt sales or not- its THEIR call, not any of ours when this information gets released. And it doesn't matter if these are the only judges in an area or not- exclusivity doesn't give you an excuse to break the rules. If you want to be mad at someone for all the judges in a region being suspended, be mad at the judges for being selfish and foolish in their decision making, and creating this quandry. It's no different than when a star player gets a conduct-related suspension from his sports team- you blame the player for acting up, not the administration for doing what they had to do.
No offense, but that's remarkably short-sighted, and as it seems is par for the course with anyone rallying around a corporate banner, oversimplifies the issue to a point where it doesn't seem like you understand what's wrong with this scandal. 'All the judges that did that are bad' is plain stupid. Some of the judges banned have clearly stated they had not even logged into the group or participated during the time of the leaks. Another was complicit in assisting Wizards to figure out what happened and got banned anyway. That's not good faith, trust, or respect. Taking it as 'well they said it hurt them and I believe it and they can do what they want' is basically a hall pass you're giving them that ignores any extenuating circumstances, and the published facts about what's happened since. Unless you genuinely haven't read the whole story (in which case you shouldn't be vocalizing your opinion anyway, you're ill-informed), there's no frame on this that makes WotC look sparkling white and clean - there's a huge gulf between appropriate response and what they did, which is why so many are up in arms. If it was all conspiracy theories and conjecture, you might be right in your blind trust. There's enough to this story, though, that just makes an opinion like yours sound painfully like the knee-jerk reactions with half the information that WotC is being accused of.
(I'm sorry if I come off a little abrupt, but even someone wholeheartedly agreeing with Wizards' stance on this would have to admit there was overkill in here. The fact that you don't sounds like you don't know enough about the issue to have an opinion, let alone voice it publicly.)
Your half-hearted, backhanded apology is not accepted. You have no right to tell me, or anyone else on these boards whether they have a right to post on any topic here or not, and how dare you for even entertaining the thought that you do. The fact that I have not read every single little post on reddit concerning the matter does not disqualify me from having my two cents. I have read this thread, I have read several articles on the matter, and I have read both of Wizards' official statements concerning the matter. And it's clear as day to me that WotC is in the right.
See, what you fail to realize is that WotC isn't some grandfatherly benefactor entity who exists to make us happy. They are a business first, as they should be, and any business worth its salt would go through any measures it can to preserve its intellectual property. Furthermore, this was clearly not a one time deal- let's stop pretending that one morning Oath of the Gatewatch Spoilers showed up on Facebook, and then the next suspensions were handed down. This was ongoing over multiple sets, for months, even years, and to make things worse, this was being done by individuals that had earned some measure of trust from WotC in getting their judging certification. Whether or not their status as judges helped them obtain this information is irrelevant- they betrayed WotC's trust by gaining the information and then spreading it.
"But... but... they didn't know!" Spare me. These aren't weekend casual players we're talking about here. These are hardened magic players, immersed in the game and culture enough to take a test to gain a leadership role within it. And part of that leadership role is knowing when something's wrong, and when to do the right thing. They clearly failed on this, and failed for several months, and now they're paying the consequences.
"But... but... one even helped with the investigation!" I always take this with a grain of salt, especially when it concerns something that had been going on a long time. What were that person's motives? Were they legitimately upset over property being stolen (unlikely, or else they'd have reported this sooner). Likely it was an individual who was either about to be busted, and thus trying to save his hide, or was otherwise hoping his cooperation would get him ahead somewhere.
This was never about WOTC looking "sparkling white and clean". WOTC was put in a situation where they had to be the bad guy, and they did what they had to do. You can't pull weeds and not expect to get a little muddy. Now some of these people will get appeals, and I'm sure a few will be overturned. That's fair. But in the end, this is their game, and their property. Protecting that is, and should be, the number one priority.
You sound like a shill for the company at this point. WotC is without a doubt in the right...despite the horrible PR this created for them, this was the best solution...that's your take? Oh, and 'I take this part of the argument with a grain of salt' is not remotely objective, it's a complete bias. So, yeah, forgive me if entertaining commentaries such as these makes me sincerely doubt that you're informed. Quite the opposite, if your two cents is to completely doubt one half of the argument and accept WotC playing 'the bad guy' was their only viable solution to the issue, you either came into the issue with a bias or developed one from what you've read. Either way, it's not objective enough and zealotry on this board runs deep enough to leave you to your peace and not bother arguing the point further - your opinion can't be swayed.
I'm not a shill, just someone who understands how the real world works, and ultimately, when push comes to shove, who's game this really is. Wizards was forced to make a decision on the issue, and that they went for what was right instead of what was PR friendly gained my respect.
And casting serious doubts on the true motives of the "whistleblower" is objectivity in its finest. The bias lies in the people who swallow immediately that "he helped Wizards, so he should get a pass". True objectivity is realizing there's something far deeper than the surface there. Obviously I made some conjecture with my hypothesis to the reason, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was at least somewhat right on that.
But look at where the true zealotry lies- the people bashing Wizards. If all parties were reinstated tomorrow, those who think wizards were in the right would simply shrug and move on. It's the other side that is in borderline conniptions on the matter.
...or it's the 'us vs. them' mentality you're displaying that has us in this mess in the first place. That culture of thought Wizards has created, fostered, and/or catered to not just in this PR nightmare, but every one like it over the past year.
You're wrong. It isn't their game. They can't just take their ball and go home. It doesn't belong solely to the community, either. We can't enjoy the game if they're not making it. So how about a little respect for the fact that it's a symbiotic relationship where one can't live without the will of the other, and maybe this was a step in the wrong direction?
EDIT: Also...this is how the real world works? I'm sorry, but this literally could not have ever happened anywhere in the 'real world'. There have been at least two lawyers in this thread alone that have explained exactly why this couldn't have happened in any real, damning way if not for the fact that this was basically an at-will temporary termination of volunteers. If they were employees, WotC would be looking at a lawsuit for the ham-fisted way this was handled, even if ALL parties were guilty, the proof is tenuous at best. So, please, spare me the condescension.
It doesn't matter if you're being paid or not. If you elect to be a judge for Wizards events, you're agreeing to represent the company and uphold its image. If you're doing something counterproductive to their designs, they have every right in the world to disassociate themselves from you. It doesn't matter if leaks hurt sales or not- its THEIR call, not any of ours when this information gets released. And it doesn't matter if these are the only judges in an area or not- exclusivity doesn't give you an excuse to break the rules. If you want to be mad at someone for all the judges in a region being suspended, be mad at the judges for being selfish and foolish in their decision making, and creating this quandry. It's no different than when a star player gets a conduct-related suspension from his sports team- you blame the player for acting up, not the administration for doing what they had to do.
No offense, but that's remarkably short-sighted, and as it seems is par for the course with anyone rallying around a corporate banner, oversimplifies the issue to a point where it doesn't seem like you understand what's wrong with this scandal. 'All the judges that did that are bad' is plain stupid. Some of the judges banned have clearly stated they had not even logged into the group or participated during the time of the leaks. Another was complicit in assisting Wizards to figure out what happened and got banned anyway. That's not good faith, trust, or respect. Taking it as 'well they said it hurt them and I believe it and they can do what they want' is basically a hall pass you're giving them that ignores any extenuating circumstances, and the published facts about what's happened since. Unless you genuinely haven't read the whole story (in which case you shouldn't be vocalizing your opinion anyway, you're ill-informed), there's no frame on this that makes WotC look sparkling white and clean - there's a huge gulf between appropriate response and what they did, which is why so many are up in arms. If it was all conspiracy theories and conjecture, you might be right in your blind trust. There's enough to this story, though, that just makes an opinion like yours sound painfully like the knee-jerk reactions with half the information that WotC is being accused of.
(I'm sorry if I come off a little abrupt, but even someone wholeheartedly agreeing with Wizards' stance on this would have to admit there was overkill in here. The fact that you don't sounds like you don't know enough about the issue to have an opinion, let alone voice it publicly.)
Your half-hearted, backhanded apology is not accepted. You have no right to tell me, or anyone else on these boards whether they have a right to post on any topic here or not, and how dare you for even entertaining the thought that you do. The fact that I have not read every single little post on reddit concerning the matter does not disqualify me from having my two cents. I have read this thread, I have read several articles on the matter, and I have read both of Wizards' official statements concerning the matter. And it's clear as day to me that WotC is in the right.
See, what you fail to realize is that WotC isn't some grandfatherly benefactor entity who exists to make us happy. They are a business first, as they should be, and any business worth its salt would go through any measures it can to preserve its intellectual property. Furthermore, this was clearly not a one time deal- let's stop pretending that one morning Oath of the Gatewatch Spoilers showed up on Facebook, and then the next suspensions were handed down. This was ongoing over multiple sets, for months, even years, and to make things worse, this was being done by individuals that had earned some measure of trust from WotC in getting their judging certification. Whether or not their status as judges helped them obtain this information is irrelevant- they betrayed WotC's trust by gaining the information and then spreading it.
"But... but... they didn't know!" Spare me. These aren't weekend casual players we're talking about here. These are hardened magic players, immersed in the game and culture enough to take a test to gain a leadership role within it. And part of that leadership role is knowing when something's wrong, and when to do the right thing. They clearly failed on this, and failed for several months, and now they're paying the consequences.
"But... but... one even helped with the investigation!" I always take this with a grain of salt, especially when it concerns something that had been going on a long time. What were that person's motives? Were they legitimately upset over property being stolen (unlikely, or else they'd have reported this sooner). Likely it was an individual who was either about to be busted, and thus trying to save his hide, or was otherwise hoping his cooperation would get him ahead somewhere.
This was never about WOTC looking "sparkling white and clean". WOTC was put in a situation where they had to be the bad guy, and they did what they had to do. You can't pull weeds and not expect to get a little muddy. Now some of these people will get appeals, and I'm sure a few will be overturned. That's fair. But in the end, this is their game, and their property. Protecting that is, and should be, the number one priority.
You sound like a shill for the company at this point. WotC is without a doubt in the right...despite the horrible PR this created for them, this was the best solution...that's your take? Oh, and 'I take this part of the argument with a grain of salt' is not remotely objective, it's a complete bias. So, yeah, forgive me if entertaining commentaries such as these makes me sincerely doubt that you're informed. Quite the opposite, if your two cents is to completely doubt one half of the argument and accept WotC playing 'the bad guy' was their only viable solution to the issue, you either came into the issue with a bias or developed one from what you've read. Either way, it's not objective enough and zealotry on this board runs deep enough to leave you to your peace and not bother arguing the point further - your opinion can't be swayed.
Expensive cards means the game is doing well: it means people want to buy staples to play.
It's is rather amusing how people keep missing this very simple fact. Now obviously there is a threshold at which point prices become prohibitive but MTGS netdeckers don't get to pick when that threshold has been crossed.
Everybody wants Wasteland, WotC gives us all a shot at an extra special printing of it (alongside some other great utility lands) and yet it's still not good enough because so many on here think WotC is actively trying to screw everyone unless they print enough copies of Wasteland to make it drop to 5 bucks.
Or, you know, have it show up in one out every 2 boxes of product...are you trolling or serious? No one can adequately even explain what market these Expeditions are for, everyone I know had either sold every one they've come across or traded in literally dozens of eternal staples to get just one or two of them for bling purposes.
Calling them a reprint is a tongue-in-cheek, almost laughable statement at best, and you have the audacity to look down on people complaining that the whole system is a lottery propping up an otherwise horrible set? Again, are you trolling or serious?
It doesn't matter if you're being paid or not. If you elect to be a judge for Wizards events, you're agreeing to represent the company and uphold its image. If you're doing something counterproductive to their designs, they have every right in the world to disassociate themselves from you. It doesn't matter if leaks hurt sales or not- its THEIR call, not any of ours when this information gets released. And it doesn't matter if these are the only judges in an area or not- exclusivity doesn't give you an excuse to break the rules. If you want to be mad at someone for all the judges in a region being suspended, be mad at the judges for being selfish and foolish in their decision making, and creating this quandry. It's no different than when a star player gets a conduct-related suspension from his sports team- you blame the player for acting up, not the administration for doing what they had to do.
No offense, but that's remarkably short-sighted, and as it seems is par for the course with anyone rallying around a corporate banner, oversimplifies the issue to a point where it doesn't seem like you understand what's wrong with this scandal. 'All the judges that did that are bad' is plain stupid. Some of the judges banned have clearly stated they had not even logged into the group or participated during the time of the leaks. Another was complicit in assisting Wizards to figure out what happened and got banned anyway. That's not good faith, trust, or respect. Taking it as 'well they said it hurt them and I believe it and they can do what they want' is basically a hall pass you're giving them that ignores any extenuating circumstances, and the published facts about what's happened since. Unless you genuinely haven't read the whole story (in which case you shouldn't be vocalizing your opinion anyway, you're ill-informed), there's no frame on this that makes WotC look sparkling white and clean - there's a huge gulf between appropriate response and what they did, which is why so many are up in arms. If it was all conspiracy theories and conjecture, you might be right in your blind trust. There's enough to this story, though, that just makes an opinion like yours sound painfully like the knee-jerk reactions with half the information that WotC is being accused of.
(I'm sorry if I come off a little abrupt, but even someone wholeheartedly agreeing with Wizards' stance on this would have to admit there was overkill in here. The fact that you don't sounds like you don't know enough about the issue to have an opinion, let alone voice it publicly.)
The punishment and suspensions aren't because they *saw* spoilers, or discussed them. The punishment is stemming from the fact that they knowingly received stolen information from WotC, over multiple occasions. The argument that they didn't know for certain that the information was stolen is frankly a moot point, because at some point any reasonable person would have realized that real cards were being leaked to them.
Why would they ever use a personal Twitter account to showcase the leaked cards if they realized that the cards were real? That's the most stupid thing to do.
Why does anybody show spoilers? They want to show people the neat stuff going about the internet right now. I don't particularly buy the argument that he wanted to discuss the merits of what would essentially be a fan-made card; it's rather silly to share something that you think is fake, because it is rather meaningless to do that. It serves no real purpose. Personally, my thinking is that he assumed the leaked Kozilek showed up elsewhere, and didn't realize that posting it to Twitter was actually going to be the first time the image was released to the wild. The notion that he thought it was fake, and was posting it for posterity reasons, is a fundamentally silly one. He had to have, at least in part, thought that it was possibly real enough to merit tweating it.
And so the onus is on him? What sense does that make? Let's just articulate both ends of the spectrum, because neither one incites the knee-jerk reaction:
1) He received an image that he half-heartedly believed may or may not be real. It did not come directly from a WotC employee, so the question lingers. Completely oblivious to the fact no one else has seen this image, he shares it on his personal account, as many of us have at one time or another to our friends. This is for the purpose of discussing it among fellow players. Wizards blows up his phone making threats of banning. He's complicit in assisting and did not know of the dangers at the time he posted. He gets banned anyway.
2) He received the image knowing full well it was real, because he got the image from a WotC employee. Knowing full well no one else has seen this image, he puts his judge position at risk to post to his personal account for the lulz. This is for the purpose of discussing it among fellow players. Wizards blows up his phone making threats of banning. He's complicit in assisting and did not know of the dangers at the time he posted. He gets banned anyway.
In either the case of being oblivious or genuinely malicious (neither of which is likely the case, though the truth likely leans more toward oblivious), you're saying that even though 'spoilers happen all the time', he was supposed to verify that the image, whether real or fake, had appeared nowhere else on the internet, to protect WotC's marketing interests? Maybe, just maybe I'd go along with that if was posted ANYWHERE that that's also judge's responsibility. If the image was obtained firsthand from a WotC employee, then yeah, I'd have some concerns there, as well. If he wasn't complicit in assisting once he realized the problem, then yeah, I'd have concerns. But obtaining it second hand a few weeks before spoiler season started anyway, not knowing it was his responsibility to act as internet police for WotC IP, and being complicit does not add up to a ban for him. It's an unfortunate thing for WotC, sure (I still disagree on that point, as well, but let's just give them that one), but ultimately the judge obtained information he didn't know was in breach, from a source within the company that did the breach, and he tried to help when he realized the mistake. You don't punish that behavior.
Except theft has not occurred. I don't know where you're getting theft out of all this. No one has taken anything away from WOTC.
People here that want to armchair-lawyer this whole debacle would claim IP theft, because WotC's marketing opportunities and attempts to frame the context and control the flow of information about OGW has been taken from them. However, that also rides under older, less reliable marketing models that don't really apply to the modern age. Digital-age spoilers of advanced product can be seen as early as alpha stages with many IP's and suffer no actual loss of hype. Quite the opposite, many companies are propped up on the buzz and hype and the promise of what's coming a year from now. Then you have these goofballs that protect the information until the last possible minute and blame crummy sales not on their own shortcomings, but the fact that people knew 15 cards in the set a whopping 3 weeks sooner than they planned on people knowing. If that's genuinely the case, they need to stop drinking their own Kool-Aid that tells them spoilers are the issue with their sales.
That said, people coming into contact with and reposting images of leaked cards know damn well the risks involved with such a thing, even in a so-called private group. It only takes one blabbermouth or one white knight to get people into the kind of trouble we see here. The risks are not unknown, we've seen it happen before. What we haven't seen before is this draconian guilt by association nonsense where other judges (including a whistleblower) are suspended for being a part of the private group that leaked the information. This creates hostility, but these morons in Wizards' offices have never been one to shy away from absolutely horrible PR moves and leaving a general bad taste in the community's collective mouth.
Quite honestly, from the way they've handled players, controversy, the formats, the secondary market, community relations, top-heavy set releases, and these leaks over the past year, it's long overdue for some real backlash. They deserve it for taking so much of the community for granted.
As for the leakers, they knew the risks. So the punishment fits. Wizards' attention should now be put toward this PR nightmare they've created for themselves for the way they've handled the situation, and some internal cleanup. These judges got the information from somewhere, after all.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Your example of being an exception to "not a customer of Modern Masters 2018" will hold true for more and more people as more and more Modern (Masters) products get printed. As more and more people obtain the cards for all the Modern decks they want, they will eventually be not interested in products catered to Modern.
You say you'll continue to support standard even when playing Modern, but can you prove that your action is the rule, not the exception when majority of the player base have access to Modern? It's not easy to make a rotating format as diverse as a non-rotating format (this should be obvious), so without being more powerful than older formats, Standard will always be weaker - even during a "great" Standard period like Innistrad-Return to Ravnica, the format is still less diverse and weaker than Modern, because the natural size of the formats in comparison.
What's more is that they cannot even assure that Standard can maintain the "great" standards. What happens when they make a mistake and Standard ends up being low-powered? People buy less products because Standard isn't interesting and since majority of the player base have access to Modern, they focus on that. Problem is, when this scenario happens further in the future when most players have Modern cards already, they don't need to spend more on Modern, so they don't spend as much on the game anymore. Standard may not be the cash cow we think it is, but it ultimately definitely makes more money than Modern products over in a long run.
It's also easy to assume that people playing Modern will jump back to Standard when it gets interesting again and citing that you will do it yourself, but what assurance can you give that majority of the players will do that when it happens? With no assurance, it becomes a risky prospect. Yes, no risk no gain, but I can assure you when you work for a large company like Hasbro, you are a lot less inclined to take risks on behalf of the company (I think the reasons behind that are obvious).
You say they should see Modern as a new product (or a split product) that has potential for "new product" in the future, stating the profits and diversity, but once again, you didn't raise the cost of "new product" for modern. I'm not talking about reprints (that's technically not new), I'm talking about new cards designed with the format in mind - that space is quite limited in reality. Yes, it's not conjecture but common sense to know that printing for Modern creates profits and possibly diversity, but it's also common sense to know Standard has less diversity by default, they can't keep producing "stellar" Standards, because for something to be considered good, there must be some comparison. If it keeps going from good to better to even better, the most likely culprit is power creep, because how many ways can Standard keep producing diversity that's different from what's already in Modern to render it interesting enough to the majority of players?
Wizards have never controlled the secondary market (because they requires literally selling singles), they have only influenced it through reprints. This scenario is more of a case they don't want to "lower the secondary market" because they can't guarantee the quality of new products would be stellar, which means if they aren't, when combined with a lowered secondary market, it will actually hurt their bottom line. They're basically keeping a "costly secondary market" as an insurance against risk people will decide to contribute to their bottom line regardless of quality.
Bluntly put: They can now do poorer design with less risk to loss to the bottom line because high secondary market prices are regulating money flow towards sealed products instead. They have not seen their bottom line not hit target enough to consider the need to put reprints to put a buffer in time while they figure out what is wrong with design that's causing new products to not meet bottom line profits. It's more of question on risk than profit.
And this is where reprints can actually fix things in Standard. The way New World Order works is to completely forget how it used to work...when Magic was still rising in popularity, as opposed this 'year of stabilization' that seems to involve shrinking somehow.
See, Counterspell was always Counterspell. Why? Because it did what blue wanted to do. Lightning Bolt, same story. Terror. Swords to Plowshares. Dark Ritual. Power Sink. They didn't try to reinvent the damn wheel every set. Some parts of Magic just worked right. Individual sets enhanced, worked around, or exemplified those traits, giving each color a very distinct identity, as opposed to the blurred lines we have now. (Mono Blue did just have an aggro deck not that long ago...) Modern is thrilling because it's power level and diversity is due to the absolute best of those examples.
Every block in recent memory has given major contributions to Modern's landscape, save for the last 2 years. It's been dismal design that's made for a boring Standard. Design isn't drying up for Modern, the rift between power levels is so astronomically different now, only 1-2 cards at the top of their game have something to offer, and it rarely comes from the 'bomb' $45 mythic. Gideon is a house in Standard, but he offers Modern very, very little, if anything...and that's fine. The devil is in the details with pieces that make it into Modern. Look at Abrupt Decay, or Sphinx's Revelation from RTR. The utility kill spell that costs a hard Black and Green, and it's an all-star card in the format. In Standard, it was a $3 kill spell at one point while we were spoiled with good removal. The big bombs that move to Modern are usually utility, like Keranos, Jace AOT, Craterhoof Behemoth...oh, crap look at that...I didn't even mean to, and I used examples that shared a Standard with that Jace. Design lately is just crap. We can't even get the crummy 2nd-tier stuff we were using before Theros rotatated. No Lightning Strike or Doom Blade.
Basically: Reprinting isn't as risky as failing to listen to the consumer. The secondary market put up a wall between Wizards and their customer base in the eternal formats. Couple that with inept design on the rotating format, you have a recipe for disaster. Both can be fixed by learning how Magic grew popular in the past with it's design, and using reprints from the past to prop it up.
Even if you are playing devil's advocate, your argument relies heavily on a lot of conjecture you stated as fact. What source do you have to back up WotC's dislike of an expanding Modern player base? Also, these arguments make it seem like reprinting 'solves' a customer, and they no longer buy product. It also makes it seem like there's a cap on new Modern players. Have you met a Magic player that was content with 1 deck all their life?
Standard isn't the cash cow we think it is, either, it's just a model that's worked that way for a very long time. 2 years of lackluster, boring Standards is just as damaging to the game as the perpetually rising cost to enter Modern. The absolute last thing you want is the power rift between those two formats to become so wide that it becomes, "once you go Modern, you never go back'...it's on Wizards to provide an exciting Standard, not to turn Modern into a millionaires club. That just shooting themselves in both feet. Where they once had Standard and Limited both based around the same current product, they have the unique ability to grow Modern as a secondary revenue source that can be both tied directly to and have products separate from Standard blocks.
Make no mistake about it - it doesn't water down one over the other, it's a good problem to have. It's the way they're handling it that's atrocious. Also, tying reprints more heavily into sets reduces design decay AND power creep. If Remand is the strongest countermagic Standard will have available in this block, then you design around that, support, etc, AT THAT THRESHOLD. The big problem is you get Expedition Lotteries where the enemy fetches should have been a given, and/or Goblin Guide, mix in some old and new Landfall creatures, etc...this should have been stupid easy to design, and instead you get a piss-poor set with 1-3 overpowered mythics so far above the rest of the food chain, it's ridiculous. The sets become top heavy, the format becomes centered around them, the rest of the cards pale in comparison, etc. And you get what we have now.
First let me clarify, yes indeed that anything about WotC's motivation is purely conjecture, not fact - because marketing would obviously not allow them to put their motivations (which is driven that MTG is first and foremost a business than a game) on the forefront for us to use as fact.
Let's put it this way - reprints don't solve the customer, but it does reduces the amount of product they will buy in the future. It's easy to respond with "All they have to do is provide good design at the appropriate power level equal to reprints to sell", but can you prove they can actually do it? Can you prove that it makes more money than top-heavy sets with even more lottery aspects stacked on it to make the new customers marketing has attracted spend more?
All this dismissal of potential issues for the business in the long run as "good problems" is pretty much as good as conjectures on the assumption that Wizards can fix the problem because "it's on them" when it comes to arguing it should happen because players want it to.
As much as I get what you're saying, you're still using a false premise. Why/How does reprinting for one format dictate what a customer buys in the future? I've been a Modern player for years, I still have a Standard deck for FNM. I'm still a consumer of Commander and Conspiracy product. Yes, after a while, I'll have what I need for Modern, and then Modern Masters 2018 isn't a product geared towards me. But I'm the exception, not the rule. I've been a good, loyal customer for years. If Wizards is offering a quality product in Standard, then I'm a buyer. My loyalty is 'rewarded' by the fact that I don't often need to replace cards in that one, single format...but that's the point of an eternal format. If you're going to create one, then you need to cultivate and build that market for new players, not me (although I'm a sucker for alt art & promos, so the occasional new art reprint would once again make me a buyer).
Speaking of that loyalty, where the hell is it? I show up at every big tourney in my city, Game Day, FNM, I buy into 4 different formats and play a draft now and again. Player Rewards were awesome. Gateway promos were neat. Stupid little things like textless cards made me want to squeeze one more event in before the cutoff date.
And I have to disagree with you. I don't think that you build up 1 product for years on end, then suddenly be able to split it in two, basically doubling your revenue streams, have a fanbase hungry for new product, and call that a bad problem. That's not conjecture, it's common sense. It'd be one thing if it somehow taxed or costed one over the other, but they've basically gone from vanilla to vanilla and chocolate, and everyone loves both flavors. How is it conjecture that new revenue streams are good thing for business?
EDIT: I specifically did not address the question as to whether Wizards could actually make more money. The only thing I can say is they've never tried it. But I can't imagine that taking control back from the secondary market would somehow hurt their bottom line.
You seem really entrenched in your position. It is not a case of reprinting every eternal staple within a short period of time so the game collapses vs never reprinting eternal staples ever. Most people are just asking for more liberal reprints so the most expensive cards average $50 or so instead of hundreds of dollars (note this is just an example as some cards may be worth more obviously). Like any market it can't keep rising forever. Like housing, why do people always seem to think it is pretty much god given that prices will continually rise forever? People just want to be able to play legacy without needing to be part of the 1% or forgoing a downpayment on a house. Is that so difficult for you to understand? Also, didn't prices actually rise on many of the cards reprinted in the first Modern Masters? If so, what does that suggest? That the numbers of players entering the format grew perhaps? More people = More Money! The key then to avoiding reprints collapsing the format in a short period of time is reprinting staples in a set like Modern Masters (yet more liberally than Modern Masters 2, which largely sucked from what many people on this forum have been saying), but doing so in small batches until the price reaches something more reasonable on the secondary market and/or WOTC statistics show Modern (or whichever format the reprinted staples are in) no longer increasing in the number of players (or increasing at a more normal rate). Also, added benefits of reprinting staples for WOTC is zero design costs and guaranteed profits (WOTC knows a staple will sell). If they want to keep things unique and help maintain value of older cards WOTC could use new art on all reprinted staples. This would cost some money, but make collecting more enjoyable and desired. Once again the options are not only reprinting every eternal staple within a short period of time so the game collapses vs never reprinting eternal staples ever.
The secondary market prices and people wanting to play non-rotating formats at lower costs are the easiest parts to understand, which is why I didn't even mention them directly in the post, instead stating why Wizards are so cautious about balancing the popularity of formats because of the game decay that happens if non-rotating formats become the most popular format of the game.
Like I before said, the processes you described here (more people = more money) lasts longer in the Standard trap than in non-rotating formats without the threat of design decay to them.
Also, it's easy to say "When the prices reach more reasonable and Modern is no longer increasing in number of players (or at a normal rate)", but in reality, as the first Modern Masters has shown, that when prices go down (they did initially), all it does is escalate the number of players drastically (causing the prices to spike back up). Wizards is scared by the first Modern Masters to do this even more liberally because they're afraid the backlash will be even greater (basically put, escalate the number of players in non-rotating formats even more), which to them, is not a good thing (because of the reasons in the earlier post).
Basically put, a more liberal reprint doesn't actually decrease prices, because it will attract more attention to the format than Wizards would want. I'm saying Wizards doesn't want too much attention drawn to non-rotating formats, which is why they are so stingy with the reprints - that decision has nothing much to do with the Secondary Market from their point of view.
Yes, I'm entrenched in this position because as a player I would want what you state to happen, but since I'm arguing from the view of the other side, I guess I have to be extra-stubborn to not be swayed by my own player's desires, so if I were to take both point of views, Wizards have overdone the "scaling down the power", because if they didn't, the occasional reprint of staples in Standard sets would just solve the problem somewhat without drawing attention to the format itself (nice example will be Theros Thoughtseize). It isn't happening now because the root problem is Standard is too "weak" that Modern Staples simply become "Absolute" Standard Staples as well, which draws too much attention as well.
Even if you are playing devil's advocate, your argument relies heavily on a lot of conjecture you stated as fact. What source do you have to back up WotC's dislike of an expanding Modern player base? Also, these arguments make it seem like reprinting 'solves' a customer, and they no longer buy product. It also makes it seem like there's a cap on new Modern players. Have you met a Magic player that was content with 1 deck all their life?
Standard isn't the cash cow we think it is, either, it's just a model that's worked that way for a very long time. 2 years of lackluster, boring Standards is just as damaging to the game as the perpetually rising cost to enter Modern. The absolute last thing you want is the power rift between those two formats to become so wide that it becomes, "once you go Modern, you never go back'...it's on Wizards to provide an exciting Standard, not to turn Modern into a millionaires club. That just shooting themselves in both feet. Where they once had Standard and Limited both based around the same current product, they have the unique ability to grow Modern as a secondary revenue source that can be both tied directly to and have products separate from Standard blocks.
Make no mistake about it - it doesn't water down one over the other, it's a good problem to have. It's the way they're handling it that's atrocious. Also, tying reprints more heavily into sets reduces design decay AND power creep. If Remand is the strongest countermagic Standard will have available in this block, then you design around that, support, etc, AT THAT THRESHOLD. The big problem is you get Expedition Lotteries where the enemy fetches should have been a given, and/or Goblin Guide, mix in some old and new Landfall creatures, etc...this should have been stupid easy to design, and instead you get a piss-poor set with 1-3 overpowered mythics so far above the rest of the food chain, it's ridiculous. The sets become top heavy, the format becomes centered around them, the rest of the cards pale in comparison, etc. And you get what we have now.
Advertisement and entry fees are what make sports, and now e-sports, a thriving business. And that alone could make eternal events a net success, if WotC wasn't stubborn on making money only a specific way that isn't sustainable in the long run and depends on the continued influx of middle-class teenagers with dispossable income who havent been burnt out by their business practices.
That's because sports and e-sports have advantages TCGs don't have.
Sports - The advertisements have been working to their advantage for ages, while I personally don't understand the culture around it well, it is true that running around will improve at least your physical stamina, if not health. On top of that, I think its safe to say historically it also works against e-Sports and TCGs, with people claiming that sitting around playing with a controller of cards makes you unhealthy (add on stereotypes and so on...), the effects of that is waning, but it still remains a fact that TCGs are way behind on this factor as an "advantage".
e-Sports - Suffers and recovers from pretty much the same things TCG do, but they still have one advantage - ease of access. If your friends don't like a game you play, there's always online multiplayer stacked in the game. In MTG, you'll need to make the trip down to the LGS for games. For TCGs (traditional ones like MTG, for emphasis), the offline and online aspects are two separate entities. Hearthstone is digital-only, so it's more of under the e-sport category, while Pokemon at least attempts to link the online aspect together with the offline aspect with code cards in every booster, which is at least an effort to what Magic is currently at, literally the same game online/offline at twice the price (ironically which is what the Pokemon does with their mainstream video games, but even the online trade features help salvage that to an extent.)
It's hard for TCGs to hype themselves to become the majority's approved (even e-sports are having some trouble with that) and by the nature of the game it's harder to get people to play TCGs than Video Games due to ease of access (pretty sure the video gaming community is tons larger than the TCG one, counting overlaps).
I'm not defending WotC's practices (I agree they could still do a lot better), but just pointing out your suggestions aren't as easy as they seem, even for a company as big as Hasbro.
With the way the Hearthstone community devours streaming content, it's embarrassing that WotC hasn't stepped it's game up. I've watched Magic Online deck techs, and it's just painful. The GUI is horrendous, the online presence is only maybe 1/10 of the playerbase (I'm probably being generous), and it's stagnant. No bright colors, no animations. It's as dull as it can be. With how much these other games are doing in the online space, the fact is that Wizards seems trapped in 2000, using antiquated practices, not recognizing their community, and not cultivating it properly. I mean...MaRo's twitter is (cryptically) more informative than their own website. Everything they touch online is a joke.
Even the way spoiler season is handled is plain stupid. Announce a set, not show 1 damn card for it? Trickle information over months, and only at trade shows or conventions? Wait until the last 2 weeks before slowly giving the set away, framed so that initial buzz is high, then bait and switch a lousy, top-heavy set after the preorders have taken place?
I agree with you that it's somewhat apples and oranges comparing this to esports, but in defense of Sirius_B, they seem trapped in the stone age compared to what everyone else is doing.
My favorite card is Merieke Ri Berit. She's my favorite general in Commander, with a simple, elegant ability that can be strong or used with shenanigans.
...or it's the 'us vs. them' mentality you're displaying that has us in this mess in the first place. That culture of thought Wizards has created, fostered, and/or catered to not just in this PR nightmare, but every one like it over the past year.
You're wrong. It isn't their game. They can't just take their ball and go home. It doesn't belong solely to the community, either. We can't enjoy the game if they're not making it. So how about a little respect for the fact that it's a symbiotic relationship where one can't live without the will of the other, and maybe this was a step in the wrong direction?
EDIT: Also...this is how the real world works? I'm sorry, but this literally could not have ever happened anywhere in the 'real world'. There have been at least two lawyers in this thread alone that have explained exactly why this couldn't have happened in any real, damning way if not for the fact that this was basically an at-will temporary termination of volunteers. If they were employees, WotC would be looking at a lawsuit for the ham-fisted way this was handled, even if ALL parties were guilty, the proof is tenuous at best. So, please, spare me the condescension.
You sound like a shill for the company at this point. WotC is without a doubt in the right...despite the horrible PR this created for them, this was the best solution...that's your take? Oh, and 'I take this part of the argument with a grain of salt' is not remotely objective, it's a complete bias. So, yeah, forgive me if entertaining commentaries such as these makes me sincerely doubt that you're informed. Quite the opposite, if your two cents is to completely doubt one half of the argument and accept WotC playing 'the bad guy' was their only viable solution to the issue, you either came into the issue with a bias or developed one from what you've read. Either way, it's not objective enough and zealotry on this board runs deep enough to leave you to your peace and not bother arguing the point further - your opinion can't be swayed.
Or, you know, have it show up in one out every 2 boxes of product...are you trolling or serious? No one can adequately even explain what market these Expeditions are for, everyone I know had either sold every one they've come across or traded in literally dozens of eternal staples to get just one or two of them for bling purposes.
Calling them a reprint is a tongue-in-cheek, almost laughable statement at best, and you have the audacity to look down on people complaining that the whole system is a lottery propping up an otherwise horrible set? Again, are you trolling or serious?
No offense, but that's remarkably short-sighted, and as it seems is par for the course with anyone rallying around a corporate banner, oversimplifies the issue to a point where it doesn't seem like you understand what's wrong with this scandal. 'All the judges that did that are bad' is plain stupid. Some of the judges banned have clearly stated they had not even logged into the group or participated during the time of the leaks. Another was complicit in assisting Wizards to figure out what happened and got banned anyway. That's not good faith, trust, or respect. Taking it as 'well they said it hurt them and I believe it and they can do what they want' is basically a hall pass you're giving them that ignores any extenuating circumstances, and the published facts about what's happened since. Unless you genuinely haven't read the whole story (in which case you shouldn't be vocalizing your opinion anyway, you're ill-informed), there's no frame on this that makes WotC look sparkling white and clean - there's a huge gulf between appropriate response and what they did, which is why so many are up in arms. If it was all conspiracy theories and conjecture, you might be right in your blind trust. There's enough to this story, though, that just makes an opinion like yours sound painfully like the knee-jerk reactions with half the information that WotC is being accused of.
(I'm sorry if I come off a little abrupt, but even someone wholeheartedly agreeing with Wizards' stance on this would have to admit there was overkill in here. The fact that you don't sounds like you don't know enough about the issue to have an opinion, let alone voice it publicly.)
And so the onus is on him? What sense does that make? Let's just articulate both ends of the spectrum, because neither one incites the knee-jerk reaction:
1) He received an image that he half-heartedly believed may or may not be real. It did not come directly from a WotC employee, so the question lingers. Completely oblivious to the fact no one else has seen this image, he shares it on his personal account, as many of us have at one time or another to our friends. This is for the purpose of discussing it among fellow players. Wizards blows up his phone making threats of banning. He's complicit in assisting and did not know of the dangers at the time he posted. He gets banned anyway.
2) He received the image knowing full well it was real, because he got the image from a WotC employee. Knowing full well no one else has seen this image, he puts his judge position at risk to post to his personal account for the lulz. This is for the purpose of discussing it among fellow players. Wizards blows up his phone making threats of banning. He's complicit in assisting and did not know of the dangers at the time he posted. He gets banned anyway.
In either the case of being oblivious or genuinely malicious (neither of which is likely the case, though the truth likely leans more toward oblivious), you're saying that even though 'spoilers happen all the time', he was supposed to verify that the image, whether real or fake, had appeared nowhere else on the internet, to protect WotC's marketing interests? Maybe, just maybe I'd go along with that if was posted ANYWHERE that that's also judge's responsibility. If the image was obtained firsthand from a WotC employee, then yeah, I'd have some concerns there, as well. If he wasn't complicit in assisting once he realized the problem, then yeah, I'd have concerns. But obtaining it second hand a few weeks before spoiler season started anyway, not knowing it was his responsibility to act as internet police for WotC IP, and being complicit does not add up to a ban for him. It's an unfortunate thing for WotC, sure (I still disagree on that point, as well, but let's just give them that one), but ultimately the judge obtained information he didn't know was in breach, from a source within the company that did the breach, and he tried to help when he realized the mistake. You don't punish that behavior.
People here that want to armchair-lawyer this whole debacle would claim IP theft, because WotC's marketing opportunities and attempts to frame the context and control the flow of information about OGW has been taken from them. However, that also rides under older, less reliable marketing models that don't really apply to the modern age. Digital-age spoilers of advanced product can be seen as early as alpha stages with many IP's and suffer no actual loss of hype. Quite the opposite, many companies are propped up on the buzz and hype and the promise of what's coming a year from now. Then you have these goofballs that protect the information until the last possible minute and blame crummy sales not on their own shortcomings, but the fact that people knew 15 cards in the set a whopping 3 weeks sooner than they planned on people knowing. If that's genuinely the case, they need to stop drinking their own Kool-Aid that tells them spoilers are the issue with their sales.
That said, people coming into contact with and reposting images of leaked cards know damn well the risks involved with such a thing, even in a so-called private group. It only takes one blabbermouth or one white knight to get people into the kind of trouble we see here. The risks are not unknown, we've seen it happen before. What we haven't seen before is this draconian guilt by association nonsense where other judges (including a whistleblower) are suspended for being a part of the private group that leaked the information. This creates hostility, but these morons in Wizards' offices have never been one to shy away from absolutely horrible PR moves and leaving a general bad taste in the community's collective mouth.
Quite honestly, from the way they've handled players, controversy, the formats, the secondary market, community relations, top-heavy set releases, and these leaks over the past year, it's long overdue for some real backlash. They deserve it for taking so much of the community for granted.
As for the leakers, they knew the risks. So the punishment fits. Wizards' attention should now be put toward this PR nightmare they've created for themselves for the way they've handled the situation, and some internal cleanup. These judges got the information from somewhere, after all.
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.
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'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.
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?
And this is where reprints can actually fix things in Standard. The way New World Order works is to completely forget how it used to work...when Magic was still rising in popularity, as opposed this 'year of stabilization' that seems to involve shrinking somehow.
See, Counterspell was always Counterspell. Why? Because it did what blue wanted to do. Lightning Bolt, same story. Terror. Swords to Plowshares. Dark Ritual. Power Sink. They didn't try to reinvent the damn wheel every set. Some parts of Magic just worked right. Individual sets enhanced, worked around, or exemplified those traits, giving each color a very distinct identity, as opposed to the blurred lines we have now. (Mono Blue did just have an aggro deck not that long ago...) Modern is thrilling because it's power level and diversity is due to the absolute best of those examples.
Every block in recent memory has given major contributions to Modern's landscape, save for the last 2 years. It's been dismal design that's made for a boring Standard. Design isn't drying up for Modern, the rift between power levels is so astronomically different now, only 1-2 cards at the top of their game have something to offer, and it rarely comes from the 'bomb' $45 mythic. Gideon is a house in Standard, but he offers Modern very, very little, if anything...and that's fine. The devil is in the details with pieces that make it into Modern. Look at Abrupt Decay, or Sphinx's Revelation from RTR. The utility kill spell that costs a hard Black and Green, and it's an all-star card in the format. In Standard, it was a $3 kill spell at one point while we were spoiled with good removal. The big bombs that move to Modern are usually utility, like Keranos, Jace AOT, Craterhoof Behemoth...oh, crap look at that...I didn't even mean to, and I used examples that shared a Standard with that Jace. Design lately is just crap. We can't even get the crummy 2nd-tier stuff we were using before Theros rotatated. No Lightning Strike or Doom Blade.
Basically: Reprinting isn't as risky as failing to listen to the consumer. The secondary market put up a wall between Wizards and their customer base in the eternal formats. Couple that with inept design on the rotating format, you have a recipe for disaster. Both can be fixed by learning how Magic grew popular in the past with it's design, and using reprints from the past to prop it up.
As much as I get what you're saying, you're still using a false premise. Why/How does reprinting for one format dictate what a customer buys in the future? I've been a Modern player for years, I still have a Standard deck for FNM. I'm still a consumer of Commander and Conspiracy product. Yes, after a while, I'll have what I need for Modern, and then Modern Masters 2018 isn't a product geared towards me. But I'm the exception, not the rule. I've been a good, loyal customer for years. If Wizards is offering a quality product in Standard, then I'm a buyer. My loyalty is 'rewarded' by the fact that I don't often need to replace cards in that one, single format...but that's the point of an eternal format. If you're going to create one, then you need to cultivate and build that market for new players, not me (although I'm a sucker for alt art & promos, so the occasional new art reprint would once again make me a buyer).
Speaking of that loyalty, where the hell is it? I show up at every big tourney in my city, Game Day, FNM, I buy into 4 different formats and play a draft now and again. Player Rewards were awesome. Gateway promos were neat. Stupid little things like textless cards made me want to squeeze one more event in before the cutoff date.
And I have to disagree with you. I don't think that you build up 1 product for years on end, then suddenly be able to split it in two, basically doubling your revenue streams, have a fanbase hungry for new product, and call that a bad problem. That's not conjecture, it's common sense. It'd be one thing if it somehow taxed or costed one over the other, but they've basically gone from vanilla to vanilla and chocolate, and everyone loves both flavors. How is it conjecture that new revenue streams are good thing for business?
EDIT: I specifically did not address the question as to whether Wizards could actually make more money. The only thing I can say is they've never tried it. But I can't imagine that taking control back from the secondary market would somehow hurt their bottom line.
Even if you are playing devil's advocate, your argument relies heavily on a lot of conjecture you stated as fact. What source do you have to back up WotC's dislike of an expanding Modern player base? Also, these arguments make it seem like reprinting 'solves' a customer, and they no longer buy product. It also makes it seem like there's a cap on new Modern players. Have you met a Magic player that was content with 1 deck all their life?
Standard isn't the cash cow we think it is, either, it's just a model that's worked that way for a very long time. 2 years of lackluster, boring Standards is just as damaging to the game as the perpetually rising cost to enter Modern. The absolute last thing you want is the power rift between those two formats to become so wide that it becomes, "once you go Modern, you never go back'...it's on Wizards to provide an exciting Standard, not to turn Modern into a millionaires club. That just shooting themselves in both feet. Where they once had Standard and Limited both based around the same current product, they have the unique ability to grow Modern as a secondary revenue source that can be both tied directly to and have products separate from Standard blocks.
Make no mistake about it - it doesn't water down one over the other, it's a good problem to have. It's the way they're handling it that's atrocious. Also, tying reprints more heavily into sets reduces design decay AND power creep. If Remand is the strongest countermagic Standard will have available in this block, then you design around that, support, etc, AT THAT THRESHOLD. The big problem is you get Expedition Lotteries where the enemy fetches should have been a given, and/or Goblin Guide, mix in some old and new Landfall creatures, etc...this should have been stupid easy to design, and instead you get a piss-poor set with 1-3 overpowered mythics so far above the rest of the food chain, it's ridiculous. The sets become top heavy, the format becomes centered around them, the rest of the cards pale in comparison, etc. And you get what we have now.
With the way the Hearthstone community devours streaming content, it's embarrassing that WotC hasn't stepped it's game up. I've watched Magic Online deck techs, and it's just painful. The GUI is horrendous, the online presence is only maybe 1/10 of the playerbase (I'm probably being generous), and it's stagnant. No bright colors, no animations. It's as dull as it can be. With how much these other games are doing in the online space, the fact is that Wizards seems trapped in 2000, using antiquated practices, not recognizing their community, and not cultivating it properly. I mean...MaRo's twitter is (cryptically) more informative than their own website. Everything they touch online is a joke.
Even the way spoiler season is handled is plain stupid. Announce a set, not show 1 damn card for it? Trickle information over months, and only at trade shows or conventions? Wait until the last 2 weeks before slowly giving the set away, framed so that initial buzz is high, then bait and switch a lousy, top-heavy set after the preorders have taken place?
I agree with you that it's somewhat apples and oranges comparing this to esports, but in defense of Sirius_B, they seem trapped in the stone age compared to what everyone else is doing.