Speak for yourself. I haven't bought Magic product in over a year. And for the past four, I've exclusively bought Commander series products. Many of my friends are the same; we rely exclusively on trading to get what we want, because there just isn't enough incentive to actually spend money on this hobby. And during our game nights, my friends and I no longer play Magic all night long, instead settling for a single game before moving on to stuff like Superfight, Sentinels of the Multiverse, or Shadows Over Camelot.
I'm not going to claim that my playgroup is the norm, but it is symptomatic of Magic not being the best it could be.
I wonder why WotC doesn't just take the valuable insight from the MTGSalvation marketing experts? Seems like a no-brainer, really.
Clearly it's because they are perfect saints who can do no wrong, so paying attention to criticism is a waste of their time. I mean duh.
How do you know that the quality has been sliding if you don't buy the product? Paying attention to criticism is one thing, but when you are criticizing something you aren't going to buy anyways, your input isn't very valuable. The valuable criticism they get is with player dollars, and that metric has said that every set they've released in the last ten years has been one of the best sets ever made.
You don't have to buy a product to know what's in it. I still pay as much attention to Magic news as I ever did, and each release, save for the Commander precons, fails to impress me enough to make me want to spend money on it. Everyone and their uncle, when defending WotC, loves to say "if you don't like it, vote with your wallet!" Well, that's what I'm doing. I vote that the Commander precons are worthy of my hard-earned cash, and the rest is not.
Speak for yourself. I haven't bought Magic product in over a year. And for the past four, I've exclusively bought Commander series products. Many of my friends are the same; we rely exclusively on trading to get what we want, because there just isn't enough incentive to actually spend money on this hobby. And during our game nights, my friends and I no longer play Magic all night long, instead settling for a single game before moving on to stuff like Superfight, Sentinels of the Multiverse, or Shadows Over Camelot.
I'm not going to claim that my playgroup is the norm, but it is symptomatic of Magic not being the best it could be.
I wonder why WotC doesn't just take the valuable insight from the MTGSalvation marketing experts? Seems like a no-brainer, really.
Clearly it's because they are perfect saints who can do no wrong, so paying attention to criticism is a waste of their time. I mean duh.
How do you know that the quality has been sliding if you don't buy the product? Paying attention to criticism is one thing, but when you are criticizing something you aren't going to buy anyways, your input isn't very valuable. The valuable criticism they get is with player dollars, and that metric has said that every set they've released in the last ten years has been one of the best sets ever made.
You don't have to buy a product to know what's in it. I still pay as much attention to Magic news as I ever did, and each release, save for the Commander precons, fails to impress me enough to make me want to spend money on it. Everyone and their uncle, when defending WotC, loves to say "if you don't like it, vote with your wallet!" Well, that's what I'm doing. I vote that the Commander precons are worthy of my hard-earned cash, and the rest is not.
Cool.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGSalvation; Where the whining is a time honored tradition, and enjoying the game is trolling.
You think Eternal formats being expensive to get into are a problem because you fail to appreciate the hard work, time and money people put into making decks for those formats: I doubt someone who has put thousands of dollars towards a Legacy deck would be thrilled to hear that a bunch of his cards halved in value because the netdeckers on MTGS asked WotC to make it so.
And this is the crux of the issue: the player who has put in all that time, work and money into actually building the deck matters more to everyone than those who complain they can't do it.
Those cards will also lose value eventually when Legacy has no one to play with and people can find proxy tournaments for that format, just like Vintage......
Just want to point out that $1200 Moxes and $3500 Lotus' counter your argument.
I'm with you that I want staples reprinted and I want to play my cards with others. I agree with you that WotC needs to do something to address it. But simply reprinting everything isn't the answer either.
They need to stop treating Standard like a nursery school. They need to make powerful cards again. Sorry, but when Lightning Strike and Counterspell are to strong for a format, you get the terrible meta we have right now. You have no answers to anything. It needs have a rock/paper/scissor balance but you can't bc WotC thinks midrange creature smash is what everyone wants. And when players know a better card draw or filtering spell ain't coming, you get $30 staples. No they should never reprint Power 9 but just simple good removal, card draw, and disruption would be a start.
You think Eternal formats being expensive to get into are a problem because you fail to appreciate the hard work, time and money people put into making decks for those formats: I doubt someone who has put thousands of dollars towards a Legacy deck would be thrilled to hear that a bunch of his cards halved in value because the netdeckers on MTGS asked WotC to make it so.
And this is the crux of the issue: the player who has put in all that time, work and money into actually building the deck matters more to everyone than those who complain they can't do it.
Cards aren't expensive because they're good. Cards are expensive because you can buy all the Gaddock Teegs from your home and count on "price memory" and WotC's subservience to the secondary market to save you from the scary wrongbad stuff about real investments such as market corrections, excess supply-low demand, and being a **** up loser. They're not only making playing the game require less brainpower, they're making sure the "investors" don't need to have any grey matter either.
Most of the game's value is entirely artificial and even that which isn't doesn't have to be so high. The game doesn't need to be this expensive, and the shrinking of tournament attendance thanks to $600 standard decks is proof enough.
I had playsets of shocklands since RAV. Didn't give a **** they devalued because of RTR.
I had playsets of fetchlands since ONS. Didn't give a **** they devalued because of KTK.
Didn't give a **** my Bitterblossoms devalued with the ban, then appreciated with the unban, then devalued with the reprint.
Didn't give a **** my Affinity deck's value is on a rollercoaster since MM13. Didn't give a **** people could buy Thoughtseize for $15 when I bought mine at $40. Don't give a **** people can get playsets of Bob for half what I paid for mine. And most certainly wouldn't give a **** if my duals devalued too.
Because I'm not an idiot.
When I want to buy something that will appreciate, what grown-ups call an investment, I attend a real estate agency, auction house, US Mint or Wall Street. Not Wal Mart.
You bark that "entitled this, entitled that" song a lot. You (and here I speak to all dealers, collectors and stores) are not entitled to the "value" of industrially produced pieces of paper that are neither fiat money or backed by real values to hold their current market price.
Magic's value comes from being a game. And what I do give a **** about is the declining numbers of long-term players and LGS attendance. Because the only way all this cardboard stops being valuable and starts being just a bunch of cardboard, is if people don't have the chance to play it both at it's casual and competitive levels.
The only reasons for someone to be such an apologist is because of being re-seller or having emotional issues numbed by owning expensive ****. Notthing else makes sense. It's not like constantly antagonizing all critique will give you good-boy points with WotC.
You don't have to buy a product to know what's in it. I still pay as much attention to Magic news as I ever did, and each release, save for the Commander precons, fails to impress me enough to make me want to spend money on it. Everyone and their uncle, when defending WotC, loves to say "if you don't like it, vote with your wallet!" Well, that's what I'm doing. I vote that the Commander precons are worthy of my hard-earned cash, and the rest is not.
Cool.
Just want to point out that $1200 Moxes and $3500 Lotus' counter your argument.
I'm with you that I want staples reprinted and I want to play my cards with others. I agree with you that WotC needs to do something to address it. But simply reprinting everything isn't the answer either.
They need to stop treating Standard like a nursery school. They need to make powerful cards again. Sorry, but when Lightning Strike and Counterspell are to strong for a format, you get the terrible meta we have right now. You have no answers to anything. It needs have a rock/paper/scissor balance but you can't bc WotC thinks midrange creature smash is what everyone wants. And when players know a better card draw or filtering spell ain't coming, you get $30 staples. No they should never reprint Power 9 but just simple good removal, card draw, and disruption would be a start.
BUG Reanimator
BWG Nic-Fit
BGR Punishing Nic-Fit
Cards aren't expensive because they're good. Cards are expensive because you can buy all the Gaddock Teegs from your home and count on "price memory" and WotC's subservience to the secondary market to save you from the scary wrongbad stuff about real investments such as market corrections, excess supply-low demand, and being a **** up loser. They're not only making playing the game require less brainpower, they're making sure the "investors" don't need to have any grey matter either.
Most of the game's value is entirely artificial and even that which isn't doesn't have to be so high. The game doesn't need to be this expensive, and the shrinking of tournament attendance thanks to $600 standard decks is proof enough.
I had playsets of shocklands since RAV. Didn't give a **** they devalued because of RTR.
I had playsets of fetchlands since ONS. Didn't give a **** they devalued because of KTK.
Didn't give a **** my Bitterblossoms devalued with the ban, then appreciated with the unban, then devalued with the reprint.
Didn't give a **** my Affinity deck's value is on a rollercoaster since MM13. Didn't give a **** people could buy Thoughtseize for $15 when I bought mine at $40. Don't give a **** people can get playsets of Bob for half what I paid for mine. And most certainly wouldn't give a **** if my duals devalued too.
Because I'm not an idiot.
When I want to buy something that will appreciate, what grown-ups call an investment, I attend a real estate agency, auction house, US Mint or Wall Street. Not Wal Mart.
You bark that "entitled this, entitled that" song a lot. You (and here I speak to all dealers, collectors and stores) are not entitled to the "value" of industrially produced pieces of paper that are neither fiat money or backed by real values to hold their current market price.
Magic's value comes from being a game. And what I do give a **** about is the declining numbers of long-term players and LGS attendance. Because the only way all this cardboard stops being valuable and starts being just a bunch of cardboard, is if people don't have the chance to play it both at it's casual and competitive levels.
The only reasons for someone to be such an apologist is because of being re-seller or having emotional issues numbed by owning expensive ****. Notthing else makes sense. It's not like constantly antagonizing all critique will give you good-boy points with WotC.