I'm annoyed because February sweeps was delayed this year until March because of the switch to digital. I don't know why. The result is now that a lot of shows are saving new episodes for March and leaving February in repeats after the typical Christmas break just ended. Going 5-6 weeks with no new episodes, coming back for a few weeks then going away again for a month will not do any favors for shows that have ratings concerns.
Gah, now I'm riled up thinking about the ratings system and how terribly inaccurate and misleading it is. And like always, Canada's just along for the ride, suffering the consequences of everything stupid America has to offer. If Canadian television didn't suck so bad, I'd give up American tv for good.
- mikeyG
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Member for 19 years, 3 months, and 22 days
Last active Sat, Jun, 17 2023 09:55:06
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Jan 14, 2009mikeyG posted a message on My wandering Future.For the record, I deleted your previous version of this entry due to being unreadable.Posted in: Necroticah Blog
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Jan 2, 2009mikeyG posted a message on Free Food For Children Under 13This entry is ******. And I really mean that.Posted in: JollyTheOctopuss Blog
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Jan 1, 2009mikeyG posted a message on The Crappiest Blog EverI read the blogs. I'm also the unofficial mod for them, so don't piss me off.Posted in: The Worst Blog in the World
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Dec 20, 2008mikeyG posted a message on This is really roughI'm sorry to hear about your friend.Posted in: makingnotches Blog
Grief manifests itself differently for everyone and people react very differently to loss like this. I'm not sure anyone knows what to do or say, which is probably why you so often hear the same lines said at every wake and funeral.
My advice to you would be to just take everything one step at a time, deal with things as they come. Talk to people, especially about what you're thinking. It won't do you much good to shut down and stew in your grief unless you're incredibly adept at compartmentalizing and dealing with things on your own. Most people need to express their grief, whether through breaking down, shows of anger or tirelessly doting on others. It's best to just go with it, express what you're feeling in whatever way you need to.
If you're looking for more advice, Salvation has a subforum dedicated to asking for and offering advice. -
Dec 18, 2008mikeyG posted a message on Was Soron sitting in a Chair when he wrote this?Also, I didn't know that blogs were for reposting failed threads now. Nifty.Posted in: Thoughts on Religion.
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Dec 18, 2008mikeyG posted a message on Was Soron sitting in a Chair when he wrote this?NoPosted in: Thoughts on Religion.
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Oct 26, 2008mikeyG posted a message on {1}: RegenerateI already knew that, but thanks just the same.Posted in: Small Utopia, where things happen
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Oct 26, 2008mikeyG posted a message on {1}: RegenerateThe CurePosted in: Small Utopia, where things happen
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Oct 24, 2008mikeyG posted a message on Definately Indestructable........... what?Posted in: Small Utopia, where things happen
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Oct 23, 2008mikeyG posted a message on Well, "it" finally happenedIs congrats appropriate here?Posted in: Howlings
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Oct 23, 2008Oh don't worry. I can still read deleted entries. Some stalkers have a skeleton key!Posted in: Ugstal Urniancepter Doggienavicenewton Bobwebacks
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Oct 22, 2008mikeyG posted a message on Dear god I hope John McCain doesn't win...Ever, or just today?Posted in: TarmoBlog
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Oct 22, 2008mikeyG posted a message on Dear god I hope John McCain doesn't win...This is going to start ****, isn't it?Posted in: TarmoBlog
*sigh* -
Oct 22, 2008How long until you delete this one?Posted in: Ugstal Urniancepter Doggienavicenewton Bobwebacks
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Hahahaha, welcome back to New Rockstars, I guess.
I don't get that reference?
I think this card is deceptively useful. It'll likely get the equivalent of a free swing to the dome in in the average game, and it obviously does a lot more damage against magecrafty decks. And its larger butt keeps it relatively safe from damage. Certainly not an all star card, but it'll help win games especially in Limited formats.
I really love the Archaic, it's well costed and the effect is potent. It either slows an opponent or you get bonus spells that will probably help you out a lot (and if not, the trigger is optional), and bonus magecraft triggers. Nifty, in this environment. But even if you just get copies of simple utility things like ramp, you're pressuring your opponent by keeping pace (or taxing them, making them lose tempo).
Explore the Vastlands looks okay, obviously better in instant/sorcery heavy builds.
Absolutely. For me, it's a highly likely include in virtually every non-green deck I run. It's kinda like casting and activating Traveler's Amulet at the same time and instead of a handy cheap artifact in the graveyard, you get a Sorcery cast (not insignificant given Magecraft) and 2 life which is incidental but not unwelcome. When I first saw the card, I thought that if the rest of the set disappoints, at least Environmental Sciences is decent utility for some colors that need it.
The art on the basics is really great. That one Forest art with that funky tree is really, really cool. I'm not sold on some of the art direction for the set, but a lot of the individual pieces are really well done.
Well, no. The complaints people have about DFCs have been consistent since they were first introduced a decade ago. Certainly some players took to them then and now, but it's not like the complaints about them are new.
Fair point. I'll admit that it's mostly obstinacy, but I'm not going to go out of my way to make clunky cards play slightly less clunkily, I'll just not play them and let others have their fun.
1) The game is already fairly costly, requiring additional accessories to play with your cards can leave a bad taste in one's mouth.
2) Having to take cards in and out of sleeves to play them is, as the OP said, fiddly.
DFCs are the game mechanic where I have the most wildly disparate opinions about. I think the design space it opens is clever and quite flavorful and accurate, but the actual playing with them physically is irritating. I've been thankful to not be playing in person this year because the year of DFCs was not something I was looking forward to.
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I think I like the new mechanics, but I don't really have a lot of love for these cards. Ward is a simple addition that makes sense, and it's interesting that it's across all colors, I guess I had assumed it would be mostly WU but the explanation about life loss being the cost in BR makes a lot of sense and I think really sells me on the mechanic. Learn is also very elegant, though the outside the game thing has never been something I've really loved even back to the Wishes. Magecraft, I think will be best evaluated by how it's employed on individual cards but so far I'm interested.
I don't really love the setting or aesthetic, but I think the mechanics of Strixhaven hold some promise. It should be an interesting spoiler season.
It's a great video, and made me think a lot about the capitalistic angle. My main reason for not feeling UB was the immersion element, it just not 'feeling' right, but the closer examination of UB as a business practice really made me look at it in that light. We have heard "MtG is dead/dying" arguments for decades, though I can appreciate what makes this particular scenario different and why there's a lot of pessimism around UB's impact on the game.
That's really easy: $$$$$
A significant piece of MaRo's role as chief mouthpiece for the game is being the smiling face that sells all of the big decisions made for the game, and that sometimes includes decisions driven by market research and corporate strategy that the game design team would not want. So it's not really hypocrisy, he's just doing his job, and sometimes that means needing to pivot one's public statements to be celebratory of a move you once said you'd never want. I don't really blame MaRo, I'm not sure what else he could really say and at least this way he can save face with a "I never would have done this but the way it was proposed was really innovative and sold me on the concept in a way I never considered before" redemption moment.
So no, this has nothing to do with MaRo not wanting to offend others, he's just doing his job as the mouthpiece.
What an odd thing to say, it's not my assumption that many people in this thread have their world defined by MtG.
I'm not mistaking them for canon in the story, and they don't need to be for me to feel they're out of place in the game.
My ever-increasing dislike for FF and its fans continues unabated.
So does everyone involved in this conversation. Whether or not they're understood or validated by others.
Oh honey. No to all of this, but especially that bolded part.
And the facts you're presenting are irrelevant to why people play the game. People play games because of the way they feel when they do and they view the game through the lens of that experience - not patent documents. I think arguing for UB using patent documents misses the forest for the trees and probably wouldn't be a compelling pitch for most players. Players are going to form an attachment to a game based on their perception of it, I don't think that includes investigating the patent documents of the game to understand the intent of its creators in the early 90s.
I want to thank you for your effort to further explain yourself, though you should know that your misfired tags made replying to you next to impossible (when quoting, the format goes wonky and I lost most of the content of your posts forcing me to do a ramshackle copy/paste job) so if you don't see much response, that could be a reason why. I think you speak well to your points, but I can't say that anything you've argued has been compelling for me in regards to this product. It's actually had the opposite effect, I'm even less warm to UB than I was before and I have even less desire to interact with people who are excited by it because everything has gotten so pedantic and far afield of the fun spirit of the game. I used to sideeye and tolerate the cynical corporate crap WotC did, but now the players themselves are trying to browbeat others into liking the cynical corporate crap with arguments about patents and metaphysics.
What even if this conversation anymore?
I can't say that I'm particularly moved by the argument "MtG concepts/likenesses/settings have been used in promos of other IPs, so this is fine" because I don't play those games and never heard of the promos you're talking about. They aren't a part of my MtG experience and they have nothing to do with how I view the game. I have been involved with MtG in some form or another since 1998 and my perspective on what the game is was shaped by almost a quarter century of MtG cards, not cynical promotional stuff that exists outside the game.
It is like FF7. I don't particularly love that game, but it's fine enough and it's a good example of what I'm trying to express so let's just pretend I love that game. Cloud has appeared in a lot of other IPs, none of which I play, to me that is just tacky marketing from Square that I can and do safely ignore because they exist outside and apart from the game of FF7 that I enjoy. But if the Kingdom Hearts gang showed up in FF7 Remake Part Two, it would surely compromise my perception of the game.
We did what now? What makes you think I'm proud that WotC pushed their IP elsewhere to market MtG and/or make a quick buck? At best, I accept that it's a thing WotC will do in their strategy to keep the market for the game healthy.
As well, since we're expressing what we're amused by, I'm amused by how posters here are characterizing the attitudes and behaviors of those who aren't liking the Universe Beyond concept. It's all getting the clickbait title treatment, overstating responses and emotionality to frame arguments and posters in a way that's easier to argue against or paint as dismissible. I'm not experiencing a major backlash, UB is a thing that doesn't vibe with my experience of the game, I'm unlikely to engage with it and I doubt I'll ever experience much if any of it so this isn't really a big deal to me. I just find the debate here fascinating and truth be told, I've got pandemic boredom amid chronic work stress and every cat benefits from a scratching post.
What player constructs their perception of the game on patent documents?
Homage/Influence/Parody =/= Crossover
This is why the events of The Avengers XXX: A Porn Parody are not canon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A little more seriously, though, there's a reason aspects of MtG being influenced by or homages to other works does not feel out of place where UB does. It's adaptation versus transplantation, and honestly it's been surreal for me to see so many posters not get that. To give credit to Tiro, he analogized the point well by saying the Theros gods might as well have been the actual Greek gods by the logic that homage/influence and crossovers are interchangeable.
Perhaps you're right, though, that MtG was always intended not to be a game of its own with its own independent identity but instead a multi-IP platform of crossovers only delayed by MtG not being big enough. But at the end of the day, that hasn't been my experience with the game for almost a quarter century and I don't intend for it to be part of my experience going forward.