I'm kind of tired of this shaved hair parted to one side look they put on so many characters. It makes them feel like they're all coming from Seattle or something.
I think everyone moved on from the multiverse number for Invoke Prejudice after the math showed how it happened. Is it still a bad look for the business because of the room for assumptions it creates? Yes, and they needed to deal with it on those grounds regardless.
With the 7/11 joke, we need to (imo) move away from the "I didn't intend anything by it" defence. Not because it's unfair, it very well could have been unintentionally racist. But that's irrelevant. The joke hinges on racist stereotypes and requires the audience to understand those stereotypes to make sense. That's a racist joke regardless of intent. Moreover, at no point has "oops, I was accidentally racist" worked as a defence. It may inform how people respond to you (education or an ass whuppin'), but it erases none of the impact. I hope MaRo learned from it.
Note that I'm very specifically talking about the call outs in the article from the post I quoted; my responses were more to those claims than anything else. Second I'm not arguing against changing Invoke Prejudice's ID, I just don't think trying to use it as evidence as WOTC failing at something is an argument that holds any water. It's the same with the 7/11 joke. It's not like they make these cards with the art and all the flavor and everything there; some guy sat down and needed a power and toughness for their big dumb vehicle. Eventually this blank piece of paper wound up with 7/11, and people probably chuckled at it. This isn't some intentional poke at Indian culture, it's just some guys not fully connecting the dots from 7/11 to indian stereotypes. Without more evidence suggesting otherwise, I think that could just be an honest to god slip. Maybe that's worth a "sorry we didn't make that connection", but raking them over the coals over it doesn't feel right to me.
There's another google docs linked in that google docs that has a bunch of twitter quotes about how "people from Egypt who's skin color is scary" invading and that's just such misleading concept. Christ, I don't even want to defend War of the Spark but I feel like sometimes we really do try to stretch things to fit that idea. Like Teferi being a "Magical Negro" stereotype. He's got Magic powers, in MAGIC THE GATHERING?? Literally EVERYONE has magic! It's the whole point of the game! Maybe I'll get some flak for this but I honestly don't agree with the idea that somebody says something is racist means it's automatically racist. It's not a dialogue if one side of the conversation just has to "shut up and listen". Sometimes we do need to listen; the way the justice system comes down harder on African Americans is one of those areas where I think that experience is important (although you can also just read the scientific literature that backs those claims up too if one were so inclined). There's a conversation between a few judges in one of those docs that I think is telling and important.
I don't wholly disagree with everything they said either. I absolutely think WoTC's push for "inclusiveness" and "diversity" is as shallow as they claim it is. It goes absolutely hand in hand with the other kinda scummy "business" moves they've made like with ultimate secret lairs or 10+ dollar packs.
They could probably start with the accusations we saw in the last thread that they aren't great employers for BIPOC people.
Yes. Posting the link again for people to see. We need to be talking about this.
Good news, there's already been some small progress on that front, with Mark Rosewater addressing this concern and agreeing there is room for improvement.
That said, I’ll be the first to say we have room for improvement. We have a lot of work to do to get to the place we’d like to be, especially in employment. I believe we’re moving in the right direction, but we need to figure out how to move faster.
It's a slightly tame wording, he doesn't explicitly address the specific allegations that have been made, and there's no guarantee of meaningful change here, but this is, again, a start.
Interesting article that reinforced a LOT of how I feel about their push for inclusiveness or whatever; it's just hollow virtue signalling. I honest to god feel the same way about these bans in a way, they're not changing the problem.
The two things in that note I disagree with are the 7/11 joke and Invoke Prejudice's card number. I highly doubt the latter is intentional (I didn't even realize 1488 was a hate slogan until a few years ago myself), and I can absolutely imagine how the 7/11 joke came about incidentally, not intentionally. I think trying to call them out on those two things without solid proof just makes those claims baseless.
Sure, whatever I guess? This move is both hilarious and confusing at the same time. Especially cleanse.
I don't think this really does anything to fight real world racism nor does it do anything to solve the societal issues of police brutality and our problems in the criminal justice system as a whole. It feels like mostly pointless grandstanding to me. Fantasy trading card games aren't responsible for real world racism.
I definitely don't think this should be in baseless spec; it's an important topic. I think it's entirely possible too. I doubt the game or even the company has faced this kind of problem before.
2
i don't get why this person uploaded two selfies with their spoilers either
8
1
Barf.
1
Note that I'm very specifically talking about the call outs in the article from the post I quoted; my responses were more to those claims than anything else. Second I'm not arguing against changing Invoke Prejudice's ID, I just don't think trying to use it as evidence as WOTC failing at something is an argument that holds any water. It's the same with the 7/11 joke. It's not like they make these cards with the art and all the flavor and everything there; some guy sat down and needed a power and toughness for their big dumb vehicle. Eventually this blank piece of paper wound up with 7/11, and people probably chuckled at it. This isn't some intentional poke at Indian culture, it's just some guys not fully connecting the dots from 7/11 to indian stereotypes. Without more evidence suggesting otherwise, I think that could just be an honest to god slip. Maybe that's worth a "sorry we didn't make that connection", but raking them over the coals over it doesn't feel right to me.
There's another google docs linked in that google docs that has a bunch of twitter quotes about how "people from Egypt who's skin color is scary" invading and that's just such misleading concept. Christ, I don't even want to defend War of the Spark but I feel like sometimes we really do try to stretch things to fit that idea. Like Teferi being a "Magical Negro" stereotype. He's got Magic powers, in MAGIC THE GATHERING?? Literally EVERYONE has magic! It's the whole point of the game! Maybe I'll get some flak for this but I honestly don't agree with the idea that somebody says something is racist means it's automatically racist. It's not a dialogue if one side of the conversation just has to "shut up and listen". Sometimes we do need to listen; the way the justice system comes down harder on African Americans is one of those areas where I think that experience is important (although you can also just read the scientific literature that backs those claims up too if one were so inclined). There's a conversation between a few judges in one of those docs that I think is telling and important.
I don't wholly disagree with everything they said either. I absolutely think WoTC's push for "inclusiveness" and "diversity" is as shallow as they claim it is. It goes absolutely hand in hand with the other kinda scummy "business" moves they've made like with ultimate secret lairs or 10+ dollar packs.
1
Interesting article that reinforced a LOT of how I feel about their push for inclusiveness or whatever; it's just hollow virtue signalling. I honest to god feel the same way about these bans in a way, they're not changing the problem.
The two things in that note I disagree with are the 7/11 joke and Invoke Prejudice's card number. I highly doubt the latter is intentional (I didn't even realize 1488 was a hate slogan until a few years ago myself), and I can absolutely imagine how the 7/11 joke came about incidentally, not intentionally. I think trying to call them out on those two things without solid proof just makes those claims baseless.
The rest I find myself agreeing with though.
3
I don't think this really does anything to fight real world racism nor does it do anything to solve the societal issues of police brutality and our problems in the criminal justice system as a whole. It feels like mostly pointless grandstanding to me. Fantasy trading card games aren't responsible for real world racism.
1
ADORABLE
give it quicksilver dagger for fun
1
works very nicely in the cycling commander deck
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The secret lair is exactly what I was worried they were going to do. Jesus ******* Christ wizards, what's wrong with you?