Subject: POST: Is playing magic fun anymore? Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 16:50:54 -0700 From: Jason Lauborough To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com'" Re: Is Playing MTG fun? 0507 by K. Hollon, "Best of the Net" I will agree with Kevin here in that for some the priority in the game has shifted away from being purely for fun towards something along the lines of a very competitive environment. The Pro Tour, focusing on ratings/rankings, and cash have been pointed at as a cause of a rise in the "Just Win" syndrome that captivates many players today. However, I would encourage him to keep looking, as there are plenty of players out there that, while they might be serious in regards to sanctioned tournaments, still know how to have a great time playing the game. Here are some suggestions and experiences that might help him, and many other people, find a way to put the fun back in Magic for them. 1) Organize a regular non-serious playgroup I'm lucky to work for a computer game company, where there isn't a lack of gaming people. Naturally, there are more than a handful of magic players within that group. We have a regular night each week where we get together and play a night full of fun magic. It mainly consists of multiplayer games (we've gotten good rules down to where the games don't stagnate, politicking is reduced, but alot of flexibility in deckbuilding is generally rewarded) of various sizes, depending on who's around. We play in one of the conference rooms at our building, and other local players that we know show up and have a good time. There's also another night where we go to another office and play there. This is probably a little hard for people that don't have access to a regular space, but there are options. The traditional coffee shop option always seems to exist, and many public libraries have "study" rooms that have large tables and can be signed out for a few hours. Dining room tables work wonders, as does the floor of a dorm room. Find some space, hang out, socialize, experiment with weird decks, and go at it. Generally deckbuilding follows your usual "keep broken-ness to a minimum" rules... Moxen and such tend to draw fire, but the Type I rules are usually sufficient. 2) Hold variant non-sanctioned tournaments. Talk your local shopkeeper or Tournament Organizer into doing this, or do it on your own. Small tournaments with odd formats. Have a small entry fee ($1.00), give out some small prizes, and have a day of it. Excellent formats for these kinds of tournaments include things like All-Common Highlander (highlander = one-card limit, except basic land, as in "There Can Be Only One"), Single Artist, Army (minimum 10-20 cards of a single summon type, ban the summon hosers), Rainbow, etc. Be original. These types of tournaments are perfect for the offdays (usually Sunday) or in the evening after a regular Saturday tournament). It's usually also a good idea to tailor the type to your local crowd... alot of new players would probably mean that you want to have them be T2-based, while mid-range to older players at your shop means you can run them based on T1. These tournaments are excellent in that it gives a chance to play with older, but really fun cards like the obscure Arabian Nights creatures (Khabal Ghoul, Stone Throwing Devils), the oddball Legends cards (5 color fog deck?), and even some of the forgotten Dark cards (Preacher, Exorcist). Even some of the older broken cards aren't THAT bad without the power cards to support them. A popular way to deal with this is to create your own "banned list" for the tournaments. I wouldn't recommend simply banning cards you don't like, but getting rid of cards that are obviously broken in a fun environment (the Power 9, Moat, Nether Void) as well as some of the cards that make it a little hard on the newer players (dual lands, perhaps) can make your variant that much more fun and interesting. If you live in an area where there just isn't much fun stuff going on, it can be tough. However, sometimes all it takes is one or two other people for it to get started. Example: at a Pro Tour Qualifier, you and two of your friends meet up between rounds (maybe you all had bad days, or are playing red and are done with your rounds in 10 minutes) and play some 3 way games with some variant (100-card highlander, Chaos Magic, etc). Usually something weird going on will attract attention from at least a couple people, and if they ask "what are you doing?", more than likely one or two of them will be interested. Explain things next break, and maybe next time you go there, there will be 5 or 6 people ready, just in case. That's how things start. The rest depends on where you want to go with it. Feel free to email with comments, questions, invites to group nights, etc. Jason Lauborough SF Bay Area, California jlauboro@lucasarts.com Magc8Ball on EFNet #mtg --- -Standard disclaimer: anything said by me is entirely my own thought and not necessarily the stance or view of any Lucas Company.-