Subject: Re: Magic Psychology?
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 11:02:43 -0800
From: dlb@sinbad.net (darrell breese)

Let me chime in here as well,

As the soul person responsible for promoting tournaments in the Anchorage
area, and as an individual who has introduced others to this game we call
Magic: the gathering. Also as one who has jokingly refered to the game as
Magic: The Addiction.

Magic is entertainment. Having worked with WOTC as a tournament organizer
for a little over 2 1/2 years, and attending several conferences with WOTC
coorporate heads (Richard Garfiald, Peter Adkinson, and others), I have
heard, repeatedly this game refered to as entertainment. While discussing
how to increase attendance at tournaments the topic would turn to how we
compete with Movies and the millions of dollars they spend on advertising,
music sales (CD's), computer gaming (both PC and game units like
playstation). These are the items that the youth, and even adults are
spending their extra money on, like any good business WOTC want the extra
money spent on their product.

Is it an addiction, well like any entertainment there is both good and bad.
I feel that Magic is good entertainment. With any entertainment that is
good there are people who go to extremes. We all know people who are like
this, they are the individuals who go see the hot movie 32 times, who only
listen to that new music cd until it wears out,who play that new computer
game 24 hours a day and 7 days a week until the tire of it nad never play
it again. We live in a society that encourgaes compulsive behavior, but is
it the fault of the game/ product or is it the fault of the individual?

I feel that it is the fault of the individual. (Including children and
their parents). While this game tends to attract several young children,
who walks into the card shop and buy a booster pack of cards and get
something good, who will then turn around and purchase another pack because
the first one was good, it is not the faul of the game or the product. The
fault lies with the parents as well as the children. Let me explain, If the
parent is going to turn their child loose in a store of their choice with
some money they will more often then not make poor descisions, and buy more
of something then they should. If the parent in this case is going to trust
their child with the handling of money they should take the time to teach
them responsibility. It is not the responsibility of the store employee to
make sure the parents are teaching their children to be responsibile and
make sure that they are not spending their money on impulse.

I agree that children, and even adults get excited when they purchase a
booster pack of cards and find an exciting rare card in the pack. This
excitement usually makes them want to buy another pack. Just the other
night I witnessed an adult, approx. 30 years old, spend $2 on a grab bag of
cards, getting a $10 card out of the initial grab bag, he went on to spend
$20 before he realized that he was getting nowhere fast. This was an adult
falling into his own compulsive behavior, at no fault of the store owner
who is trying to make a living, and care for his family.

The issue is not is WOTC preying on children, but rather what is wrong with
society today? A society that offers pay per view movies so you never have
to get off the couch, microwave's and all those microwave foods so we can
have our cake and eat it in 5 minutes, cellular phones so we are never to
far away (and yes I am guilty in owning one of these), email so we can send
messages all over the world with the touch of a button, fax machines, and
the list goes on. Society today as a whole is teaching people that if you
want it you can have it, and you can have it now. A lack of personal
responsibility in times like these leads to compulsive behavior. Lets take
responsibility for ourselves and our actions and not pass the blame off on
others.

WOW, enough rambling!  I hope I was clear. Question? Comment always welcome.

Darrell L Breese
dlb@sinbad.net