Subject: Magic By Fox
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 12:17:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Max Harris <maxlharris@yahoo.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Michael Hoffman Suggests:
>>>>
     What Wizards needs to do is hook up animation to the game.  When
you cast a spell like a Jackal Pup show the Pup on a half screen.
Then show the oppenent casting a Shock blowing up the Jackal Pup.
This most likely will appeal to the Kids in the audience and I believe
this is Wizards target audience so it probably will hold there
interest watching the story unfold with each match.

Magic is a great game it just needs a gimmick to help get it to the
masses so others can see and understand the game.  I think Animation
is a good gimmmick to do that.
<<<<

I think WotC should hook up with FoxTV, or Fox Sports Channels or even
FXtv for a television deal. They could televise championship matches,
have a studio show with Howie Long and James Brown (the sports/funny
video guy, not the Godfather of Soul) and maybe "Hammer"
and Brian Hacker, or two other entertaining pro tour vets.

For televising the matches, they could have the score bar across the
bottom, with cards left in deck (not hard to do with a starting deck
size and a guy to keep track), cards in hand, life, etc. And, they
could have animations on cards or attacks that do anything. Say I hit
a big altar of dementia on my opponent. Have a little millstone grind
the number of cards in his deck. Like Fox does for hockey, with the
robots.

You could also have a jumbotron screen looking at the table, with neat
3-d graphics, like the world championship chess they have on ESPN
sometimes.

Of course, I think the best move was suggested by Phil Foglio in his
comic in the Duelist. Have Pro-Wrestling consultants come up with
nicknames and costumes and signature moves for the players. Beware the
Mighty Millstone's Grind of Doom(tm).

To be serious for a moment, I'm gonna, as a television professional,
tell you why Magic will not be televised by a major network anytime in
the next five years. It is horribly boring to watch, even if you know
what is going on. Like chess, which has been televised at one level
better than Magic already is televised at (ESPN for chess vs ESPN2 fo
Magic World's). Much as I hate watching golf and auto racing on CBS
(god you thought they were gonna die from boredom without football),
at least things happen that are visually impressive. A 180 foot shot
to a foot of the pin, a huge crash (hopefully involving Jeff Gordon),
close finishes. Magic, as it currently stands, doesn't offer anything
visually stimulating with motion. The tapping of a card is about as
good as it gets, unless you slam a card to the table stand up and
dance and taunt your opponent (Damn, lookit what I just polymorphed
outta nowhere. What once was a Dude Token is now a Polar Krakken! Deal
with that boy! <insert Deion Sanders touchdown improv dance here>).
And really, no amount of animation is going to fix the lack of good
visuals the game gives, because they are added on. The good
competitions that are on TV have something, that happens regularly,
that looks good. Think about the best rated competition on TV.
Football. Every play, someone either gets knocked on their ass or
scores. Someone is always running from danger. Magic doesn't have that
danger, which is why it's on ESPN2, with 9-ball tournaments and
Spelling Bees.

-Max Harris
Team Chronic Serotonin Imbalance
==
"Ahh! Opposable digits" - Flavor text "Polymorph" (M:tG)
"Don't!" Ningauble squeaked. "Not on any account!
Never blow a strange whistle. It might summon things
far worse than savage mastiffs or the police."
-Fritz Leiber "The Swords of Lankhmar"

http://www.tiac.net/users/gaynor
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