Subject: killing magic???? Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 21:36:17 -0500 From: Dan Ford To: russel@cas.org, fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hello Ray, I just wanted to email you after reading your article. Let me say before hand that it was very intelligent and well written and I have no intentions of insulting you with this email. That said let me tell you that in my own opinion you are wrong. Now instead of trash talking, name calling and other immature wastes of time that people call email and may have already sent you I would like to tell you why I think you are wrong. I believe that your point about tournaments is uncorrect because Tournaments are competition, the point of competition is winning, and many people find competition fun. Therefore I must say that it makes sense that we promote the idea of winning as a goal that means something in this game. This is not to say that there is no room for fun play or that cheating and trashtalking are acceptable. What it is to say is that competiton is important and that it holds an integral place in the magic community. Another point you made is that you often waste a lot of time at tournaments and wind up playing total strangers. I feel that well you see these as a negative, they can easily be seen as a positive. I go to large tournamants all the time, and I go with the intentions of doing well. However I also go with the intentions of making new friends, seeing old acquaintences and having a good time. I would of course prefer to win, but if I don't I do my best to chalk it up as another learning experience that will help me one day reach my goal of becoming a truly great magic player. Another arguement that you posed is that sharing of information hurts magic the gathering. I feel that this is greatly unfair since the whole point of magic was to communicate and to create a new community. It has done this, and like all community's the magic one has its share of undesireables. I will not mention any names and I beg that you do not infer any with this statement. It is just a fact. As for new players being discouraged that they can't just "buy a few packs" and be able to compete, that goes against every principle of the game and of business. Point one. The purpose of this game is to expand and grow. that requires to buy more then just a few packs. Point 2. If it were possible for newbies to just buy a few packs and compete the game would die. I do not think anybody wants that. I believe Richard Garfield's success went to his head and he thought he had created an intellectual equivalent to chess. Magic is not chess; it is more like tic-tac-toe, where after awhile you realize there are only certain moves. Lastly, I feel that this comment is a little off the mark. I don't know how often you play chess but I play once in a while and I know a enough about the game to realize that there are only a certain number of "good" moves in chess. I also know that the number of good moves decreases throughout the course of a game. As one person put it chess is a descision tree. When X happens Y is the correct response. The person who chooses the correct Y the most often (and at the most important times) will win the game. Magic is similar to this in some ways, but there is one exeption. In magic there are more choices, and therefore more Y's for each X. To compare magic to tic tac toe is absurd because there are even fewer correct moves in Tic Tac Toe then there are in Chess which has less then in magic. A computer can win at chess. It would take an amazing computer to play magic at John Finkles level and quite frankly I don't even think it is possible. Well anyway that is my two cents on wether this game is dieing... it ain't. Respectfully yours, Dan Ford Team No Pros "Comparing Magic to chess is close, but I think it is more comparable to life. Infinite choices, and a consequence for each one"