Subject: Re: Playing for fun
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 98 01:23:59 -0500
From: Geoffrey Caffo <geoff_caffo@earthlink.net>
To: <fkusumot@ix.netcom.com>

Well, I'm fairly new to the dojo and I've never written anything in until
now, but I felt that this discussion was something I should throw my two
cents into.

I wanted to respond to Jason Lauborough's article because it brought up
some points that I wanted to make.

I live and play exclusively in Austin, so I can only speak from the point
of view of someone who plays in this community. I've never played in the
Pro Tour, and I've never even made it out to a qualifier or pre-release
tournament, so I guess I would be categorized a "scrub" by much of the
dojo crowd. Nonetheless, I strive to be the best of the local community,
or at least relatively high up on the list. There are no sanctioned
tournaments close enough to me to bother going to, so I'm not even in the
DCI's computers, but I play in local non-sanctioned T1 tourneys regularly
because I enjoy the competition and social atmosphere. My tournament
decks tend to be the slow, agonizing death blue control kind that Cathy
and others have stated their distaste for, although I don't mill my
opponents away. (Mahamoti Djinns are just so much more satisfying
somehow. =) I don't have any of the "Power 9" or other staple T1 cards,
but I do have fairly good playing/deck building skills and I can compete
with the local T1 players on a fairly even playing field.

Now that that background info is over with, onto Jason's article:
>There are many kinds of Magic players. Many play the game with the sole
>purpose of winning the game. Whether they must always win because they're a
>competitive person, or because they want money, prestige, or nothing more
>than an ego boost, everything they do is towards the goal of winning the
>next tournament, or qualifying for the Pro Tour, or being number 1 in the
>world. They strive to be the best.

I consider myself to fall partially into this category, more on that
later.

>Other people play magic because it is at its base a social game. For these
>players, much of the time they spend playing Magic isn't playtesting; it's
>spending time with their friends, catching up on time spent at work or
>classes, trading for that last elf for their set. The fact that there's a
>game going on there is secondary. They tend to care less if they're getting
>beat upon, they just love the game and the atmosphere that a comfortable
>setting can provide.

There aren't many of these people around that I know of, so I'll move
on...

<snip>

>There are a sizeable number of players that are lucky enough to be able to
>see the merits of both sides. People that know how to be serious when it
>matters; to spend the time needed to work on a quality deck for a
>tournament run, and can focus on playing well when the time calls for it.
>People that can also take a few steps back and see the fun aspect of the
>game: spending time with people that share a common interest. They enjoy
>both aspects of Magic, being competitive and being social. These players
>know that while not always the best combination, they're not mutually
>exclusive either.

I consider myself to mostly fit into this category. I like playing fun
decks with goofy combos and hard-to-pull-off-but-incredibly-fun
strategies in social play, but in tournaments I am serious and intense. I
let my opponents take back mistakes, but my entire demeanor and attitude
are clearly competitive. I like playing Magic with my friends, but I
don't like playing against them in tournaments because of the inherently
adverserial conditions.

>It can be difficult to find that balance. In my own experience, the players
>that tend to be able to stand on both sides of the fence are the gamers;
>the role players, the board gamers, the puzzle solvers. They've learned to
>see games as both a thinking exercise and as a social tool. They can be
>competitive and enjoy themselves even in defeat. These players can be hard
>to find, as they tend to be older, with full time jobs and, sometimes,
>families. They're the players that have a regular night of the week that
>they meet with each other; sometimes at a workplace, or at one of their
>homes. They spend the time playing the game; dueling, practicing for
>tournaments, and playing variants of the game. Multiplayer games with
>specific rules to keep them from stagnating. The decks are diverse,
>spontaneous, and usually quite original.

This is where I break the mold. I don't enjoy role-playing games, and I
play for fun, not to exercise my mind. I use magic as an exercise in R&R
more than anything else most of the time. And I'm a junior in high school
who doesn't have a regular play group aside from a few of his friends who
get together on Sundays once in a while at the local card shop.

>The Winners looked at Magic, and thought "this is a great game. I think
>I'll try to be the best I can be at it."

This is true, certainly, but wanting to be "the best that you can be" and
wanting to qualify every Pro Tour and be #1 in the world can be very,
very different things...I strive to be the best that I *can* be, but
that's limited by how many packs of the new expansion I can buy, or
whether any of the 20 or so people who patronize the card shop I play at
have any extra Reflecting Pools or Tradewind Riders to trade. I don't
have the resources to play at any higher level, but I attain the highest
level possible for me.

>The Socializers looked at Magic, thought "what a great game. I think I'll
>get my friends to play so we'll have something to do when we hang out."
>
>If you don't make the mistake of assuming that you have to be one or the
>other, if you play it for your reasons, and let others play for theirs,
>then Magic will always remain a wonderful game to you.  It will remain
>fresh, different; truly the "Multiverse of Infinite Proportions" that we
>all read on those posters and booster packs.

This really is the bottom line. I play because I like it, others play for
their own reasons. If we stop trying to categorize people into "scrubs",
"winners", "social players" and the like, we'll get a much better look at
the entire spectrum of Magic players and fans.

Geoff Caffo
Austin, TX, home of the DCI-legal, non-sanctioned tournament trend
geoff_caffo@earthlink.net