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Why Should We Support Magic: The Gathering When They No Longer Support Us

Published Sat, 02 Nov 2019 12:00:44 -0500

Ken Stewart of Gamers' Palace Comics and Games is a big fan of Magic: The Gathering. So why is he stopping? He writes,

Magic: The Gathering was great, quite possibly one of the best, most well rounded, and fun games every made…was. There are still things about Magic that are great. Many people enjoy commander at home at the kitchen table, it's still fun to learn to play with a group of friends, but the corporate overlords that now set the rules for organized play and R&D who are making the cards are ruining the game.

Let's start with R&D. Why has there been a constant issue with printing cards at mythic level that breaks formats and eventually leads to bannings? The money of course. You cannot tell me that a bunch of pro-level Magic: The Gathering players cannot see the effect that these cards will have on formats, and yep according to Wizards of the Coast they have professional-level Magic players testing these cards before they are released. These cards are to drive booster box sales. Retailers will open booster boxes of product to sell singles if there is a mythic rare valued at $50 plus dollars in the set. In the past few years, the Standard format has consistently been dominated by overpowered mythic rare cards, we are seeing it right now with Oko, Thief of Crown decks. Even the Modern format has been affected in similar ways with the printing of Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and Wrenn and Six in Modern Horizons.

I understand that the primary goal of any business is to make money. Money pays employees, pays the bills, and allows research into future products. However, Wizards of the Coast (or Hasbro since we don't know for sure where the pressure is coming from) has got to the point where their greed is negatively impacting the quality of the product that they are releasing.

Now for the WPN, Wizards Play Network. I have never had very great things to say about the WPN. As a small shop in a rural area, you are at a severe disadvantage with the WPN. We had organized play from Return to Ravnica through Core 20 and at that time (after 2 years of BAD Standard) we lost WPN status because we didn't sell 260 tickets to events and were told we could reapply after 2 months. So once that time had passed I reapplied to the WPN… and was rejected. Here are some of the reasons: My store didn't appear to have an emphasis on tabletop gaming. Okay I see that, we are after all a generic game store that sells tabletop games, RPGs, video games and pretty much everything else on the spectrum of "games," but these expectations are in effect for everyone and I know other WPN locations that do not appear to have an emphasis on tabletop games. What was explained to me is they like to see 75% of the store dedicated to tabletop games (ohh and 250,000 single Magic cards don't count because they are a secondary market).

Well, that right there eliminates every comic bookstore from meeting the criteria, along with regular bookstores. Now, look at Wizards of the coast. They currently have pc games, books, license intellectual property for tv shows, toy lines, and movies and many other random things. Are tabletop games 75% of their business? I doubt it. A small store cannot just be a tabletop game store in a rural area. The average wholesale cost of a booster box is $80, and Wizards of the Coast has started selling preorders for $106 on Amazon. So, if I sold 10 booster boxes, I would make $250, which doesn't cover the rent. Another reason: According to our Facebook page we do computer and cell phone repairs. True we do, but what does it matter what we do in the back? If we aren't making crack or pipe bombs, it should be fine.

My favorite reason though is because our restroom has signs of rust and isn't up to WPN standards. I guess it makes sense… this building is 120 years old… it didn't even originally have a restroom and that's why it's the size of a closet and built into the backside of the building… which probably happened 75 years ago. But I don't play Magic in the restroom nor do I allow players to play from the restroom so I'm not really sure how this affects how enjoyable of an experience a player has at an event.

So, to fix all of these problems I came up with a solution… let me register an offsite location that meets the criteria for a WPN tournament, but guess what… you can only do that if you are already sanctioned by the WPN.

Basically, I am disgusted with how this company does business anymore. We have promoted their products for years, even as they took more and more hobby shop exclusives away, we continued to promote their products. We promoted their products as they are sending more and more products to big box stores like Wal-Mart and Target. Their rules at events have become anti-fun. One of my regular players was asked to turn his t-shirt inside out at a GP because someone complained they were offended. There have been numerous stories like this come out of big tournaments over the last couple of years. If you get beat by someone and then tell the judge you were offended by their t-shirt you aren't a victim, you are a whiny sniveling little brat and you should not be empowered.

In the end, this is what I want you guys to think about. I personally know three other stores within 75 miles of mine that hold Magic: The Gathering tournaments and are a sanctioned store. None of these three meets the criteria that were given to me, and when I asked if stores were grandfathered into these changes I was told no and was then asked multiple times if I knew of other stores that didn't meet the criteria, which of course I ignored (Snitches get stitches). So, if they monitor Facebook (and they do) and these stores post videos that show they don't "fit" the criteria we won't have anywhere to play. I already have past players upset because we can't do prereleases anymore and they don't have time to drive to Kansas City to play in one.

Let the WPN know that they are supposed to be for players, email them and tell them it is idiotic that their restrictions are so limiting. Tell them you don't have time to drive 100 miles to play in a city. Tell them that retailers do not make enough money on their sealed product to give it half their floor space, and definitely not 75% of it. Remind them that it is the local game store and the casual players that keep their game alive. Tell them to pull their heads out of that dark place and make Magic the game we fell in love with all those years ago, or maybe they don't care because it's all heading to Arena anyways. WPN retail support wpnsupport@wizards.com, and the phone number is 1-800-564-1636.

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