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Prepare for the enshittification and bedbathandbeyonding of Magic the gathering. If I had to make a guess as to why, given the fact that the people they laid o

Prepare for the enshittification and bedbathandbeyonding of Magic the gathering. If I had to make a guess as to why, given the fact that the people they laid off were all senior leaders and the numbers are good, it would be preparing for a pump and dump. if you want to be able to pump and dump a really strong brand then you need to be able to have leaders who don’t mind burning the brands equity in order to make money. My guess is that specifically what intending to do here. Change the leadership, make new “sticky” products, pump revenue numbers, then spin out a public offering of the magic brand that looks like a great new reboot and refresh. However the brand is only there to smuggle in the subscription model around new products that have strong margin. Everyone* gets rich cause they slaughtered their fattest pig and yet another cultural staple is killed. Don’t worry, another band of psychopaths will resurrect it in a few decades like Mattell is doing with the Barbie brand currently. *Not everyone - very few actually

thaumasiotes 3y ago
> Prepare for the enshittification and bedbathandbeyonding of Magic the gathering. That happened during the original design of the game. M:tG was one of the first products to sell you a pig in a poke. That was the concept! I've seen people say that it would be nice to regulate loot boxes in video games, but they can't figure out how to do it without banning Magic's business model. I never understood why that would be a problem.
- dontlaugh 3y ago
  Exactly. It would be a better game if they just sold entire expansions where you get all of the cards.
  - johnnyanmac 3y ago
    It may not even exist without such a model, on the other hand. Which may cause many other things to cease as well or never expand to mainstream-ish reception.
    - gpderetta 3y ago
      It might be slowly moving to that model: with precon decks, challenger decks and secret lairs, WotC is selling a lot of non-randomized stuff. They even split for a while draft boosters from collector boosters (and then reversed the decision when nobody was buying the draft boosters and risked killing the format).
      - thaumasiotes 3y ago
        They have non-randomized offers, but the vast majority of their stuff can only be obtained randomly (or secondhand).
- AndrewKemendo 3y ago
  They did one round, but I think it takes 3 rounds of pump and dump before it really dies
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  >I've seen people say that it would be nice to regulate loot boxes in video games, but they can't figure out how to do it without banning Magic's business model. I never understood why that would be a problem. The genius thing about Magic is that it doesn't place individual value on a card. Even if there is indeed a "drop rate". But that drop rate doesn't always evaluate to higher value. It correlates and they try to make if so, but that's ultimately a different marketplace who externally decides what has value. Video games don't have such safeguards. It's all on the studios servers and they can adjust value on the fly. Unless lootboxes are all cosmetics there's a more direct hand in the market that can influence value and worth. And it all comes crashing down the moment the studios decides to shut down the servers. I feel that's an intrinsic difference that places a video game closer to a casino ("the house always wins") than a TCG (throw out what you think is worth and let the community sort it out).
- gigaflop 3y ago
  With MtG, I can go online and see what my odds are for just about any kind of packs I get: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/collecting-ravnica-remastered https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/collecting-ravnica... Not sure if they were always this forthcoming about the 'slotting', but I do appreciate it.
Supermancho 3y ago
The enshittification already happened. The most recent incorporation of other IPs, like the upcoming Dr Who, is a series of last gasps. While sales have followed along the aging income growth of existing players, the inverse pressure of exiting players is past sustainable levels. Other forms of gamba have eroded the MTG gamba allure. Re: Youtube - Tolarian Community College - which is very good at capturing the state of the ecosystem.
- Yhippa 3y ago
  What is inherently wrong with co-branded product? Do you have any data to back up "exiting players"? I don't think we really have a good read on that. The MagicCons I've been to have been increasingly packed with people.
  - bart_spoon 3y ago
    The concern many MtG players have is that throwing a bunch of other IP crossovers into the card game has a variety of potentially negative effects: - established players who enjoyed the theme of Magic in the first place might be turned off - it creates an increasing number of products and therefore product fatigue, which is something I’ve heard lots of players mention and was even brought up by Hasbro themselves in a financial call - it adds to the increasingly confusing legality of cards/formats. Some crossovers have alternate in-universe versions. Many don’t. Some are commander legal. Some are commander and modern legal. Some have their own draft environments. Knowing what cards you can play in a given format is getting obnoxious to track. - They clearly seem to be introducing new players to Magic, but they are also clearly driving old Magic players away. The question is how persistent are the new players? Do they stick around, or does their interest wane when their favorite crossover franchise isn’t getting new cards anymore? I personally think it’s too soon to tell, but a lot of the moves strike me as very reminiscent of the types of moves that eventually are identified as enshitificafion as management tries to extract as much short term juice as possible in a way that damages long term health. I’d love to be wrong.
  - Mtgtrw 3y ago
    [flagged]
mynameisnoone 3y ago
It seems like we're reliving 1980 all over again but with smartphones, internet, millions of homeless people, and slightly better fashion.

thaumasiotes 3y ago

> Prepare for the enshittification and bedbathandbeyonding of Magic the gathering. That happened during the original design of the game. M:tG was one of the first products to sell you a pig in a poke. That was the concept! I've seen people say that it would be nice to regulate loot boxes in video games, but they can't figure out how to do it without banning Magic's business model. I never understood why that would be a problem.

dontlaugh 3y ago
Exactly. It would be a better game if they just sold entire expansions where you get all of the cards.
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  It may not even exist without such a model, on the other hand. Which may cause many other things to cease as well or never expand to mainstream-ish reception.
  - gpderetta 3y ago
    It might be slowly moving to that model: with precon decks, challenger decks and secret lairs, WotC is selling a lot of non-randomized stuff. They even split for a while draft boosters from collector boosters (and then reversed the decision when nobody was buying the draft boosters and risked killing the format).
    - thaumasiotes 3y ago
      They have non-randomized offers, but the vast majority of their stuff can only be obtained randomly (or secondhand).
AndrewKemendo 3y ago
They did one round, but I think it takes 3 rounds of pump and dump before it really dies
johnnyanmac 3y ago
>I've seen people say that it would be nice to regulate loot boxes in video games, but they can't figure out how to do it without banning Magic's business model. I never understood why that would be a problem. The genius thing about Magic is that it doesn't place individual value on a card. Even if there is indeed a "drop rate". But that drop rate doesn't always evaluate to higher value. It correlates and they try to make if so, but that's ultimately a different marketplace who externally decides what has value. Video games don't have such safeguards. It's all on the studios servers and they can adjust value on the fly. Unless lootboxes are all cosmetics there's a more direct hand in the market that can influence value and worth. And it all comes crashing down the moment the studios decides to shut down the servers. I feel that's an intrinsic difference that places a video game closer to a casino ("the house always wins") than a TCG (throw out what you think is worth and let the community sort it out).
gigaflop 3y ago
With MtG, I can go online and see what my odds are for just about any kind of packs I get: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/collecting-ravnica-remastered https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/collecting-ravnica... Not sure if they were always this forthcoming about the 'slotting', but I do appreciate it.

Supermancho 3y ago

The enshittification already happened. The most recent incorporation of other IPs, like the upcoming Dr Who, is a series of last gasps. While sales have followed along the aging income growth of existing players, the inverse pressure of exiting players is past sustainable levels. Other forms of gamba have eroded the MTG gamba allure. Re: Youtube - Tolarian Community College - which is very good at capturing the state of the ecosystem.

Yhippa 3y ago
What is inherently wrong with co-branded product? Do you have any data to back up "exiting players"? I don't think we really have a good read on that. The MagicCons I've been to have been increasingly packed with people.
- bart_spoon 3y ago
  The concern many MtG players have is that throwing a bunch of other IP crossovers into the card game has a variety of potentially negative effects: - established players who enjoyed the theme of Magic in the first place might be turned off - it creates an increasing number of products and therefore product fatigue, which is something I’ve heard lots of players mention and was even brought up by Hasbro themselves in a financial call - it adds to the increasingly confusing legality of cards/formats. Some crossovers have alternate in-universe versions. Many don’t. Some are commander legal. Some are commander and modern legal. Some have their own draft environments. Knowing what cards you can play in a given format is getting obnoxious to track. - They clearly seem to be introducing new players to Magic, but they are also clearly driving old Magic players away. The question is how persistent are the new players? Do they stick around, or does their interest wane when their favorite crossover franchise isn’t getting new cards anymore? I personally think it’s too soon to tell, but a lot of the moves strike me as very reminiscent of the types of moves that eventually are identified as enshitificafion as management tries to extract as much short term juice as possible in a way that damages long term health. I’d love to be wrong.
- Mtgtrw 3y ago
  [flagged]

mynameisnoone 3y ago

It seems like we're reliving 1980 all over again but with smartphones, internet, millions of homeless people, and slightly better fashion.