In "The 'And' of Magic Arena," published at the beginning of February, Magic senior designer Aaron Forsythe and game director Chris Clay wax poetic about the innovations coming to Magic Arena, the new digital Magic platform (still in beta), and how they won't affect the paper game, and so we should definitely not be worried about Arena changing how Magic is played on paper.
The idea that changes to Arena will not affect paper Magic is incorrect, and the fact that Wizards insists on it is troubling.
While Wizards may not be making any official changes to paper Magic to follow digital Magic, the popularity of Arena will absolutely change how players think about the game. Not only will regular Arena players have different expectations of card availability and tournament structures (since Arena prioritizes best-of-one matches), but the fact that Arena makes tournament grinding accessible to a wider audience will make the Magic community as a whole more aggressively competitive and less friendly to new or casual players, and reduce interest in play formats that are not available on Arena, especially casual formats like Brawl, Commander, and Two-Headed Giant.
My core engagement with Magic is through face-to-face social interaction. That does not exist on Arena, and as a result, playing digital Magic turns a game I play to relax into a major source of stress. I am concerned that, in trying to keep the digital game from affecting the paper game, Wizards will continue to focus on digital innovation to the detriment of face-to-face social play, and that people like me will be prevented from participating in the innovation and get left behind.
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I got a little more hope for the future of paper Magic from a more recent Daily MtG post, Gavin Verhey's State of Product Design. Gavin reminded me that, in addition to all the Arena excitement, 2018 was a big year for paper Magic products created for people like me. Last year, we got Battlebond, a set designed for Two-Headed Giant play; the return of Core Sets and Welcome decks; and self-contained products like Game Night, Archenemy: Nicol Bolas, and the Spellslinger Starter Kit.
Wizards still cares about people like me, and that's comforting to know. But I will be watching developments in Arena more closely now.
On the other hand, it could pull more competitive, less social players away from paper magic, increasing the number of nice, friendly people within that space.
ReplyDeleteThat's a nice, optimistic take. We can hope that happens, and that the nice people who play Arena don't run out of energy for/interest in paper Magic.
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