So… Hasbro is going to voluntarily recognize the union because it’s the only part of their business that makes money, right? Right????

Wizards of the Coast reported $367 million in operating income from the quarter, the majority of which came from Magic: The Gathering. That in turn accounted for over 66 percent of Hasbro’s overall operating income last quarter. That number jumps to roughly 90 percent when you look at the last nine months. Yes, Hasbro owns everything from Hot Wheels and Transformers to Play-Doh and Peppa Pig, but that’s not where the money is coming from anymore.

And then there’s me, a guy who admittedly was drawn in by Final Fantasy so I could be considered a newbie scrub or whatever who is already kinda burned out on the game because there are SO MANY SETS. You can’t even enjoy collecting a set because a new one is being shoved in your face seemingly a couple of weeks after the last.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

They alienated their core fans and it made them a shit load of money, fucking sucks, marvel was the last straw for me, finally decided to give up after over 20 years of MTG

I know this is likely an unpopular opinion, but I've never liked card collecting games. It's like having gambling microtransactions in my card games. I don't tolerate those in video games, why would I in card games? Why wouldn't I just play Wingspan or Uno or Catan or one of the many other excellent "normal" card/board games instead?

The $150 cardboard is so obviously a racket. The game itself was fun, but I could only get into it by proxying a lot of cards. A sharpie is a reasonable investment.
Nowadays I have Forge on my phone for the same cost.

Yeah, I’ve stopped playing dark pattern games too. A loot box is a dark pattern, even if that takes the form of a randomly sealed pack of cards.

Also I’ve always hated going to a tournament to try to socialize, but the only words I get told by anyone are “turn” and “trigger,” so fuck that noise.

Turns out, when your product is a piece of cardboard anyone can print it off at home. The game itself is fun, but yeah I hate the micro transactions/gambling too. Luckily in most play groups proxies are totally welcome

This is what killed it for me. It was fun to look at new cards and retune things every 3-6 months..not every 3-6 weeks like it is now

Go BRRR

What does that even mean?

Honestly I have kinda switched over to Sorcery for the moment.

Since it’s newer, there aren’t tons of sets, seems like about one big set a year-ish, so you actually get some time to enjoy the product.

It's been meme-ified, but it's the sound a money counting machine makes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAmG5fiMegc

Ah, it's about that money counting sound. Well thanks, I really never understood the reference before.

I’ve never understood for the card collecting aspect. The most someone might catch me with is buying a few precons because I want to play with my friends. And even then I’ll totally make a few fakes. I’m just playing with friends so it doesn’t really matter if they’re legit imo

I hate it too. This world sucks sometimes.

Money printer go brrr

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/money-printer-go-brrr

I mostly stopped playing a decade ago but have kept up with some stuff because I enjoy the lore and things. I'm really shocked they moved from the three set blocks/two set blocks models to the current "everything happens in one set" approach. It just feels like everything is rushed.

Forge?

Card forge (https://github.com/Card-Forge/forge)

Solely because they're dynamic games. The ones you listed are static, with finite game possibilities. The appeal of TCG is the diversity of cards allowing for an incredible range of strategies that can't be matched by a static card game. Building a viable strategy around the cards you've drafted/drawn is the entire source of fun for some.

The number of tie-ins is just silly, but I view it as not yucking someone else's yum. Sure, not all the expansions appeal to me, but due to the sheer number there are certain to be some that do! Particularly of note are Stardew Valley, Dwarf Fortress, D&D, Final Fantasy and The Hobbit. Most times it's just alternate card art for cards that already exist in the primary release, so where's the harm?

I sincerely think the only ones offended are those who were trying to maintain a perfect collection, or are those who take the game too seriously and are therefore offended by the silliness of some of the cards. Such as those from Deathpool, or maybe Garfield.

oh wow that looks like a proper rpg and everything

MTG isn’t (currently) as bad as things like Pokémon with the scalping and collecting. Building tournament ready decks can cost you a lot of money but they sell tons of prebuilt regular and commander decks you can buy for ~$30-$60 and just play with your friends. This is sort of the standard for casual play with friends, which is the kind you’d be into if you’re comparing it to Uno or Catan. If you showed up to Commander Night with your buddies sporting a $500 hand built monster deck they’d turn you away at the door.

It's a seemingly legal 3rd-party computer game implementation of MTG.
https://github.com/Card-Forge/forge
You end up downloading a lot of official card art, which is presumably illegal, but it's all still available, so whatever.

Yeah and that also has no appeal to me at all. It feels like too much to keep track of I guess? I've tried playing multiple of them and I don't find them very enjoyable. I love board and card games but just have never had a good time playing a TCG.

Is "magic the gathering" the gacha genre for the western audience?

The margin is the striking part. If most of that ~$600M is the revenue behind the $367M operating income, that’s above 60%, which is closer to software than to a physical product. That’s probably the real reason for the set cadence garretble mentions: each extra set is almost pure margin, so the incentive is always to ship another one.

Yeah I’ve finally got disposable income and wanted to get back into MTG, but part of what I loved was the universe and setting. Just doing Marvel and TMNT sets kinda sucks the fun out of that.

Essentially people are convinced this or Pokemon cards will be their retirement. They're thinking they'll see enormous returns in 25 years like some people have. The problem is that for every person who made money on Pokemon or MTG, thousands didn't.