thetitan555

[thetitan555]

It’s a living breathing entity that’s constantly becoming what its players want it to be.

This sentiment rings pretty hollow to me. Magic is constantly pushing boundaries as long as those boundaries are the limits of the product we can print and the new audiences we can draw in, but only as long as those audiences are collectors first and players second. Magic is not pushing boundaries to become more accessible to players. Magic is the most expensive card game on the market by far. Magic has no written reprint policy. Magic is the game that I tell my friends that I want to play it with them, about how much joy it has brought me, and they want nothing to do with it.

It's $35 per person for prerelease, $200 per person for a standard deck, and $50 per person for a precon. For these prices, we can buy not one, but a collection of designer board games, a set of infinitely replayable indie videogame titles, or just go out to a nice dinner. If you want to play for cheaper, you must compromise on the core appeal of the game: customizeability. And the value proposition of magic is that my friends can spend even more money to have a dubiously better time?

I do not care if UB is legal in every format until the end of time, or if UB cards are only to be graded and put in slabs. Either is fine. I prefer the former because it gets more people's imagination fired up about this great game, and I understand if someone else hates it because it screws up their imagination. But I want to play the card game, and I can't because I cannot afford to pay $50 more twice a year per deck to keep up after the initial cost. I want the game to be cheap enough for me to be able to play it. Can Magic become that, please?

If Universes Beyond is "Additive" as you said a few days ago, then why not make an "additional" format rather than forcing a change to Standard?

The psychographics are about the different ways you can psychologically approach the game.

If you’re a Spike, you’re about proving what you are capable of (which often means winning, but not always). That means you focus on picking the best card for the job at hand. That’s going to be dictated by card power and not creative decisions. Whether you like a creative execution (be it in-multiverse or Universes Beyond) or not simply isn’t the deciding factor.

If you’re a Timmy/Tammy, you’re about experiencing something. That means you pick the cards that best create the experience you want. If creative choices are a big part of that experience, then you will prioritize choosing cards that match what you want for your deck.

If you’re a Johnny/Jenny, you’re about expressing something. Your card choices are about you saying something about who you are. If creative choices are important to that message, it will impact which cards you play with.

The issue about mixing in-multiverse and Universe Beyond cards is only forced for the Spikes, because they’re the one psychographic that has to make choices irregardless of the creative execution of the card.

For the Timmy/Tammy and Johnny/Jenny players, if Universe Beyond cards dilute your experience, make other card choices. Don’t play with them.

That’s what I say about the cards being “additive”. You can add them to your deck if they enhance your experience. If they lessen your experience, don’t add them.

The big question is what matters most to you. If you’re choosing a card because it will increase your win rate, then you’re making a Spike-y decision. And that’s fine, but it means you’re prioritizing mechanics over flavor.

My core message is you the player have total power over what you play. You pick the format you play, you pick who you play with, and you pick the cards in your deck.

This issue isn’t new to Universes Beyond. Some people don’t like the cuteness of Bloomburrow, or the modernity of Duskmourn, or the famous characters in cowboy hats approach to Outlaw of Thunder Junction. If you want to make Spike-y decisions, then you play the card regardless of your personal opinion of the creative choices of the card.

Maybe you’re playing a card with a cutesy name you don’t enjoy, or a piece of art that’s not your style, or flavor text that you find groan worthy. That’s a decision you make when you build your deck and you choose what to prioritize.

Everyone has a different line of what creatively is acceptable, and it’s human nature to want to believe that your line is “the line”.

I’ve been doing this for a long time. Every line we cross is somebody’s line. But Magic, at its core, is about pushing boundaries and trying new things. It’s one of the defining qualities of the game.

My message is you can choose your own line. Magic adaptability allows you to play with what makes the game the most fun for you. You can choose to not cross your own line, but it does require you to prioritize that line over Spike-y decisions.

Look, we’re going to keep adding things to the game that players demonstrate they enjoy, whether that be mechanical or creative. It’s the defining quality of the game’s growth over the last thirty-one years.

And by the way, the data strongly, and I mean strongly, shows players enjoy Universes Beyond. All the people that made The Lord of the Rings the most popular set of all time are just as much Magic players as those that never purchased it.

And why not make an additional format? Because the data says there isn’t a large enough audience to support it. If there was, we’d make it. We’re very influenced by the desires of the players.

Our goal, as it has always been, is to make the best game in the world. We iterate, you give feedback, and we adapt. Lather, rinse, repeat.

One of the big lessons I’ve gotten designing Magic is that it’s going to adapt based on the totality of the desires of the players. Enough players like something, and the game starts adapting to it.

That adaptation is not always what I personally would choose, but over the years, I’ve come to realize the fact that the adaptation is not the choice of any one person, but the totality of the playerbase is the thing that makes Magic a game unlike any other.

It’s a living breathing entity that’s constantly becoming what its players want it to be. And that’s pretty cool.

[thetitan555]

INSTEAD OF DIZZY GETTING OVERWHELMED AND THE OTHERS TAKING OVER THEY DO IT TOGETHER I'M CRYING

[thetitan555]

An story about fighting games, and the impossible standards I'm holding Panic At The Dojo to:

I've been playing fighting games casually for years now. I've been playing Strive for about a month, and I'm having the time of my life. I've been running and playing D&D5e for years, and I'm so fucking sick of it. The genres run on two diametrically opposite engines of determining uncertain outcomes.

A few years ago, I entered an online tournament for a no-name indie fighting game named Knockout!. There were eight entrants and they all knew each other. One was a developer. I'd been playing the game for a week. The delay-based connection was terrible, so I picked Angous, the glue-eating champion. My opponent picks Roger, the grappler. When he gets on top of you, you make a 50/50 guess whether to jump or block: if you're wrong, you lose a third of your health and guess again. Angous, however, has a one-button invincible attack with a serious backswing. The downside is that if itif it doesn't connect, I eat a faceful of damage.

Fast forward. The score is 1-1, final round. I start the round dominantly with wild, completely disrespectful offense. And it works! I win three interactions in a row, hitting him with bread-and-butter combos that I can mash out with 200ms of lag. He's got a sliver of health left. Eventually, he blocks out of my pressure. I run forward to continue my offense, and he hits me with the big grab. Yknow, Potemkin buster! I get knocked down, he stands on top of me. I do the invincible reversal: if it lands, I win the round right there. He blocks it. Potemkin buster! I'm on the ground again. I use my reversal again. He blocks it. Potemkin buster! Now both of us are on a sliver of health, and I'm on the ground. I use my reversal again. If it hits, I win. Surely they never see the third one coming.

He blocks it.

He grabs.

But it's too early. I'm still in the air from the jumping uppercut.

We scramble for the longest five seconds of my life. Nobody makes any headway until, eventually, he hits me with a sweep and knocks me down. I'm on the ground again with a pixel of health. This is it. This is the moment. All of my options go through my head in an instant: A jump avoids the grab, but if he blocks he can super and flying suplex me. If he blocks a jab, I have no faith my nerves will hold out long enough to run my offense. There's no way I can reversal again, he's blocked it every time this game.

Unless.

Unless that's exactly what he wants me to think.

That thought crosses my mind at the exact moment my character starts the getup animation. Time's up. What do I do?

I press the invincible reversal and let god take the wheel.

In roleplaying games, stories like this happen to my character. In fighting games, stories like this happen to me. If the BBEG rolls successfully to save against Stunning Strike three times in a row while he has you on the ropes and then fails at the critical moment, you didn't do that. A die did that. It could've made the fight an anticlimactic mess, or a total shitstomp, but as a player you at best enable that to happen. In a fighting game, when you take a risk and your opponent calls you out on it, it's because they've figured you out. If you screw up a difficult combo, it's because your nerves are in shambles. If you succeed, it's because you're a genius, or because you're cool under pressure. The outcome of the game is because of you, and it tells you and your opponent about you.

5e is dreadfully boring as a game. You have to inject context in the form of story and roleplay into it to make it into something that matters. Fighting games give you a story whether you want it or not.

You don't need dice to add uncertainty to a game. People are sources of uncertainty. I care about people. I don't care about dice.

Add onto it the context we habitually give TTRPGs and…

After the game, I found out that my opponent is a top-eight player of the game in general (granted, only about a thousand people had ever played it, but still!). He's been playing since release. I had muted discord to not get distracted so I didn't see the slew of messages encouraging me to kick his ass so other people wouldn't have to lose to him. Scrolling back, you could see every time he reported a game to the system (I asked him to because I didn't know how): the chat went "ah, well, there goes the newbie" when he won the first game and "HUH??" when I won the second. I didn't know it, but I was the storyline people cared about in that moment. The game already mattered to me: reading the discord back and discovering the context, that I was the main character for this round, was what set this in stone as one of my favorite memories I've ever had playing a game in my life.

So? Did I land the invincible reversal?

HELL YES I DID.

(I also lost the next two matches 0-2, but who's counting?)

I'm going to hear about PATD next week from my friend Nate. I'm so looking forward to it. From the looks of it, I doubt it'll meet these impossible standards. But at least it won't be 5e!

[thetitan555]

Hi Mark! Invoking the birthday ritual to ask for some trivia about Battle for Zendikar, the set that first got us into Magic. Thanks for all that you do! :)

In exploratory design, we tried a mechanic called hedronize. It was a keyword action that did one of eight things and you rolled an eight-sided die.

Happy Birthday!

[thetitan555]

So What's Elphelt Valentine's Deal Anyway?

Citations: The wiki

In the Guilty Gear lore, Elphelt was created by the Universal Will (evil robot jesus lady, aka her "mother") as a Valentine unit to hang out until Justice, the world-ending robot and Sol Badguy's former wife, is revived. She's a sleeper agent meant to observe Sol until then. All her memories are replaced with human ones.

Fast forward. On the day of her wedding with a death metal singer, her programming reactivates and she remembers everything. What happens right afterward isn't clear, but Elphelt ends up deciding "fuck mom" and stealing a bunch of cool guns. Then she tells Ky Kiske everything is going to happen, and as thanks he keeps her secure by imprisoning her. She doesn't seem bitter about this as far as I can tell.

Oh no, everything's happening! Ramlethal Valentine, El's sister, is trying to destroy the world. Elphelt helps Ky, Sol and the gang find and get close to Ramlethal, saving Sol's life at one point. During the fight, however, her programming as a Valentine unit reactivates. She was a double sleeper agent. She turns on the gang until the Universal Will decides it has bigger plans for her and pulls her away.

I'm going to do a lot of summarizing for the next part: it's basically the entire climax of Xrd. She is constantly trying to save the world or save someone else by sacrificing herself. After all, she was part of the conspiracy to end it: it's only just. But every time, someone says "you can't, you're a person, you deserve to live." And with the power of god and anime on their side, the protagonists win without losing anyone.

BUT WHY THE HELL DOES SHE WANT TO MARRY EVERYONE?

There's no hard lore reason provided but, well, what have we learned about Elphelt's character? She's had her whole life upturned twice and she's completely different from the only people like her in the world. In the plot of Xrd, it's shown repeatedly that she would have to die to make a difference, and she readily accepts this role. She was programmed from her creation by her "mother" with a prime directive to fit into human society. She's about ten years old and, finally, she's gotta have some trauma around weddings.

My takeaway is that she's Pinocchio, and she wants to be a real girl. She wants someone to care about her, and she wants to care about someone else. Consiously, she knows that everyone in Sol's gang cares about her like she's family, but that's not enough. She needs someone to tell her she matters to them, she needs to know it's real and everlasting, and she needs it written down so it's still true even if she gets activated by the Universal Will again.

She needs someone to sign her marriage certificate.

I cried when I figured this out. I have a family who loves me and friends I trust, which is more than most people have. But I don't have it written down. I have some trauma about people I trust treating me terribly or leaving me, so I try to "stick" myself to them and make it hard or inconvenient for them to hurt me even if I know they wouldn't. Everyone I know is in a relationship, and I want one too. I want to love, and to be loved. i want to be a real boy.

After the events of Strive, she goes to work in Ky's castle. She's pretty bad at it, what with the toonforce-enforced clumsiness. Nobody blames her, but she knows she's letting people down, so she leaves. She decides she wants to make people smile, so she becomes a metal idol. Her theme in Strive reflects where she seems to have progressed to since the events of Xrd:

metal growl: "I know who I am // I was just a little lost // I don't know where to go // I don't know how to keep up // I'm not sure what I want // But don't get me wrong // I know who I am" ... pop voice: "I've stumblеd many times // I might get hurt // But I keep on running // Who would walk out on the street bothеred about // Bumps in the road? // I'm scared of the laughter, but // I love to laugh myself // Hear the words I only like // So let's smile and laugh"

It's not exactly a strategy, but if a girl who is constantly damseled, losing her agency, and screwing things up can accept herself and her life... maybe I can too.

[thetitan555]

"I'm trying to find a source for the following sentiment..." you're looking for https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/getting-away-with-murders-at-karlov-manor-part-2, beginning with "prioritize harnessing the power of words"

Thanks!

[thetitan555]

@thescarletjaws

[thetitan555]

hi sorry i'm drunk and you keep showing up on my dash are you famous or something

I'm a big fish in a small pond. : )

I'm the Head Designer for a game called Magic: The Gathering.

[thetitan555]

Happy birthday, Mark. I have ADHD which makes it extremely hard for me to focus on any one task for longer than a minute or two, especially creative projects. The distance between the idea I have in my head and making it a reality is so far, and I come up with new ideas so quickly that it feels like I'll at best see a fraction through to completion.

Amateur magic cards are a scene change in my ability to be creative. I can turn an idea into a finished card in as fast as I can say it out loud, and I can collaborate with friends on larger projects at a pace I can maintain without burning myself out. Thank you so much for your articles on the color pie and on Nuts & Bolts.

Glad they’ve been helpful. Thanks for sharing.

[thetitan555]

I just listened to your podcast on your father today. My father passed away due to complications from Alzheimer's in December. Your podcast really helped me. Losing a parent is so difficult, but thinking about my father's life in terms of the lives of others and that whole "It's a Wonderful Life" tribute has helped my grieving by some measure. Thank you for this episode and for sharing, and may your father's memory be a blessing.

I’m glad it was helpful. My mother, who’s a psychologist, said something that helped me quite a bit. Grief, she said, is an expression of love.

[thetitan555]

Real thing I just heard

Person 1: "Why does Santa only come once a year?"

Person 2: "Because he has a really long refractory period, i dunno."

[thetitan555]

black mage 🔥🧊

[thetitan555]

The question is not "Why is the set called Modern Horizons?", but "Why does the Modern set need Commander precons?"

Not every set needs Commander precons, I even play Commander and I can't keep up with the volume of precons being released. These instead could have been any number of things to help people get into Modern.

There are people in your playerbase other than Commander players, or has Wizards forgotten that?

As a business, you make products A, B, and C. A is widely popular, B is somewhat liked, and C has a dedicated following, but doesn’t sell well. You’re just going to make more A than B and C, and more B than C.

We make a lot of Commander decks because there’s a huge demand for Commander decks. It’s the most played tabletop format.

If we make too much of something, that is, we exceed the demand, we’ll know that because products won’t sell. With that information, we’ll adjust accordingly.

There’s no evil plot afoot. We’re just trying to make what the players want.

As for making pre-constructed decks for Modern, there are some huge challenges. The power level needed to be viable in Modern does not line up with the price point players are willing to pay for a pre-constructed deck.

[thetitan555]

The question is not "Why is the set called Modern Horizons?", but "Why does the Modern set need Commander precons?"

Not every set needs Commander precons, I even play Commander and I can't keep up with the volume of precons being released. These instead could have been any number of things to help people get into Modern.

There are people in your playerbase other than Commander players, or has Wizards forgotten that?

As a business, you make products A, B, and C. A is widely popular, B is somewhat liked, and C has a dedicated following, but doesn’t sell well. You’re just going to make more A than B and C, and more B than C.

We make a lot of Commander decks because there’s a huge demand for Commander decks. It’s the most played tabletop format.

If we make too much of something, that is, we exceed the demand, we’ll know that because products won’t sell. With that information, we’ll adjust accordingly.

There’s no evil plot afoot. We’re just trying to make what the players want.

As for making pre-constructed decks for Modern, there are some huge challenges. The power level needed to be viable in Modern does not line up with the price point players are willing to pay for a pre-constructed deck.

[thetitan555]

Kinda want to make out rn

But I am single, alone in my apartment, and I have no friends Itd be cool and noncomplex to ask to make out

[thetitan555]

First, humans were involved. If generative AI is nothing more than the output of the sum of human data as a species then that is still beautiful because we are beautiful.

Second, a human was involved. If you're using generative AI and reviewing everything it spits out to see if it fits your vision then you're doing exactly what a photographer does whenever they go out for a shoot. Whatever you land on at the end of the process is art because your values inform what it is. It's why we're waiting for the monkeys at typewriters to spit out the script of Hamlet, not the bee movie.

Third, a human is still involved. You are the architect of your own values, and you are responsible for what you believe. If you want to wrongly point the finger at a tool because it threatens your livelihood or ego as an artist instead of the structures that encourage the exploitation of the tool... well, a healthier approach would be to realize that many people make 'art' exclusively because it makes them money, not because every piece of furry dog dick they draw grants catharsis in a meaningless universe. Humans are the fucked up part of capitalism, not AI.

[thetitan555]

Fuck it, it's tumblr, let's scream into the void about sexuality.

I'm new to tumblr, please let me know if there are tags I should add so people can block them.

Over lockdown, I had what could be described as a mental breakdown. I was questioning everything from my sexuality to my gender to whether love is real and whether I deserve it. I had dreams about sleeping with people, but sex wasn't the focus: it was the falling asleep together. Then I'd wake up alone and cry. It hurt so much feeling so alone, even though I had (and have!) a family who loves me and friends who support me. I still feel a longing for that, but it doesn't hurt anymore. Maybe it was the last throes of puberty, but that would be quite late. or, yknow, maybe it was locking myself inside for a year. that could do it too. If you had told me then that I'd turn down sex in the future, I would have built a time machine to strangle future me. I'm still a virgin. Because it's used as an epithet commonly online, sometimes I get reminded out of the blue that I still haven't connected with someone like those dreams... it reminds me of that hurt.

I was propositioned on the first date I ever went on. By a woman, and I'm male. (Those gender roles aren't supposed to work that way, in case you're reading from the far future where gender no longer exists.) I was completely baffled for about a year as to why I turned her down, until I found this meme and felt the same thing:

In this meme, left shares something that brings him joy and right ignores left and seeing him as a sexual object. When I was propositioned on the first date by someone I frankly wasn't romantically interested in, I felt objectified instead of desireable. Instead of feeling like someone wanted to connect with me intimately, I became very suddenly aware that I was alone in someone's house that I had only met once before. The date went otherwise great, by the way, though there wasn't a second.

I talked to my friend about this and she mentioned demisexuality to me. Aside from the fact that the prefix 'demi' is not how I would describe my sex drive, this does strike a chord with me. But, then, I've seen talk in that very tag about how it's not really about trust, it's about not feeling attracted to people at all until there's a close emotional bond. For me, a MASSIVE part of it is trust; can't say what portion of it is trust, but it's definitely enough for me to turn down sex despite still being a virgin, and hating that. I've seen talk about how it's not about 'primary attraction' (ooga booga caveman brain see pretty person go boyoyoyoing), but I'm capable of plenty of that: it was one of the main reasons I turned her down. Hate admitting that.

I don't have a good conclusion to this. Happy new years, I guess. Oh, and a christmas present: the original version of the meme. One without irony, so it doesn't get memed and shared, but one that actually makes me smile. Source.