MtG is WotC's big money maker. It's almost impossible for them to not make money with it, because it's a form of legalized gambling available to children, and it costs pennies to print cards that sell for hundreds of dollars. Mechanically, the game is functionally immortal. Its various formats exist independentally of the cards themselves, and we already saw several fan formats rise up while hundreds of groups continue to develop more. And, if any individual card is too strong and warps a format, it gets banned.In terms of flavor/art, WotC may have already proven that there is no red line. They can essentially do whatever they want, with Secret Lair pushing boundaries while larger sets have followed in that wake. It's actually hard to even imagine a card that could be printed that would be seen as a step too far at this point. And, if people like a card's mechanics but not its art/flavor, proxies/overlays/paint-overs are always available.At times it almost seems like WotC is deliberately making moves with short term profits in mind over the longevity of the game, but considering its proven resiliance, there may really be no need to worry about its longevity at all. It might be unkillable.
>>98130242Gambling will never die
>>98130242I predict MtG dies within 20 years.When the pendulum regarding gambling swings back, online casinos and prediction markets will be the first to get regulated to death, but when all the addicts jump from one form of barely legal gambling to the next as the regulators chase them, they'll eventually accumulate around Pokemeon cards, and TCGs will start facing much harsher regulations.MtG will have already finished burning through any remaining good will it still has, so it will be used as an example of corruption and unchecked gambling, and the moment that prices start to dip we'll see a flood of people trying to sell off their collections before they become completely worthless.The market crashes, Hasbro's stock plummets and triggers a death spiral, and WotC's abandonment of Magic as a brand onto itself will leave it with nothing to work from because it's old players are long gone and the newer players have no real attachment to the game. They'll try something like "REMEMBER KAMIGAWA?" and the only response they'll get is "You mean that weird set with cyberpunk ninja rats? What about it?"
>>98130242>It's actually hard to even imagine a card that could be printed that would be seen as a step too far at this point.So far, we've had->My Little Pony>Spongebob Memes>Spiderman Memes>Dr Doom Memes>Ramen/Bagel/Pizza>Naked Gay Men in a Hot Spring>Naked (gay?) Goblins in a Hot Tub>Implied Bestiality>Barefoot teen witches
>>98130381I'm still mad that there were TWO Frazetta SL drops and not a single boob or butt to be seen on any of the cards.If Frazetta hadn't been dead, he'd never have allowed such a crime to have been committed.
>>98130242TCGs are not that easy.Look at what happened with Lorcana. Big IPs, big money behind it, but the hype has evaporated in just two years.Games can die and die quick.
>>98131053Lorcana is still doing pretty well.
>>98130242As long as they are owned by Hasbro, they will continue to have access to any and all IPs they make figurines/toys for on top of any other cross over deals they make. The collector incentive to buy those sets will always supplement the profits they dont make off a failed set. Same applies to those stupid Secret Lair cash grabs.Even then, the fact they got rid of block sets almost a decade ago, a smart move IMO, hasn't stopped them from pumping out 7 sets this year. Short term profit has always been the goal; they dont see a cent from after market sales so the value of an individual card doesnt change their process. If they need to keep in the black, they'll raise the cost of boosters.Artwork has always been a contested issue, but I think the fundamental move that would keep folks happy is AWAY from CG/AI artwork. Handpaint art will always win in my book. Their key to success would be to go back to basics. You (the player) are the planes walker and each set is its own plane you are visiting with flavor text expanding on the world lore as you play. Even bringing back shitty mechanics like banding, flanking, or shadow just to mix things up would be a lot better than going back to Ravnica for the umpteenth time. Though I dont agree with >>98130342's post, they do make a point with the memberberries sets being only for a niche market of players and most folks dont really care, especially if they hated the set the first time around.A lot of issues could be solved as well with the return of Core Sets. Didn't like the artwork in an OG set? Reprint it in core with new art. Card becoming ridiculously expensive? Reprint in core. Got a card from the crossover set that would play well in standard block? Core set.I doubt MtG will be going anywhere for a while.
>>98131424>they dont see a cent from after market sales so the value of an individual card doesnt change their process.This just isn't true, while they don't get secondary sales moneys they definitely profit by people on the chase.
>>98131424>Their key to success would be to go back to basicsThey really can't do that. They've opened up a dozen genies and it's impossible to get them back into their bottles.You can't go back to sets being predominantly simple cards with abilities that consisted of a single line of text, that allowed games to proceed smoothly and quickly even when players are dealing with cards they've never seen before. Every card needs to do three things at minimum and feature a character who has four novels worth of flavor written about them but all you can figure out from the cards is that they like to murder things in some characteristic fashion.I think that EDH, which allows people to really dive into their libraries, helped prove that there was a big issue with older Magic, in that 99.9% of cards are essentially worthless and will never ever have any value because there's a thousand cards that are just strictly better than it. Complexity creep and power creep go hand in hand, and any effort to make magic feel like old magic is going to require stuff like a vanilla 4/4 for 2 CMC.
>>98131675>This just isn't true>they don't get secondary sales moneys
>>98131117lol
>>98131890I get part of this is satire/sarcasm but if that power creep doesnt get checked we are going to wind up with cards that are already worthless at print to hold spots in boosters while you hunt for the 3UW 99/99 hast first strike cannot be countered uncommon card. Going back to basics doesnt necessarily mean your best card is a Timmy, only that cards with three lines of text are scaled back a bit. But I was mostly referring to the idea of how each set was its own thing, not a 10 year Jacestus League epoch.
>>98130381Which ones were bestiality/witches?
>>98131973It's definitely being treated as more of a collectable than a serious competitive game, but that's kind of to be expected. The kind of people who buy funko pops or more directly collect Disney pins are dumping tons of money into it, and the sort of people who identify as "Disney Adults" are going to keep buying Elsa merchandise of any and every kind until Disney finally relents and makes another pretty white girl princess.
>>98132289If the look she's giving the dragon doesn't suggest it enough, the flavor text pushes it that extra step.
>>98132289The barefoot witches are part of an upcoming Cats themed Secret Lair set.
>>98132370Nothing about this card implies bestiality anymore than any art where an animal and human care about each other.Deeply brown to assume all human-animal relationships are sexual relationships.
>>98132378The textbox placement is probably infuriating to footfags.
>>98132386Abigail Larson does a lot of "women fucking monsters" art.
>>98132401Vampires, werewolves, devils, zombies... ...just women fucking everything.
>>98132387>>98132378I don't think these are teenagers
>>98132370>kaalia of the vast>vagina
>>98132386It's part of a really weird Secret Lair called Tragic Romance.https://secretlair.wizards.com/us/en/product/1151501/tragic-romanceThe art director wrote fanfic mtg smut and got an artist to draw it, and then they made cards out of it.
>>98132370Fucking a dragon isn't bestiality
>>98132521Even if you wanted to argue that point, it's a zombie dragon so at minimum it'd be necrophilia.
>>98132548Zombies aren't dead, they're undead
>>98132556Innecrophilia then.
>>98130242Work on your art.
>>98132556An animated corpse is still a corpse.
>>98132556Living dead.
>>98132752>>98133639The modern term for necrophilia does not apply to fantastical animated dead. Aninated dead break most of the primary appeals of necrophilia
>>98132499That's really just a clear and objective abuse of power.Garfield did a bunch of stuff like that in the past, but he at least did something like design the game, and not just corporate his way into a position.
>>98132401>>98132432Women+Fantasy has proven to be a miserable combination.
>>98133654>modern term for necrophiliaNecrophilia is a modern term.>does not apply to fantastical animated deadGiven its low level of study with little real idea of how common or uncommon it is in the population, the prevalence of recent literature and videographic depicting animated corpses, and the way humans get their freak on there is no reason to suppose that fantasizing about sex with animated corpses has not occurred and that it is just another type of necrophilia that is yet to be formally typified or subtypified, for example as a subtype of people who fantasize about sex with dead, because there are no real animated corpses so of course it is the type who like to imagine.>break most of the primary appeals of necrophiliaThe most common appeal is a sexual partner who won't reject the perpetrator. Recent depictions of zombies are often mindless creatures hellbent on eating human flesh, but that is quite recent. Slightly older depictions, such as in D&D, have the zombie unresistingly following orders. The second most common is to have sex with a now deceased partner, animation doesn't break that. To end feelings of isolation, ditto.
>>98132370No, you are just a coomer.
>>98132444They are literally wearing gym micro shorts you retard.
>>98136353>The most common appeal is a sexual partner who won't reject the perpetrator. We can't let /r9k/ find out about this.
>>98134507lol. Women+Fantasy has proven to be the only combination there is. Men don't read books or learn. Men play video games and watch tv.
>>98136638Mostly because they got pushed out of those spaces by changes that were biased towards female readers.
>>98136672You've got your cause and effect backwards there, chief.
>>98136638At least men didn't turn it into a smut den... mostly.
>MTG
>>98136727lol only because men don't read books. Look at video games and the internet and see what they do to the things they DO pay attention to.
>>98136680Nope. "Diversity" based hiring practices in the 00s and 10s western fantasy publishing industry favored female editorial staff to the point that the vast majority are now female. These female staff then primarily approved new projects written/targeted at women. This caused a viscous cycle where fewer male authors getting approved lead to fewer male targeted books being written reducing the number of male readers further resulting in fewer male authors.
>>98136742Aye, but at least they're doing something else with it. It's not all just porn+pretense.
>>98136746Absolute and total nonsense. Men started playing video games and stopped reading. So people stopped selling books to them and started selling books to the people who buy books, instead. You think one of the largest media empires in the world, public companies run by old white men, woke up one day and decide "know what? we hate money and white people." How dumb can you get?
>>98130242Nice effortpost but work on your art instead.
>>98136762>You think one of the largest media empires in the world, public companies run by old white men, woke up one day and decide "know what? we hate money and white people." How dumb can you get?You are the dumb ass. The change didn't happen from the top it happened from the mid levels due to politically correct HR practices presented to those "old white men" as a way to expand the market. These shift in the western publishing industry are part of what lead to the rise in the popularity of male focused translated eastern Light Novel and Web Novels. Male readers didn't disappear they moved away due to the industry not wanting them.
>98136638>98136742>98136762Low effort b8
>>98136739yuck, why you post that?
>>98138985I don’t get why you made Arwen uglier
>>98130242They could also print the rare out-of-print cards, sell them on the market, and watch the whales have a screaming meltdown and burn their decks (and their rented homes) in protest only to immediately go back to whaling.
>>98139283I genuinely love that Yu-gi-oh actively and deliberately fucks the secondary market.
>>98136739>>98138985I've warmed towards Black Aragorn over the years. They couldn't use Viggo's likeness, and anything too close would draw too many comparisons. The MtG Aragorn does feel like a race-blind casting for a theater play, but considering he's still an able-bodied heterosexual man with a natural hair color who looks like he could swing a sword, I don't think it's really that radical of a departure from the source material, and there were a dozen more liberties that could have been taken which were left on the table.It's less weird than Asian Gandalf. who kind of just looks like Ian McKellan squinting.
