so organised play is a bit of a joke now isn't it

[Philip Dickinson]

my favourite line:

Nationals provide a good opportunity for many players around the world to experience a large-scale Magic tournament and earn high amounts of Planeswalker Points in a single event

wow! excellent! more planeswalker points, which are dumb in and of themselves.

 

can anyone find any upside to any of the OP changes made this year?

[Gary Lynch]

Brilliant

[James Mills]

This isn't a poker thread this is a we are pissed off at wizards (again) thread. 

 

Also I just signed up to 888 and got $8 for free, no need to deposit anything!

Gary Lynch said:

Brilliant

[Ben Titmarsh]

Gary - I would thoroughly recommend the book Harrington on Hold'em.  You can probably find a free PDF download.  It's basically the bible of "standard" tight-aggressive play.  I would suggest anyone start there, and move on to books covering a more loose-aggresive game if that fits their play style.  As far as not getting bored - I know what you mean.  I find multi-tabling (start with just 2-3 tables) helps as you get premium hands a lot more often.

[Gary Lynch]

James - Nothing wrong with a little ThreadJack here and there. Plus what better way to show your pissed off than spend the money on something else. I will have a look about this free $8 though.

 

Ben - Thanks, I will have a look for it. I guess I could try 2 tables at once. My main problem is being on a laptop with no mouse. I need a proper computer, the ammount of times i have been moving between cards and mispicked on modo is rediculous.

[MarcoOJ]

gg from me, think im out for the foreseeable future. really the only thing that would get me motivated to play now are ptqs, but seeing as basically all my other mtg friends are quitting too (some for the changes, some cus of life stuff), i cant see going to pts being that great any more, even when they are in hawaii.

i cant believe the sheer stupidity of the logic behind the changes which seems to be: 'we need to improve profitability... therefore we should cut all costs' but as our current government seems to think this is how to run the country, maybe wotc shouldnt be slammed too hard...

most card games with no competitive circuit eventually die out: when there is no (realistically attainable) 'dream' to chase, no history, no 'flavour' to the game, a huge portion of the player base has no reason to play, which has a big trickle down effect and eventually ends with the game going bust. i don't (/didn't) play magic because i love gaming or dragons. a lot of the 'social' side of magic is nice, and is a big reason that i enjoy(ed) going to tournaments, but really i play(ed) because of the pro tour 'dream'. i can hang out and chat with friends without spending loads of money on magic. for me personally, the 'trigger' that got me from playing a couple of games of magic and thinking 'this game is ok' to spending all my free time and money on it was reading the sideboard coverage and thinking 'wow this looks awesome, people more or less my age winning loads of money and travelling the world because of magic'. without that i would have dropped magic cards just like i dropped basically every other hobby ive ever had. im pretty sure that a lot of people go through a process similar to this, and even when you realise it's unlikely you'll ever make it you carry on because of the chance that just that one time it could be you winning the ptq/gp/pt. pwp + no worlds + no gp invites for pts basically makes all of this pointless for anyone outside the US. there is no way a normal person with a life can grind into a PT, let alone worlds. fighting for one of 4/5 ptq slots for a pt to which none of my friends will be going or have any incentive to try to go to (no Pro Player Levels to aim for, no invites to gain) just isnt going to cut it for me. back to real life it is...

[MarcoOJ]

i also think it will be fairly immediately obvious that there is a problem next year, as i can easily see the PTs being 80+% US players with 6-7 US players in t8. having 'heroes' from your area is a big driver for a region, and things such as China winning the world champs, the first wave of Japanese pros coming through and doing well 7-8 years ago, the Eastern European big names coming up in the last few years have i'm sure had a real impact in helping the game spread in these regions. planeswalker points + no worlds effectively wipes out competitive play in all regions outside of the US for all those who arent already top pros or mtg fanatics with a lot of money to burn.

 

it will be interesting to see what wotc's reaction to this shift will be. it might be the case that hasbro is basically looking to wind down magic and make it a little US based entity which makes a bit of cash and doesnt cost them too much, in which case they won't care, or they might have to seriously reconsider everything. either way, the future of magic doesnt look great for anyone who wants to play competitively and doesnt live in the US.

[Peter Dun]

its possible they hope that companies such as SCG will pick up the slack, thus meaning that they don't have to invest time/effort/risk into the game (this model doesn't work outside the US.

Their other decisions have been very US focused, and they've shown a complete inability to understand any other country's play environment... so it doesn't seem impossible.

[Ben Titmarsh]

I plug a mouse into my laptop!

Gary Lynch said:

James - Nothing wrong with a little ThreadJack here and there. Plus what better way to show your pissed off than spend the money on something else. I will have a look about this free $8 though.

 

Ben - Thanks, I will have a look for it. I guess I could try 2 tables at once. My main problem is being on a laptop with no mouse. I need a proper computer, the ammount of times i have been moving between cards and mispicked on modo is rediculous.

[James Mills]

I wish this site had a like button!

Ben Titmarsh said:

I plug a mouse into my laptop!

Gary Lynch said:

James - Nothing wrong with a little ThreadJack here and there. Plus what better way to show your pissed off than spend the money on something else. I will have a look about this free $8 though.

 

Ben - Thanks, I will have a look for it. I guess I could try 2 tables at once. My main problem is being on a laptop with no mouse. I need a proper computer, the ammount of times i have been moving between cards and mispicked on modo is rediculous.

[Dan Barrett]

This is a really good point I haven't seen from anyone else yet - and I definitely agree. For someone like me, who was unlikely to ever make a PT, having a connection to it, UK players to live vicariously through, was important to keep me interested. If I'm not there myself, have no one to "cheer on" from home, and there are no important standard tournaments in my country anymore, why would I read coverage, and then go out and buy cards for hot new deck X?

MarcoOJ said:

having 'heroes' from your area is a big driver for a region, and things such as China winning the world champs, the first wave of Japanese pros coming through and doing well 7-8 years ago, the Eastern European big names coming up in the last few years have i'm sure had a real impact in helping the game spread in these regions.

[Peter Dun]

just to add to that point: the winners from that tournament all play in Beijing

 

I have gone to FNM in 3 different locations, and two different ones had frame pictures of them celebrating with the check :P