How did Pokémon, the most successful media franchise in the world, go from making greatness, to making Scarlet and Violet? The creators know what’s happening...
The problem is that, with a thing like Pokemon, something that people like specifically, “supporting the competitor” isn’t really a choice to many people. They don’t want a better turn-based monster fighting game, they want a better Pokemon game. They’re much more inclined to just stop playing because playing something else isn’t going to fill the base desire goal here.
I see the same thing in MtG. There are issues in the game I think could be improved on, but the problems I have aren’t going to be solved for me by playing some other tcg because my interest isn’t in tcg’s in general, it’s in MtG specifically. If the problems ever get bad enough, my only real choice will be to stop entirely, not play something else that I’m simply not interested in.
It doesn’t have to be better. Just competitive enough to have some legs. Hearthstone is why WotC finally started transitioning away from Magic Online.
But I get it. I love MtG myself (and as a Limited player, I don’t actually have any real suggestions for improvement with the game itself, we’ve been eating so good for years now), but it’s too expensive. The publisher is scummy. None of that is changing anytime soon.
Tangentially, if fans passionate about properties this old genuinely want to act, they should be actively fighting for copyright reform. Both of the properties we’re discussing here would be public domain by now under a macroeconomically-sound copyright regime.
Just to clarify, my point is that better or not doesn’t matter to a lot of people where preference outweighs anything else. I totally agree that competition is the biggest motivating factor for change in a company, but it gets tricky when we’re talking about products that are as specific as Magic or Pokemon. Like with me, I’ve tried so many other digital and paper tcg’s and none of them interest me. These aren’t like kitchen appliances or something that can just be traded out. They often fill a particular niche that a person is looking to satisfy.
100% with you on copyright (and trademark) reform, though. That shit is a cancer on society.
The problem is that, with a thing like Pokemon, something that people like specifically, “supporting the competitor” isn’t really a choice to many people. They don’t want a better turn-based monster fighting game, they want a better Pokemon game. They’re much more inclined to just stop playing because playing something else isn’t going to fill the base desire goal here.
I see the same thing in MtG. There are issues in the game I think could be improved on, but the problems I have aren’t going to be solved for me by playing some other tcg because my interest isn’t in tcg’s in general, it’s in MtG specifically. If the problems ever get bad enough, my only real choice will be to stop entirely, not play something else that I’m simply not interested in.
It doesn’t have to be better. Just competitive enough to have some legs. Hearthstone is why WotC finally started transitioning away from Magic Online.
But I get it. I love MtG myself (and as a Limited player, I don’t actually have any real suggestions for improvement with the game itself, we’ve been eating so good for years now), but it’s too expensive. The publisher is scummy. None of that is changing anytime soon.
Tangentially, if fans passionate about properties this old genuinely want to act, they should be actively fighting for copyright reform. Both of the properties we’re discussing here would be public domain by now under a macroeconomically-sound copyright regime.
Just to clarify, my point is that better or not doesn’t matter to a lot of people where preference outweighs anything else. I totally agree that competition is the biggest motivating factor for change in a company, but it gets tricky when we’re talking about products that are as specific as Magic or Pokemon. Like with me, I’ve tried so many other digital and paper tcg’s and none of them interest me. These aren’t like kitchen appliances or something that can just be traded out. They often fill a particular niche that a person is looking to satisfy.
100% with you on copyright (and trademark) reform, though. That shit is a cancer on society.