MTG, the Corona-Virus Pandemic, and future events.

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Card Slinger J
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Post by Card Slinger J » 3 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
3 years ago
I think that they made the safest call tbh. I don't know what it's like in the US rn(but assuming bad if it warranted extending the suspension on in store play) but it's been getting worse in Canada for just over a month I'd say. I can't see in store events happening on a large basis until at least halfway through next year and that's just for small level events. Magic Fests and in person Players Tours are probably out of the question until probably 2022 at the earliest and that's assuming they figure out who will run them
I'm not sure If it's like this for other people however I've started noticing that some Local Game Stores (LGSs) while In-Store Play is suspended as far as running events and tournaments go that they perceived it as suspending casual play as well which does have the potential to hurt their business in the long run If they primarily sell Paper Magic with little to no overhead. If these businesses do have large overhead and they also suspended casual play along with events then they're going to run out of money unless they replace the overhead to sell more merchandise in place of potential customers who would normally be playing at their store where as with the owners' perspective it's about less risk of infection from COVID as possible but the question is for how long? They must be thinking about how COVID will impact 3rd and 4th Quarter sales in 2020 or 1st and 2nd Quarter earnings in 2021.

Even If you're not allowed to run events at your store you still need money to pay rent since the owners and employees work paycheck-to-paycheck and eventually the landlord still needs to be paid $1,000 bare minimum each month in order for the LGS to stay in business and I think it really depends on how much money they made on Paper Magic Pre-COVID compared to how little they may be making Post-COVID. If they're making little without expanding their business portfolio then of course they need to allow casual play at their store despite the infection risks since events are temporarily suspended due to the pandemic otherwise they aren't going to be able to stay in business for very long even with e-commerce sales alone. I haven't seen anyone at the LGS I frequent on Saturdays test positive for COVID-19 from allowing casual play.
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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

Card Slinger J wrote:
3 years ago
motleyslayer wrote:
3 years ago
I think that they made the safest call tbh. I don't know what it's like in the US rn(but assuming bad if it warranted extending the suspension on in store play) but it's been getting worse in Canada for just over a month I'd say. I can't see in store events happening on a large basis until at least halfway through next year and that's just for small level events. Magic Fests and in person Players Tours are probably out of the question until probably 2022 at the earliest and that's assuming they figure out who will run them
I'm not sure If it's like this for other people however I've started noticing that some Local Game Stores (LGSs) while In-Store Play is suspended as far as running events and tournaments go that they perceived it as suspending casual play as well which does have the potential to hurt their business in the long run If they primarily sell Paper Magic with little to no overhead. If these businesses do have large overhead and they also suspended casual play along with events then they're going to run out of money unless they replace the overhead to sell more merchandise in place of potential customers who would normally be playing at their store where as with the owners' perspective it's about less risk of infection from COVID as possible but the question is for how long? They must be thinking about how COVID will impact 3rd and 4th Quarter sales in 2020 or 1st and 2nd Quarter earnings in 2021.

Even If you're not allowed to run events at your store you still need money to pay rent since the owners and employees work paycheck-to-paycheck and eventually the landlord still needs to be paid $1,000 bare minimum each month in order for the LGS to stay in business and I think it really depends on how much money they made on Paper Magic Pre-COVID compared to how little they may be making Post-COVID. If they're making little without expanding their business portfolio then of course they need to allow casual play at their store despite the infection risks since events are temporarily suspended due to the pandemic otherwise they aren't going to be able to stay in business for very long even with e-commerce sales alone. I haven't seen anyone at the LGS I frequent on Saturdays test positive for COVID-19 from allowing casual play.
one of the stores I go to probably made a fair bit of money off casual players playing commander. They were telling me that they felt the risk of being known as "the store that people got covid at" outweighed the risks of not running events and they felt that it could cost them more in the long run vs not running events for an uncertain amount of time. Fortunately we can still buy our product there.

I'd like to know how much they've lost since March though

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Post by Card Slinger J » 3 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
3 years ago
one of the stores I go to probably made a fair bit of money off casual players playing commander. They were telling me that they felt the risk of being known as "the store that people got covid at" outweighed the risks of not running events and they felt that it could cost them more in the long run vs not running events for an uncertain amount of time. Fortunately we can still buy our product there.

I'd like to know how much they've lost since March though
I think as long as the store has safety protocols to test people coming in If they're positive or negative for COVID-19 then that would be a step in the right direction such as temperature checks via forehead scanners. The mask mandate I feel has helped to some degree though I don't think it's enough. My LGS was lucky not to have anyone test positive for the virus thanks to the mandate though it makes me wonder what the environment had been had the mandate had not been put in place by government and health officials. Good news is that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) recently approved Remdesivir as the first COVID-19 drug for hospital patients which is an antiviral medicine given through an IV.

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/467 ... ll-january

Also Wizards of the Coast recently announced a few days ago that they're pushing the current In-Store Play Suspension due to the ongoing pandemic til January 2021. So it's looking as though both Commander Legends and Kaldheim will both be Take Home Pre-Releases similar with Core Set 2021 and Zendikar Rising. Wizards of the Coast also mentioned that they will be keeping tabs on the state of In-Store Play on the second Wednesday of every month as they will make official announcements on those dates regardless of whether or not they choose to take action at that time. I meant to post this a few days ago but was exhausted from work and tweaking EDH / Commander decks.
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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

I can see more places taking temperatures of people entering going forward, it's something so easy to do and seems like a good indicator of symptoms.

I've probably already said this, but we'll probably see more take home prereleases for a bit. I've gotten so used to not having many options for in store play this year I've almost forgotten what t's like to have options.

Now that SCG is doing more events online I'm probably gonna play those more

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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
3 years ago
I can see more places taking temperatures of people entering going forward, it's something so easy to do and seems like a good indicator of symptoms.

I've probably already said this, but we'll probably see more take home prereleases for a bit. I've gotten so used to not having many options for in store play this year I've almost forgotten what t's like to have options.

Now that SCG is doing more events online I'm probably gonna play those more
Problem with the temperature thing is that not every persons base body temp is the same. For example, my mother actually has a lower average body temperature due to falling in a lake in the middle of winter when she was a child and nearly dying because of it. So in her case, she could theoretically be infected and show up with the average human body temperature.
In the same vein, some people have a slightly higher average body temperature than others, without being sick. Thus they would potentially become pariahs without actually being sick, thus being punished for no good reason.
And that is not even accounting for the people who are infected but show no symptoms at all, like the super carriers from early in the pandemic, none of them had any symptoms to being infected themselves and thus infected hundreds of people.

No, a better method would be what was done by the Slovakian government a few days ago. They basically tested the majority of the population, voluntarily of course, thus allowing them to quarantine only the infected (and those who opted out, just in case), while allowing the rest of the population to go about their business. It worked shockingly well, identifying 38k infected people they didn't know about already. They intend to do it again later this month. Heck, if the rest of the world followed suit, we'd be able to slow the progression of the pandemic by the end of the year, possibly even stop it in its tracks for long enough that a reliable cure and/or vaccine could be developed.
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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

so the store I've been going to is doing bring your own commander decks and giving packs for the prerelease of commander legends instead of doing a draft for it. Now that it's been talked about a bit, drafting seems a bit bad during covid because of how many different times the cards will get touched.

as much as it is nice that there are plastic barriers between players, it'll be nice when we won't need them anymore because of how much easier it will be to just read my opponents'' cards rather than rely on them for that. Although it is necessary right now to prevent the spread

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Post by Card Slinger J » 3 years ago

https://icv2.com/articles/columns/view/ ... e-covid-19
ICv2 wrote:Hasbro sales for the third quarter were pretty interesting (see "Big Gains in Hasbro Gaming in Q3"). Total sales for the company are up 11% for the year, including a 19% drop in April , May, and June (see "Hasbro's Total Gaming Sales Down 19% in Q2"), and a 40% increase in WotC sales in the first quarter (see "Hasbro's Total Gaming Business Up 40% in Q1"). D&D sales for the third quarter are up about 20% and Magic sales are up "double digits" , although the company did not specify what percentage of those revenues came from digital sales of the product line.So looking pretty impressive so far for the year and, based on the interest showing in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Commander Legends, not to mention Commander Legends Green (see "Preview: 'Magic: the Gathering' 'Commander Collection: Green'"), I expect to see Hasbro/WotC closing out the year up by double digits. So what can we conclusions or inferences can we draw from this:

1. "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play". Players of both Magic and D& D, as well as Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, as well as board games and miniatures games (Games Workshop's stock is up about 125% over the past year) keep buying products for their respective games. Here in Illinois, even with the epidemic and restrictions on groups getting together, our store is seeing sales on a par with 2019, and if we were not taking the hit from restrictions and people leery about going out, we would likely have seen a record setting year and I have heard similar stories from other stores. Players appear to have migrated to at-home play as well as play on platforms such as Discord and RollD20. I also find it interesting that, despite. as I pointed out last week the increase in online sales (see "Rolling For Initiative -- Getting in the Spirit Again"), our store is seeing steady, socially-distanced foot traffic during the summer and throughout the fall.

2. Organized Play. Despite the importance that WotC, The Pokemon Company, and Konami put on Organized Play, the lack of it in the short term, does not appear to have hurt Magic and D&D and Pokemon sales (Yu-Gi-Oh! on the other hand, has taken a hit with the lack of Organized Play, again for the foreseeable future, as, without tournaments, our foot traffic of Yu-Gi-Oh! players has dwindled to next to nothing, save for the release of really anticipated products such as Maximum Gold (see " Konami Reveals New Premium Gold Rare Set for 'Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG'"). Despite the ability to play in sanctioned tournaments, players have kept up a steady demand for premium and limited Magic releases such as Mystery Boosters, Double Masters, and Jumpstart. Daily, we get calls or messages for the above. Customers buy packs and booster boxes daily and weekly despite not having any Organized Play events in which to participate. It appears players have not only moved their play in home but WotC was correct in creating the Set boosters, as players still embrace the pack opening experience.

Is this a long term change in the OP dynamic? How will this affect stores built around the OP model? If OP does not come back soon, do stores built to serve it transition to a different model? Let me know what you think by emailing castleperilousgames@gmail.com
The notion that ALL players moved their play at home instead of the Local Game Store (LGS) is a false assessment on ICv2's part. I get that most of these stores are built around the Organized Play model of hosting events but that shouldn't be their only source of income when there's still a demand for Casual Play at Local Game Stores (LGSs). The problem is that most of MTG's competitors with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG are built solely around competitive formats with no real avenue for casual like MTG does with EDH / Commander. The reason why sales are still doing well for these Paper Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games is because players still have a place to play instead of being forced to play at their friends house during a pandemic. Some of my friends have already started doing that while visiting other LGSs within our vicinity.

If Local Game Stores (LGSs) are forced to transition toward a different business model away from Organized Play due to the ongoing pandemic then what do you think it would look like? Personally I still believe play space / overhead is still important to play with these products otherwise there would be no reason to spend money on this hobby anymore given how unforgiving the Secondary Market is. The only return we get out of a hobby like this is by having fun aside from competing for prizes but it's not the "end all be all" If you know where I'm getting at. The notion that there's no longer a need for the Local Game Store (LGS) as far as the social experience goes is utter nonsense IMO. My LGS doesn't enforce 6 or 12 feet social distancing because of the ongoing mask mandate and so far we've had no reported cases of COVID-19 among our customers.
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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

There will always be a paper scene for Magic IMO because of people who want the social aspect of the game, so paper sales will probably never tank.

I think there's still room to run events online and offer credit in store. With many of the available platforms for pairings this is probably a great idea going forward

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Post by Card Slinger J » 3 years ago

motleyslayer wrote:
3 years ago
There will always be a paper scene for Magic IMO because of people who want the social aspect of the game, so paper sales will probably never tank.

I think there's still room to run events online and offer credit in store. With many of the available platforms for pairings this is probably a great idea going forward
Except that paper scene will mostly be at the Kitchen Table not the Local Game Store. It's not like I can walk over to my next door neighbor's house to play Paper Magic when they don't even have the same interests as I do. Local Game Stores are still important for being in those social circles that you wouldn't get from going over to a friends house. Not everyone has access to social media to find places to play where it could be less safe than at a store where there's an actual sense of security. How would you feel If you were somehow involved in a homicide that took place where you were hanging out with your friends playing Paper Magic? You don't even know If someone in your playgroup has a criminal record.

It's one thing to take away Organized Play altogether but the Local Game Store where players are still reliant on to actually get returns out of their investment in the game itself? It's not like you're competing for prizes since you're just playing for fun anyway. Why should that be taken away from players who've spent $400+ on EDH / Commander decks If the only thing they're left with doing is to liquidate their collections and get out of the game while they still can? I know If I tried to sell my Paper Magic collection to a Local Game Store they wouldn't take cash for it cause they need it to stay in business unless you tried selling it at a thrift store or a pawn shop. Store credit alone isn't enough when extra cash helps.
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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

The only thing I have gotten out of this thread is that a lot of people are so friggin' self absorbed that they are willing to risk not just their lives, but the lives of others, because they are inconvenienced that they can't go an play M:TG with random strangers due to a global pandemic with a high infection rate and a lethality rate of about 2.2%. That means that out of ever 50 people infected, more than one will die from it, even with the best friggin' care they can get.

If your local FLGS can't adapt and survive during this, then they were barely holding on to begin with and would have failed within a few years anyway.
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Post by Card Slinger J » 3 years ago

Krishnath wrote:
3 years ago
The only thing I have gotten out of this thread is that a lot of people are so friggin' self absorbed that they are willing to risk not just their lives, but the lives of others, because they are inconvenienced that they can't go an play M:TG with random strangers due to a global pandemic with a high infection rate and a lethality rate of about 2.2%. That means that out of ever 50 people infected, more than one will die from it, even with the best friggin' care they can get.

If your local FLGS can't adapt and survive during this, then they were barely holding on to begin with and would have failed within a few years anyway.
When Ticketmaster seemed to be forcing customers to get vaccinated for COVID-19 to participate in live concerts and events that to me set a very dangerous precedent for businesses to profit off of people who are willing to let go of their freedoms and liberties for a false sense of security. Pfizer recently announced that they have a COVID-19 vaccine that's 90% effective yet the company's CEO recently sold $5.6 million in stocks on Wall Street the day the announcement was made. If you look up Pfizer's criminal records it proves that they rushed the vaccine with experimental ingredients. A realistic timetable for vaccine distribution is usually within a decade which means it wouldn't be readily available until 2030.

If anything COVID-19 has accelerated the demise of brick-and-mortar retail in general with companies looking to go full digital as an end result. As much as I enjoy playing Paper Magic at my LGS I think it's reasonable for business entrepreneurs to shift toward a more sustainable business model away from Organized Play. Sadly it certainly doesn't help benefit casual players who are still reliant on LGSs to play Paper Magic without being forced to hang out at a friends' house to even play. I remember hearing that around the early to mid 90's Local Game Stores weren't really a thing yet until they took off in the late 90's and early 2000's with MTG gaining competition with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG at the time.
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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

Card Slinger J wrote:
3 years ago
Krishnath wrote:
3 years ago
The only thing I have gotten out of this thread is that a lot of people are so friggin' self absorbed that they are willing to risk not just their lives, but the lives of others, because they are inconvenienced that they can't go an play M:TG with random strangers due to a global pandemic with a high infection rate and a lethality rate of about 2.2%. That means that out of ever 50 people infected, more than one will die from it, even with the best friggin' care they can get.

If your local FLGS can't adapt and survive during this, then they were barely holding on to begin with and would have failed within a few years anyway.
When Ticketmaster seemed to be forcing customers to get vaccinated for COVID-19 to participate in live concerts and events that to me set a very dangerous precedent for businesses to profit off of people who are willing to let go of their freedoms and liberties for a false sense of security. Pfizer recently announced that they have a COVID-19 vaccine that's 90% effective yet the company's CEO recently sold $5.6 million in stocks on Wall Street the day the announcement was made. If you look up Pfizer's criminal records it proves that they rushed the vaccine with experimental ingredients. A realistic timetable for vaccine distribution is usually within a decade which means it wouldn't be readily available until 2030.

If anything COVID-19 has accelerated the demise of brick-and-mortar retail in general with companies looking to go full digital as an end result. As much as I enjoy playing Paper Magic at my LGS I think it's reasonable for business entrepreneurs to shift toward a more sustainable business model away from Organized Play. Sadly it certainly doesn't help benefit casual players who are still reliant on LGSs to play Paper Magic without being forced to hang out at a friends' house to even play. I remember hearing that around the early to mid 90's Local Game Stores weren't really a thing yet until they took off in the late 90's and early 2000's with MTG gaining competition with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG at the time.
A realistic timetable for a modern vaccine is two years, including all three trial stages. It was "rushed" this time because it is literally to combat a global pandemic that has a lethality of over 2.2%, and as such more resources were allocated to allow for a larger number of subjects that normal during the tests. It is literally the same with each of the 56 Covid-19 vaccines currently in phase three of testing, and the 20 additional ones in stage two. Rushing vaccines through testing by increasing the number of subjects involved in each phase is nothing new. The same was done when they feared Ebola would become a pandemic, as well as SARS and the Avian Flu (that turned out to be less harmful than the regular flu). And speaking of Flu, the testing period for the yearly Flu vaccine is only around 6 months. Vaccines aren't tested for a decade, because that would make them completely and utterly useless. For non-lethal diseases or diseases with very low mortality rate, it is usually around one to one and a half years.

The timing of the CEO's sale of stock was unfortunate, but understandable. But I don't believe it is anything other than a coincidence.
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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

Card Slinger J wrote:
3 years ago
Krishnath wrote:
3 years ago
The only thing I have gotten out of this thread is that a lot of people are so friggin' self absorbed that they are willing to risk not just their lives, but the lives of others, because they are inconvenienced that they can't go an play M:TG with random strangers due to a global pandemic with a high infection rate and a lethality rate of about 2.2%. That means that out of ever 50 people infected, more than one will die from it, even with the best friggin' care they can get.

If your local FLGS can't adapt and survive during this, then they were barely holding on to begin with and would have failed within a few years anyway.
When Ticketmaster seemed to be forcing customers to get vaccinated for COVID-19 to participate in live concerts and events that to me set a very dangerous precedent for businesses to profit off of people who are willing to let go of their freedoms and liberties for a false sense of security. Pfizer recently announced that they have a COVID-19 vaccine that's 90% effective yet the company's CEO recently sold $5.6 million in stocks on Wall Street the day the announcement was made. If you look up Pfizer's criminal records it proves that they rushed the vaccine with experimental ingredients. A realistic timetable for vaccine distribution is usually within a decade which means it wouldn't be readily available until 2030.

If anything COVID-19 has accelerated the demise of brick-and-mortar retail in general with companies looking to go full digital as an end result. As much as I enjoy playing Paper Magic at my LGS I think it's reasonable for business entrepreneurs to shift toward a more sustainable business model away from Organized Play. Sadly it certainly doesn't help benefit casual players who are still reliant on LGSs to play Paper Magic without being forced to hang out at a friends' house to even play. I remember hearing that around the early to mid 90's Local Game Stores weren't really a thing yet until they took off in the late 90's and early 2000's with MTG gaining competition with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG at the time.

I was listening to a podcast before and they were saying that they heard someone say they'd rather play at an LGS rather than have people over at their place. This was because people will be less inclined to remove their masks or going around touching everything, thus spreading germs everywhere. I don't know what it's like in other places, but in Ontario, Canada it is required to have your mask on when you're inside a business unless you have a medical reason that prevents you from wearing one.

I know several places had to start selling online more in order to get money they need. My main LGS was already selling on Ebay for a few years before this so they already had a presence. A few stores were running events online before and giving prizes in store credit or playmats and whatnot.

It still feels super weird going into stores and not seeing people playing pick up games or meeting people there to play. I have been going to one friend's house but it's no more than 4 people at a time

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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

Wizards extended the ban on in store play in the US and also expanded it to Canada until January 13th of next year. I don't know if it means much but it doesn't seem like too long

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Post by The Fluff » 3 years ago

facebook mtg groups are still pretty much dead here in my country.. almost no activity, except for one ot two people trying to sell cards.
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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

I'd say even a lot of the local Facebook groups I'm a part of are pretty slow except for a few sales posts as well. It's probably a combination of a lack of stores running events, people not wanting to be in large groups and people wanting to only play with certain groups of people.

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Post by The Fluff » 3 years ago

I pretty much only play with cousins who live in nearby houses these days. Too risky playing with strangers.. corona is still on the rise here in my country. We're playing modern "tribal wars", we have our fun little meta. hehe
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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

I'm gonna have to resort to playing at friends houses soon. I've been occasionally playing at my buddy's house but I'll probably play there exclusively for a while. At least until January 13, when we'll get the next update on in store play. I don't know what to expect then

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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

So, the Canadian province of Ontario is having another 28 day lockdown effective boxing day, so that might affect in store play for a bit as the WotC ban ends January 13th. This will probably also have some kind of impact on LGSs as people won't be allowed inside stores for at least 28 days. I went to my main store after work today to see if they'll be having curbside pickup and they weren't sure yet. But I do know that one store will be. I plan on taking advantage of curbside pickup more

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Post by SpeedGrapher » 3 years ago

I think paper Magic is doing really bad. Even my collector friend is not buying magic cards at the level he used to. He bought 1 booster box for Kaldheim. We normally buys at least 12 when a set first comes out. I really don't see any future normal events until 2022. I know magic was in a decline in my area for a few years now and this pandemic really stopped magic. Magic isn't over but I think all of the sales have gone online. Or have turned into grab and go sales. If people are still playing in person it's not at a store. At home magic with your friends is the only type of magic left from what I can tell. I'm in my bubble of virus free friends. That also lowers the amount of product all of us buy. There's no reason to draft every week. There is no standard. There is no modern. All of the normal things are not happening. There basically is casual commander and nothing else.

I know that's different for everyone but my magic spending has officially dropped to zero. I hope magic survives 2021 as I still like playing. I hope to go to a booster draft in 2022.
Be safe out there! Wear a mask! I miss my magic community! Virtual socially distanced hugs!

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Post by motleyslayer » 3 years ago

I'd really like to see what metrics/stats they were using to determine that MTG had a record number for sales last year or whatever it was along that line. Was it because of arena? were people buying a lot of sealed product? or were people just using stimulus checks on Magic because they had nothing else to do when at home due to being laid off? Because there's not really much you can do with paper unless you're just buying paper cards anyways just to have them or people are playing at friends houses when rules were less strict.

In my province, Ontario, I've been reading we might get a relaxation of a bit of the rules so hopefully I can play paper in a store soon

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Post by sangrosenfeld82 » 3 years ago

Card Slinger J wrote:
3 years ago
I think as long as the store has safety protocols to test people coming in If they're positive or negative for COVID-19 then that would be a step in the right direction such as temperature checks via forehead scanners. The mask mandate I feel has helped to some degree though I don't think it's enough. My LGS was lucky not to have anyone test positive for the virus thanks to the mandate though it makes me wonder what the environment had been had the mandate had not been put in place by government and health officials. Good news is that the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) recently approved Remdesivir as the first COVID-19 drug for hospital patients which is an antiviral medicine given through an IV.

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/467 ... employee monitoring

Also Wizards of the Coast recently announced a few days ago that they're pushing the current In-Store Play Suspension due to the ongoing pandemic til January 2021. So it's looking as though both Commander Legends and Kaldheim will both be Take Home Pre-Releases similar with Core Set 2021 and Zendikar Rising. Wizards of the Coast also mentioned that they will be keeping tabs on the state of In-Store Play on the second Wednesday of every month as they will make official announcements on those dates regardless of whether or not they choose to take action at that time. I meant to post this a few days ago but was exhausted from work and tweaking EDH / Commander decks.
at the expense of stores, I would say, I have seen more than once that these thermometers simply don't work. So, the employee could be fulfilling his duties, checking the temperature and the thermometer will read 34.5 degrees, for example. It's not possible. And this is not an isolated case. This has happened to me more than once. And I don't even know who needs to be charged for this equipment...

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Krishnath
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Post by Krishnath » 2 years ago

SpeedGrapher wrote:
3 years ago
I think paper Magic is doing really bad. Even my collector friend is not buying magic cards at the level he used to. He bought 1 booster box for Kaldheim. We normally buys at least 12 when a set first comes out. I really don't see any future normal events until 2022. I know magic was in a decline in my area for a few years now and this pandemic really stopped magic. Magic isn't over but I think all of the sales have gone online. Or have turned into grab and go sales. If people are still playing in person it's not at a store. At home magic with your friends is the only type of magic left from what I can tell. I'm in my bubble of virus free friends. That also lowers the amount of product all of us buy. There's no reason to draft every week. There is no standard. There is no modern. All of the normal things are not happening. There basically is casual commander and nothing else.

I know that's different for everyone but my magic spending has officially dropped to zero. I hope magic survives 2021 as I still like playing. I hope to go to a booster draft in 2022.
Be safe out there! Wear a mask! I miss my magic community! Virtual socially distanced hugs!
Well, you are wrong. WotC is showing record profits, the majority of which is from MTG (with D&D a distant but not insignificant second). Indeed, it is going so well for WotC that their parent company has effectively made them an independent subsidiary, giving them a lot more autonomy.
And I don't know if anyone here has kept tabs on other media, but we've already started to see the first fruits of said labor, there are a lot of D&D media on the way, including a series following everyone's* favorite "good" drow Drizz't Do'Urden. Indeed, WotC has started working closely with the primary authority on Drow R.A. Salvatore to expand the dark elves considerably (We are getting two new subspecies of drow that are not spider-demon worshipping cultists, the Star Elves who live in a hidden valley the cold north, and the Greenshadow Elves that live in a hidden nation in the jungles of Chult). And that is just D&D. Magic is exploding as well, the quality of the sets have increased considerably over these last couple of years, and the "recent" announcement of "crossover" sets with other IP's shows that they now have the resources to take risks. Additionally, in other media we are getting not only a Series based on MTG, but I've heard that there is at least one movie, possibly several, in the pipeline as well.

* I am using the term everyone loosely here. Personally I think Drizz't is overrated.
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Post by motleyslayer » 2 years ago

Despite the fact that we basically haven't been able to play paper magic in store for about a year or so, give or take. Magic has been doing great. It seems like stores in the US have been able to hold smaller level events and from maybe August to December of last year, some parts of Canada were allowed to have very small amounts of people inside to play.

A lot of the success of paper Magic has probably been to do with casual commander players who are still buying product and playing at home when allowed to have people over. Products such as secret lairs and all the alternate art product and whatnot probably has something to do with the success of paper magic too

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