Hi, I'm Jason Waddell, an American living and working in Belgium. I recently started writing Cube articles for ChannelFireball.com.
I am relatively new to Magic, and come from a background of working with Major League Gaming, a company that creates competitive rulesets and gametypes to be used for tournament play. I think there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding this kind of approach, and perhaps the Spike psychographic in general. Let's take a pretty classic example. When Halo 2 was released, Bungie released it with some pretty atrocious gametypes. These matches basically revolved around hoping your team spawned closest to some power weapon of absurd vehicle, and then holding that position for the remaining 10 minutes or so. Games were often virtually determined in the first 30 seconds, were extremely frustrating at a competitive level, and left people extremely dissatisfied.
A lot of the confusion, in my opinion, assumes that people are dissatisfied with losing. The dissatisfaction comes from playing in an environment that is not presenting you with a high density of interesting decisions. The games were boring and frustrating. We all have opportunity costs. If one game isn't cutting the mustard, hell, there are thousands of other out there. Naturally, the push for better rules and gametypes came from the top. The players at the very top of the leaderboard wanted an experience that was worth their time. It probably comes as little surprise that these players were also the ones winning oversized checks in Halo 1, 3, 4, etc... Players who not only recognized the components of fun, but understood the decision dynamics so well that they excelled at them themselves.
Much of MLG's growth in that period came from everyday players who were immensely dissatisfied with that Bungie's gametypes had to offer. Regular living-room controller jockeys who had no intention of ever attending a tournament, but wanted settings that could hold their interest.
I believe in the Magic community, that there is a deep craving for the sort of good design that brings us to Magic in the first place. So far, Cube design has catered to the casual, the players who want to see big things happen and tell stories to their buddies. There's nothing wrong with this, but it really does nothing for my psychographic. I'd do something else with my time. In the world of games, there are casual variants (mods) that do goofy and over-the-top things, and variants like DOTA and Counter-Strike that are so undeniably good that they spawn an industry of their own.
My goal is to study the things that make Wizards' product great, and push week after week to make my design better. I want to make a set that is so undeniably good that tournament players can't help but love it. It's a labor-intensive process, and I think there's a tendency to underestimate what it requires ("if you don't like something, just cut it"). Maybe I could get there on my own, but I know I'll reach a higher potential from the input of minds like yours. Whatever your cubing experience, I believe we can come together to help each other make something truly great.
I am relatively new to Magic, and come from a background of working with Major League Gaming, a company that creates competitive rulesets and gametypes to be used for tournament play. I think there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding this kind of approach, and perhaps the Spike psychographic in general. Let's take a pretty classic example. When Halo 2 was released, Bungie released it with some pretty atrocious gametypes. These matches basically revolved around hoping your team spawned closest to some power weapon of absurd vehicle, and then holding that position for the remaining 10 minutes or so. Games were often virtually determined in the first 30 seconds, were extremely frustrating at a competitive level, and left people extremely dissatisfied.
A lot of the confusion, in my opinion, assumes that people are dissatisfied with losing. The dissatisfaction comes from playing in an environment that is not presenting you with a high density of interesting decisions. The games were boring and frustrating. We all have opportunity costs. If one game isn't cutting the mustard, hell, there are thousands of other out there. Naturally, the push for better rules and gametypes came from the top. The players at the very top of the leaderboard wanted an experience that was worth their time. It probably comes as little surprise that these players were also the ones winning oversized checks in Halo 1, 3, 4, etc... Players who not only recognized the components of fun, but understood the decision dynamics so well that they excelled at them themselves.
Much of MLG's growth in that period came from everyday players who were immensely dissatisfied with that Bungie's gametypes had to offer. Regular living-room controller jockeys who had no intention of ever attending a tournament, but wanted settings that could hold their interest.
I believe in the Magic community, that there is a deep craving for the sort of good design that brings us to Magic in the first place. So far, Cube design has catered to the casual, the players who want to see big things happen and tell stories to their buddies. There's nothing wrong with this, but it really does nothing for my psychographic. I'd do something else with my time. In the world of games, there are casual variants (mods) that do goofy and over-the-top things, and variants like DOTA and Counter-Strike that are so undeniably good that they spawn an industry of their own.
My goal is to study the things that make Wizards' product great, and push week after week to make my design better. I want to make a set that is so undeniably good that tournament players can't help but love it. It's a labor-intensive process, and I think there's a tendency to underestimate what it requires ("if you don't like something, just cut it"). Maybe I could get there on my own, but I know I'll reach a higher potential from the input of minds like yours. Whatever your cubing experience, I believe we can come together to help each other make something truly great.
