As if my blog hadn’t managed to establish as a given fact, I’m a nerd. “Geeeeeeeeaaaaeeeek,” is a phrase that describes me and I have no reservations in that. Though I do remain steadfast in my un-dorkiness. But the splitting on hairs aside, I had a revelation while playing Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers on Xbox Live the other day. Magic: the Gathering (M:tG) (note: distinction is made between the XBLA title and the actual card game) is game designer training ground. Alright, let me rephrase that a bit more carefully. M:tG at its best is game designer training ground. At its worst it is what most online massively multiplayer games are, a race towards the nearest game crushing spoiler deck. However, those skills too are crucial for the game designer to stress and test their own designs. So, even at its worst it is a productive space for aspring game designers.
Shall we step back a few steps? Indeed.
M:tG is a long running collectable trading card game. I’ve been playing since the “unlimited” series of booster packs was available. Yes, I still feel the need to justify my interest in the game by refering to myself as someone who was playing “before it was cool.” I spent countless weekends driving to cons to play tournaments and was hoplessly mediocre in my ability to construct tournament competative decks. But, then again, I was fairly young and had not yet come to understand the core-mechanic of M:tG as constructing my own core-mechanic.
Which leads me to the overarching argument of this post. M:tG, despite being hopelessly geeky, is game design par excellence. The best decks combine a clear core mechanic: “deal damage quickly, eliminating a players’ smallest creatures and defenses,” or “plink away at a character while preventing them from dealing damage to you and rapidly raising your own life counter,” with a game narrative, “goblins are cool,” or “master of the hunt.” Constructing both an effective deck and a deck that makes narrative sense becomes quite difficult. Attempting to think through how a thusly constructed deck may be countered or played against. What are its achilles heels and what kind of sideboard ought to be constructed to optimially deal with those conditions, etc.
So while I could not appreciate it in my angst and hormone riddled teenage brain, I have come to appreciate M:tG in a new way because XBLA has forced me to return to my roots, and for this I thank it. 7.8 indeed. Now, while I recognize the shortcomings of the digital game for its handling of the M:tG timing nuances, shame on the 10 point system.