T w e n t y S i d e d

Another Magic the Gathering set, another Magic the Gathering prerelease. I try to attend each prerelease because it’s a really fun environment to play with new cards in a format that rewards creativity and a deep understanding of the card game itself. The events tend to be a good value for your dollar as well so crowds tend to show up. But this time around I was struck by something. You see, unlike the past 2 sets, WotC decided to return to their own IP. Wild, I know. But that’s not the crazy part. The crazy part is that it was the busiest and most crowded I’ve seen at my local game store. WAY more crowded.

What’s frustrating is that the large crowd could mean many things. Maybe the packed room meant that people were actually excited that we were finally back to a real, canon MTG. The room was certainly buzzing about the return to canon. Maybe the big crowd was caused by people’s excitement by the new mechanics of the set. The problem with that being there wasn’t much that was novel in the set except the return of the use of -1/-1 counters. The final idea in my head is unfortunately is the most likely, I fear. It’s working.

The Fortnite-ification of products is everywhere. Every property known to man is getting a Fortnite collab. Several crossovers have appeared in Rainbow Six: Siege including Halo, Yakuza, and Resident Evil. Call of Duty have had Predator, the Boys, and others. Magic the Gathering has had Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Avatar, Spongebob Squarepants and dozens of others. The child in me squeals with delight at the idea that Super Smash Brothers exists for other stuff I like. The adult in me worries about the watering down of IPs that I have a connection to.

So, when I got into Magic and fell in love with the rich, interesting world that was created around the product, I was excited to see it expand and develop. So you can only imagine the disappointment I experienced over the past couple years when the majority of product releases were either crossovers or weird sidestory nonsense where everyone is turned into an animal or everyone is suddenly a contestant in Wacky Races. We’re finally, seemingly getting back on track, for now. But next month is the release of a Ninja Turtles set.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m a hypocrite. I got into MTG for Lord of the Rings. I bought every commander deck when the Fallout decks came out. I tried out Fortnite when the Metal Gear Solid skins came out. I own multiple crossover skins in Rainbow Six Siege. I own all the characters among the several Mortal Kombat games that feature many horror icons. I really do love it when I have the opportunity to have a cool thing I like touch another cool thing I like. There has to be a balance, though.

Skins occasionally dropped every now and then is great. You get a taste of something you love. It can just be fun bonus content. Borrowing characters from other IPs are probably my favorite way of handling things, but that’s most easily done in fighting games like Smash brothers, Soul Calibur, and Mortal Kombat. A few missions or side quests like the Witcher crossover with Monster Hunter work great too. But when the crossovers start to take resources away from development of the main product it starts getting scary.

The sad reality is that bringing beloved IPs to a product that already has an audience tends to lead to friends bringing in friends to share the love of something they care about. That brings in lots of money because it provides a great excuse to do so. That’s how I got into Magic after all. My brother-in-law hooked me with Lord of the Rings. I hooked my friends with the Spider-Man and Avatar sets. When you provide lots of entry points into the franchise you tend to pull in lots of people. And it is making MTG’s customer base expand as a result. I’m glad that I have more people to play with. I’m glad that people get to mess around with their favorite characters in new ways with new rules. I’m just very worried that it might lead to the MTG property ceasing to exist as it’s own entity via the takeover of everything else under the sun.

Fortunately the threat of true destruction of original IP in favor of crossover seems to be exclusive to Magic the Gathering and Fortnite, so far. They haven’t abandoned their IPs just yet either. It may be a surprise to some of you that Fortnite even has lore to abandon but even they have their own identity under all the Peter Griffins hitting the Griddy. But they have diminished the recognition and value of their own original identity with this huge dump of everything else coating it. If they aren’t careful their original identity could be lost forever. That wouldn’t hurt the shareholders at all, but it would suck for those of us who care.

I hope that this issue doesn’t spread more than it already has. I hope that video game, board game, and card game companies don’t see dollar signs and pour all of the resources into an investment in growth via the borrowing off of everyone else. It will absolutely lead to a diminishing return as these IPs cannibalize each other. We’ve all seen what those industries do when they find a new way to milk money out of us. So I’d keep a close eye on it. Try to refrain from indulging as much as you can. Try to keep the bastards in check by not feeding them your hard earned dollars.

Ethan Rodgers