neferpitouus:

I think the best way to think about wizards of the coast when evaluating their decisions regarding magic, is not to think of them as a company that sells games, but a company that sells collectibles. The game is the most popular way to engage with the collectibles, and the biggest driver of sales, but they aren’t trying to sell you a game, they are trying to sell you cards. Wotc does have an interest in maintaining the health of the game and making it accessible, because a wider playerbase means greater sales, but those are ultimately dependent on to what degree the game (or really, the individual games that make up magic) is itself a driver of sales. So when you ask “why doesn’t wotc reprint fetchlands to make the game more accessible”, the answer is because their interest in maintaining the health of the game will always be secondary to their interest in withholding high-demand collectibles to sell later for an increased price. If Wotc could profit more from cutting support to the game entirely and just selling premium cards, they would do it.

And to that, Wotc has, over the last couple years, been transitioning more and more into a model which exclusively sells collectibles. Stuff like Mythic Edition, Arena Pets and Card Styles, Collector Boosters, and Secret Lairs- products which carry an increased price point but offer nothing of material consequence to the game itself. This model is strengthened by the degree to which the model of periodic set releases have accustomed Magic players to just buying the shiny new thing. Add to that the limited time frame given each product, as a way to trigger impulsive buying habits, and the focus on these premium collectibles has proven to be an extremely effective way for Wotc to print money.

Which isn’t really to say that I think Wotc’s going to kill Magic just to sell premium cards, since the draw of the premium cards is that you can play them, but the intense focus which they are giving to premium cards should illustrate how Wotc’s priority is in selling you collectible products. Especially now with the door opened to franchise crossovers, whose job is to pull people into Magic’s consumerbase by selling them collectibles respective to their non-Magic interests. I don’t think Magic’s dying and the game’s still fun but Wotc literally has only an incidental interest in maintaining the health of it, and at this point I can’t seriously see buying into the game as a reasonable option when Wotc has become cognizant of the fact that the game is only secondary to their success. If your only interest is in the game and you don’t care about the collectibles, you should proxy your cards instead.