My friend Fuz ended up talking to me about this post, saying (effectively) 'I think we are past the point of (Universes Beyond) making Magic just a skin to put other IP in. It's done.'
Not long after that I came across The Professor's take on the Universes Beyond announcement. He specifically references a Rhystic Studies post to help explain how he's feeling.
I'll even include links to other essays the Prof talks about: The Twitter thread by Gavin Bull, and the essay by Gareth Edwards, for your reference.
Because with the support of the essays I can se what Rhystic Studies and The Professor want to but can't say because they don't want to get demonitized and/or want to maintain good relationships with the people who work at WotC.
I don't judge them for that, but I don't have that problem.
They are trying to speak out against the enshittification of Magic.
How do I know for certain that Magic is being enshittified? It isn't because I think WotC doesn't have talented people who care about the game. The opposite is true-but it is very difficult to get someone to believe something when their paycheck relies on the opposite.
No. I am confident the game is being enshittified because the parent company of Hasbro has been losing money except for Magic.
Hasbro doesn't know how to make or run games. They (seemingly) have ONE arm of the company that does, and they are milking it for all it's worth. They don't care about players. They don't care about what games mean to people.
They care about money. And when what you care about is money, everything else gets burned to the ground for money.
I still love Magic and I will probably always love playing Magic. But Magic has meaning and I am not OK with that becoming watered down into nothing. Like all art, it isn't just the object any more.
It's something bigger, and it's a goddamn shame to see that being pissed away for mammon.
Now Peasant Kenobi has a different perspective on this and while I appreciate his optimism and agree that Magic from a story perspective has always been an amalgam and pastiche of other work. But I feel like he's got some rose colored glasses on. Yes, Magic will change and yes, some people won't like that while others will and no, Magic isn't going to die.
Until it does, because that's how enshittification works (if you did the reading). Nevertheless, I feel the perspective is worth considering.
