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NOTE: The following is from an essay I wrote in April 2013.
Those who participate heavily in the culture of Magic: The Gathering have one thing in common. They need somewhere to go. Zeke Van Etten, an incoming college freshman said about playing the game, “it feels like we don’t belong anywhere else.” They find a place to belong at the game table, sitting across from other individuals like themselves. Those who become part of this subculture are outsiders in one way or another. The game allows them to literally gather together, in a way they would not be able to without the game to break the ice. As Zeke said, “I probably wouldn’t have as many friends if I didn’t play Magic, because I’m not that social.” Playing the game gives them a shield to protect themselves as they meet and interact with others, as well as providing them with an instant, immediate commonality.
Magic: The Gathering will celebrate its twentieth anniversary in August 2013 and is “the most successful game most Americans have never heard of.” (Slavin, 2004 , para 3). A collectable fantasy-based role-playing game played with, and based on trading cards, it deals with powerful wizards who can cross between universes, called “Planeswalkers.” The players war against each other acting as the Planeswalkers. Each player begins with 20 lifepoints, and through playing different cards, attempt to kill the other Planeswalker. It is an imaginative game, wherein the player participates in the story as if they are one of the characters. It has been called “Cardboard Crack” and can become highly addictive (Slavin, 2004, para 6). The game is produced by Wizards of the Coast, who also produce Dungeons and Dragons.
Zeke began playing the game on a Boy Scout trip when fellow Scouts taught him how to play. Usually players are inducted into playing by friends who teach them how to play. It is rare that people get into the game by themselves. One may suppose that the artifacts of this subculture would be the cards themselves, but Steve Barnes, a twenty-one year old combat veteran, and aspiring Magic Professional (Magic Pro), would disagree. To him the artifact that members gather around, (or more accurately, in) is the LGS, or Local Game Shop. He went so far to describe the shops as temples. He hopes to own his own shop one day and is already on track to do so. He works at a LGS that has plans to expand, and he will own one of the franchises. Steve played another popular card game called Yi-Gi-Oh when he was younger, but transitioned to Magic in 2006. He joined the Navy after graduating high school, and upon his discharge in 2012 found himself at a crossroads. “I went to a war and that changes you drastically when you come back, and I [didn’t] want to hang out with …twenty year olds that [were] immature anymore.” Finding himself without friends, he started going to the LGS and playing Magic with the people he met there. Now all of his best friends come from playing Magic. As Zeke said of himself, he was “Looking for people to have fun with,” and he, just like Steve, found them at the LGS playing Magic.
The social aspect of the game is the single biggest factor drawing people to gather together to play. Steve said that for “People without a social outlet, if you have an interest in things like this, it can become the most powerful thing in your life.” This is evident when speaking to him about the game. His eyes light up, and his speech becomes almost evangelical as he waxes eloquent about the virtues of the game and the community that surrounds it. For Steve, the community of Magic: The Gathering players is of paramount importance. It’s given him a place to belong and a purpose to his life after his honorable discharge from the military. As he said, “I’m all about expanding the Magic community as a whole.” He’s concerned about ensuring the transmission of the culture to the future. Some LGSs are not what one would call warm and inviting, let alone family-friendly enough for a mother or father to feel comfortable dropping their son or daughter off for a few hours to participate in or watch a tournament. This is a problem for the continuity of the culture. If new blood isn’t constantly being added to the “gene pool” of players, how will the game, and by extension, the community, survive?
There are three categories of people who play Magic: The Gathering: 1) Timmy’s. 2) Johnny’s, and 3) Spike’s. Timmy is what Zeke calls a “Nube.” They are the newest, most inexperienced players who are just staring out, or those who are simply superficially dabbling in the game. Johnny’s are the in-betweeners. They are quite above average in game play, and they are typically good at building decks of cards and being what Steve called “Brewmasters.” They experiment to find better and unexpected combinations of cards. Spike’s are the tournament players. They play to win, and if they win 9 times out of 10, but think they should have won the 10th game, they don’t walk away happy. All three categories of player are needed for the game, culture, and community to remain a success.
Ideally, all Magic players would progress from one category to the next. Steve is a mix between a Johnny and a Spike. “I want to win the tournament but I also don’t have a problem with the 8 year kid who doesn’t really know how to play. I don’t mind sitting there teaching him how to play,” he said. “This game is 20 years old for a reason. Eventually that 8 year old kid needs to be me 10 years from now, and Magic will be 30, and that’s how magic won’t die.” Steve described his playing philosophy as “Have some fun, get some wins, [and] maybe make some money.” Some players play because they just plain love the game. According to Steve, Reid Duke, a Pro Magic player says his first favorite thing about Magic is winning, and his second favorite thing about Magic is losing. These are the players who would play even if the world as we know it ended. Steve joked that if the zombies were storming his house, the first thing he’d grab would be his Magic cards.
To some players, teaching others to play is just as, if not more rewarding than playing for themselves. “I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I hadn’t taught others to be as good as me, or [even] better [than me].” Some LGS aren’t friendly toward new and beginning players, because of the atmosphere and culture perpetuated by the owners, and to a lesser extent, the shop patrons. The reason for this is simply the temperament of the owners and consumers. The stereotypes of Magic: The Gathering players as basement-dwelling nerds who like wizards and dragons (Steve referred to them as “Doritos Eaters”) does have some basis in fact, and when some of those people find their way into a position of power, they do not automatically lose their mistrust of people, or suddenly become extremely social. Some shops' demeanor and behavior is not socially inviting to the average person, which is why Steve and Zeke’s outlook on new and young players is so refreshing.
On the flipside of the coldness from some owners and players are the individuals who mock Magic players. In high school, Zeke would play with his friends during lunch, and kids would go out of their way to make fun of him and his friend, even picking up the cards without permission. “They can’t understand [Magic] the same way I can’t understand why they like sports.” He would usually try to come up with a witty retort to the mockers, which wasn’t hard, since they were not that intelligent to begin with. He learned to ignore them, but laments their behavior. “If you don’t care about it, why do you insist on making fun of those who do?”
There is a significant time and financial investment to become and remain a part of the Magic culture. At one point Zeke would wake up in the morning, go to the LGS, and spend all day there. That’s simply not sustainable for most people. That’s why a player like Steve gets a job at a shop, so that they can sustain that connection even while working. The game also inspires dedication, and in the case of Zeke, bodily modification through tattooing symbols from the world of the game on his arm. Players like Steve are convinced the time one puts into Magic will always pay off eventually one way or another.
There are many stereotypes about the game of Magic itself, but Steve says it’s intellectually stimulating, even if you don’t like dragons, dwarfs, and dryads. “The game itself appeals to me. I like puzzles, I like complicated things. I like the strategy. This game is like chess on crack.” In fact, many chess and poker players cross train by playing Magic to improve the skills they need in order to compete in the games they play. As Steve said, “Poker and Magic are [both] Romance languages. If you like chess or poker, you’ll love Magic. ” One former chess and poker player, Stanilav Cifka, recently won $40,000 in a Magic tournament and is now exclusively a Magic Pro. He said,
“The principle of every game [chess, poker, Magic are] different, but some things like managing stress, being able to keep concentration for a whole day, coping with losses, time management before the tournament etc., are the same for every game. And for all these games, you need to calculate the variations, so playing one of these games improves you in the others (Reinderman, 2012, para 19).
Playing Magic encourages next level thinking, and linear thinkers will not do well. From a mental preparation standpoint, if a fifteen year old gets to next level thinking, “He will crush high school and college,” according to Steve. “This game makes you smarter.”
The good fruits of this culture can be seen in the lives of those like Steve who it has helped tremendously. Steve suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Being involved in the community has helped him cope with the things he experienced during his military service. And so he is loyal to Magic. “Whenever good things, [or] bad things happen, I’m gonna roll with the cards,” he said. He’s not the only one who the game has helped. “Most parents [of Magic players]… say the game has sharpened their kids' mental skills, kept them away from drugs and gangs, helped shy children make friends and, like other sports, taught them how to win and lose gracefully” (Slavin, 2004, para 11). As Steve says, “The community is wonderful. It’s a fantastic support structure…My life is completely positively impacted by this game.”
References
Reinderman, D. (2012, November 22). FM Stanislav Cifka turns to magic, wins US $40,000. Chessvibes.com. 1-1. Retrieved from http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/fm-stanislav-cifka-turns-to-magic-wins-us-40000
Slavin, B. (2004, June 20). Magic the gathering casts its spell. USATODAY.com. 1-1. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2004-06-20-magic_x.htm
(All references to Zeke Van Etten, and Steve Barnes are from interviews conducted between April 5, 2013 and April 13, 2013. Their names have been changed.)
