MTG Head Designer responds to criticisms
Wizards of the Coast announced Universes Beyond last week, revealing that Magic: The Gathering crossover products with The Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40,000 are in the works. While many fans are excited to see their favorite characters from those popular fantasy franchises featured in official Magic: The Gathering cards, some fans in the Magic community have criticized WOTC’s decision to bring characters from other IP’s to the popular trading card game. Shortly after the announcement, fans on Twitter re-shared one classic Cardboard Crack comic strip that depicts an imaginary future of Magic where players are casting various characters from popular films and TV shows.
While players have expressed how they fear that Magic is heading to that kind of future starting with the release of Universes Beyond products, Magic head designer Mark Rosewater shared his thoughts about their criticisms in a recent Blogatog post.
“As someone whose job it is to picture future nightmare scenarios, I’ll be honest, it’s pretty tame versus other things that could happen. Let’s ignore the combinatorics of it happening when 95+% of the cards are Magic IP, and look at the core of the issue. Right now a Greek-style God, a mummy, two Squirrels and an animated gingerbread cookie with a ninja sword can jump into a car and attack. How far away is that from another IP or two mixed in? Magic, at its core, is about a multiverse of vastly different flavors mixing together. So no, I don’t see it as much of a ‘bad thing’ as you do.”
Rosewater brings up a good point: Magic has featured different worlds inspired by various mythologies and fantasy themes in its lore, but some players believe that mixing an IP to the game’s 25+ years of lore just ruins the core of MTG’s story.
What do you think about Rosewater’s response? Do you agree or disagree? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
