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Author Topic:   Magic is a funny game...
JayC
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posted November 14, 2012 04:00 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for JayC Click Here to Email JayC Send a private message to JayC Click to send JayC an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote View JayC's Have/Want ListView JayC's Have/Want List
I started playing Magic is 1994, I was 11 years old and it immediately spoke to me – a kid who had previously collected sports cards of all kind and appreciated video games and computers more so than little league and such. It also allowed me to delve into a world where I wasn’t just known as the ‘fat ass’ as I was amongst the cool kids on the playground and such. Although Magic was popular amongst even the cool kids for a minute, it inevitably returned to being a game for the ‘nerds’, more or less. The local card shop/s became a haven, in there you weren’t judged too much for what you wore, how you looked or even how you acted. Finally, at least for a few hours a week I didn’t have to worry about being made fun of or feeling inferior to the rest of the world that seemed to have it all figured out while I struggled to fit in.

I played through elementary school and then came Junior High. There, it became even more risky to admit what my Friday Nights, and weekend days for that matter, consisted of. My closest friends and I played religiously, Friday night, Saturday day and Night, Sunday day and Night – we were absolutely addicted and loved the hell out of this game. In fact, I remember during the weekdays when we couldn’t hang out and play we would actually try to play over the phone with an honor system – it didn’t work well but it gave us the illusion that we were playing cards which was all that mattered in our minds at the time.

As I said, in Junior High we couldn’t afford to admit what we did on our weekends, not to other guys as they’d most probably instantly make fun of us in a very public way and certainly not to girls as they’d never want to speak to us again. Not that I really would have known what to do with a girl at that point anyways, but that wasn’t the point at the time, either. Time went on, and I quit, came back, quit came back, you know – the standard OMG WTF IS THIS HOMELANDS ALLIANCES TRASH? Returning to be greeted with a beautiful thing known as Urza’s Block.

High School wasn’t much different than Junior High, in fact it was a lot of the same people and in some ways it’s as if no one really grew up because the slightest mention of “Magic Cards” would bring immediate persecution to myself or friends. Now of course, looking back at it all now, approaching age 30, I should have had the willingness to be OK with it and public with it – I probably would have enjoyed my time in these years more but those are tough years, especially in public Junior Highs and High schools in America. That said, I went through another start and stop for the whole ‘first REAL girlfriend’ stint. That was the end of my Magic career for several years, and not until Kamigawa Block did I return, happily escaping most of Jitte and moving right into Ravnica and Time Spiral.

At this point I was in my early 20’s and had the money to start buying things. I bought a lot then, actually. I was finding people with collections then, about 2002, at great prices with all the good stuff from the old days. As I found people on Craigslist, etc. I met up with them and picked up things to build up more and more of my inventory. One day after having a response on my ad on Craigslist I visited a home, it’s always a bit interesting doing this meet-up’s, homes or not, because you never know who you’re going to meet. Sometimes it’s a Mom selling her son’s old stuff, a Dad, or a 13 year old kid who wants the latest Madden for his Xbox. In this case, something very different happened though – this time, the cool kid answered the door.

You remember the guy who seemed to just be blessed with everything? His looks, his athletic abilities and even his outfits were just so god damn nice it was hard not to be jealous, and shy away from him. Well, that’s exactly what I did in school. I never talked to this guy, unless he talked to me and that seemed like a miracle when it happened. He wasn’t an *******, we just never spoke and probably because I was too insecure to do it or hang around his ‘crowd’. We immediately recognized each other and said hi, etc. and immediately went into the ‘I didn’t know you played’ thing. He was completely welcoming, nothing weird or awkward about it and I went in and he had a bunch of things laid out, boxes, binders, etc. Now, I expected to find one of two things: Power and Libraries of which he didn’t know the value of or Scathe Zombies and Craw Wurms that he wanted cash for. Old stuff, from when he may have played for a minute before it wasn’t cool. The thing was… that’s not what he had, not even close.

In fact, he had the old Tolarian Academy deck, Squirrel Deck, he had Cursed Scrolls and Masticores, he played, he played a lot and he played not so long ago. I couldn’t believe it though… how, and where? And HOW? This was the cool guy, but he was never at the local shop… and he never talked about it… so HOW? We got to talking and he explained he played at his Mom’s house on the weekends in a few cities over (split custody with his father) since there wasn’t much of a scene here, saying no one at school seemed to play. I couldn’t believe my ears… all this time, this cool kid was doing exactly what I did, and he probably did it better than me – but I was too chicken **** to say it, or find out. We spent a good hour talking and reminiscing about the old days of Magic, telling stories of the best games and biggest flops we had, etc. I bought his collection at a fair price and off I went feeling great, and so very stupid for assuming that all those ‘cool kids’ never played, and only us ‘nerds’ did.

In early – mid 2000’s my son was born and I went through a ‘divorce’, I had to leave Magic, and had a big falling out in general of my life. It was a good thing, I hadn’t figured things out yet in many respects. I certainly was not ready for such a serious relationship despite having my son – it was all very unhealthy and I was a big part of that problem. So, for the next 4 years I didn’t play MTG. I thought about it from time to time but focused on my son, my career and eventually my wife to be. Everything seemed to have fallen into place, things were on track and solidified and my sons mother and I started getting a lot better separated than we ever did apart. And so, I got back into things (again, ha ha). I spent a few months getting re-acquainted with the cards before attending any events at the local store but finally took the plunge and headed over.

And, after a few weeks of going wouldn’t you know it that I saw another guy from my high school days playing at a table with some friends. We both saw one another and immediately said hi and had the same “I didn’t know you played” conversation. It was literally a mirror of the previous occurrence some years ago. Since then, we continue to see one another at the shop and say hi and BS a bit about this and that, and it’s really great.

All in all, I have no idea why I posted this, but I thought it might be worth sharing. Maybe others have experienced the same, maybe others are younger and would benefit from knowing that things aren’t always what they seem, but I thought it was worth it if it touched on a few people.

 
Mr.C
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posted November 14, 2012 04:29 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for Mr.C Click Here to Email Mr.C Send a private message to Mr.C Click to send Mr.C an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote View Mr.C's Have/Want ListView Mr.C's Have/Want List
Cliffs?

Edit: Read it. Interesting story.

[Edited 1 times, lastly by Mr.C on November 14, 2012]

 
iccarus
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posted November 14, 2012 04:49 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for iccarus Click Here to Email iccarus Send a private message to iccarus Click to send iccarus an Instant MessageVisit iccarus's Homepage  Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote View iccarus's Have/Want ListView iccarus's Have/Want List
I played pretty much all through high school, even in the school cafeteria. I never gave much thought to anyone making fun of me as I preferred to just have fun. But I can understand why it would make some players nervous, especially if the went to a smaller school. I honestly don't remember getting too much ridicule for it, but I don't think it would have made a difference.

I'll freely admit to playing this game if asked, but I do not advertise the fact that I do play. That's mainly because I dislike having to explain how the game is not D&D.

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[Edited 1 times, lastly by iccarus on November 14, 2012]

 
malefices
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posted November 14, 2012 04:51 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for malefices Click Here to Email malefices Send a private message to malefices Click to send malefices an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote View malefices's Have/Want ListView malefices's Have/Want List
great story man
 
Volcanon
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posted November 14, 2012 04:54 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for Volcanon Click Here to Email Volcanon Send a private message to Volcanon Click to send Volcanon an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by iccarus:
I played pretty much all through high school, even in the school cafeteria. I never gave much thought to anyone making fun of me as I preferred to just have fun. But I can understand why it would make some players nervous, especially if the went to a smaller school. I honestly don't remember getting too much ridicule for it, but I don't think it would have made a difference.

I'll freely admit to playing this game if asked, but I do not advertise the fact that I do play. That's mainly because I dislike having to explain how the game is not D&D.


Shrug, I've played and enjoyed D&D. D&D is a lot more work, though, and finding a group that doesn't suck is very hard. I like games where I can be the villain protagonist.

 
Abinks
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posted November 14, 2012 06:07 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for Abinks Click Here to Email Abinks Send a private message to Abinks Click to send Abinks an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Volcanon:
Shrug, I've played and enjoyed D&D. D&D is a lot more work, though, and finding a group that doesn't suck is very hard. I like games where I can be the villain protagonist.

The hardest part of finding a good D&D group is finding people who don't just want to cheat to have all the cool items that allow them to blow through the campaigns. In my experience anyway...

 
ryan2754
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posted November 14, 2012 06:42 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for ryan2754 Click Here to Email ryan2754 Send a private message to ryan2754 Click to send ryan2754 an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote View ryan2754's Have/Want ListView ryan2754's Have/Want List
Yeah, I always had two groups of friends - my football buddies and my 'nerd' buddies. When I had friends over, I wouldn't combine the two, as the football guys wanted to play madden and the nerd guys wanted to play GoldenEye and magic.

Kinda funny though.
When I met my fiance, I didn't say anything about magic. I used to play every once in a while on Fridays, and just said I was playing cards with the guys. She assumed poker. Took me 4 years to tell her I played a game called magic.
Not to mention, I used to play on Sundays in college to go to prereleases. My roommates in college were also my fellow football teammates. I took my bookbag just to make it look like I was going to study, just in case they were awake.

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Myy
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posted November 14, 2012 07:15 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for Myy Click Here to Email Myy Send a private message to Myy Click to send Myy an Instant MessageVisit Myy's Homepage  Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote View Myy's Have/Want ListView Myy's Have/Want List
quote:
Originally posted by ryan2754:
Yeah, I always had two groups of friends - my football buddies and my 'nerd' buddies. When I had friends over, I wouldn't combine the two, as the football guys wanted to play madden and the nerd guys wanted to play GoldenEye and magic.

Kinda funny though.
When I met my fiance, I didn't say anything about magic. I used to play every once in a while on Fridays, and just said I was playing cards with the guys. She assumed poker. Took me 4 years to tell her I played a game called magic.
Not to mention, I used to play on Sundays in college to go to prereleases. My roommates in college were also my fellow football teammates. I took my bookbag just to make it look like I was going to study, just in case they were awake.


lol, I always enjoy this story because I'm the same way.

 
Volcanon
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posted November 14, 2012 11:51 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for Volcanon Click Here to Email Volcanon Send a private message to Volcanon Click to send Volcanon an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by ryan2754:
Yeah, I always had two groups of friends - my football buddies and my 'nerd' buddies. When I had friends over, I wouldn't combine the two, as the football guys wanted to play madden and the nerd guys wanted to play GoldenEye and magic.

Kinda funny though.
When I met my fiance, I didn't say anything about magic. I used to play every once in a while on Fridays, and just said I was playing cards with the guys. She assumed poker. Took me 4 years to tell her I played a game called magic.
Not to mention, I used to play on Sundays in college to go to prereleases. My roommates in college were also my fellow football teammates. I took my bookbag just to make it look like I was going to study, just in case they were awake.


In high school I had 'nerd' buddies and 'slacker' buddies. Oddly enough the slackers have turned out better than the nerds. One guy was near the top of his class in high school, failed 3rd year undergrad and ended up graduating with a major-less BSc after getting kicked out of his major.

I never really got into magic until I'd graduated and never got into D&D until I was almost out of undergrad (started playing with the foreigner game club in Tokyo).

 
flophaus
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posted November 15, 2012 12:36 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for flophaus Click Here to Email flophaus Send a private message to flophaus Click to send flophaus an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote 
I liked the story =)

MTG players are a funny bunch. It seems like we're just a total sub-culture of our own. Trying to explain it to people not in the "know" is nearly impossible.

I think that the whole culture of MTG players/collectors is basically just a microcosm of society/culture as a whole.

You have different demographics of people, different morals, different beliefs, different intelligience levels, different skill sets.

You have thiefs, cheaters, saints, winners and losers.

You have the generous and the ignorant.

Somehow, we flock to each other because of the community of oddities =)

I feel so much more comfortable talking to people that are into MTG about non-MTG related stuff, because they are usually never negatively judgemental about me unless I'm a jerk or are spouting off untrue/slanderous/or otherwise BS stuff.

I think many of us have been beaten down by life in some way or another, a lot of us are at least slightly insecure in the "real world". Most of us are smarter than all their co-workers, so we are in a constant state of aggitation. I also think that for some reason, most people I know that got serious about MTG have been far more successful in life than most other "jock/prep/jerks/idiots" we went to school with.

One odd thing, is that a lot of the younger MTG core seems to have relationship problems in their late teens and early 20's.

It seems like a lot of people are just still insecure and barely starting to come out of their social shells at this point...

Anyways, there's my lil "ramblings". =)

 
Bugger
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posted November 15, 2012 02:35 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for Bugger Click Here to Email Bugger Send a private message to Bugger Click to send Bugger an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by flophaus:
I liked the story =)

MTG players are a funny bunch. It seems like we're just a total sub-culture of our own. Trying to explain it to people not in the "know" is nearly impossible.

I think that the whole culture of MTG players/collectors is basically just a microcosm of society/culture as a whole.

You have different demographics of people, different morals, different beliefs, different intelligience levels, different skill sets.

You have thiefs, cheaters, saints, winners and losers.

You have the generous and the ignorant.

Somehow, we flock to each other because of the community of oddities =)

I feel so much more comfortable talking to people that are into MTG about non-MTG related stuff, because they are usually never negatively judgemental about me unless I'm a jerk or are spouting off untrue/slanderous/or otherwise BS stuff.

I think many of us have been beaten down by life in some way or another, a lot of us are at least slightly insecure in the "real world". Most of us are smarter than all their co-workers, so we are in a constant state of aggitation. I also think that for some reason, most people I know that got serious about MTG have been far more successful in life than most other "jock/prep/jerks/idiots" we went to school with.

One odd thing, is that a lot of the younger MTG core seems to have relationship problems in their late teens and early 20's.

It seems like a lot of people are just still insecure and barely starting to come out of their social shells at this point...

Anyways, there's my lil "ramblings". =)


Odd. I play MTG and I have very little difficulty in social interactions (except, say, the "party scene", but that's its own unique case). I've been told by many people I make a hell of a first impression, and I'm deeply intuitive socially - much more so than most all of my peers. Folks regularly describe me as "the charming one", and I've been told by multiple people I remind them of various Magnificent Bastard characters, like Ferris Bueller or The Doctor.

To balance out what sounds like an awful lot of self-effacement on my part (to put it tastefully; there's a much more apt - and crude - metaphor waiting that I'm sure we all know), I'll grant that I'm pretty rough in the relationship department, but I think that's to be expected considering I had zero interactions all throughout high school and am less than a year and a half into "the game", so to speak.


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majicman
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posted November 15, 2012 02:44 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for majicman Click Here to Email majicman Send a private message to majicman Click to send majicman an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote View majicman's Have/Want ListView majicman's Have/Want List
Nice story.

I never had to go through Magic when I was a kid. I tried to fit in with everyone as I liked sports, but also enjoyed games. I played D&D for a little bit with some of the nerdie friends. Played soccer and basketball with the sports friends.

I was playing family and strategy games on a monthly basis with a few of my friends (one married with a few teen kids who would join us).

One January in 1994, my friends brother brought over a "shoe box full of magic cards" and tried to teach us how to play. We had it all wrong, but it was a fun game to learn. Simple and everyone could appreciate it. We kept counters on the creatures as we didnt know there was a healing phase (ala D&D). The rules were not well defined back then that we understood them and the internet was not well understood.

The very next week everyone but me, showed up with their own cards and I was like WHOAAAAA and the game took off with my group of friends (I did pick up some on Sunday, Antiquities packs, yuk, lol). I say yuk, because trying building a deck with only antiquities packs and you will see a big problem. Had to do some trading to amp up my deck a bit until I picked up some unlimited decks.

A simple fun game, based on fantasy that had great art work and hours of fun ahead on fridays/saturdays for a while. After around Mirage we have all ebbed and flowed our way in and out of the game until about a year and a half ago. We now play very sporatically with generally preset decks we have or my favorite, cube drafting.

I have a feeling we are all getting older (other than my friends kids all over 45+) and will more than likely passing our collections off to the next generation in the coming year or 2.

 
mm1983
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posted November 15, 2012 06:48 PM   Click Here to See the Profile for mm1983 Click Here to Email mm1983 Send a private message to mm1983 Click to send mm1983 an Instant Message Edit/Delete Message Reply With Quote View mm1983's Have/Want ListView mm1983's Have/Want List
Magic is the game to bring together people of all ages and all types. In the last 18+ years I have made many friends in and out of the game thanks to this game. Just simply hanging out with those same people who play MTG outside of MTG and then meeting some of their other friends who don't play MTG and becoming friends with them. I still play casually and in mostly sealed/booster draft events but I mostly just buy, sell, and collect anymore so to me Magic is still a game but it's also a way of life. I work full time and still do this for a little extra income while increasing my own personal collection.
 

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