Can I ask you a couple of questions about building a cube? I've been looking to build one because it'd be a cheaper/easier way of explaining Limited to new players than buying a lot of boosters.

Hiya! I'm Pavor Nocturnus. I like playing and I'm really into vampires. When I'm not going Bump in the Night
or spitting Fire and Brimstone at things like Tarkir block or Magic Origins, I'm actually quite a nice guy. I think.
*drops himself into armchair and opens can of beer*

Introductions aside, I got the most awesome custom made full-art Swamps for my birthday from a couple of friends.
The artwork looks just amazing and pretty Innistrad-esque to fit my vampire deck. Big full moons, gloomy manor houses,
castles with tiny torch-wielding mobs in front of them etc. Just beautiful

Oohh, can you post a picture? That sounds awesome.

You're in my chair.

I mean I see your point but if I'm "in" I'm pretty far on the outskirts at this point. I mean, I'm not really following the storyline and I haven't been for a while. Ultimately I'm only INVESTED in the creative community--M:EM and YMTC mainly--because I think that material is much more satisfying and artistically successful than the primary product.

I think it's more accurate to say that I'm part of the fandom's fandom.

It's a semantics question, to be sure. I mean, I consider myself a Simpsons fan, but I haven't watched a new Simpsons episode in year. So I think the fact that you still have an interest in stuff like the Weatherlight Saga and Planeswalker and so forth probably still qualifies you as being in the fandom, at least to my definition.

How about this: You're a fan, but not a fanatic?



Of course, I'm fine with you being in the fandom's fandom, too. Because that makes you a fan of me, and I like the thought of having fans!

I'd actually say you're part of the fandom, and a fan of the fandom, while not being so much of a fan of the actual media. I'm in roughly the same boat as you, and I consider myself part of the MtG fandom. I'm also becoming less of a fan of MLP although I consume a lot of fandom media (although I'm not actually part of the fandom) to the point that I'm basically only still watching the show to keep up with canon. MtG, being what it is in comparison to MLP, has different subsets of fans, though, and I was never as invested in the storyline as you (seeing as I came in as the whole thing came crumbling down). I would probably still play the game if I had people to play with.

Like, I can see what you mean about being "on the outskirts" of the fandom, but from my perspective the part of the fandom interested in the storyline was never part of the main bulk of the fandom anyways.

I mean, we're arguing semantics here, but I see you as part of the fandom because you're curating and encouraging the creations of derivative works.

PRE-EDIT IN RESPONSE TO RAVEN:
First off, I find it interesting that we both hit on the idea of "it's a question of semantics" independently of one another.

Liking the older material can, in my eyes, still qualify you as a fan, although again my definition is that doesn't make you part of the fandom unless you're talking about it and/or creating things using it, which you actually still are. The use of the word "fanatic" isn't too bad, if we take fanatic to mean someone who is playing the "keeping up with the Joneses" game, which you aren't.

Actually, if being "in the fandom's fandom" is a thing, I guess that's where I am with MLP?

I was looking at the Expanded Multiverse tumblr today and I saw the disparity about not using them, they, or their on cards. My first question 1: when will they ever stop making excuses about gender related issues in magic and 2: i think we should make a bigger fuss about it.

Please give me the TL;DR I don't read tumblr.

Using "he or she" instead of "they" is dumb, but not as dumb as Matt Tabak's argument that they have to do it the former way because a style manual says they have to

See below on my feelings about making any sort of effort where getting them to listen is concerned though.

@Raven & Luna:

I see that.

I suppose it feels important to me to make the distinction because realizing that I don't actually want to continue following the storyline is a Huge Freaking Deal for me? I mean, this is... god, probably half my life at this point that I've spent with this game trying to understand everything I could about its storyline. And I'm still working through my feelings after realizing I suppose that what we've seen over the last few years is actually so consistent a pattern of behavior running so counter to what I want to see from the storyline that I can't really justify lying to myself about it eventually someday getting better. Realizing that you've spent years banging your head against a brick wall is kind of unsettling, and it's not something I can really expend too much energy doing.

From that perspective, making a strong break feels important to me.

I'm doing a lot of that lately actually. My next StIT collection is probably going to collect my MLP articles and will pretty much represent a similar rupture.

Understandable.

I mean, as someone who has spent five years working nearly a full-time schedule, and yet still can't make a living doing what I went significantly into debt to be able to do, I feel I can certainly empathize with what you're saying...

Yeah I mean... I can relate to that situation as well

It'd be nice if my career and my hobbies weren't quite so parallel these days

I take a small comfort in knowing I'm at least not in debt for having gotten my degree.
But on the other side of things, my dreams have been dead for a while.

Wait, StIT collection? I feel I should know what you mean by that.

Raven and I both hit on the point that we're just talking semantics and ultimately, it's not worth losing your head over (if you can lose your head when it's a book?). I think I can empathize with your issues over it even if I haven't invested nearly as much time in anything. I mean, I've had to make a few breaks in my time with media I liked as well.

When I realized how kind of crap the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG was and that I'd sunk probably hundreds of dollars into it was a weird thing. I probably could have gotten some actual money for all those cards because a number of them were from back when the card game was brand new, but I had absolutely no use for them and gave them to some cousins who played the game.

I eventually had to make a break from the series of Pokémon games, after being invested for... I think a decade give or take two years. I just finally realized that despite each game coming out on progressively more expensive hardware I wasn't getting any more enjoyment out of them, and in fact hadn't achieved the same enjoyment since the third generation for the GBA. (I don't actually believe that was the best of the series, but that's definitely the one I poured the most hours into playing.

Most recently, I divorced myself from the anime Bleach, and from Toonami at large, because I realized that I hadn't actually been enjoying myself so much as I was keeping up simply because once upon a time, I had enjoyed myself.

Sometimes I wish I could be an accountant.

Bleach was a special case of deferred concept. What it began as was worlds apart from what it ultimately decided to deliver. The almost wince worthy progression of Ichigo's power suite was super dumb as well.
The side characters were ultimately more enjoyable, but for the sheer staggering pace the fights took, and the fact EVERYONE had to have one, killed all momentum the series could have built.

And then there was the issue with the filler....

I actually started to realize I didn't care for Bleach anymore during the summer (I think it was a summer?) when the second big filler arc, the one with the "ordinary humans" who could manifest their souls outside their body or something, wherein Uryu falls in love with one of them for no discernible reason. I purposefully didn't watch most of that arc, because it wasn't what I wanted from Bleach, and they had interrupted an important and interesting arc to play it. I kept watching the dang thing for some time after that, though, because it was an easy go-to weekly thing that I didn't have to stay up too late to watch. I finally said "I'm out" when it had it's Toonami finale, wherein Ichigo is told he will die, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of his life.

Honestly, bleach would have stayed interesting if it had just kept on being high school samurai ghost busters.

I just finished watching War on Geminar and while I enjoyed it, it really really made me miss Tenchi Muyo.

I still read Bleach. It's gotten way worse.

Hi. I'm Mown. I don't actually care much about AF&S, I just like this thread. Except when it talks about Steven Universe, which is way too often.
I'm a ymtc card designer that likes anime and cute boys. I'm also other things, but that should have you covered for a good while.

Is this something that has been a problem? I don't think this is something that has been a problem. Although I also acknowledge that I am way less likely to think of things like these as problems.



A pair of knickerbockers I bought arrived in the mail today. idk why I am so excited about this, but I think I've written daily updates about it in the steam chat I frequent. clothes are fun.

Hello! People around here know me as Aaarrrgh. If you think that is weird, ask me for my real name. I do not spend a lot of time in this area of the forums, and when I do I mostly lurk. But I am here, and I'm glad that you are, too!