Joined: Feb 05, 2014 Posts: 1347 Location: Berk
Identity: Dragon
I have a request. If discussion of Ixalan outside of the Spoiler Room subforum turns to details of card leaks and data not otherwise officially presented by WotC could you please put it in a spoiler block with an "Ixalan leaks" tag?
For example I now know something about Ixalan that I will post in the spoiler block below due to unfortunate alignment of discussion of the topic at hand and the relevance of leaked information:
Ixalan Leaks
It's not much of a stretch but I now know for certain that there will be pterosaurs in Ixalan with the subtype Dinosaur attached to them
It's nobody's fault. Like I said, the information came up naturally in the course of conversation and it was a perfectly reasonable bit of information to provide given the circumstances save for the fact that it wasn't supposed to be public knowledge yet. This particular bit of information doesn't bother me quite so much as others because it's not much of a stretch of logical leaps given what I know of WotC practices, but I'd like to nip this issue in the bud if possible.
If I may rant a little though while I'm on the subject of leaks, and the Ixalan leaks in particular. WotC ran an article a year and a half ago (when OGW had some big leaks) on why leaks are bad and I'd like to reemphasize that here. I think leaks are terrible for the game. And these leaks for Ixalan are even more egregious than normal because it's not even for the next set, it's for the set after it. I know the setting is lit and the concept is hype AF, but there's a serious problem with releasing the information right now: We don't get to do anything with the set for 3.5 months. Hype is a real thing and for better or worse it dies down. People crave new and exciting things, that's normal. In fact that's what makes our game so great, we get new stuff every other month or so and new sets every 3 months. This hype over new cards is also what sells packs and gets people to buy singles. In addition to making WotC money these purchases of cards let people brew and playtest and get excited over cool new synergies. If someone leaks info early they ruin the timing of the hype. People simply aren't as interested when it comes time for the set to be released. Sure there will still be some level of interest in finally getting to play with the real cards, but the specifics are now long since known and dissected and known. Of course the interactions still need to be tested, so there's still that, but people miss out on a not insignificant amount of psychological stimulation by reading leaks early.
I'm sorry if most people have read the article already and already know the arguments, but these Ixalan leaks actually have me angry. I honestly hope WotC finds whoever is supplying this information and revokes player privileges as appropriate for a year or two. Something like what they did when the New Phyrexia god book got leaked sounds appropriate here. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/ar ... 11-04-28-0
Let me clarify that by no means do I think nobody should discuss the leaks. The leaks have happened and the damage has been done. It's up to us as a community to decide what we want to do with that information. If you want to talk about it, please, go right ahead. You don't need mine or anyone's permission. That's your prerogative and your right, but please consolidate it to the Spoiler Room or put it in a spoiler block at least on this forum.
Sorry about that. I should have been more mindful about it even when it's a minor thing like that.
For that matter, though I'm someone who'll look at leaks, I agree with you that the leaks are bad. In one quick hit, both the hype for Hour of Devastation and for Ixalan have suffer - "Hour? What do I care for that? Lookit Ixalan!" - "Ixalan, why should I care? That was mooonths ago, wasn't it?" (and yet, some people seem to think this is a great marketing strategy that Wizards employed on purpose) And of course, there are quite a few things that we don't have the context for that are currently hotly discussed but will barely get a meh when they're resolved, rather than the "oh, so that's what it means" it's probably supposed to get.
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