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I'm behind the times but just heard about Magic: The Gathering's upcoming Final Fantasy expansion. What have you heard? Do any of you play M:tG? (I used to but haven't in ages.) Anything in particular you're looking forward to?

(What are the chances we see some love for Tactics?)

I have a friend who played MTG for many years and also judged tournaments, so I've been talking with him about it some. I don't think I'll ever pick it up at this point for a lot of reasons, but I was thinking about getting some of the cards at least for the art.

And then I heard that they may have used generative AI to create some of the art, so now I'm not sure if I'm interested at all. 🤷‍♂️ I'll see when things actually start to drop.

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Quote (Rangers51 @ 13th December 2024 05:30)

And then I heard that they may have used generative AI to create some of the art, so now I'm not sure if I'm interested at all. 🤷‍♂️ I'll see when things actually start to drop.

Yikes, is it too much to ask to live in a world where we don't steal the labor (physical, intellectual, and any other kind we can think of) of other people? I'll definitely have to follow up down the line to see if they've done it or not.

I haven't played M:tG since 2004, but I'm rather sad about the direction WotC's taken the game over the last several years. All of these crossovers and tie-ins is but one of many decisions they've made seemingly to mainstream the game and appeal to the supposed wider audience. I don't really like it, and I don't know how well it's really working to keep the game alive, but it hasn't been my game for a long time, so I guess WotC can do whatever they want with it *shrugs*.

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Quote (Galsic @ 14th December 2024 17:22)

I haven't played M:tG since 2004, but I'm rather sad about the direction WotC's taken the game over the last several years. All of these crossovers and tie-ins is but one of many decisions they've made seemingly to mainstream the game and appeal to the supposed wider audience. I don't really like it, and I don't know how well it's really working to keep the game alive, but it hasn't been my game for a long time, so I guess WotC can do whatever they want with it *shrugs*.

Makes sense. I haven't played since about that same time, but I suspect that plenty of diehards wouldn't want other media properties getting in the way of the M:tG's own worldbuilding/setting/flavor.

Like, sure, I really enjoy the idea that there are Lord of the Rings cards, and Dungeons & Dragons makes a ton of sense both in- and out-of-setting, and even the Final Fantasy stuff melds perfectly well to my mind, but Stranger Things? The Walking Dead? Ghostbusters? Spongebob Squarepants? Not only do those not make me want to revisit M:tG, but also they make me wish we didn't have ANY "Universes Beyond".

Yeah, even as someone who has never played and never will, I can completely understand the misgivings around importing outside IP. I'm not sure if Hasbro/Wizards realized the Pandora's Box that they were opening when they first started down this road but even as someone on the outside, it feels weird for the actual game and definitely seems more geared towards selling cards to casuals like me.

Y'all who play, would it be a thing where major tournaments would start disallowing any of these UB sets to keep the game more "pure?"

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

I vaguely got into MtG back in the day -- played it with some friends, using their decks; tried to make my own virtual deck once, and also have a set of cards I picked up for free later on -- but I never really picked up the hobby.

Neat to see the crossover stuff. My first thought is actually to a MtG/D&D crossover where they wrote a splatbook for Strixhaven for use in D&D 5e, I think, though that's not really relevant.

The AI art thing is a drag, though. But to be fair I probably wasn't going to be buying any of this anyway.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 3rd January 2025 15:20

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I haven't played in a long time and have rarely had a positive experience with the game due to the behavior of other players, but I do like MTG art. The Generative AI thing is not surprising if true as WotC has been making bad choices for years from what I've heard. I got bombarded with people telling me about the collab the moment the first pictures were released so I'm unfortunately already jaded to it. It's likely that while we'll definitely see cards from every game they've made they're going to focus on 7 due to the R series being in progress. MtG is also kind of famous for scalpers so I imagine that the cards are going to get extremely expensive.

But to be perfectly honest, I'd really like a large print of the Kefka card. It's absolutely stunning.

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Last I heard of WotC and AI art, they had promised they wouldn't be using it in published works (but would, it seems, use it to aid in the design process), but given how cagey they've been, I wouldn't put it past them to change their minds on that front.