Comments on: Plugging the Corporate Leak

By: Zealot Hill

Zealot Hill — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:34:22 +0000

I just abandoned magic online due to this increase, I can no longer play the game in order to redeem sets with this increase. It’s cheaper to order cards from suppliers.

By: Mike Fellman

Mike Fellman — Fri, 03 May 2013 23:56:46 +0000

The real issue here is monetary growth (tickets flooding the system) and card base growth. Right now, limited queues produce more cards and sap tickets out of the system via the 2 ticket fee.

This creates significant downward pressure on card prices, since fewer tickets are chasing after more cards. This is especially true in the short run, in the standard singles market.

A more complex model would also take into account “obsolescence;” namely, cards that rotate out of standard and aren’t not used in other formats. These cards essentially leave the card base but the tickets used to buy them remain in the system. In theory, without a way to allow tickets to safely flow out of the system, prices for standard cards would move up and up as the tickets from the last cycle stick around to bid up prices.

Since it would be insanity for Wizards to limit the number of tickets players can buy, its main instrument of monetary policy are the prices it charges to play in limited queues, constructed queues, and set redemptions. These help set the “siphoning rate” of tickets out the system. If these fees did not exist, card prices would skyrocket for all formats as the system was flooded with tickets. The value of the ticket itself would eventually collapse as well as frustrated players left MODO and dumped their tickets on ebay.

Cube draft is also an excellent way for wizards to siphon off tickets to keep the singles market from overheating. It charges a fee in tickets which shrinks the monetary base and creates no new cards. If cube were always available however, the permanent siphon might cause card prices to move down.

Check out my blog for economic news and analysis.

fx-fusion.blogsopt.com

By: Proginoskes

Proginoskes — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:24:06 +0000

As someone who just recently re-joined MTGO (I had left 5 years ago – or so) I actually found that I could afford to get back into the game at a much cheaper level than previously.

The fact that the Gatecrash cards are cheaper is a positive for all the constructed players, as well as the casual players who dont play in tournaments, and just push $ into the system, such as myself. – I play the pre-release queues, and then pick up the cards I want to play with from the secondary market. Thus generating a large amount of $ for wizards, without looking to get any “expected value” except for the enjoyment of playing the game.

There are lots of players like myself, who play and pay $ for the enjoyment of the game, and not as a means to earn money – If this change is affecting the markets as you suggest, then it is actually in favor of players who are looking to play the game itself, and not earn a living off playing a card game.

(P.S. we are also the type of players who love to play the “cube draft”, and enjoy it)

By: jkennethcarr

jkennethcarr — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:16:46 +0000

@OldSchoolMagic It’s true that for the vast majority of players, Magic is a -EV game, and you’re kidding yourself if you’re playing it for a profit. (And even if you have figured out how to turn it for a profit, the profit is likely to be so miniscule that if you really cared about making money you’d do something else.) However, EV is important to consider because for anyone with any kind of applicable budget, your EV dictates how many games of Magic you’ll be able to play per dollar spent. (E.g. If I draft and use my packs won to do more drafts, then the more prize packs I win, the less I’ll have to pay per draft, even though I’m probably losing money in any case.) XBox games are typically different because it’s a fixed cost to buy the game, after which no further transactions occur.

By: The_Great_Dustini

The_Great_Dustini — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:49:30 +0000

EV is what we expect to gain or lose from an activity. It can be positive or negative and applies to all manner of activities. So, for example, if Wizards creates an event which costs 10 tix and pays out 2 packs to everyone, the EV is 2 packs – 10 tix + the value of fun. If packs are 3 each, that means the EV is -4 tix + the value of fun.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 01:04:27 +0000

Expected Value, what they expect to profit from the thing

By: anamebyanyothername

anamebyanyothername — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:25:32 +0000

im sorry, everyone keeps saying “ev”
what is that? event value?