MaRo on complaints about competitive Magic:
Here’s a good place to voice it. I should stress that we’re spending just as many resources as we always have (if not more) on competitive play. Yes, we added a casual play design team, but never shrunk the competitive ply design team. In fact, we added people to it.
in reply to:
Hi Mark. I hope you’re having a nice Monday. I think it’s great that you guys are focusing more on Commander and the casualty side of Magic, which has historically been more in the background. However, I think the health of competitive is formats is being neglected. Many of the formats I used to enjoy no longer have the same compelling and engaging gameplay that they used to. At first I though it was just me, but many people feel the same way. Is there anywhere I can voice this concern? Thanks.
Not a fan of Maro’s response here. The complaint was that the competitive environment feels less engaging, and he basically just said “but we’re throwing even more money at it, so you shouldn’t complain.”
It’s not a solution. How is that extra manpower being used to actually promote competitive play? Moreover, does he not see that the focus on casual has side effects on competitive? There needs to be more focus on outreach to competitive players, not just putting more people on the team.
Idk, feels like he missed the mark on this one. It’s not about bad design, it’s about bad promotion and engagement, not about the amount of resources being devoted to it.
Yeah I think he missed the mark as well and just leans on money spent instead of how the formats feel, how the design team is even doing, or how they could be better spending money.
Re: design itself, he kind of argues the opposite of what he wants too: they’re spending more on competitive design but it’s getting worse. Who knows if it would be even worse still had they stopped spending money on competitive design, but what they’re doing clearly isn’t working and he doesn’t even acknowledge that.
I think to answer your question, they don’t really have anything to say on how extra manpower is being used to promote or encourage competitive play. They definitely committed earlier this year to trying to revitalize competitive play but it’s definitely not enough and they never talk about outreach to competitive players or anything like that.
