Things become cool, because those things get you girls. Females rule the world. I love women, but lets face it, they decide what is cool. (not on purpose they might not know at all)
Why is poker, another card game so cool? Because you can make tons of money off of it, and fairly easily at that. I've seen random 18 year old kids just going off to a texas hold'em tourny and coming back with $800. (thats a crapload of money for a highschool kid) Girls like money, poker players get rich. Poker players are social, they read body language, they learn more skills on how to speak, they learn how to play a role (needed if you are trying to hit on girls). You cant do that with magic.
Any sport, you work out and get sexy body. You are social with social people, you get social skills, you can talk to the ladies, your sexy and you speak well (not like proper grammar) the girls like you.
Rockstars! Most of them were nerds who got beat up in school! But now they are rich and they make music people love. Girls like music and guys who make lots of money. Rock stars party alot and have alot of social interaction!
Now for magic, you sit, you get fat, you wont make very much money unless you are super pro. You really only play with a few friends, so your social boundries are small. Even though you go to events and play with people you don't know, you dont talk and party with them as much as a football player would with other teammates or members of other sport teams. Girls dont like fat unsocialized guys.
World of warcraft, you socialize all day with people, but its not in real life. You sit on your ass for hours and get fat. Girls dont like fat unsocialized guys.
Girls dont like fat, poor, unsocialized guys.
Maybe not even fat and poor! I'm sure alot of girls can deal with a fat guy sometimes. But its the social aspect. Sure magic is social, but your being social with other people in a small group. Its not easily spreadable like a sport.vIts too tight knit of a group that does not venture out unless its to venture to other magic players.
I think its all about socialization. Girls want a confident socially acceptable guy. The cool guys hang out with girls. The things the guys are doing, those guys who hang out with girls, thier activities are cool!
And all this makes me wonder. What the heck do girls even do for fun? Guys play video games, sports, magic, arm wrestle, go hunting, blah blah blah. What do girls do? But dont answer this! i might make a thread about this very question!
More girls need to start playing magic! We must recruit! Capture them and tie them down if you must! (but don't touch them innapropriatly you dirty pig!)
While I agree with a lot of your observations, I don't think you're giving the Magic scene enough credit. The fantasy realm has expanded endlessly since LOTR and Potter came into power, and with it came a lot of new, female fans. Magic may seem dorky at first, but if you're with a decent girl who has at least similiar interests with you, she should be able to recognize the artistic beauty and intelligent tactics in a game like Magic. All it took was flipping through a binder for my girlfriend to jump on board and start learning.
You don't want to run up to a girl in a cafe and show her your Affinity deck, but if she's a cool girl then she should at least give it a chance.
Girls were playing a lot of Magic when I was in college.
For anyone in High School, don't fret it. The girls all become 100x more cool and laid-back at college, when they realize that nobody gives a damn about anything.
Why keep it a secret? I'm not suggesting that you need to advertise, but there's no reason to go out of your way to hide it. If someone gets difficult about it you can always simply ask "What, exactly, is your problem?" That generally about does it for people giving you a hard time. Everyone I know wastes money on junk they don't need. Why should you be any different?
Put quite simply, its not that Magic itself is looked down upon, its the stigma of the types of people who play magic that affect the whole.
There are many more magic players, who wear things like chain mail, seem rather unhealthy in general (whether that be acne, pale complexion or obese, etc.), and the one to top them all bad grooming habits.
Those are the criteria that unfortunately dictate how everyone is classified and to the general consensus of the public, this is not very appealing.
That being said, unless you fall drastically into the above stereotype, there is no reason not to be open about it.
My parents have been trying to get me out of Magic for the past year now, convinced that it's "a stupid game for 10-year olds, not college-age growing men." I couldn't hear the end of it until I gave them some interesting facts:
The youngest player to ever win a professional magic event was Julien Nuijten, a 15-year old Dutchman who won the 2004 Worlds championship. He's yet to place higher than 16 since then.
The only other teenager to win a professional event was Remi Fortier, a 16-year old Frenchman, who finished in the bottom 100 of the World Championship 3 months later, which was won by Uri Peleg, an Israeli in his late 30's to early 40's.
The arguably best player in the world is Jon Finkel, a 29-year old New Yorker who has won over $300,000 in tournaments, a number only beaten by German juggernaut Kai Budde, a 28-year old who's won over $350,000.
Give them facts. give people numbers. $2.5 million, and a car, were given out last December at the World Championships. in 12 years of Professional Magic, close to $30 million in prize money has been awarded.
This isn't some kiddie game, and anyone who insists that it is needs to get thier facts straight.
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Because it is commonly thought of as an escape from reality rather than a card game, the fantasy setting doesn't help with that... While playing a game of poker or chess, people tend to leave you alone because it is acknowledged as a puzzle/game of logic. (then again there are those who will antagonize you for doing that because they feel like it is giving them some sort of leveredge on you, but that's just bullying...) With magic people don't see math or chance, they see some escapists trying to make themselves think they're warlocks. This causes an outsider to intervene and try to mend the broken ways of their fellow man, that means they think you look like an idiot disillusioning yourself. In most situations this applies only to the timmy/vorthos, and they get picked on anyway... and are the most likely to play it in a public place for the first time (then in the basement after that).
The reason it gets so popular after bootcamp is that the army guys want A. An escape and B. a way to have fun without killing each other over poker debts.
In conclusion, (and mind you this is a leap from what I was saying), the best way to get someone to take magic for the many things it is, is to introduce them to is in a way that makes it seem like a logical past time. Give a fairly 50/50 win ratio to bored people and they will pick up the rest from there.
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Brewing:
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The thing I don't understand is why Poker has become such a mainstream game and is generally accepted, but a game like magic that is undoubtedly more skill intensive and less luck based is still considered to be for random nerds and social outcasts. For some reason people view Poker players as cool "sharks" throwing caution to the wind and playing a manly game, but magic players are viewed as dorks who are playing childish things like angels and dragons.
because of the gambling part of poker not the playing of the cards part
I agree on the point that magic is not "Accepted" because other card games have tarnished the name of the TCG...But generally, whenever someone sees me playing, they're usually chill with it. Once in a while you'll get a douche bag who can't help but laugh, but oh well. Once in a while, when i play in school, someone will get so intrigued that they'll sit and watch and help the other person and I keep score which is nice.
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While I agree with a lot of your observations, I don't think you're giving the Magic scene enough credit. The fantasy realm has expanded endlessly since LOTR and Potter came into power, and with it came a lot of new, female fans. Magic may seem dorky at first, but if you're with a decent girl who has at least similiar interests with you, she should be able to recognize the artistic beauty and intelligent tactics in a game like Magic. All it took was flipping through a binder for my girlfriend to jump on board and start learning.
You don't want to run up to a girl in a cafe and show her your Affinity deck, but if she's a cool girl then she should at least give it a chance.
Girls were playing a lot of Magic when I was in college.
For anyone in High School, don't fret it. The girls all become 100x more cool and laid-back at college, when they realize that nobody gives a damn about anything.
Thanks to the guys at Highlight Studios for the great banner and avatar.
Trade with me http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=101483&highlight=" rel="nofollow"here.
Pics, or it didn't happen.
Also, I had some lvl 0 cubes sitting on the back of my toilet and one fell in. thank god they float!
There are many more magic players, who wear things like chain mail, seem rather unhealthy in general (whether that be acne, pale complexion or obese, etc.), and the one to top them all bad grooming habits.
Those are the criteria that unfortunately dictate how everyone is classified and to the general consensus of the public, this is not very appealing.
That being said, unless you fall drastically into the above stereotype, there is no reason not to be open about it.
And that was my $0.02.
Heres to my boys at High~Light Studios!
The youngest player to ever win a professional magic event was Julien Nuijten, a 15-year old Dutchman who won the 2004 Worlds championship. He's yet to place higher than 16 since then.
The only other teenager to win a professional event was Remi Fortier, a 16-year old Frenchman, who finished in the bottom 100 of the World Championship 3 months later, which was won by Uri Peleg, an Israeli in his late 30's to early 40's.
The arguably best player in the world is Jon Finkel, a 29-year old New Yorker who has won over $300,000 in tournaments, a number only beaten by German juggernaut Kai Budde, a 28-year old who's won over $350,000.
Give them facts. give people numbers. $2.5 million, and a car, were given out last December at the World Championships. in 12 years of Professional Magic, close to $30 million in prize money has been awarded.
This isn't some kiddie game, and anyone who insists that it is needs to get thier facts straight.
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
The reason it gets so popular after bootcamp is that the army guys want A. An escape and B. a way to have fun without killing each other over poker debts.
In conclusion, (and mind you this is a leap from what I was saying), the best way to get someone to take magic for the many things it is, is to introduce them to is in a way that makes it seem like a logical past time. Give a fairly 50/50 win ratio to bored people and they will pick up the rest from there.
Modern:
Burn
8-Racks
Brewing:
Modern Haakon
Modern 20-Ones
Legacy Meathooks
because of the gambling part of poker not the playing of the cards part
There's also a long history of supreme badasses playing poker. Magic, not so much.
Standard: RBoss SlighR
Modern: UFishU
Legacy:RImperial PainterR