Another day another delay. This time it wasn't work related - it was due to a new set release for Magic the Gathering. Yes, it's my dirtiest little secret I've just let you in on: I'm addicted to a collectible card game made for children.
Well, maybe that isn't the most honest way to put it. A huge portion of the game's target demographic is definitely teenagers, but as I get older I realize another, perhaps larger segment, are those who used to play as children but still play as adults. It's crazy to think that this game came out 30 years ago. It had this reputation back then of being darkly occult. It wasn't, of course, we were just riding on the coattails of the end of the satanic panic, an era dominated by an irrational fear of satanists and black magic. Conspiracies surrounding Aleister Crowley and playing Led Zeppelin records in reverse to uncover their evil hidden meanings were in vogue. Come to think of it, this was probably one of the early birthplaces of the modern day QANON nonsense. Because of all of this, when we came into our teenage years there was something rebellious about playing this nerdy card game. I think it was still too early for the game to be considered nerdy, actually. This was before the absolute craze that Pokemon caused, and all of the subsequent copycats that would follow.
Magic the Gathering was a fun strategy game for kids who might have been bored playing chess. Personally, I liked playing chess too, but that shit was nerdy as fuck. Magic was edgy and cool and grownups were saying it was evil and we shouldn't play it. As a side note, I think adults need to be more careful of this type of thing because it doesn't deter kids, at all - it encourages them. But that's another discussion for another day. I think part of its popularity back then was that a card game was simply more transportable than a big bulky board game. We would just stuff our decks in our schoolbags and play during lunchtime, or after school. It gave us a more mentally stimulating way to pass a rainy day before video games would boom at the start of the console wars. When we got older, we'd meet at someone's house and we'd spend hours drinking beer that we illegally procured. One of the most interesting things about the game was that there were so many different combinations of cards that could be used. A thing that surely promoted adoption was that it could be played 1:1 or in a large group. It required careful decision making and strategising in order to win.
Now, all of this happens digitally. I haven't bought paper Magic cards in over 20 years. Today you can have an entire library of decks and dozens of different sets of cards in your pocket, and you can play anywhere you have an internet connection. Times have changed. None of us would have imagined that back when we were playing this as pimple-faced teenagers hissing through our metal braces, there would come a day 20 years into the future where you'd be able to play with someone across the world via a little glass tablet in your pocket.
Shifting the game into a digital space does come at a cost, however. As I mentioned, one of the best things about the game was playing in physical space together - it was very social. Playing a game on your phone with someone who isn't in front of you is something substantially different. It's solitary. The game manufacturer also figured out how to squeeze every last drop of adrenaline and dopamine from the user during the gaming experience. The game quite often has me squealing, screaming, flying off into a fit of rage or, at other times, howling with triumphant glee, proud to have figured out the puzzle to win the game. They've figured out how to make it intensely swingy. This, when paired with the hurried pace of the turn-clock, the snazzy animations and colourful flashing lights, all encourage an addictive kind of interplay between the user and the game. You find yourself queueing up for game after game, like a chain smoker. Each blast of dopamine and each blast of frustrated anger propels you into the next match.
They've changed the game. And not, I suspect, in a good way.
I find I'm happier when I'm not playing. There's probably something unhealthy about rapidly fluctuating between episodes of mania and depression for several hours a day. This is a cry for help.
I'm out of time for today.
No comments:
Post a Comment