Magic: the Gathering Arena brought me back to my childhood
Magic: The Beginning
My brother once killed me with three skeletons.
In the next fight we had, I incinerated him with a flaming ball of fire.
It was the year 1995, and two young boys would be in their parents’ room, facing each other, a pile of cards between them. Magic: the Gathering was a card game my brother and I had discovered from a dusty game shop, and there was just nothing like it. Each of us played the role of a powerful wizard, or “planeswalker”, and the game involved head to head battles between rival planeswalkers fighting for dominance over a land called Dominaria.
There was, as I learnt very much later, a proper way to play the game. There were, as I also learnt very much later, immense value in some of the cards found in some packs you could purchase.
But to two boys in 1995, nothing mattered. Not the price of the cards, and certainly not playing the game properly. What mattered was the scene that was unfolding in the minds of two brothers, slinging spells and summoning creatures to aid our cause. It was a hell lot of fun.
Magic: The End
In a narrative all too familiar to anyone who has bought into a Collectible Card Game (CCG), it soon became apparent that the game was becoming more and more expensive to maintain, and by “maintain”, I mean saving chunks off our pocket money to buy packs of cards to expand our collection. There was also the distraction of other games appearing in the market as competition to Magic, and the whole draw of playing digital games on the Super Nintendo that we had. The pile of unplayed cards gradually got higher and higher until it was packed away and never saw the light of day again.
As time went on, my brother and I grew up, got involved in our own lives. I continued gaming, but went on to pen-and-paper roleplaying games and boardgames. The memory of slinging spells at my brother in Magic the Gathering did pop up once in a while, but I would often brush the game aside as a ‘waste of space and money’, that image of the pile of cards at the top of my cupboard somewhere languishing in the darkness. In fact, I would be against the entire format of CCGs itself for a good number of years, preferring instead fixed card packs as compared to the randomised packs of cards you would get in CCG packs.
Magic: The Revival
Perhaps one of the things I had not realised when I was younger was that games revolve around a community, and that having someone you know play the game does so much for bringing you into a game.
One of my best friends had started playing Magic again, as he had found a community in Vietnam. We had spoken about it, and while I secretly wished his bank account all the best, I was also glad that he had found a game that he could enjoy with his community of gamers.
All this while, the memories of playing the game continued to bring me back to the Magic: the Gathering webpage. I watched Youtube videos of people playing the game, and couldn’t help but realise how elegant the ruleset is, by today’s standards, for a game that has stuck around for so long and which has not changed its core mechanics.
And then I found out from another gaming mate about an officially licensed online client, Magic the Gathering: Arena, which allowed me to go online and play the game with people around the world. I immediately downloaded the application, created an account and played a game. And then another. And three straight hours after. I even ended up spending some money buying some card packs for the game to expand my online collection. I was still distinctly aware that the cards I would get were random, but it did not bother me very much.
Perhaps it was pure nostalgia that fuelled my renewed enthusiasm for the game, but I would have to say that being able to play quick games against multiple online opponents has brought new appreciation of the game for me. It could also have something to do with not having to deal with an entire shelf of cards somewhere at the top of my cupboard.
But what I really think it is, is what brought me to Magic: the Gathering in the first place: the joy of putting your shoes into the role of a wizard and flinging spells at an opponent. Because that IS what a game is at the end of the day, isn’t it? A portal to another world, a chance to be someone else for a moment, and a chance to finally kill your brother (to my brother: just kidding).
So if there is someone from Wizards of the Coast reading this, thank you, for bringing me back to my childhood, even just for a little while.
