[Retros] Ch5: Place of the Retro Logics

[Kevin Begley]

Andrew,

Magic (the Gathering) is, like FIDE chess, a game.
If you want to compare the success of MtG, compare it with another game.

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLPiJHGZkJ0
By comparison, MtG doesn't even have a decent parody.

If you want to draw comparisons with problem chess, you must draw
references to the problem form of MtG (which, I presume, you have yet to
invent).  Good luck with that (I think you'll find that MtG doesn't much
care for problems, as they do not represent an especially purchase-driven
enterprise).

I do sympathize with your enthusiasm for MtG.
I will even concede that MtG may be wrongly perceived by popular culture
(in all the same ways that Fairy Chess can be).

But, the analogies you make, between MtG and Chess (or Problem Chess) are,
well, a backfire of careless wizardry.

As I understand it, the ratio of rules to cards, in MtG, is only
compensated by a profound excess of cards.
Its selling point is not even the game itself, it is in fact a misadventure
of a game, which must masquerade as a dungeons and dragons fantasy, for the
purpose of sales.

You'll not find anybody seriously advocating for the benefits of teaching
MtG in our schools.
But, you'll find plenty of studies which suggest that there are benefits to
chess problems.

The best anyone can say about MtG:  children could be doing worse things...
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