‘Magic: the Gathering’: 20 Years, 20 Lessons Learned - YouTube by Mark Rosewater
What Mark has learned throughout 20 years of developing Magic the Gathering
Lessons
1. Fighting against human nature is a losing battle
Errant Ephemeron is a creature that cost (6)(B) and has the keyword Suspend which means you can play it cheaper if you wait 4 turns. After that, you can’t attack because of summoning sickness (newly casted creatures can’t attack) but they had hard time communicating that to the players.
So they ended up adding haste which allows creatures to attack the turn they come into play.
Humans can be quirky but they can be understood.
Change your game to match your players.
Don’t assume your game is one of the things that will change human behaviour.
2. Aesthetics matter
Griselbrand was a 7/7 creature with an ability to pay 7 life to draw 7 cards and it cost 8 mana.
In addition to understanding human behaviour, you also need to understand human perception.
Game components need to have the qualities to feel right: balance, symmetry, pattern completion.
Bad aesthetics distract the players from the game.
3. Resonance is important
Players come pre-loaded, they have pre-existing emotional responses.
Magic the Gathering didn’t invent zombies but built on top of existing emotions towards zombies.
4. Make use of piggybacking
In their Greek themed set, they had a Trojan Horse card. In lore, Troy == Akroan so the card was named Akroan Horse. During the playtesting, they changed the name to Akroan Lion but players didn’t understand the card and what it does. Once they reverted, everyone liked it again.
Another valuable use of resonance is that it can be used to teach game mechanics. Piggybacking is the “use of pre-existing knowledge to front-load game information to make learning easier”.
Mark refers the 10. Leverage what people already know as he talked about selection of plants and zombies to communicate why they operate the way they do.
The choices reinforce the game.
“You don’t have to teach people the things they already know.”
5. Don’t confuse “interesting” with “fun”
Players didn’t want to discard their cards to activate other abilities and make their monsters bigger. They wanted to play their cards.
There’s intellectual stimulation (“hmm, interesting”) and emotional stimulation (“ooh, this is fun”). We consider ourselves as intellectual beings but we make most decisions on emotional level.
When you speak to players on their emotional level, you’re more likely to create player satisfaction.
6. Understand what emotion your game is trying to evoke
While Mark Rosewater was the lead designer of a set, he wanted to create the sense of fear and dread.
In order to know what to put into your game, you need to know what you’re looking to get out of it. If something doesn’t contribute to the overall experience, it has to go.
In screenwriting, they say: “No scene is worth a movie, no line is worth a scene.”
In gaming, everything has to contribute to the emotional output, otherwise it has to go.
7. Allow the player the ability to make the game personal
Magic the Gathering has lands that generate mana. Mark impacted the game by making full-art lands and providing a lot of opportunities for customizing their decks to their own taste.
In advertising class, Mark learned that if you’re buying something and don’t know anything about them, you buy the brand you know best.
Knowledge ( Familiarity Preference ) == Quality.
Provide a lot of choices, give players different resources, paths and expressions. Give them the ability to choose and not to choose things.
8. The details are where the players fall in love with your game
Fblthp is a character who started its life as a piece of art in a card and players loved him. They started doing image manipulations to put him to other pieces, magic or not and making memes.
As players explore their choices, they look for details to bond with.
Details matter because the individual will bond with the game through details.
A small detail might only matter to a tiny percentage but to that percentage, it could mean everything.
9. Allow your players to have a sense of ownership
Some of the formats are created by Wizards of the Coast, others are created by the community. Most popular player made format is Commander that was originally played by the judges who spent all day judging and then wanted to have fun playing afterwards by themselves.
Give players the ability to build things that are uniquely their own. In Magic the Gathering, this often happens through deck building.
Players don’t just create a deck, they create their deck.
10. Leave room for the player to explore
Synergies!
Don’t talk at your audience, talk with them.
People are more invested in things that they initiated – get them to ask questions and they feel like they are part of the creation process.
Let players discover the synergies.
11. If everyone likes your game but no one loves it, it will fail
Split of 10s and 1s is better than all 7s (as ratings).
We prefer careds that evoke a stronger response, no matter if it’s positive or negative.
Players don’t need to love everything but they need to love something.
12. Don’t design to prove you can do something
People who create tend to have large egos because it takes ego to will something into life.
Don’t let your ego drive your design decisions.
13. Make the fun part the correct strategy to win
Unhinged was a humorous set that broke a lot of the Magic rules.
It had a Gotcha mechanic that triggered if player did something. This lead to the best strategy being not to do anything: don’t talk, don’t laugh, don’t interact.
If players didn’t have fun because they followed your rules, they’ll blame the game.
Players will optimize the fun out of the game.
14. Don’t be afraid to be blunt
People can miss the obvious. Sometimes you need to be blunt and tell them what they are supposed to do.
15. Design the component for the audience it’s intended for
Timmy/Tammy, Johnny/Jenny and Spike are three different player personas.
- Timmy/Tammy wants to experience something.
- Johnny/Jenny wants to express something
- Spike wants to prove something (like winning)
Molten Sentry was a coin flip card that Timmy/Tammy likes and balanced outcomes that Spike likes. But they hate the thing the other likes. So this card didn’t serve anyone.
If you try to please everyone, you please no one.
16. Be more afraid of bring your players than challenging them
A lot of people have risk aversion and will challenge new, risky ideas.
When you try something grandiose and it breaks, players will forgive you because you tried.
But when you bore them, there’s no forgiveness.
17. You don’t have to change much to change everything
Guilds of Ravnica came out from wanting to do a multicolor set but instead of a previous set where they encouraged 5-color decks, they created 2-color guilds and gave them story.
It became one of the most popular sets ever.
Too many components create extra complexity, muddy the message of your game and waste resources you can use later.
“How little do I need to add?“
18. Restrictions breed creativity.
Mark writes a weekly column, 50 weeks a year. Sometimes there are theme weeks and sometimes open-ended weeks. Open-ended ones are much harder.
If you want to your brain to get to new places, start from somewhere you’ve never started before.
19. Your audience is good at recognizing problems and bad at solving them
Mark interacts a lot with the fans online and in person.
A doctor asks how you are feeling because you know yourself best. But they don’t ask you how to solve it because they know that better.
Use your audience to discover what’s wrong but take their suggestions with a grain of salt.