How do you distinguish between criticism being the majority opinion or just a vocal minority online? Several online communities are mostly just bashing every single decision you guys make. I'm checking in as a fan of Universes Beyond, eternal legal un-cards, and Alchemy on arena. It's exhausting seeing almost nothing but anger and derision directed at everything, but I don't know if I'm in the minority, or they are. Not saying I agree with every WOTC decision of course!

We have a lot of data we can look at (market research, sales, play, digital, online metrics, etc.), so we have tools to understand how the majority are feeling about things. The echo chamber of the Internet can definitely warp perception. For example, you would have thought from the reaction of the Internet that the Walking Dead Secret Lair was universally despised, yet it went on to be the best selling Secret Lair at the time.Also, I have a lot of people individually writing to me, so I get to hear a wide variety of thoughts that people might be unwilling to share publicly.

Mark - I think the main reason people are upset about stickers is because they are eternal-legal. I myself am very excited to experience them in the limited environment of Unfinity, but will feel uncomfortable seeing them across the table in commander, as it feels too whacky compared to the “normal” style of gameplay which I have become accustomed to over many years. Even though stickers mechanically work within black-border rules, I can’t help but view them as silver-border territory, which I feel requires a certain “goofy mindset” to enjoy. I think it’s wonderful that Magic continues to push boundaries (it’s the reason the game keeps me invested and excited) however I believe it is equally critical to provide players with the option to “opt-out” should they feel that a new set/product/mechanic does not resonate with them. A good comparison would be the frustration caused by the mechanically unique Universes Beyond cards (The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, etc). From my perspective, the majority of frustration was not caused by the creation of these IP crossovers, but rather the inability of players to opt-out of interacting with (playing against) these cards in eternal formats. Thankfully, WOTC addressed this frustration by agreeing to print “Universes Within” versions, which more-or-less seems to have satisfied the upset community. In the same way that players were afraid of being unable to “opt-out” of interacting with certain cards (non-Magic IP’s), I feel the same anxiety towards being unable to “opt-out” of playing with a certain mechanic (stickers) that has now become “welded” to the game’s structural foundation. Thanks for taking the time to listen and respond to people’s frustrations and concerns, and I hope that you realize there is a powerful, protective love of “Magic” at the core of which all these emotions are orbiting. P.S. have you seen The Professor’s latest video on stickers? He sums up these concerns quite nicely.

Here’s the problem with “opt in”. It can’t work. It presumes that players all want certain things, and are equally hesitant about the same things that they would prefer to opt-in to. But that’s not how the Magic audience actually functions. (I know the echo chamber of social media often creates the illusion that everyone wants the same thing, but it’s just that, an illusion.)Each player has their own list of what they want in the game and what they don’t. And those lists are all over the place. Let me give you an example. Here are some of things that you would have to opt in to if we removed things that a number of players have asked be removed from the game(and this is just a small version of the list off the top of my head): violent imagery, land destruction, black cards, fairy tale references, anything using counters, double-faced cards, counterspells, hybrid mana, outside play aids, stealing effects, humanoid animals, other IPs, discard, anything creating tokens, skeletons, cards that are humorous in nature, copying effects, anything “modern”, cards accessing cards outside the game/from the sideboard.Everything you love about the game, that makes Magic Magic for you, someone else despises and wishes it weren’t part of the game. That’s why I like my buffet metaphor. The key to our success is to offer lots of different things and let the audience pick and choose which parts they want to partake in. But what if my opponent plays thing I don’t like? Well, that’s what playing a customizable game is all about. You get to experience what makes other players happy. Maybe you’ll come to realize it’s not as bad as you imagined, maybe you’ll even come to love it yourself when exposed to it, or maybe you’ll continue hating it, but accept it as a by-product of you getting to play what you love. That’s the core of the issue. It’s not our job to keep people from being exposed to things they hate, but others love. It’s our job to provide a wide range of gaming options and let the players sort out which pieces they want to interact with. That can be through formats, through play groups, through play spaces, etc. To return to the buffet metaphor. Our job is to provide a wide variety of different food, so that everyone’s meal can be a combinations of things they enjoy. We’re not going to remove popular dishes from our buffet because some diners don’t like them. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. If you hate the smell of it, don’t eat at a table where someone else is enjoying it.“Please force players to have to ask my permission if they can play what they want to play” is a recipe for disaster.

Hello mark, in regards to the new universes beyond, obviously people are voicing their dissatisfactions, but I was simply wondering why do this? It just seems a bit unnecessary and out of left field

Our job as a game maker is to make things people want. We have a lot of research that says there’s a big audience (including many current players) that want this, so we’re making it. If it turns out we’re wrong, that there isn’t a large enough audience for the product, I promise you we’ll stop making it. Just be careful not to equate the loudest voices in the echo chamber of the Internet as the majority voice of the players. Remember, Magic history is littered with new things (formats, new rules, new card frames, etc.) that the loudest voices of the Internet said would never be popular or accepted, yet were.

"Going forward, we'll be continuing this promotion, offering a mechanically unique Buy-a-Box promo card at local game stores with each major set release for the foreseeable future. Grab your booster box from your favorite local game store to get your extra-special promo." How do you feel about the vocal feedback being ignored over the special Buy-A-Box promo not being in the sets?

There was negative vocal feedback, but that wasn’t all of the feedback. It’s easy to get caught up in an echo chamber and believe that what you believe is what everyone believes. There are many players who like the promotion. Also, the reason behind the promotion was to encourage more players to purchase boxes in the local game stores that run our organized play. That partnership is an important one and we want to make sure those stores thrive because they serve as the basis for community gathering. The reaction from the stores was through the roof positive. The buy-a-box promo did exactly what it was set out to do which is promote the local game stores where players go to play Magic. So why are we continuing the promotion? Because it was very successful at doing what it was created to do and was well liked by enough of our audience to justify it. I understand there’s a group of players that doesn’t like it (and that’s what I voiced earlier - I heard you and passed along the message to the Powers That Be), but we have to weigh all the feedback from all the interested parties as well as look at what it’s doing overall for the business and we came to the conclusion that it was worth continuing.

Why doesn't white get more WW, WWW, WWWW, etc.? It seems to be the color most likely to form an echo chamber.

Because white plays nicely with others. : )