[Article] - The Answer Lies Within

[Machinus]

So I began looking at old e-mail and threads and discovered that my memory was correct. I talk a lot about individual decisions about specific design decisions but I've never really touched upon some of the big picture issues about how R&D functions, issues that are constantly talked about in these responses. It then dawned on me that it would be interesting to use my column this week to address some of these issues and set the record straight.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr170

[jpmeyer]

It always amuses me how like every six months or so he has to write this article again.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Machinus: Secret undercover account for Mark Rosewater? Your guess is as good as mine!

What is really strange to me is why there would be a continuing supply of people who think that R&D has drifted from Garfield's vision. Since anyone who's been in the game since ABU era and is paying any kind of attention (i.e., taking the time to make forum posts) should have seen one of these already, the people who claim it must not have been around at the beginning, or must be recently returned to the game. It seems mighty strange that these people would consider themselves experts on Garfield's vision.

Does anyone even know what these people claim is so divergent from his "vision"? I haven't yet run into such a post (probably because I don't touch the wizards.com forums).

[jpmeyer]

I'd assume that it's thinking about colors more in the "generic fantasy way" rather than in the color wheel-type way.

Red isn't impulse, it's fire
Black isn't ambition, it's evil
Blue isn't discipline, it's water
White isn't order, it's good

The other aspect I believe is that people look at the colors more in terms of "where mechanics go" rather than "what type of magic this encompasses".  People see a card like Disenchant in white and think that this is white's domain even though there really isn't a say "law and order" reason for white to be able to do this.  Meanwhile, despite Naturalize being more in flavor with green's anti-artificiality-ness, green shouldn't have a Disenchant-effect because well, white got there first.