Senior VP of popular trading card game speaks on finding your magic community

I set out with a goal for last week’s PAX event. I wanted to learn more about what it takes to make some of my favorite things and what goes into the development of the biggest games, both video and tabletop.

It started with a trip to the Wizards of the Coast offices in Renton. Wizards of the Coast are the team behind the incredibly popular trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, as well as tabletop juggernaut Dungeons and Dragons.

During PAX, they were showing off the latest set in the series Duskmourn. I got a chance to watch the trailer for the horror-themed set, which of course has roots in 80s horror and nostalgia, while we follow our narrator through what looks like a techno multiverse on a quest to find his … well, I guess we will find out.

‘It’s such a celebration:’ Massive video game weekend comes to Seattle

For 31 years, Wizards of the Coast has been constantly building new worlds and telling new stories, starting from scratch every time.

“A lot of people get surprised by this when we talk about it, because we typically start thinking about our sets about five years before and sometimes even six or seven years before that set sees the light of day and gets in the hands of players,” Ken Troop, Senior Vice President of Magic: The Gathering told KIRO Newsradio.

Troop said they typically start with a process called Arc planning.

“So it’s this mixture of, what do we want to do with the story, what do we want to do with these characters and planes, and we typically have some kind of very long-term story arc in mind,” he said.

He gave me insight into how a set comes to life.

So what comes after the planning phase? Bringing the card art to life.

“All that art comes from these individual artists around the world, the very best fantasy freelance illustrators in the world,” Troop said. “And in order to get that to feel cohesive, and get that to feel like this was all like a singular vision made by singular design, we have to do a lot of prep work to get all of those individual contributors able to do that.”

Magic: The Gathering has always had detailed art for its cards, something that has continued throughout the game’s 30-year-old history.

Once the art is there and the world is starting to form, each card has to be given a role

“Really just trying to get all the building blocks in place,” Troop said. “Like, what are the types of things that we want players to be able to do that both feels fun, it feels magic, but it also feels really unique to this world.”

Once those building blocks are in place, another team takes the concepts and refines them into the actions a card can do and the rules the card follows.

So once you spend all that time getting the cards ready, you still have to bring them to the physical world.

Troop said working with all of the systems to print and produce the cards takes about another year.

From the outside perspective, it might not seem like there is a story being told when games of Magic: The Gathering are being played. Often it just seems like two players taking turns trying to drain their opponent’s health points. But Troop said the storylines they create are critical to the game

“Cards without story and without the visuals and the art, they get really dry, really fast, and art without gameplay is beautiful to look at, but it’s not the same type of engagement and fun that the game provides,” he explained. “So you really need both also, typically, great creativity leads to a lot more freedom with gameplay.”

Wizards of the Coast and Magic: The Gathering has started doing crossovers with many other famous franchises like Lord of the Rings, Fallout, Doctor Who and more.

“Most magic players I’ve talked to over the years, we’ve spent some amount of time right, being like, ‘Hey, let me take my favorite IP, whatever that is, and what would magic cards look like for that thing?'” Troop shared. “What colors would my favorite characters be and what would they do on a card? Magic just kind of begs for that. It’s a canvas that’s just really useful to take whatever you love and be like, what would that look like in terms of magic cards?”

Magic: The Gathering helps players find their communities

Troop believes that these sets have helped bring new players in and expose them to one of the most important things about Magic: The Gathering — the community

“We see a lot of evidence of more people coming into local gaming stores and more people coming into Commander, Magic’s most popular social format, more people coming into Arena, our digital game,” he said. “And just be like, ‘Oh, I’m drawn here from Lord of the Rings. I’m drawn in here from Doctor Who or Fallout,’ and then what’s most awesome about that is that they find their magic community.”

According to Troop, Magic: The Gathering is the biggest it has been in 31 years. It is valued at over a billion dollars, there are over 50 million players worldwide and the game has also gone digital with the PC version of the game, Magic: The Gathering Arena.

Why are video games cool? CEO of Kinda Funny gives his answer, offers creator advice

The commitment to quality gameplay, quality art and community have helped it continue to grow. It’s the moments of joy that keep the players coming back.

“Magic provides this near-infinite variety of these types of moments of joy,” Troop shared. “And the best part about it is that you get to do it with people. You get to do it face-to-face in a table. And I think really, in this day and age, a game that provides that kind of joy put in a communal space where you’re doing it with other people, is something that is just really precious, and I think it’s one of the main reasons why we saw magic grow so much during the last four years.”

So now, if you are thinking about getting into Magic, visit your local game store or give it a try online. Seattle is a very popular place for Magic, so don’t miss out.

Contributing: Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest

Paul Holden produces the Seattle weekend events calendar for KIRO Newsradio and a weekly story for MyNorthwest. He also appears on KIRO Newsradio’s “Seattle Morning News.” If you you know of even more cool things going on in the area, let him know at PaulH@kiroradio.com.