Who’s been playing the new Fallout Shelter game on your various iDevices? I’ve been grinding that thing for a week straight! I love it it’s awesome! And I just deleted it.
Why?
Well, simply put I got bored. I birthed out 200 Dwellers and everyone has maxed out their stat of choice and all my rooms are upgraded. I ran out of things to do. And honestly, I was kinda stuck in the world of Fallout for like 5 days straight. Micromanaging little iPeople is fun, but eventually you need to go back to reality.
Well, WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN, ANYHOW?
That leads me to my point. How is it that in the 20 years I’ve been playing, Magic has the ability to suck me back in time and time again? I’ve played ShadowEra on iPhone, SolForge, Hearthstone and various other IRL CCGs (Don’t make me list them all, if they weren’t marketed at children I likely played them in the 90’s) and in the end they all fade out and I’m back to tapping Islands and telling people that I’m gonna draw more cards than I should be allowed in a turn.
I have a crazy short attention span. I remember around the age of 13 just playing a video game (not sure which) upto then, an act that gave me uninterrupted joy, and just thinking ,”Wow this is boring.”. Looking back I wonder if that wasn’t the exact moment I hit puberty. I mean maybe, but it was the first time I remember thinking, “This sucks, I wanna do something else.”
Between my disdain for sitting in a classroom for 8 hours a day and my lack of a car, I guess its a good thing that I stumbled upon Magic: The Gathering otherwise, I’d have found some other way to occupy my free time. I’m not saying I’d have been into a life of crime or anything but to quote Mojo Nixon, “There’s two thing you could do in my town, That’s get drunk and ride around.” Consequently, I didn’t start drinking until I was 22. But that’s besides the point. Magic was something I wanted to do all the time. I remember calling up my friend Paul and playing Magic over the Phone. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?! Thank god the internet got it together and we have Magic On….. nevermind about that.
I mean I had the itch. At first the only place to play was at the Mall….on Sundays. And I had to get a ride to the mall to play. Trading was super important as I didn’t have any income, much less an expendable one. So I was running this thing on all cylinders, trading, building decks (since the internet wasn’t really providing lists) and obviously playing. In the beginning (which lasted a pretty long time for me compared to most players today) I just played with friends during the week at school and over their houses.
I wasn’t the greatest student. My grades suffered intensely. If it wasn’t because of Magic, it was due to a general malaise for all things Algebra/English related. Required reading was just time I wasn’t able to think about how to beat Gordan’s Hell’s Caretaker/Breeding Pit/Ball Lightning Combo. My attention span wasn’t getting any better it was just fixated on one thing.
I have give my dad a lot of credit. Bad grades were a common thing. I was punished for them. And while I tried pretty hard to focus, it was tough. If it wasn’t for my friends (that also played Magic) he would have taken my cards away. Thankfully, it was the only really social thing I had going at the time.
What was it though? What was the thing the got me coming back for more?
Even after years of putting the game down to pursue school (college), girls, my job, and the like. Each time I picked it up I was totally in and in hard!
Even after years of putting the game down to pursue school (college), girls, my job, and the like. Each time I picked it up I was totally in and in hard! Competition was certainly one reason. I hadn’t challenged myself mentally since college, not to mention challenging myself against other people. Camaraderie was another reason for sure, I’m quick to make friends and Magic is one thing that never leaves you far from friends, new and old, when you start playing or pick it back up.
In Highschool, I wasn’t much of a jock (no surprises there!) but I played plenty of sports and even held my own in Gym (though I think its a total waste of time to “teach” 14-18 year olds how to play dodge ball) that said I never really found my niche there. Intellectual was more my forte. It’s a shame I never tried very hard in a non college enviroment, lackluster grades kept me out of things like the debate club or Honor Society. I hung out with those kids for the most part, but always felt like an outsider looking in. Sports never really felt like hanging out and hanging fun to me so I lost interest pretty quick. It was at the start of my Freshman year that I started going to Magic Tournaments. There was something about being in a place of relatively like minded folks all trying to win that I really just couldn’t walk away from.
Had I been a few years older (or younger in the case of the Junior Super Series) I’d have had the funds to actually make my way into the game at it’s embryonic stage. Sadly, I was 16 and without a job or a car, it was mostly casual play and trading for me. It’s crazy now that I didn’t really get competitive with the game until I had been playing for 3 years almost. There just wasn’t a scene like there is now. It’s really a golden age for Planeswalkers in that everyone knows of the game at least, and most stores not only sell it but actively run events.
Magic has a pull on me like no other thing in my life has. Maybe aside from Photography, which I picked up a few years later. Three years back and going strong, I hope I don’t ever put it down again.
Zac Clark
@DurdleMagus