Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling • Hacker News Board

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#381

Post by gymbeaux » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 9:05 PM UTC

gigaflop wrote: post #313

THENATHE wrote: post #48

I really miss 2016 MtG. I remember when full art lands and full art promos were RARE and with money for no reason other than their collectability. I really liked when cards were rare because of the fact that they were good and uncommon and maybe because they were the same as the regular card but foil, not because they were arbitrarily a different type of shiny, or like when that one card from Kamigawa had a different…

I copped this version of the Hidetsugu you're thinking of for $30 at my LGS a few weeks ago: https://scryfall.com/card/neo/432/hidetsugu-devouring-chaos Prices of swaggy stuff is always irrational until the smallest attention spans have moved on. I assume you know about Collector Packs, those are my favorites for splashing a chunk of money on a set. If I can afford to preorder a box, or pick one up on some random sal…

The Food and Fellowship LoTR precon is insanely boosted for the price (~$60 retail, $100ish on secondary markets).

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#382

Post by klodolph » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 11:54 PM UTC

soundnote wrote: post #375

klodolph wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, 100%. I DMed during the 3 and 3.5 era, and the “bullshit player option supplements” were a major problem. Players want to ask for the most out of pocket stuff they pick up from the splatbooks. It was beyond difficult to build a coherent party of players when everyone was using radically different concepts to build their characters. Game balance went out the window. 3 and 3.5 had terrible game balance to begin wi…

Game balance in 3rd Edition was gone from the PHB onwards, out of like top 5-7 most broken classes in the game, 3 were in the PHB (Wizard, Cleric, Druid). A lot of stuff people consider broken (eg. Tome of Battle) isn't even really a power level boost for melee classes, just lets them in on the same move action + interesting option playstyle casters were doing since release (just at a much lower power level) vs. char…

Yeah, core 3 and 3.5 was broken. You want to make an overpowered character? Play a straight cleric, but don’t bother healing the rest of the party. I have no desire to replay those editions.

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#383

Post by THENATHE » Fri, Dec 22, 2023, 7:38 AM UTC

dontlaugh wrote: post #363

THENATHE wrote: post #48

I really miss 2016 MtG. I remember when full art lands and full art promos were RARE and with money for no reason other than their collectability. I really liked when cards were rare because of the fact that they were good and uncommon and maybe because they were the same as the regular card but foil, not because they were arbitrarily a different type of shiny, or like when that one card from Kamigawa had a different…

That seems like a ridiculous attitude. Surely players should want all cards to be as cheap as possible, so everyone can play whatever deck they’d like.

Yes, we would. That's why most of us are okay with proxies. But the fact of the matter is that when all of the good cards cost a lot of money, and you need to play good cards to win tournaments, and you cannot use proxies in tournaments, spending money to win nothing at all feels really bad.

If all the cards were free and we were competing for $500 instead of decks cost $2k and we're playing for a $600 card I wouldn't care. I probably would enjoy it. But we live in a society and as it is, I would rather modern cards have more value than none.

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#384

Post by bradknowles » Sun, Dec 24, 2023, 7:24 AM UTC

Here's the process. Your company can't do shit and is losing market share everywhere.

So, you buy another company that can do shit, transfer the brand to the same people who can't do shit, and then fire all the people from the new company.

For a brief period, while you've got the new brand, your company can start to regain a bit of market share.

But that period never lasts, and you go back to the status quo.

Rinse and repeat.

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#385

Post by Eridrus » Thu, Dec 28, 2023, 4:30 AM UTC

gymbeaux wrote: post #377

Eridrus wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The monopoly profit maximizing price for a card is going to depend on the precise shape of the demand curve for each individual card; It may be $10 it may be $50; the fact that they could crash the price whenever they want does not mean it is in their interests to do so.

So my thinking is that if they control supply (they do of course), they control demand, and that there is no “per-card” demand curve. If a card is reprinted and drops from $100 to $50, they can reprint until it’s $10

I think you do not understand what a demand curve is and should look up some econ 101.

The demand curve is how many of a given card customers (in aggregate) would buy at a given price.

Wizards could reprint any card into the ground if they wanted to (which would be far below $10), but that would likely not be the strategy that generated them the most profit, and there's no actual reason to think $10 is the price point that would do so either.

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#386

Post by victory2099 » Sun, Dec 31, 2023, 1:27 PM UTC

ishanmahapatra wrote: post #332

Filligree wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s hundreds, possibly thousands. Don’t Close Your Eyes and Glitch/Nobilis are three of my favourites.

Man, I _really_ want to play a Nobilis/Chuubo’s/Glitch game. But I can’t seem to wrap my head around the system(s), and it’s incredibly hard to find an AP that will help me understand how they work. How would you teach a newbie the game(s)?

There's an AP of Chuubo's over on the Oneshot Podcast network! I think they're on episode 8 or so?

Re: Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling

#387

Post by gymbeaux » Wed, Jan 10, 2024, 4:38 AM UTC

Eridrus wrote: post #385

gymbeaux wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So my thinking is that if they control supply (they do of course), they control demand, and that there is no “per-card” demand curve. If a card is reprinted and drops from $100 to $50, they can reprint until it’s $10

I think you do not understand what a demand curve is and should look up some econ 101. The demand curve is how many of a given card customers (in aggregate) would buy at a given price. Wizards could reprint any card into the ground if they wanted to (which would be far below $10), but that would likely not be the strategy that generated them the most profit, and there's no actual reason to think $10 is the price poin…

Asking someone to look up Econ 101 isn't necessary to make your point.. You probably knew what I meant. You probably knew that my point is they control the supply, so they control the price- the equilibrium price if you like.