May 1, 2020
engagement – noun : emotional involvement or commitment
In a previous post I briefly mentioned a concept I am going to start exploring over the next few months: “middle class Magic.”
No, not the format.
Wait, you aren’t familiar with the format? The weird, uncommons-only sibling of Pauper, that no one plays?
The oldest reference I can find to the format is 2010, but I didn’t do an exhaustive search. I came across it simply because I wanted to see if the phrase “middle class Magic” is, as a basic concept, already linked to something or someone.
And it is – to a format that has existed for at least a decade, and a small handful of people appear to have tried to get off the ground a handful of years ago. I found a few articles and some YouTube gameplay for the format, but it’s clearly never won many hearts or eyeballs.
I don’t see any recent attempts to grow the format, and the phrase “middle class Magic” is likely not in the vernacular of the vast majority of players. Still, did I want to co-opt the term for a concept I plan to weave in and out of my content going forward?
I suppose not.
So I have, instead, decided to use a term synonymous with a side of bacon: middling.
Alright, so a cut of pork shoulder is not the parallel I’m attempting to make, or the one I’m expecting you to have.
From a personal standpoint the following is a closer definition:
“lacking exceptional quality or ability”
I’ll give you a moment to let the obvious jokes about my blog and overall writing ability play out in your brain.
Done? No? OK. I’ll wait.
We good yet?
As I started blogging, I started thinking about my level of engagement with Magic. How does that level of engagement inform my time with the game, and my writing? I came to the conclusion that I (and I believe many other players) exist in a nebulous “middle class” of players – people who love the game and spend a lot of our money and/or time on it, but aren’t intrinsically linked to it.
So what does it mean to be a “middling” Magic player? And bear in mind I’m speaking strictly about player engagement with the game, not play or deckbuilding skill.
Like the middle class of society, trying to build a singular concept for a huge number of individuals is a fool’s errand. I make no claims to being smart enough to adequately define such a varied group of players. For now, I’ll just make the claim that I’m part of what I consider the “middle class” engagement group.
Why am I looking to group players into tiers based on their engagement with the game? Aren’t there already lots of ways Magic players are grouped (pros vs. scrubs, casual vs. competitive, Johnny vs. Timmy vs. Spike, constructed vs. limited, etc.)? I think my purpose is to clarify my own voice, which I think will help me better express that voice. Who am I as a Magic player, what do I want out of the game, and what do I hope to say about it through my inane ramblings?
For polling purposes, American society generally gets divided into 5 classes: upper, upper-middle, middle, working, and lower. Other systems sociologists employ use 6 or 7 classes, with groups such as “upper-upper”, “lower middle”, or “working poor” being added or substituted. I personally like the 5-tier system, mostly because it’s easier to lump people into 5 groups than 6 or 7. I even contemplated a 3-tier “engagement” system for my groupings of Magic players, but like the original Magic psychographic profiles – Timmy, Johnny, and Spike – three is likely too few categories to fully capture the breadth of Magic engagement levels.
Here is where I strongly emphasize that by using terms like “middle class” or “lower class”, I am making no value judgments about a player. While my play skill may be superior to many “lower” or “working” class players, and I may spend far more of my time and money on the game than those players, I am NOT a “better” Magic player, by any measure. I, as stated above, “lack exceptional quality or ability” when it comes to Magic. I am “middling” purely based on my engagement with, and investment in, Magic.
That said…by virtue of writing a Magic blog, I think it’s safe to say I’m in the “upper middle class” of players when it comes to engagement with the game. Content creators as a whole are probably all upper-middle class or upper class players.
I do not, and never will, make any money (let alone a living) off of the game. I don’t play it at its highest level, or make the sort of professional-level content only a handful of people do. Magic is only one of several interests that scrape away at my leisure time. I’m not a frequent poster on Magic-related subreddits, and I don’t spend much time at an LGS. I’m most definitely not among the Magic community’s most engaged players.
But the game is important enough for me to write about it, read about it, watch streamers and content creators on YouTube and Twitch, and spend a decent chunk of my disposable income on it. Heck, for nearly three years I volunteered for the Magic Online Adept program, filling one of the least desirable time slots available.
So…what does all that mean (if anything)?
If you’re reading this, you are likely aware that the vast majority of Magic players have substantially limited engagement with the game. A rather small percentage of players spend any time at all reading about it, posting about it, watching it, or creating content around it. So middling Magic players are, unlike a society’s middle class, not a majority. I think a lot of the content found online comes from purely upper-class players (again – these are not necessarily the BEST players, just the most invested.) Most Magic content – be it articles posted on popular online store websites, discussions on Reddit, or videos on YouTube – revolves around a couple basic premises:
- Competition (ex: strategies or decks to use if you want to win)
- Optimization (ex: how to improve your deck or your skills so you win more)
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS. People like to win, winning is fun, and consistent winning requires improving aspects of play – deckbuilding, sideboarding, threat assessment, lines of play, etc. I am not, in any way or on any level, criticizing content that focuses on winning games of Magic.
But I, personally, am interested in more than that. As my previous post history has hopefully made clear, I enjoy telling stories, sharing experiences, and examining the lighter side of Magic. One of the reasons I started writing about the game is what I perceived as a dearth of such content (that’s not to say that it doesn’t exist; it just isn’t as plentiful as I might like.)
When I post about “middling Magic”, my goal will be to present a topic or experience from a viewpoint I feel is somewhat under-represented in the online Magic ecosystem. Which leads me to…
Next time: Arena matchmaking from a middling point of view.
Casual Magicking 