Words from the Streetz: Negotiations and Questions. - by Streetz

[Streetz]

This thread is reserved for the dicussion of the following article:

http://www.magicdeckvortex.com/mdvarticle0312.htm

Please read it, enjoy it and discuss it here.

What did you like about the article? Was it inspiring, informational, ingenius? Was it inappropriate? Was there anything you really liked or didn't like about it?

Let the author know here!

Thanks!

**NOTE: This thread is posted before the article goes live. If the article isn't up yet, please check back later.

[§cIoN]

•Do you want to see more standard and tournament format articles?

-Yes, In fact I'd like to see some articles for each organized format. (for myself mainly extrnded)

•Do you want to see more Single-Card-Strategy articles?

-Yes, but I'd like to see some about the more interesting cards, like choice of damnations

•Is the Article Archive helpful for finding articles? Note: I have a few series/author pages to add.

-Yes

•Do you want to see more Story-type articles?

-I personally find these drag on too much and I lose interest fairly quickly.

I'd like to see more articles that take different aspects of MTG (such as Mill, Discard...etc) and compare how that aspect has changed from the beginning of MTG to now.

I'd also like to see articles that are more of a Debate between two writers about a specific topic (w/e it may be)

maybe get a seasoned player to write about some of the more memorable moments they have had playing mtg.

maybe an article that focuses on building decks with "weird themes" ... like "When Pigs Fly" (flying swine), or "Passing Gas" (toxic gas/stenches)...etc etc.

As for the "discontinued" articles, I'd like to see:
-Delusions of Mediocrity
-The Games People Play
-Exit 267

Also, I'm not a good writer (Trust me I've tried)...but I want the writer's guild to know that I am here to help.
All you gotta do is ask.

[Tresserhorn]

Do you want to see more art reviews?
I don't mind these. One every week or 2 would be cool.

Do you want to see more standard and tournament format articles?
Yes. Most definatly. Standard and Extended for me would be preferable. Even if it's not tournies like World or the like, I love hearing/writting about the local tournies.

Do you want to see more Single-Card-Strategy articles? (Like One Card to Rule Them All)
Yes! Those make great deck ideas.

Do you want to see more Story-type articles? (Like Maleficent's series)
Maybe, maybe not. No offence Mal, love the writting style, just can't get into the story much

Is the Article Archive helpful for finding articles?
Ya. I haven't had to use it much, but it's alright.

Did you ask too many questions?
Naw. you asked what you needed to know.

(Note, the next question was added by me)

Do the writters need to come down a peg with thier demands?
I believe so. I understand the need to hear what people think, to get those opinions to better yourselves. I really do, but there is only so much that 1 person can do, when in reality, it's not Streetz's fault that the readers don't respond. He can only do so much.
The comment made towards Dazbot was uncalled for and really childish. This may sound harsh, but time to face the music. If that's how you re-act to someone giving an opinion, it's no wonder you don't get many responces. Look at it from our (the readers) point of view. Yes, this strike is getting alot of attention and so it should. It's a major distraction from the rest of the site and for what? So the writters can drum up some excitement for the future articles?
To be honest, when I 1st saw anything about the strike, I laughed. I thought this must be to drum up excitement for the writters and get the forum hopping again until an IM I recieved from Streetz when I had a suggestion about something very off topic. That's when I realized this was real and I was beside myself. I was sorry I hadn't responded to more of the articles. Now, I'm not so sure. Why is that? Well very simple. This has been dragged on and on and on and (to me) it doesn't seem the whole guild is onboard anymore.

You have won over most of us, and we really do want to get back to work.

This tells me you need to get back to work. You have your hit counter that you wanted. There isn't a whole lot more (that I know of) that can be done from a coding perspective to give you the info you want. The only thing left to do, is to start writting again even if it's on a trial to see how it goes.

The longer you let this go on, the less and less repsones, reads, ect you will get. This is because no one likes to listen to someone whine over what seems like a dead horse.

Say what you will, just remember, the longer this gets strung along, the more it's hurts the respect the writters had from the readers.

~Jay~

[EpilepticCricket]

To answer the questions you posted Streetz:

Do you want to see more art reviews?

Yes. I'm an absolute stickler for artwork.

Do you want to see more standard and tournament format articles?

I don't play standard anymore, but I do like keeping up with what's hot and what's not in the current tourney scene.

Do you want to see more Single-Card-Strategy articles?

Yes. I love being shown a new perspective on a "crap rare" or an "unplayable". Even a new combo or use for a classic or seemingly straightforward card.

Do you want to see more Story-type articles? (Like Maleficent's series)

Yes. While I didn't give much of a review for Mal's article on Lorwyn when it was ran, I did thoroughly enjoy it. The game just wouldn't be the same for me if it wasn't for the worlds that the cards are created for. Plus I like getting a new perspective on a set even if I completely disagree with it.


However, I really want to see the writers learn what their audience wants to read from them over just having polls as to what to write next. I understand that you have to have a starting point, but every person has their own niche and style. I would much rather read a bit long rant from Mal over the same thing from Tynion. As such, I would hope that eventually it gets to the point where people are like "Oh hey, so-and-so has a new article up. I really like his stuff." over "I have no idea what these people like to write about except for the series that they do". Even right now, after having read plenty of articles I'm still not sure what everyone's best work is. Not as far as the best article that they have ever written, but rather what subject they perform best on. Well, other than Mal. I love all of his articles where he picks things apart and shows their dark side.

I digress.

----------------

What I would like to see personally:

I would like to see that the writers have the freedom to create their own polls for the articles they write. Something akin (and in addition) to a "one-to-five star" system, except it's what the writer wants to know about the reader response to the article in a summed up fashion.

Such as:

[1] "was the article to close minded?"
[2] "did I focus to much on ~~~~~?"
[3] "should I write more articles on this subject or related ones in the future?"

etc, etc.

People say you are your own worst critic and I'm sure that there are times when the great writers that we have here are worried about this or that in their articles and the reader responses. (Not all the time, but I know I would be if I had any sort of writing talent.) I personally would rather gripe about something thanks to the anonymity of the interwebs over posting a harsh, critical review in the forums when I know that I couldn't do better. Personally, I would feel hypocritical.

I understand that this probably wouldn't be easy to implement. Or at the very least it would increase the workload that you have already Streetz.

Also, if the reader response is going to increase maybe the link to the discussion forum should be amplified somewhat. When I first started coming to MDV I knew that there were forums and I knew that there were articles. However, I didn't even notice the "You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here." bit for months. It just seems to blend in to the background and looks like a disclaimer so I would always just ignore it. (Never having any intention to steal anything from this site other than a deck idea or two )

That's my on it. I hope that this is all over soon and all parties involved are appeased. I'm sure that it isn't going to be an easy process, but I, for one, have faith in the awesome and supporting user base that this site has!

[Barachem]

Do you want to see more art reviews?

Well, if it's humorous and well-argumented, i'm all for it

If it's like http://www.magicdeckvortex.com/mdvarticle0305.htm, then i'm all for it.

Do you want to see more standard and tournament format articles?

Well, no, i can go to other sites for that.

Do you want to see more Single-Card-Strategy articles? (Like One Card to Rule Them All)

The cards used up until now are more or less interesting, but i don't like the deck ideas they brought forth, because of my own preferences for decks and my tendency to figure things out myself.
So i call no.

Do you want to see more Story-type articles? (Like Maleficent's series)

Meh, i'm not a Vorthos, i'm a Melvin, proud and all, so i don't care that much for stories.

So in principle everything is solved to end the strike.
Streetz will install counters and make it easier to respond to articles.
That's great.

But what gets me is that the writers guild, through Tynion as spokesman, is telling us readers that we have the obligation to respond.
Well, excuse me, i am getting irritated with this stance that the readers are faulted with not giving the feedback you want.
And i'm getting fed up with this nonsense.
You want feedback?
Then quit whining and yapping, quit the strike and get back to writing.
It's so simple now.
Striking longer will only hurt your public image and how readers react.

Thus i side with Tresserhorn.
The strike did what it had to, now it's time to call it quits and see what comes of it.

[DazBoot]

Chris, that was me (yes, the scab writer) who said your stasis article was amazing. (I wrote it at the end of my "article" which is probably why you didn't see it if you were looking among comments) You are definitely correct in that I should have asked for more work like that right off the bat, but I would like to tell you that that article was the first one I ever responded to. (The post can be seen here) So I will say here what I didn't say in that post. I thought it was great, and if you have any more ideas regarding strange decks that use unusual strategies ("I don't need to untap, I just need to draw 1 island a turn" or something like that) I would love to read more. They don't need to be stasis, but something along those lines is a lot of fun to read.

Here are my responses to the questions:

Do you want to see more art reviews?
Personally art reviews are not my kind of thing, they are fun to read but will most likely not draw a lot of response from me. That being said, I do know of several people who do really enjoy them, and would be glad to see them happen in the future.

Do you want to see more standard and tournament format articles?
I am a devout deck designer and play mostly T2 constructed tournaments. Anything you can throw at me to help my design would be great!
Do you want to see more Single-Card-Strategy articles? (Like One Card to Rule Them All)

Do you want to see more Story-type articles? (Like Maleficent's series)
Again, fun to read, not really my thing, but would be appreciated by people I know.

Is the Article Archive helpful for finding articles? Note: I have a few series/author pages to add.
When writing responses to the Writer's strike, I used the Article Archive several times, and each time I was able to find what I was looking for quickly. I have no complaints here.

Do you want me to sort the articles by type? And if so, what should be the types? When I was brainstorming this idea a while back, I came up with too many categories and thus I cancelled the idea at the time.
I think this is a good idea, but could (or I guess, did) run into problems. What about using keywords like key cards in the deck database? I like the train of thought.

Do you like this Word from the Streetz series? It’s like a general column for me to talk about site related information, such as this strike (which will hopefully end soon), reader comments and other issues in Magic: the Gathering.
In case you haven't seen this from me recently, I like Editorial and Opinionated writing... If I saw more of this I would be very happy.

Some of the writers that used to write for the site no longer do and thus the series they started aren’t getting new articles. Are these topics you would like to see continued in article form? If so, are you up for writing on them? Or, would you like to see an existing writer on MDV take one of these topics over?
I was never part of the fan-base of those articles, simply because I wasn't really around when they were published. My opinion on the general idea is: If people want to write more about old topics, that's great. They should not, however attempt to commandeer an article series without consent of the old author. (And even then only sometimes) Writing something of almost the same nature but their own work is great though.

Am I asking too many questions? Is this all too much to ingest? *grin*
Too many questions? Never. I think this is one of the great new ways that we can draw response from readers. It's easy, because you can always have something to respond to.

[guest1234]

Do you want to see more art reviews?
I'm not much into art, but I don't mind an article pointing out some cool ones and highlighting what I might not have noticed.

Do you want to see more standard and tournament format articles?
Not necessarily.

Do you want to see more Story-type articles? (Like Maleficent's series)
Gogogo stories! I like drama, fantasy and comedy. But if you write one, make it a page turner and not like "well we drove someplace, then i played a game, then i played another game....". Tell the intrigue!

Is the Article Archive helpful for finding articles? Note: I have a few series/author pages to add.
I don't do archives, just search tools.

Do you like this Word from the Streetz series? It’s like a general column for me to talk about site related information, such as this strike (which will hopefully end soon), reader comments and other issues in Magic: the Gathering.
I like them.

Some of the writers that used to write for the site no longer do and thus the series they started aren’t getting new articles. Are these topics you would like to see continued in article form? If so, are you up for writing on them? Or, would you like to see an existing writer on MDV take one of these topics over?
None of these topics really get me excited.

Am I asking too many questions? Is this all too much to ingest? *grin*
As I wrote two articles ago, questions spur response. Without them, I would never have figured to write this much feedback.

P.S. to the guild: Every day 10 articles are published on Magic. I have time to maybe read 2. This means I look at the title, and then maybe I look at the blurb, then maybe I skim the article, and then if it seems interesting I read it. This is probably true for most people, so consider this carefully. To get response you must first get us to read the article. But "1 hit count" = "1 article considered for reading". The number of actual readers is much less.

[thanatos]

Here is my response to the questions posted.

Do you want to see more art reviews?
Not really, I prefer deck and card based articles.

Do you want to see more standard and tournament format articles?
Yes, I would like to see more tourney coverage (whether it be kitchen table or ptq and up.)

Do you want to see more Single-Card-Strategy articles? (Like One Card to Rule Them All)
Yes, an I am even willing to write some.

Do you want to see more Story-type articles? (Like Maleficent's series)
These are really interesting to me. By the way, good job Malefcent.

Is the Article Archive helpful for finding articles?
I honestly don't use it.


I am also willing to write some articles of the following types, all under the Den of Thanatos scope. It is an all around series with a homely (if somewhat dark) feel.

Delusions of Mediocrity (S.C.S. Article for low end cards)
Lands: More Than Mana. (All about lands and grouping them together. Usually includes a deck list or two or three).
Mechanix: A Podcast. (A podcast about specific mechanix. Can be done in article form).

[death by aggro]

This has all been truly inspiring. I want to personally give my thanks as an MDV writer to my fellow companions of MDV. You have all shown me just why I got into writing articles in the first place, and why I should continue. Your words have moved me, and your actions have left their mark on me. I promise to do all I can to see my articles are up for the job. Thank you for giving me back my reason to write.

[Darth Fishhead]

Of the old articles, the one that interests me the most would be alternate play formats.
For this to be successful, there would need to be a variety of formats discussed, while frequently returning to new ideas for more popular formats, like EDH, or pauper. Deck ideas would be necessary to make the articles useful.
One other suggestion that I know has been brought up before is card links. I have a hard time following deck ideas on this site because, despite my encyclopedic card knowledge, I don't have every card in my brain. It is jarring to have to leave the page, go to Gatherer or other source, and search for a card. A quick link to the card in either another site's database, or a simple text description of the card would be terrific. A possible solution could be asking the writers to update a cardtext database when they include a card in an article. That way, the writers improve their writing by being more clear, and it does not increase Streetz's workload.
I look forward to the return of articles, and I hope that MDV is around for a long, long time!

[Maleficent]

These are really interesting to me. By the way, good job Malefcent.

Thanks so you know, I've more or less moved my stories to blog-form (makes more sense there, + no one to argue against posting them ). Made two so far, and the links can be found here. Check 'em out if you like

[Tynion]

I wanted to chime in here finally.

Streetz and I sat down last night and chatted for a few hours via IM and have hammered out the beginning of the end of the Writer's Guild Strike. I would anticipate it being over this weekend.

Thank you all for your patience in this trying time. I'd also like to thank you all for your ideas, we have weighed them all and look forward to showing the good results in the near future.

[FreezeDried]

Do you want to see more art reviews?
The awesome (most times) art of Magic is one of the bigger plusses that Magic has over other TCG's. I would love to discuss with you guys what is good, what is bad, and what is downright fuggly in the new set (or old sets; or how magic art has changed over time); and I think that an article is a great jumping off point for discussion. This would (scratch that: could) be the kind of 'controversial' article that some of us suggested as a way to increase reader response. I think that everyone has an opinion on the art of our favorite game, and some of us care enough to read/post/discuss those opinions.

Do you want to see more standard and tournament format articles?
No. There is enough tournament content out there as it is. MDV is what the casual players use. To me, tournaments (especially if you're reading up on formats and looking for 'the deck' are not casual, and thus don't really belong here (but it would be a potential area of expansion and could bring more visibility to MDV as a magic site, and so I'm not against the idea; just not strictly for it).

Do you want to see more Single-Card-Strategy articles? (Like One Card to Rule Them All)
Yea. Deckbuilding is by far my favorite aspect of Magic. I love looking through the cards and trying to figure out how I can make use of card X in a new and interesting way. I enjoy hearing from people who share that joy.

Do you want to see more Story-type articles? (Like Maleficent's series)
Yes/No. Strictly story articles lose me after not too long. But story-based Magic (the game) articles are some of the most enjoyable reads I've found (ie Apprentice Magician, or the Ferret's writing style). These kinds of articles tie concepts for playing Magic to stories (fictional or non). I love playing Magic. No offense Mal, I just don't dig the Worlds without the game.

Is the Article Archive helpful for finding articles? Note: I have a few series/author pages to add.
Works for me.

Do you want me to sort the articles by type? And if so, what should be the types? When I was brainstorming this idea a while back, I came up with too many categories and thus I cancelled the idea at the time.
No. I think that, aside from being difficult to be broad with categories, that any categorization would further entrench writers in particular, defined styles. I'd much much rather see all of the MDV writers trying out new formats (for writing) and doing what they enjoy, whatever muse catches them that week; rather than feeling any pressure to stay withing their "story-based article" writer boundaries or anything silly like that. If someone who usually writes about card/set creation feels very strongly about the new set that came out and wants to write a set review; I'm all for it. Or if that same writer wants to write about casual formats because they happened to have an amazing time with their friends last weekend; I want to hear about that too! Whatever the writers are passionate about, whatever they are enjoying, will produce the best articles.

Do you like this Word from the Streetz series? It’s like a general column for me to talk about site related information, such as this strike (which will hopefully end soon), reader comments and other issues in Magic: the Gathering.
I do like this. It seems like a very nice way to get new commenters 'into' the MDV community. If you're on this here site, you have just as much opinion as the next guy. Word from the Streetz is an opportunity for you to discuss the "state of the union" in a public forum seperate from your articles.

Some of the writers that used to write for the site no longer do and thus the series they started aren’t getting new articles. Or, the author decided not to continue them. Below is a list of some of these:

* Exit 267 (Talked about the new sets coming out, rumors, etc.)
* Aether Pool (An article on Limited!)
* The Games People Play (Alternate Play Formats)
* In the Prime (Story/Deck Creation)
* Delusions of Mediocrity (S.C.S. Article for low end cards)
* Set Design 101 (Kind of like If I Worked At R&D except more on set design and formatting, and not so much about designing one card… from a non R&D perspective.)
Are these topics you would like to see continued in article form? If so, are you up for writing on them? Or, would you like to see an existing writer on MDV take one of these topics over?
The topics that stick out for me are Alternate formats (I'm really excited abotu the possibilities for building decks for APFs at the moment; it's something I've never done, I always just build with all of my cards available to me....I just need to find someone to build/play with me). A great example of APF writing is Abe Sargent's work. He brings up a new format that i didn't know existed at least once a month; and his excitement for the game just oozes from his writing. I would love to see what the MDV writers like to play, or have come across and want to take an article to explore for the first time (you could even make a story out of it "I've been looking at this format for awhile now, so last week I told my playgroup that I wanted to have a [APF] game next week, and what did they think. There were a few dissenters, but overall people were with me for trying something new. So I went home to eagerly start planning my first [APF] deck. Here is how I came up with it, and here is how the first attempt turned out....I playtested it and found that [card] and [card] aren't nearly as helpful in this format as they are usually, so I started looking for alternatives.....I found [card] [card] and [card] and decided to try out the first one; and wow, what an improvement! Who would have though that this crap uncommon from [set] could ever be any good?.....Big game. Lessons learned.")

Am I asking too many questions? Is this all too much to ingest? *grin*
No such thing as too many questions. People will answer the ones that they feel strongly about and ignore the others (or systematically answer each and every one >_>). This article is an excellent example of asking questions at the end to fire up discussion. I don't think it's a 'cheap' tactic; I think it's how people learn: by asking questions. If writers want to know what we think of their article in a particular light (was this too long? did I explain my deck choices well enough?), they can ensure some response to that effect by simply asking us. Good job leading the way Streetz.