"Magic" reinvents à la carte passion thanks to its new players

• The fantasy card game

  Magic

  celebrates its 30th anniversary and shows an unexpected dynamism for this hobby whose community was perceived as declining.

• Magic

  players

  have evolved to appeal to new generations.

• At the same time, the game's publisher, Wizards of the Coast, has developed a strategy of opening up to other worlds of pop culture.

The seller tells us about a time that people under 20 cannot know.

A stone's throw from the shop, on Place Jussieu, in Paris, every day, in all weathers, players came to exchange…

cards .

Sibylline for the uninitiated who understood nothing of its rules, Magic had a colossal success among fantasy lovers, those before the great democratization of the genre.

The game celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and is still on sale in this Parisian store, even if the “decks” and “boosters” now take up less space.

A couple in their forties with a gothic pop look – t-shirts with a zombie Yoshi for him, Morticia's dress with pink lace for her – enter the shop and head… towards the Pokémon cards.

"Them, they could have had the profile of

players ," smiles the seller.

Two teenagers, a brother and his sister, around 13 years old, enter in turn and ask, in a clear and precise voice, to buy “ten Dominaria Uni boosters”.

The seller is hardly surprised.

Epidemic in the Yvelines...

The ancient card game would therefore continue to appeal beyond the old geeks?

“There is a whole new generation of kids who are bitten, explains Cédric, of the Les Fous du Roy shop in Versailles.

The transmission can be from father or mother to children, but not only.

In a village near here, it only took one or two adults from the recreation center to infect a whole host of kids who caught

fever .

»

At the game publisher, we also welcome this new wave of players.

“Whether their curiosity is piqued by the complex yet rewarding style of play, the stunning artwork, the rich story spanning 30 years of storytelling, or simply the collectible aspect of

, anyone can find one or more ways to enjoying the game and sharing that passion with friends and family,” says Leslie Michelet, Marketing and Influence Manager for Wizards of the Coast.

“The game has matured”

Yet Magic

has a reputation as an expensive and complex hobby.

And the players keep the image of a rather closed community, very competitive, even downright painful… “We are aware of it, sighs Romane,

a 45-year-old

I knew the time when it was cool not to mix,

players liked to meet each other, and overplayed the misanthropic side, and sexist!

Today, the hobby and the community are more welcoming.

In my opinion, it also goes with the fact that fans of role-playing games, card games or fantasy are less discriminated against in society.

It actually works both ways.

»

At the Versailles store, Cédric also noticed that the gaming community had changed.

“The painful ultra-competitive players, we made sure that they don't come anymore… It's still a game, so there's one who wins, and one who loses.

But today, competitive players no longer have fun crushing others.

The game has matured…” And above all, there is room for non-competitors.

From collection to heritage

“As the game is old now, there is a really interesting Collection dimension, notes Rémi, who had abandoned

for twenty years and is coming back to it.

We can follow the releases of cards and buy those of universe that we like.

Or complete an older collection.

There, the release of

excites me a lot because it speaks to old players like me, it is a cult episode in the history of

.

This game is a heritage.

I have cards but I hardly play.

»

If “real”

players roll their eyes when told about these kinds of collectors, Cédric notes that more and more players “refuse to spend hundreds of dollars on

.

It is a game which has the reputation of being a pay-to-win, the one who has spent the most can line up the best cards, and will therefore win... Players have circumvented this by inventing game systems, such as EDH or Papeur, which do not favor players who spend the most money.

»

Post-Covid Vitality

The game publisher has also encouraged this change, even if it means getting angry with old players.

“Tournament prize money has melted away,” notes Cédric.

Before, you could make a living playing

.

And then the Covid finished finishing all that.

On the other hand, sanitary confinements have made it possible to develop online gambling.

“I think the visible increase in conversations about our game comes from multiple factors, analyzes Leslie Michelet, of Wizards of the Coast.

Among these, I consider the release of

, a free-to-play version of the game available on PC and Mobile, as well as the succession of confinements during the COVID-19 pandemic to have been the most influential.

»

Pop Culture is Magic

Thus, as with many other cultural sectors, the pandemic and the confinements have paradoxically made it possible to diversify and expand the

community .

To this phenomenon must be added the keen marketing sense of Wizards of the Coast, which has been publishing Magic cards in the colors of other pop culture franchises for several years now.

There was

,

then

,

and recently a collection designed by rapper Post Malone!

“These partnerships with big names in pop culture show that

has a found place within it,” enthuses Leslie Michelet.

Our fans aren't just

fans , and fans of these franchises are also, or can become,

players ... We realized there were a lot of similarities in the interests of these communities and being ourselves fans of these franchises, there is nothing more exciting than to participate in the creation of a crossover.

»

One community to rule them all

The marketing dimension of the process does not escape Magic players who nevertheless appreciate these special series quite unanimously.

“We don't necessarily take these cards to play them but for the Collection aspect, explains Romane.

It's nice that there are bridges between the different passions.

players

are very attached to story arcs from

, but we've all watched

and read The

, so…”

Back in the Parisian shop where young

players precisely advise the cards created in a

universe  : "It's uncle's thing with Gandalf, there..." The couple of "old" Pokémon collectors engages in conversation: “What has always slowed us down is the game system which seems complex, but it's true that the cards are beautiful.

It would be fun to have a Magic Pokémon deck one day!

»

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