They are not saying 'Destroy all black creatures' is racist. They are acknowledging MtG is not free from the wider social context in which it exists, and in that context having something called 'Cleanse' with the command to destroy all black creatures is dangerously close to real racist activity.
It is also not possible to say "Oh, but it's just a card game. No one interprets it that way." because subliminal messaging exists, so even if no one ever takes offense or treats it as a call to racist action, there will still be subconscious effects further cementing racial prejudices. When this is unintentional, it is a failure of card design to not account for this. When it is intentional it is outright racist. In both cases the card should be changed.
Yes, I agree on Unyielding Spirit. Maybe they can change it to simply give the ally a barrier on cast and every round start.
I don't know if he is OP, but I really don't like Commander Ledros. Playing the game and trying to win against him most of the time feela absolutely futile.
2 Mana draw 2 on plunder... I mean it has that plunder restriction, but the card still feels really strong! Same for the black market merchant.
But other than those, most cards feel very balanced.
This is getting in total overdrive territory... Racism must be to fight off but with intelligence and education, not with guts and violence!
I am baffled that a fantasy game publisher of 5 colors card game (Black symbolize death in this game, not people) thinks that "destroy all black creatures" is racist. Does this mean that colors are now politically charged (Red? white?) and must not use in context of destruction? Why is "destroy all white creatures" not banned then, amongst others?
This move does make sense. Outside of invoke prejudice these cards are practically unplayable, and invoke prejudice only sees play in EDH, which doesn’t really have anytournament play. Some of these I don’t understand, but I’m probably missing some cultural context on these.
(PS: Sorry if this is posted muliple Times. OoC keeps eating my Comment.)
Alright,
Nr.1: I'm using the fairly broad, run-of-the-Mill Definition of Censorship that one can find on the Internet: „The suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security", with my Emphasis being on Prohibition, obscene and politically unacceptable.
In this Article, it is stated that WotC is going to ban these Cards from Tournament Play and that they removed/replaced the Images on their official Database. Banning and Removing are Forms of Prohibition. And wether or not these Cards are obscene/politically unacceptable is out of the Question: I find them insensitive, you find them insensitive, the great Majority of People here would find them insensitive.
Since necessary Requirements are fullfilled, WotC has, by Definition, censored their Art.
And about it being a Corporate Decision: WotC are responsible for their Product, you are right. When conceptualizing these Cards they should have put more Thought on how they might appear to the Public. BUT: The Censorship being a Business Decision does not change the Fact that it is just that. A Censorship. (ImO it would have probably been a better Idea to add a little Info-Text or some Kind of Marker in the Description.)
Nr.2: „They can also control what people do with their product."
First, let me point out that this Statement is contradicting with your Painting-Example at the End.
Second, you're right about Companies having the Right to create Forums and, within their Rules, move/remove Posts (Idk wether or not this could be Censorship). And yes, they also have a Right to Protect their IPs from Missuse. However, they're not allowed to go for Content that clearly falls under Fair Use, as far as I know. And they most certainly are not allowed to monitor independent Forums.
Nr.3: „Let's talk about the way Blizzard "censored"."
Why? We're talking about Magic and WotC. But if you want my Opinion on the whole China-Thing: It sucks.
Nr.4: „Sometimes these decisions are based on actual ethics, I know this is crazy."
Nowhere did I imply that WotC didn't have well minded Intentions. It is quite possible that they did. It's also quite possible that they did it to get some Good-Guy-Points. I guess only they truely know the Answer to this.
I'm not against them being more inclusive. If they can be it AND deliver Quality, then hey, Everybody wins. I'm against the Way they want to achieve it. Like I said in a previous Post, by censoring Art you're working on the same Principle as those who're burning Books: „It doesn't fit our Worldview, therefore it has to go".
Nr.5: „On your note that card art isn't just a product on the company.. it really is."
No. It isn't
I'm currently studying Graphic Desing. One of the first Things they tell you is, that the Works that you produce for Agencies/Companies/etc. are an extremely Important Part of your Portfolio. You need a Portfolio to be able to apply for a Job as Designer/Artist. Yes, you can't sell those Pieces (usually), but you are more than allowed to show these publically and promote yourself that Way. A great Example for this is ArtStation. There you can find a lot of Concept Art, 3D, etc. You can even find official Artwork on there, like from HS.
And also, if the Card Art does not belong to the Artist, then why do they get Credit for it on the Cards themselves?
--
But, yeah. To get back to the Point: I just don't like Censorship. It always feels like opening Pandora's Box to me. Like, rn these Picks seem pretty obvious, but,...what if they keep on expanding what's considered racist/offensive?
I just think that there a better Ways to approach these spicy Topics.
While i agree with you Unyielding Spirit can feel very oppressive to play against when we are losing, given it takes away all hope for a comeback (as every other card i've listed), it should almost never win games we are ahead outside some crazy combo with a big Lifesteal unit.
US is OP and needs to be changed now. Not a month from now. Now! Today!
When every top 500 master rank streamer is saying its overpowered and broken; it needs a change.
When 80% of people I play against just forfeit the second I place it on a good follower or champion; it needs a change.
When you hear about and see new players come to the game and admit they liked the game but quit playing because US is impossible to beat unless you are in one region (Ionia) or play a deeps deck; IT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED!
Well at least you don't need to wait 6 months for a simple nerf like in hs on similar times.. (Undertaker)
While i agree with you Unyielding Spirit can feel very oppressive to play against when we are losing, given it takes away all hope for a comeback (as every other card i've listed), it should almost never win games we are ahead outside some crazy combo with a big Lifesteal unit.
US is OP and needs to be changed now. Not a month from now. Now! Today!
When every top 500 master rank streamer is saying its overpowered and broken; it needs a change.
When 80% of people I play against just forfeit the second I place it on a good follower or champion; it needs a change.
When you hear about and see new players come to the game and admit they liked the game but quit playing because US is impossible to beat unless you are in one region (Ionia) or play a deeps deck; IT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED!
Although i wasn't blown away like the first trailer for the first horizon, this one looks like my personal system seller. Horizon 1 for me was one of the best games for the last years; the second one looks a bit like "more of the same", but that isn't a bad sign. That elefant though... INSANE! (in a good way!)
Project Athia (seems to be a working title) looks absolutly fantastic. i agree with you, flux, that dragon.... amazing!
Remake of demon souls! It was rumored before, but see it, i dig it.
And last, Kena. This looks like the Zelda, PS never had. Unbeleavable cute and beatuiful.
Honorable mention: godfall. Seems fun.
As for the other introduced games: let's wait and see.
But overall very nice event! The design is strange at first glance, but the more often i look on it, the better i like it.
The thing is we can't keep tip toeing around all of the conflict of the real world. People have a good point about not wanting real world problems shoved into our games, which is understandable, but at the same time when you can't even dare put simple colors like black and white in a competitive game, that also is akin to forcing real world problems into games.
We assign all sorts of abstract meanings to color, it's a part of who we are as humans. However, people start getting really weird ideas that make huge assumptions about what they think or feel color in a card game 'really means' (ie that a card saying "Destroy all black creatures" is akin to "[Harm] black people", or that it is some inside meaning to racial cleansing. I can't even fathom how somebody could make such a jump because it is such an unbelievable jump in logic. Imo you'd have to have a pretty sick mind to even think a card game is trying to tell you that.
What happened to colors in a game, or art, or entertainment meaning something other than race dynamics and contention? Somebody else mentioned earlier in a brief post if we are supposed to get rid of chess because it uses polarazing opposite colors.
It also speaks volumes that cards like Cleanse are suddenly a problem. Nobody talked about the card until today. Why now? Did it suddenly decide to become offensive and violent, or are social issues being projected onto it?
Yeah, White and Black shouldn't really be MtG colors IMO. I know it's probably too late, but Yellow and Purple could be good reps of Light and Darkness (like in Hearthstone) without any accidental racial implication. I'm pretty sure Cleanse and Crusade did not intend to be racist (unlike most of the cards in the ban list), but it is what it is.
Regarding the bans in general, I don't get the racist implications of all of them, but good riddance in any case.
Hello there. I've downloaded legends of runeterra on my phone for a month now and I love it. But what I noticed was that when I played the game normally, it was pretty clunky and laggy. But, when I kept my finger on the screen, it ran as smooth as silk. Any ideas?
The whole trope/concept of white representing good and life versus black representing evil and death is becoming problematic in many games.
I think this is grossly oversimplifying the symbolism going on in many games and just culture in general.
White and black symbolism isn't always referring to race. In fact, through most of history it actually referred to other meanings before different ethnicity of people. For example, many ancient cultures actually referred to black as being dangerous or scary not because it referred to skin tone, but because things like disease often lead to death and decay, which resulted in the flesh of living things eventually turning all sorts of colors, including black. That symbolism has existed in ancient cultures much longer in the world than attaching the color to race.
Another example, many ancient cultures valued the color white positively, not because of race, but because they had some form of commodity in the culture that was of economic or spiritual value. One great Asianic example of this were ancient trading/farming cultures that frequented white rice (although other colors of rice were just as common, if not more, than white rice depending on the time period, economic status, & specific people. However, for the wealthy factions of people that did depend on white rice the whiteness being the 'good' color had more to do with the white food bringing bounteous wealth. That has nothing to do with skin tones.
Another example of ancient cultures assigning 'bad' feelings to the color black because black was sometimes associated with night time/darkness, which in some time periods and cultures placed people at greater fear of warding off invasions, pillaging, and injury/death from said invaders in the night.
However, there are also many examples of the 'goodness' and 'badness' associated with white or black being flip flopped as well, such as wealth and prosperity for a minority few being found in the "black gold" of coal, or various black/darker toned ores. You also see black being the 'good' color during times when pepper and other dark spices were extremely sought after and lucrative spices. White has also been the 'bad' color for many cultures and time periods when the white of frost, or impending snowy weather/storms brought about rampant death of both individual people, communities, and crops if they were caught unprepared.
This general list could go on and on, but I think it is grossly misleading and oversimplifying historic and ancient symbolism to say video games often use white as 'good' and black as 'bad' is just because of race/skin tone.
Never played MtG so I'm coming at this from an outside perspective not based on any interest in the cards themselves, and if the original art is what is depicted in the above 7 cards the claim there's racism going on here or hate towards anyone is really baffling to me, and seems to be reaching a lot.
Without reading most of the comments here yet so that I don't bias myself before posting and have to really go far out there to be able to say a knight or some demons (monsters?) getting sucked into some nether portal thing, or two dudes, a horse, and a woman are racist I think that is pretty telling over the whole argument.
I've seen old racist propaganda posters, comics, or just grotesque and cruel literal or symbolic pictures/imagery, and these look nothing like any of that. Agree to agree, or disagree, but this really seems to be reaching.
Ok, let's have a talk about what is and isn't censorship. Censorship on a government level and corporate level are two different things.
Government Censorship: In the US true censorship (IE removal and destruction of something) is reserved for what is only dangerous. This includes things like instructions on how to make weapons, art that promotes violence, and incendiary statements that can cause harm. The ol' 'shouting fire in an empty theater' example. This should almost never be done except with damn good reason.
There's another level here about limiting access, but not censoring. Think the rating system on movies, FCC control of airways, and limiting age limits on access to material such as pornography. This isn't censorship, but instead acting in the public's best interest. The extent of the restrictions and government controls are highly debatable.
Now let's move on to what we're actually talking about, corporate censorship. There are government regulations that are generally covered above, but mostly it's up to a business to decide what it displays and how it represents itself. They are then responsible for whatever comes of what they've produced. So if I have my card game called and made a card, "THE KKK is A-OKAY" then I'm responsible for the demonstrations, loss of funding, and boycotting that results. I am also fully allowed to rescind and apologize for the card. This isn't censorship in the way you are portraying it, it is a business decision.
They can also control what people do with their product. This means they are fully able to monitor forums and censor as needed to keep things in their age bracket. They can create specific forums and move your posts around or remove posts and problematic posters. Is this censorship? By your definition it is. They can also use the legal system to go after people who use their intellectual property in damaging ways. Most companies encourage fan art, but they will also shut down companies that benefit of unlicensed use of their content. They can also petition to have fan art that they feel is harmful to their brand removed. Example: Blizzard is constantly chasing down Overwatch porn.
Let's talk about the way Blizzard 'censored'. They evaluated past card art and decided they felt it was excluding or offensive toward potential clientele. They also changed art to accommodate different government censor rules, especially that of China. I stopped buying from Blizzard because I felt that their decision to go after Hong Kong protesters was an ethical violation of human rights. I feel like instead of choosing a path for their clients, they bent the knee for fear of Chinese retribution.
Sometimes these decisions are based on actual ethics, I know this is crazy. You go back and look at your past work and apologize and remove it even without a protest. You can feel like this left a bad taste in your mouth and your employees aren't proud of it and remove it. Times like these can make you really look at your old work and decide it's not up to par. That's what MtG has done here. Some think it's pandering, but time will tell on that. The art style over the last few years has been a lot more inclusive and had more types of human races depicted which is great.
On your note that card art isn't just a product on the company... it really is. They are commissioned and paid for. That's the way the gig works. Some contracts allow the artist to have some use of the image but generally after being paid for the submitted work in now way belongs to the artist. If someone buys your painting and takes it home you have no say in if they display it in the living room or burn it in the fireplace.
Really don't understand why they printed these "steal" cards. Devs were promising us for several months how they will especially avoid implementing stupid and irritating stuff from HS, then they proceed to print the most stupid and irritating ones. They said - no random, but if you browse your collection you'll now notice a lot of cards which say "random". Which is okay; they realized some rng and randomness is needed to fight monotony and tedious predictability (just don't overdo it!). But, "steal" doesn't help anything, it's just plain stupid; contradicting fundamental aims of the game. No clown fiesta is the exact reason why we would play LoR, otherwise we play HS and not LoR.
I freaking love this idea although there is certainly a chance of there being one or two cheesy things people would wind up doing with it. Would adore seeing this hero return with this ability for sure.
You don't think removing/banning Art is Censorship? It literally is by Definition.
It is uncomfortable to admit it, but it's working on the same Principle as burning Books. „It doesn't fit our Worldview, therefor it has to go". It's just such an ugly Mindset to have.
Also, these Cards are not just Products of the Company, they're also the Products of the Artists. By censoring the Art, you're also censoring a Piece of them, limit their Freedom of Self-Expression, and, in the worst Case, ruin their Career. (Sidenote: I'm not familiar with the MtG Community, but I remember hearing about People advocating for the Removal of certain Artists, like Terese Nielsen, because they don't have the „right" Politics.)
I just wish that Companies like WotC would approach Things like this in a more mature Way.
I think spells are inevitably going to be introduced to BG but will come in the form of a hero that gets to have them similar to the Great Whateverhisnameisidontusehim. It would be very awesome to be able to invest in one time spells (Flamestrike, Force of Nature, etc) to help float you by a difficult matchup. Ideally it would be awesome to see one per class in the game or perhaps five dual class heroes which would help them balance it a little easier.
trust me, the demand for it is high so it will indeed happen someday!!
ievery time you level up Bobs Tavern you get a random spell from that levels pool? Example 1st level spell would be Breath of Sindragosa but a level 5 might be Power of Creation summoning two units when you had room yet it could only be used once per game..
I remember when that information was released and so still believe it is a little puffed up. I was 7800 at the time and wanted to take the compliment but to be honest I think I am just intermediate. There are ppl that play at 11k who are the true .1%, not us
Odes to our Favorite Bad Cards of All Time
Hurts to read.
Odes to our Favorite Bad Cards of All Time
I still remember the horrific memories when I was a Hearthstone noob:
1. I disenchanted a golden Leeroy Jenkins for an Onyxia
2. I disenchanted a golden Cenarius to craft a Nozdormu
So I'd say, by those mistakes alone, Onyxia and Nozdormu will forever be my favorite bad cards
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
They are not saying 'Destroy all black creatures' is racist. They are acknowledging MtG is not free from the wider social context in which it exists, and in that context having something called 'Cleanse' with the command to destroy all black creatures is dangerously close to real racist activity.
It is also not possible to say "Oh, but it's just a card game. No one interprets it that way." because subliminal messaging exists, so even if no one ever takes offense or treats it as a call to racist action, there will still be subconscious effects further cementing racial prejudices. When this is unintentional, it is a failure of card design to not account for this. When it is intentional it is outright racist. In both cases the card should be changed.
Completely Broken Cards
Yes, I agree on Unyielding Spirit. Maybe they can change it to simply give the ally a barrier on cast and every round start.
I don't know if he is OP, but I really don't like Commander Ledros. Playing the game and trying to win against him most of the time feela absolutely futile.
2 Mana draw 2 on plunder... I mean it has that plunder restriction, but the card still feels really strong! Same for the black market merchant.
But other than those, most cards feel very balanced.
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
This is getting in total overdrive territory... Racism must be to fight off but with intelligence and education, not with guts and violence!
I am baffled that a fantasy game publisher of 5 colors card game (Black symbolize death in this game, not people) thinks that "destroy all black creatures" is racist. Does this mean that colors are now politically charged (Red? white?) and must not use in context of destruction? Why is "destroy all white creatures" not banned then, amongst others?
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
This move does make sense. Outside of invoke prejudice these cards are practically unplayable, and invoke prejudice only sees play in EDH, which doesn’t really have anytournament play. Some of these I don’t understand, but I’m probably missing some cultural context on these.
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
(PS: Sorry if this is posted muliple Times. OoC keeps eating my Comment.)
Alright,
Nr.1: I'm using the fairly broad, run-of-the-Mill Definition of Censorship that one can find on the Internet: „The suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security", with my Emphasis being on Prohibition, obscene and politically unacceptable.
In this Article, it is stated that WotC is going to ban these Cards from Tournament Play and that they removed/replaced the Images on their official Database. Banning and Removing are Forms of Prohibition. And wether or not these Cards are obscene/politically unacceptable is out of the Question: I find them insensitive, you find them insensitive, the great Majority of People here would find them insensitive.
Since necessary Requirements are fullfilled, WotC has, by Definition, censored their Art.
And about it being a Corporate Decision: WotC are responsible for their Product, you are right. When conceptualizing these Cards they should have put more Thought on how they might appear to the Public. BUT: The Censorship being a Business Decision does not change the Fact that it is just that. A Censorship. (ImO it would have probably been a better Idea to add a little Info-Text or some Kind of Marker in the Description.)
Nr.2: „They can also control what people do with their product."
First, let me point out that this Statement is contradicting with your Painting-Example at the End.
Second, you're right about Companies having the Right to create Forums and, within their Rules, move/remove Posts (Idk wether or not this could be Censorship). And yes, they also have a Right to Protect their IPs from Missuse. However, they're not allowed to go for Content that clearly falls under Fair Use, as far as I know. And they most certainly are not allowed to monitor independent Forums.
Nr.3: „Let's talk about the way Blizzard "censored"."
Why? We're talking about Magic and WotC. But if you want my Opinion on the whole China-Thing: It sucks.
Nr.4: „Sometimes these decisions are based on actual ethics, I know this is crazy."
Nowhere did I imply that WotC didn't have well minded Intentions. It is quite possible that they did. It's also quite possible that they did it to get some Good-Guy-Points. I guess only they truely know the Answer to this.
I'm not against them being more inclusive. If they can be it AND deliver Quality, then hey, Everybody wins. I'm against the Way they want to achieve it. Like I said in a previous Post, by censoring Art you're working on the same Principle as those who're burning Books: „It doesn't fit our Worldview, therefore it has to go".
Nr.5: „On your note that card art isn't just a product on the company.. it really is."
No. It isn't
I'm currently studying Graphic Desing. One of the first Things they tell you is, that the Works that you produce for Agencies/Companies/etc. are an extremely Important Part of your Portfolio. You need a Portfolio to be able to apply for a Job as Designer/Artist. Yes, you can't sell those Pieces (usually), but you are more than allowed to show these publically and promote yourself that Way. A great Example for this is ArtStation. There you can find a lot of Concept Art, 3D, etc. You can even find official Artwork on there, like from HS.
And also, if the Card Art does not belong to the Artist, then why do they get Credit for it on the Cards themselves?
--
But, yeah. To get back to the Point: I just don't like Censorship. It always feels like opening Pandora's Box to me. Like, rn these Picks seem pretty obvious, but,...what if they keep on expanding what's considered racist/offensive?
I just think that there a better Ways to approach these spicy Topics.
Completely Broken Cards
Well at least you don't need to wait 6 months for a simple nerf like in hs on similar times.. (Undertaker)
It will get changed next patch probably.
[Game] Card Treasure Hunt (The Resurrection Attempt)
Nope, it's not a neutral card. Think more along the line of DeytroyerR's guesses.
Completely Broken Cards
US is OP and needs to be changed now. Not a month from now. Now! Today!
When every top 500 master rank streamer is saying its overpowered and broken; it needs a change.
When 80% of people I play against just forfeit the second I place it on a good follower or champion; it needs a change.
When you hear about and see new players come to the game and admit they liked the game but quit playing because US is impossible to beat unless you are in one region (Ionia) or play a deeps deck; IT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED!
Anyone else hyped about the ps5 presentation happening in a few minutes?
Although i wasn't blown away like the first trailer for the first horizon, this one looks like my personal system seller. Horizon 1 for me was one of the best games for the last years; the second one looks a bit like "more of the same", but that isn't a bad sign. That elefant though... INSANE! (in a good way!)
Project Athia (seems to be a working title) looks absolutly fantastic. i agree with you, flux, that dragon.... amazing!
Remake of demon souls! It was rumored before, but see it, i dig it.
And last, Kena. This looks like the Zelda, PS never had. Unbeleavable cute and beatuiful.
Honorable mention: godfall. Seems fun.
As for the other introduced games: let's wait and see.
But overall very nice event! The design is strange at first glance, but the more often i look on it, the better i like it.
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
The thing is we can't keep tip toeing around all of the conflict of the real world. People have a good point about not wanting real world problems shoved into our games, which is understandable, but at the same time when you can't even dare put simple colors like black and white in a competitive game, that also is akin to forcing real world problems into games.
We assign all sorts of abstract meanings to color, it's a part of who we are as humans. However, people start getting really weird ideas that make huge assumptions about what they think or feel color in a card game 'really means' (ie that a card saying "Destroy all black creatures" is akin to "[Harm] black people", or that it is some inside meaning to racial cleansing. I can't even fathom how somebody could make such a jump because it is such an unbelievable jump in logic. Imo you'd have to have a pretty sick mind to even think a card game is trying to tell you that.
What happened to colors in a game, or art, or entertainment meaning something other than race dynamics and contention? Somebody else mentioned earlier in a brief post if we are supposed to get rid of chess because it uses polarazing opposite colors.
It also speaks volumes that cards like Cleanse are suddenly a problem. Nobody talked about the card until today. Why now? Did it suddenly decide to become offensive and violent, or are social issues being projected onto it?
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
Yeah, White and Black shouldn't really be MtG colors IMO. I know it's probably too late, but Yellow and Purple could be good reps of Light and Darkness (like in Hearthstone) without any accidental racial implication. I'm pretty sure Cleanse and Crusade did not intend to be racist (unlike most of the cards in the ban list), but it is what it is.
Regarding the bans in general, I don't get the racist implications of all of them, but good riddance in any case.
Lor not running smoothly on mobile
Hello there. I've downloaded legends of runeterra on my phone for a month now and I love it. But what I noticed was that when I played the game normally, it was pretty clunky and laggy. But, when I kept my finger on the screen, it ran as smooth as silk. Any ideas?
Thx!
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
I think this is grossly oversimplifying the symbolism going on in many games and just culture in general.
White and black symbolism isn't always referring to race. In fact, through most of history it actually referred to other meanings before different ethnicity of people. For example, many ancient cultures actually referred to black as being dangerous or scary not because it referred to skin tone, but because things like disease often lead to death and decay, which resulted in the flesh of living things eventually turning all sorts of colors, including black. That symbolism has existed in ancient cultures much longer in the world than attaching the color to race.
Another example, many ancient cultures valued the color white positively, not because of race, but because they had some form of commodity in the culture that was of economic or spiritual value. One great Asianic example of this were ancient trading/farming cultures that frequented white rice (although other colors of rice were just as common, if not more, than white rice depending on the time period, economic status, & specific people. However, for the wealthy factions of people that did depend on white rice the whiteness being the 'good' color had more to do with the white food bringing bounteous wealth. That has nothing to do with skin tones.
Another example of ancient cultures assigning 'bad' feelings to the color black because black was sometimes associated with night time/darkness, which in some time periods and cultures placed people at greater fear of warding off invasions, pillaging, and injury/death from said invaders in the night.
However, there are also many examples of the 'goodness' and 'badness' associated with white or black being flip flopped as well, such as wealth and prosperity for a minority few being found in the "black gold" of coal, or various black/darker toned ores. You also see black being the 'good' color during times when pepper and other dark spices were extremely sought after and lucrative spices. White has also been the 'bad' color for many cultures and time periods when the white of frost, or impending snowy weather/storms brought about rampant death of both individual people, communities, and crops if they were caught unprepared.
This general list could go on and on, but I think it is grossly misleading and oversimplifying historic and ancient symbolism to say video games often use white as 'good' and black as 'bad' is just because of race/skin tone.
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
Never played MtG so I'm coming at this from an outside perspective not based on any interest in the cards themselves, and if the original art is what is depicted in the above 7 cards the claim there's racism going on here or hate towards anyone is really baffling to me, and seems to be reaching a lot.
Without reading most of the comments here yet so that I don't bias myself before posting and have to really go far out there to be able to say a knight or some demons (monsters?) getting sucked into some nether portal thing, or two dudes, a horse, and a woman are racist I think that is pretty telling over the whole argument.
I've seen old racist propaganda posters, comics, or just grotesque and cruel literal or symbolic pictures/imagery, and these look nothing like any of that. Agree to agree, or disagree, but this really seems to be reaching.
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
Ok, let's have a talk about what is and isn't censorship. Censorship on a government level and corporate level are two different things.
Government Censorship: In the US true censorship (IE removal and destruction of something) is reserved for what is only dangerous. This includes things like instructions on how to make weapons, art that promotes violence, and incendiary statements that can cause harm. The ol' 'shouting fire in an empty theater' example. This should almost never be done except with damn good reason.
There's another level here about limiting access, but not censoring. Think the rating system on movies, FCC control of airways, and limiting age limits on access to material such as pornography. This isn't censorship, but instead acting in the public's best interest. The extent of the restrictions and government controls are highly debatable.
Now let's move on to what we're actually talking about, corporate censorship. There are government regulations that are generally covered above, but mostly it's up to a business to decide what it displays and how it represents itself. They are then responsible for whatever comes of what they've produced. So if I have my card game called and made a card, "THE KKK is A-OKAY" then I'm responsible for the demonstrations, loss of funding, and boycotting that results. I am also fully allowed to rescind and apologize for the card. This isn't censorship in the way you are portraying it, it is a business decision.
They can also control what people do with their product. This means they are fully able to monitor forums and censor as needed to keep things in their age bracket. They can create specific forums and move your posts around or remove posts and problematic posters. Is this censorship? By your definition it is. They can also use the legal system to go after people who use their intellectual property in damaging ways. Most companies encourage fan art, but they will also shut down companies that benefit of unlicensed use of their content. They can also petition to have fan art that they feel is harmful to their brand removed. Example: Blizzard is constantly chasing down Overwatch porn.
Let's talk about the way Blizzard 'censored'. They evaluated past card art and decided they felt it was excluding or offensive toward potential clientele. They also changed art to accommodate different government censor rules, especially that of China. I stopped buying from Blizzard because I felt that their decision to go after Hong Kong protesters was an ethical violation of human rights. I feel like instead of choosing a path for their clients, they bent the knee for fear of Chinese retribution.
Sometimes these decisions are based on actual ethics, I know this is crazy. You go back and look at your past work and apologize and remove it even without a protest. You can feel like this left a bad taste in your mouth and your employees aren't proud of it and remove it. Times like these can make you really look at your old work and decide it's not up to par. That's what MtG has done here. Some think it's pandering, but time will tell on that. The art style over the last few years has been a lot more inclusive and had more types of human races depicted which is great.
On your note that card art isn't just a product on the company... it really is. They are commissioned and paid for. That's the way the gig works. Some contracts allow the artist to have some use of the image but generally after being paid for the submitted work in now way belongs to the artist. If someone buys your painting and takes it home you have no say in if they display it in the living room or burn it in the fireplace.
Warrior Wavering
You've nicely recognized some of those tricky situations.
2 mana steal 2 cards?
Really don't understand why they printed these "steal" cards. Devs were promising us for several months how they will especially avoid implementing stupid and irritating stuff from HS, then they proceed to print the most stupid and irritating ones. They said - no random, but if you browse your collection you'll now notice a lot of cards which say "random". Which is okay; they realized some rng and randomness is needed to fight monotony and tedious predictability (just don't overdo it!). But, "steal" doesn't help anything, it's just plain stupid; contradicting fundamental aims of the game. No clown fiesta is the exact reason why we would play LoR, otherwise we play HS and not LoR.
Odes to our Favorite Bad Cards of All Time
Val is a good one. When that card works it is so beautiful- like a full force Hammerdin!
How to Maximize Gold in Hearthstone?
Panhandling on your local intersections can be another profitable idea toward any good Hearthstone collection XD
Sylvanas Idea
I freaking love this idea although there is certainly a chance of there being one or two cheesy things people would wind up doing with it. Would adore seeing this hero return with this ability for sure.
7 Magic the Gathering Cards Banned From Play Due to Racial Depictions
You don't think removing/banning Art is Censorship? It literally is by Definition.
It is uncomfortable to admit it, but it's working on the same Principle as burning Books. „It doesn't fit our Worldview, therefor it has to go". It's just such an ugly Mindset to have.
Also, these Cards are not just Products of the Company, they're also the Products of the Artists. By censoring the Art, you're also censoring a Piece of them, limit their Freedom of Self-Expression, and, in the worst Case, ruin their Career. (Sidenote: I'm not familiar with the MtG Community, but I remember hearing about People advocating for the Removal of certain Artists, like Terese Nielsen, because they don't have the „right" Politics.)
I just wish that Companies like WotC would approach Things like this in a more mature Way.
Spell Damage Update Idea
I think spells are inevitably going to be introduced to BG but will come in the form of a hero that gets to have them similar to the Great Whateverhisnameisidontusehim. It would be very awesome to be able to invest in one time spells (Flamestrike, Force of Nature, etc) to help float you by a difficult matchup. Ideally it would be awesome to see one per class in the game or perhaps five dual class heroes which would help them balance it a little easier.
trust me, the demand for it is high so it will indeed happen someday!!
ievery time you level up Bobs Tavern you get a random spell from that levels pool? Example 1st level spell would be Breath of Sindragosa but a level 5 might be Power of Creation summoning two units when you had room yet it could only be used once per game..
Happy :)
I remember when that information was released and so still believe it is a little puffed up. I was 7800 at the time and wanted to take the compliment but to be honest I think I am just intermediate. There are ppl that play at 11k who are the true .1%, not us