Is Unpopularity a Legitimate Reason to Not Revisit an Old Setting?
General forum
Posted on Oct. 24, 2015, 10:47 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Ulgrotha and Kamigawa are two of the least popular sets in this game, so many players believe that it is unlikely that WotC shall revisit either of those planes at any point in the near future. However, I wonder if that is a legitimate reason to not revisit those planes: some people may say that another attempt to visit those planes will be equally unpopular, but I believe that WotC shall learn from its mistakes and make potential future products set on those planes much better than the initial products that were set there.
What does everyone else say about this? Is unpopularity a legitimate reason to not revisit an old setting?
DERPLINGSUPREME says... #3
some sets get covered in salt.
once this happens. all inhabitants of the plane dye b/c they are crushed by the salt
next, the salt ruins all plant life that could be sustained due to its effect of the land's soil
after long enough, this salt will further crystallize, making a barrier that not even planewalkers can pass through, rendering it an unuseable plane.
October 24, 2015 10:55 p.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #4
I disagree (of course I do) I think if WotC learned from past mistakes then any set could be successful. I know that I would personally love a revisit of Kamigawa.
October 24, 2015 10:55 p.m.
titanreaver says... #5
There are plenty of settings that just don't need another visit. When WoTC is deciding what setting to use, and the choice is make something new or go back to an old one why would they go to an unpopular plane. If they want to reuse a general theme but the plane wasn't popular why not give it a new name and give it a fresh start. For example if they wanted a theme like Fallen Empires, or Homelands, the names themselves just have so much negativity surrounding them that it just wouldn't make sense to call another set that. However if they called it anything else they could still relive the setting and they could even tie the two together but make them different enough that people won't immediately be turned off by the name.
October 24, 2015 11:09 p.m.
I like Kamigawa as the aesthetics are nice and it gave us some great tools for EDH and casual play. Still, no one can deny the influence bad experiences with a product can do to its future viability. I'd like to believe Wizards could rectify its old mistakes, but Battle for Zendikar exhibits many of the things that were wrong with the Kamigawa block. Namely, mechanics like allies, devoid, and ingest mesh very poorly with cards outside of their given expansion. The same was true for soulshift, arcane, etc. I don't want to sound negative, but it seems like Wizards didn't truly take the lessons to be learned form the Kamigawa block to heart.
October 24, 2015 11:10 p.m.
titanreaver says... #7
Well to be fair, every set has some set specific mechanics, and most of them don't mean much outside of their expansion. Dredge on the other hand meshes almost to well with cards outside of it's set . But things like "Snow", and sure Allies, but you have random tribes in almost every set like Rebels, and Mercenaries, and to a point Treefolk, and Faeries. That is part of making a set interesting. Some times they come up with a really good set mechanic and it finds its way into core sets, or even other expansions. Sometimes they make bad decisions and the mechanic never comes back like Dredge lol. Then sometimes they are just meh like Ninjitsu, or Bushido. Its all part of making a fun game that is continuously expanding. In addition to that WoTC does seem to feel like everything needs a key word now a days, even though they have to put the reminder text right next to the ability when it is first released. I guess my point is that was not the worst part of Kamigawa and isn't necessarily a problem with BFZ so far.
October 24, 2015 11:28 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #8
Actually, in a recent poll where Wizards (or MaRo I think) asked players which set they wanted most to be revisited, Kamigawa was second on the list (and you can probably guess what's first). Don't have much time now, but I'll try to find a link to it later.
October 24, 2015 11:30 p.m.
DERPLINGSUPREME says... #9
@FAMOUSWATERMELON first was the arabian nights' plane, right?
it actually has some cool lore...
October 24, 2015 11:33 p.m.
titanreaver says... #10
I was just about to say that. Luckily I refreshed before I started typing. That would be awesome. Arabian Knights is actually my second favorite plane of all time.
October 24, 2015 11:35 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON - That poll was done by the readers of Blogatog, which are decidedly not the average Magic player. Only the most enfranchised players would read MaRo's blog, or go on a site like T/O or MTGSalvation. We are not the people you want to ask about planes to return to.
October 25, 2015 1:09 a.m.
JWiley129 hits the nail on the head. Still, many of these less hardcore fans wouldn't have such a bad aftertaste of Kamigawa. I think it's pretty safe to say that the people that loathe the block the most are the tournament-going players from a decade ago.
October 25, 2015 1:15 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #13
My bad then, but I would say that TheDevicer probably has the right idea. To answer the original question, I would say that popularity is a strong factor when deciding to revisit a set, but not the silver bullet. Though in Kamigawa's case, I think that it's going to be a while before we return, mostly because of lore reasons.
DERPLINGSUPREME Actually, it was Homelands :)
October 25, 2015 8:58 a.m.
I'd say that the popularity of a plans is irrelevant to revisiting.
"Didn't like it the first time around, well this time we got it right" is all the pitch they need.
Lore and flavour is fun, and arguably an important aspect for the game (important to some and irrelevant to others) but what makes a set sell or fail is what they put in the set, not where the imaginary angles exist in fantasy land. We all know every card in a set before you crack your first pack, and that's what drives the sale.
October 26, 2015 10:28 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #15
I know that a full block set on either Ulgrotha or Kamigawa is unlikely to be made in the near future, but would it not be feasible to have some of the generals in a Commander product to be from either of those planes?
JWiley129 says... #2
Yes, because if it was an unpopular settingthe majority of magic players won't buy the product.
October 24, 2015 10:49 p.m.