The relation between narrative and player experience in Magic the Gathering

On December 16, 2019, Wizards of the Coast reported in their post “2016's Game Developers Conference presentation about Magic that shows several ways we can connect and have fun with the game.

This diversity of ways we can connect and have fun with Magic is what makes storytelling so important. By deciding not to publish an e-book or short stories from Theros Beyond Death, Wizards of the Coast is limiting players' ability to engage with the game. Since in addition to stories being ways that players can locate themselves within a universe by its characters and situations, new stories are new information, news in a universe. In this case, this universe is a game.

Here's an example of how we are consistently being introduced to new information by Magic's narrative. We were interested in the watermarks on the cards representing the Guilds of Ravnica to only later find that there is a name for these combination of two colors. Moreover, these names name represent guilds that have vast narratives with plenty of characters, leaders and guild champions with whom we now have some kind of affinity and identification. This constant exposure to new information is a vital part of the player engagement.

Therefore, it is essential to bring new information not only through mechanics, but also through narratives, so as to keep the players interested. For beyond System and Art, Narrative is also an essential way for players to engage and bond with the game. In this way, the absence of new books and short stories from our dear Multiverse will cause the immersion to diminish, and gradually Magic the Gathering will lose an important part of its engagement and interest. It may even stop being fun for a lot of players.

By analyzing Wizards of the Coast's positioning in relation to Theros Beyond Death's narrative through Framework SAN, we realize that (to date) the new collection is lacking in the Premise element of its Narrative due to their decision not to publish any book or short stories.

On the other hand, we can say that the Narrative of Magic the Gathering is essential to evoke player engagement. By opting for a storytelling format that exists only through flavor texts in the cards, Wizards of the Coast is limiting ways for players to connect to the game. Mainly due to the fact that there is less information about the narrative present in these flavor texts compared to short stories and books.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. Schell. The art of game design: A book of lenses. 2 ed. Pittsburgh: CAC Press, 2015.

L. Negrelli. Framework SAN: a avaliação do jogo pelos jogadores, SBGames, 2017.

M. Csikszentmihalyi. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. London: Harper Perennial, 1990.

T. Sylvester. Designing games: A guide to engineering experiences. Sebastopol: O’Reilly media, 2013

OTHER SOURCES

THE THEROS BEYOND DEATH STORY ON CARDS

Wizards Says it has “No Plans For an Ebook” for Theros Beyond Death