Poll: Yugioh and MTG

[NightmareWarden]

I didn't hear about Magic: the Gathering until high school and I've never played it. I played Yu-Gi-Oh throughout elementary school, watched the shows, and saw the movie in theaters so I was a big fan of it. I continued to watch the shows for a few years after I stopped playing until...the motorcycles. Yugioh 5Ds had a lot of well-written characters, but the idea of card games on motorcycles was a bit too stupid for my taste.

My current thoughts on M:TG are that it is probably the most widely accepted trading card game internationally. The silliness of the most recent adaptations of the Yugioh cartoon/anime have probably hurt it more than helped how seriously it is taken. I rank M:TG up with games like Dungeons and Dragons in that there will always people that mock them, but they are still held in high regard many years after their creation.

 

[Ghaleon640]

Yu-Gi-Oh I heard through the TV show (like Pokemon).

Magic I heard through word of mouth and whatnot. I don't think I've EVER seen a Magic commercial...

If it helps for your paper, I believe that the way Magic did it is the much better way. Yu-Gi-Oh (and again, Pokemon) both have their own multi-media brands setup but I feel that it takes away from...for lack of a better word, prestige of the card game. There is a reason that Magic has thrived for 30-some years while Yu-Gi-Oh has dwindled. YGO has pockets of big fans but when I go to any card shop, Magic dominates all.

Personally, I tried them both and fell out of them both (and Pokemon!). I never could shake the feeling that someone spending more money than me would have the advantage. Whether that is true or not is debatable...

Thanks for your reply! And I can see what you mean, the TV show most certainly will detract from the games creditably and now that you mention it, YGO was defiantly more of a fad, while MTG has a a much larger 'culture' surrounding it.

Oh and I agree with you about the money thing, thats why when I play I only play causally, with friends and what not.

If anything, I feel the show helped Yu-Gi-Oh immensely, it had much more of a pick up and play feel than magic the gathering. The show, while it broke the rules, gave a feel for the game and was able to rope in people who never, ever, would have gotten into collectible card games otherwise. And some players found that there was enough depth to keep playing long after they stopped watching the show. (Also, though the TV was my start, and many others, we probably would quickly hear about it from our friends anyway, so it was impossible to avoid.)

To compare it to pokemon, I feel the vast majority of people that bought pokemon cards never used them to play, but to collect. At my high school there were pockets of people playing Yu-Gi-Oh, I was one of them, but I've never seen anyone play pokemon outside of the Gameboy version. So the show helped it financially, but as far as getting people to actually play it, the pokemon card game is in the dust.

MTG was a gift from one of my friends, who never played the game themselves. Without any idea of how to play, I set my deck aside for maybe 8 years until I met friends who played the game. I dusted the old deck off and finally got into it. A show, however, wouldn't help MTG, since the rules would be too complex and wouldn't offer a great viewing experience. It survives by the strength of the game alone.

 

[vashthblackseed]

Magic did release some commercials on TV; however, that was a few years after I started playing. The one I remember most clearly is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEspN6C5Oys
While Yu-Gi-Oh did have a more apparent marketing system (to their target audience) with the whole tv series, I doubt it would have would have been even remotely as successful if not for M:tG or even the Pokemon TCG at least in so far as the American market is concerned