Recently I attended a convention in Los Angeles, California. I'm not much of a convention-goer these days, but if Keith Schlesinger was going to fly out from Ohio, it seemed my duty at least to fly down from Sacramento. It was no surprise to see that the convention was primarily dominated by Magic The Gathering players.

For those of you who haven't heard, MTG is a fantasy card game produced by Wizards of the Coast. It has literally turned into a phenomenon, reaching sales levels previously unheard of in the gaming industry. The game incorporates three diverse elements and combines them into one product.

The first, of course, is the game itself. As a card game it is really quite clever. Without going into specifics, it allows you to construct your playing deck from over 300 (perhaps well over by now) card types, giving the game a strategic element. In this way it allows you to decide, before you begin play, what sort of tactics you will use to overcome your opponent. Beyond that ability, the game is very similar to, for instance, Up Front in general play mechanics.

The second element is that the cards are "collectable." There are common cards, uncommon cards, and downright rare ones, some of which are commanding quite high prices, witness the tale 1 heard recently of a sale of a mere three cards for over $100.00! These two things alone would have been enough to make the game immensely popular, but Wizards of the Coast wasn't through covering the bases yet.

The third element is gambling. To play the game correctly, players are required to ante up the top card from their deck. If the player loses the match, he loses the card. Therefore, every time the game is played there is an element of true risk and potential gain involved. These three items turn this game into what must be a truly addicting experience.

Getting back to the convention, one of the disturbing things I witnessed there was the large amount of open hostility towards Magic players. What's even more troubling was that it was coming primarily from wargamers.

Jack Greene recently sent me an old copy of Fire and Movement. It contained an article he wanted me to read entitled "The Wargamer as Nigger." The article is essentially a laundry list of things the author doesn't like about wargamers. He refers to such things as their hygiene and social skills in a highly negative fashion, but never really defines exactly what he means by the term "nigger." I found the article to be tasteless, and frankly fell into the same trap the author was complaining about.

... never to be jealous another success. If someone in your industry creates a product that is more successful than yours, it's only because they thought of something you didn't.

However, when the MTG auction was announced at the con, I heard a wargamer yell, "Fuck Magic," at what must have been the top of his lungs. This exclamation was greeted with cheers by others in the room. "The Wargamer as Nigger" took on a whole new meaning.

For some reason, I have always seen wargamers as being a more intelligent lot, and consequently better mannered, than the average bloke we call a gamer. Needless to say, I'm beginning to re-shape this view. The kind of adolescent hostility displayed at that convention is, frankly, inexcusable. Especially when you consider that MTG is probably the best thing to happen to this industry in a long while.

Yes, you read that correctly. Magic: The Gathering is the best thing to happen to the gaming industry in years. It is a milestone as important as Tactics or Dungeons and Dragons. It has proven several things, the first of which is that it is still possible to bring large amounts of new blood into the gaming hobby. This aspect directly benefits wargaming, but I'll get to that shortly.

The second thing - and the one that should be most important to those of us on the producing end - is that it is still possible to make a killing in the gaming market. Unfortunately, what I hear instead from manufacturers is that M.- TG is sucking all the profits out of the industry. Woe to any manufacturer with that attitude; the end is near.

Another of the philosophical gems I learned from my father is never to be jealous of another's success. If someone in your industry creates a product that is more successful than yours, it's only because they thought of something you didn't. And, Lord, I wish I'd thought of Magic.- The Gathering.

Like most wargamers, I have non-gaming friends and a definite non-gaming family. I often find, when discussing what I do, that people have rarely even heard of wargaming. "Is that anything like the dungeons thing the kids play?" is the most frequent inquiry. I believe that experience is common to many wargamers and that it is significant. The lack of growth in the wargaming industry isn't due to the fact that people just don't play wargames, it's that people don't even know they exist!

Which brings me to how MTG is directly beneficial to wargaming. Unfortunately, wargames do not have space on the shelves at such outlets as Toys 'R' Us or K-Mart. They are to be found at hole-in-the-wall hobby and game shops. The people who go into these stores are usually people who know what's there and what they're shopping for. Consequently, wargames get very little exposure to potential new buyers who've never heard of wargaming.

Suddenly, in steps Magic The Gathering. New faces are flocking in droves to these little hobby shops and game stores to get their hands on this new card game. I recently had a discussion with a retailer here in Sacramento. He said that MTG has brought in literally hundreds of new people to his shop. Significantly, almost all of them were amazed at the tremendous range and diversity of games available. They never knew all these games even existed!

By now I think you see what I'm getting at. Although M-TG may be absorbing the spotlight for the time being, the wargaming industry will reap some of the rewards as well. I'm glad that M-TG has been the success it has, and I look forward to welcoming some new faces to wargaming as a result. So, the next time you hear someone yell an obscenity about MTG, don't cheer him. Kick him! The rest of us will thank you for it.