DESPERATE NEED OF CASUAL ARTICLES

[Shoe]

So, with Abe Sargent announcing himself as retiring at SCG and with Adam Syzborski taking over serious fun (and making is more like Casual Tournamnet player instead) The world is in desperate need of Casual weekly mtg articles. I think that CPA is a great place to fill the void that Kelly Digges/Abe Sargent/The Ferrett/Anthony Alogi have left and we need to ressurect the CPA and give the casual player a new home base online.

I am not sure what needs to be done to resurrect the forums here, but I will do my best to spread the word. In the mean time, I encourage up and coming MTG writers to submit articles here and get some resources for the casual player back into circulation.

Were it that I had more time I would write more myself, but with so many kids and work being busy I havent the time to write regularly. My Blog WOOBERG.weebly.com tries to keep up with all of the different ways to play casual MTG, but unfortunately I dont have the time required to keep up a weekly article.

I really love what this website and what it stands for. Let us the casual players reunite under it's banner and create some awesome content for casual players.

-Shoe

 

[train]

Were you a member here under a different name previously?

 

[Spiderman]

I agree and think it would be awesome!

Do you still play Magic?

 

[Ransac]

I seem to recall a member named "Shoe" from other forums.

I whole-heartedly agree with this sentiment. Articles discussing new casual variants, game reports, strategies, etc would be wonderful. I may give this a try once I'm done with my current gig in a few weeks. Time to pull the old "Poor Writing Skills" out of the box, again!!


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Shoe]

I have been a lurker here looking at the articles for a long time but have not been a member too long. I do most of my Posting at MTGsalvation and teh EDH forums, but the environment at MTGS is REALLY competative.

I do still play magic, once a week at Monster Gaming in Burien, WA. it's hard to get out and play but I make it a point to set aside some time.

I remember when this site has regular articles being published that were just for the casual player....I enjoyed it alot and I wish this place was as active as it used to be

once life settles down a bit i may try to blog more often/write some articles. When the Great Designer search II starts I will probably do a play by play of my submissions (or at least as much as WOTC will let me divulge)

 

[Spiderman]

I remember when this site has regular articles being published that were just for the casual player....I enjoyed it alot and I wish this place was as active as it used to be

Indeed.

once life settles down a bit i may try to blog more often/write some articles. When the Great Designer search II starts I will probably do a play by play of my submissions (or at least as much as WOTC will let me divulge)

That would be awesome!

 

[Shabbaman]

Actually PRJ and Abe Sargent didn't quit, they are fired. Well, not fired, but the publication of their articles is put on hold indefinately. Strangely enough this makes me feel old. There are only a few writers that write about the casual game I like. Most writers seem to be "pro's" or wannabe-pro's. Dailymtg.com has had some awesome casual writers, but that was years ago (Alongi, Ferrett and more). Today I feel that all they are doing is promoting new sets. Maybe that's why Abe got canned, because he wasn't firing up card sales...

Anyway, NEED MOAR CASUAL QUALITY ARTICLES!

 

[turgy22]

There are only a few writers that write about the casual game I like. Most writers seem to be "pro's" or wannabe-pro's.

I think that's the real crux of the issue. It's hard to pinpoint what the casual crowd is looking for in articles, or as you put it nicely, "the casual game I like." There are so many different ideas of the casual game for players that it's extremely difficult for any writer to hit on all those aspects to appeal to a wide casual base. So the writers tended to be more specific with their casual tendencies, which is obviously going to turn off a lot of people who are looking for something different. The competitive articles are pretty easy to focus in on because the most important thing is winning. If the deck wins, you write about it. Or you write about the metagame or tournament results. Everyone looking into those things is basically looking for the same thing.

 

[Spiderman]

I think a good start for here is just to write about your group or a deck you played and the results. The problem is that a lot of us old-timers have stopped playing in real life, so there's no experience to draw on.

Well, that and writing just isn't for everyone (like me; I didn't write even when I did play )

 

[Nightstalkers]

We'd help but... I haven't heard from the rest of the Nightstalkers since they split off on a slander campaign and to go promote Minecraft. Personally, I've only sent in one article and I'm not all that great of a writer. Also helps if you're less of a casual player, hobbyist, and more of a casual collector. I think it's been two years and I haven't gotten around to putting together my last deck.

 

[Shoe]

We really need to redo the mission statement and/or this whole site and get the CPA going again. What can we do to try and make the CPA the hub it once was for casual MTG.

I would be interresed in becoming an ally website (wooberg.weebly.com) with the CPA and posting my blog comments/articles here as well. I may be able to even start writing the weekly variant format article starting in November. Help brainstorm ways to get our name out in the MTG community and give casual players a place to discuss MTG for the sake of MTG again.

Who all from the original founders are still active here? is Spidey the only active admin?

 

[turgy22]

Active admins are Spidey, theorgg and TomB. I think.

Original founders... I'm not sure who would be included in that group and if any are still active. I'm positive that Ferret was a founder, but I'm not sure about anyone else (theorgg?). If theorgg was a founder, I'm fairly confident that he's the only active one left.

 

[Spiderman]

We can try to redesign the mission statement, I don't think that's a problem.

I don't think theorgg is on the much. TomB and I are on pretty much daily (him more so at night EST). If there's any original founders left, I think it would be TomB; I'm not sure if theorgg was one.

And Ed of course, but I don't think he plays Magic anymore, just maintains the website.

 

[turgy22]

Derf. How did I forget Ed?

I didn't realize TomB was here from the beginning. Do you remember any other founders?

 

[Shoe]

So, to get the community a buzzin' here again the site needs to change dramatically. Here are some ideas:

- Change the appearance of the site
- Have a plethora of casual weekly articles (important now that Abe quit writing and there are no casual writers worth noting these days)
- "Advertise" either by contests (design a cool deck, win a 5$ rare or somethign), putting the CPA name up on other popular MTG sites, or putting up some innovative type of content for casual players. Part of me wants to Riff on what evan Erwin does, but for casual and have The Casual MTG show or something. Even a pod cast or some other form of media could help.

Any other ideas?

 

[Spiderman]

turgy22: There used to be a way to list the Founders, but I don't see that easily with these forums... maybe Ed can put them back? I remember Baron Sengir and his brother (whose name I forget) and Zadok001. There were a couple more, but I don't think they lasted a year... maybe igfett?

Shoe: What changes would you make to the appearance of the site? You might have to contact Ed about that.

I think we took a straw poll on who visits other sites and there weren't too many of us; I for one just come here. We may have to get a "roll call" of ambassadors.

Yeah, and writers are important...

 

[Shoe]

Well, mainly the blue on white looks like a default setting. some sort of custom somewhat MTG or fantasy art related banner/skin would really bring the place a more professional feel.

As far as being an ambassador, I am regularly on MTGsalvation.com, the EDH boards, occationally on Starcity and the WOTC boards. I have CPA in my sig most of those places

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, maybe we can see about developing some sort of skin.

You might be the only ambassador then...

 

[Shoe]

i try...i really like the idea of this place...casual players are not the minority everyone seems to think we are and most mtg sites are very geared toward FNM and PTQ's etc.

 

[TomB]

I think it would be a great idea to get some Magic-related activity going on the site Shoe, but to tell the truth most of us don't really play much IRL anymore. I'm thinking that having regular material to post for front page articles would be a great place to start for that, but in large part due to us not playing very much we've been really lacking in that area. If you know anyone interested in submitting articles please send them our way...

And you're prolly right - a facelift for the front page would be nice, especially since the forum changeover has made things kinda mismatched. I'm sure Ed Sullivan could whip something together fairly easily, though there's prolly not much need for it unless we can get some fresh material in article-wise and increase traffic. Same thing for giveaways and such - without front page traffic from people looking for articles to read there'd only be limited participation at best.

So yah, if you would, PLEASE spread the word that we'll publish almost anything Magic-related, and I mean ANYTHING even loosely Magic-related, as long as it's written decently well...

Spidey, the Baron's bro went by the handle of "Ihsan's Shade" I think, though IIRC he misspelled it...