aramis erak
Legend
MTG isn't an RPG. Comparing it is like comparing oranges and limes... same family (citrus, games) but very different flavors and uses, with a small overlap.I thought Shannon Applecline's Designers and Dragons: the 90s, said White Wolf's big years vs D&D were actually the early 90s. By the late 90s, M:tG had eaten every RPG publisher's lunch, including WW.
While there was a hit to RPGs from MTG, it doesn't seem as deep as Mr. Applecline implies. (And Applecline's echoing a lot of chicken-little sentiment of the era. Many D&Ders felt it was the apocalypse for D&D.) Most of the MTG players I knew in that era were also playing RPGs. Myself included. Most of the people I knew did both. It did massively reduce my boardgaming, and the number of one-shot RPGs... but I was running two steady RPG sessions a week. And working 3/4 FTE.
There was also a benefit to MTG: people who only gamed as a social activity generally shifted to MTG. And annoyed the competitive MTGers, rather than taking a seat in my living room and giving me the constant "Uh, what should I do?"
MTG kept many game stores afloat. Other CCGs also helped. Board games helped, too.
There were still large D&D events at major cons during the late 90s. And even at minor ones - the cons in Anchorage... 1998, IIRC, there were 6 tables of D&D, 2 of WWG, 6 of WFB, 8 of 40k, 2 of Blood Bowl, 1 of FASA ST III Ship Combat, and my 4 of tournament module SFB... (I remember the event clearly, but not which year precisely, 97 to 99, based upon where I was living, and that I gave up SFB when my eldest was 1.)
It is fair to say that, without MTG, D&D wouldn't have been bought by WotC... but it would still have been sold to someone. The question is merely to whom, and for how much?