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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Trickstergod" data-source="post: 3276362" data-attributes="member: 10825">Magic was also a phenomenon because it actually had a solid rule-set and was generally a fun game. It also could stand on its own two legs because people played Magic to play Magic, rather then because the latest Star Wars movies were getting released or Pokemon was the current fad. This is not the case with many other card games, many of which would never have come into existence without Magic (Vampire: the Eternal Struggle), or they relied on licensing (Decipher's Star Wars), or simply weren't good (Rage). There's also a question of whether the content helped or not: L5R is a very solid game that essentially stands on its own, in my opinion, and is mechanically distinct from Magic...but the Asiatic flavor to the game was a turn off to more than a few of my friends, whereas Magic definitely had a stronger Western appeal, at least at first. Even the stylistic aspects to a game can be a huge factor (and the success of licensed games, like Pokemon, attests to this). No Magic likely means that, even if eventually some card game caught on, it might not have done so until, say, now. And I imagine it wouldn't have been as big. With that said: no Wizards...no big company for D&D. Games Workshop or White Wolf or someone else might have picked it up, but they wouldn't have near the resources to devote to refurbishing it that Wizards of the Coast did. It would've been hedged into their pre-existing material in an effort to synergize sales a bit (Games Workshop) or would've had a 3rd edition pumped out without anywhere near the innovation of the current system and a number of rules creaks and leaks, though with an admittedly richer background than the current generic core (White Wolf).  Or perhaps some lesser company would've nabbed it and done wonders with the system. But that's iffy.</blockquote>

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