WotC Chris Cao has left WotC

[darjr]

Supposedly he was behind the proposal to make crafting older cards in Arena cost twice as many wildcards, which was met with absolute fury from the player base (and was thankfully abandoned). If that's true -- and to be fair, underline the word "if" -- this guy has quite the record of doing things to enrage the players of the games he works on.

Sorry, but please cite?

I mean without it I find this quite unfair.

 

[darjr]

And I also mean the other things.

 

[letsagobby]

Sorry, but please cite?

I mean without it I find this quite unfair.

Google is the ultimate ally! Cao was Exec Producer at the time, brought in to monetise arena upon its launch. Here is one article at the time about his announcement, and his subsequent reaction to the backlash (where he went on a livestream and told players that it was actually awesome to have double wildcards for historic cards and we were just dumb).

Here is that livestream. Maybe it's bias after knowing what we know about the guy, but imho he also just oozes smug disrespect for the playerbase. This livestream is basically what caused all the mtg players up in arms at the time, forcing him to back down

 

[darjr]

Google is the ultimate ally! Cao was Exec Producer at the time, brought in to monetise arena upon its launch. Here is one article at the time about his announcement, and his subsequent reaction to the backlash (where he went on a livestream and told players that it was actually awesome to have double wildcards for historic cards and we were just dumb).

Here is that livestream. Maybe it's bias after knowing what we know about the guy, but imho he also just oozes smug disrespect for the playerbase. This livestream is basically what caused all the mtg players up in arms at the time, forcing him to back down

Thank you.

 

[Parmandur]

Google is the ultimate ally! Cao was Exec Producer at the time, brought in to monetise arena upon its launch. Here is one article at the time about his announcement, and his subsequent reaction to the backlash (where he went on a livestream and told players that it was actually awesome to have double wildcards for historic cards and we were just dumb).

Here is that livestream. Maybe it's bias after knowing what we know about the guy, but imho he also just oozes smug disrespect for the playerbase. This livestream is basically what caused all the mtg players up in arms at the time, forcing him to back down

Oh, jeez. Had no idea about that.

Arena is honestly somewhat predatory in design to begin with, pushing that harder to the detriment of the game...?

 

[Scribe]

Google is the ultimate ally! Cao was Exec Producer at the time, brought in to monetise arena upon its launch. Here is one article at the time about his announcement, and his subsequent reaction to the backlash (where he went on a livestream and told players that it was actually awesome to have double wildcards for historic cards and we were just dumb).

Here is that livestream. Maybe it's bias after knowing what we know about the guy, but imho he also just oozes smug disrespect for the playerbase. This livestream is basically what caused all the mtg players up in arms at the time, forcing him to back down

Such a sad decline in player treatment from MtG over the last decade or so.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Such a sad decline in player treatment from MtG over the last decade or so.

It's kind of weird to me because I always thought of MtG as WotC's premier brand, and them generally being very responsive and alert to any issues with MtG - not that they never did things which were controversial or the like, but for so long they seemed to make big efforts to address them. Then as you say over the last decade, particularly the last few years, they seem to have had a more "Eh, let's just squeeze what we can out of this..." attitude. Maybe D&D got too successful and caused them to think "Well, we can squeeze MtG harder, we have other brands!", but I don't think that was a good idea if so.

 

[Zardnaar]

It's kind of weird to me because I always thought of MtG as WotC's premier brand, and them generally being very responsive and alert to any issues with MtG - not that they never did things which were controversial or the like, but for so long they seemed to make big efforts to address them. Then as you say over the last decade, particularly the last few years, they seem to have had a more "Eh, let's just squeeze what we can out of this..." attitude. Maybe D&D got too successful and caused them to think "Well, we can squeeze MtG harder, we have other brands!", but I don't think that was a good idea if so.

Hasn't hit the bottom line yet people keep buying it.

I hoped out when they added mythic to the game and it became very loot boxy.

 

[michaeljpastor]

Oh, jeez. Had no idea about that.

Arena is honestly somewhat predatory in design to begin with, pushing that harder to the detriment of the game...?

And Magic's entire business model isn't?

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I got to know Cao briefly when I ran the largest fansite for an MMO he helmed, DC Universe Online.

I remember that game having to be retooled partway through development because Cao read an article that a human being couldn't handle more than 8 options at a time, so he demanded the game's power system be changed so players can only use 8 abilities at a time (rather than a full MMO hotbar), causing a rather late game rebalance and redesign. It seems he may have taken that style of production to Sigil.