Rise & Fall of the Table-Top King

I would like to preface this writing by stating I only aim to bring light to some of the ongoing events & issues within the sphere of games within the Wizards of the Coast company.

Wizards of the Coast Brief History

Wizards of the Coast (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes. Originally a basement-run role-playing game publisher, they popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s. Today they publish board games, collectible card games and role-playing games. Currently they are a division of Hasbro.

Founding

Wizards of the Coast was founded by Peter Adkison and four friends in 1990 just outside of Seattle, Washington, and their headquarters is still in the nearby city of Renton. Original founders were also Rich Kaalaas, who made Wizards of the Coast's first logo, Jay Hayes, Ken McGlothlen and Steve Conard. When the company first started, it was located in Adkison's basement, and everybody still had a day job. Originally the company only published role-playing games such as the third edition of Talislanta and their own The Primal Order. The release of The Primal Order brought legal trouble with Palladium Books suing for references to their game and system. The suit was settled in 1993 by Wizards paying an undisclosed sum to Palladium and agreeing not to mention their products again.

However, it made its indelible mark when at Gen Con in August 1993 when the company debuted Richard Garfield's trading card game Magic: The Gathering under the shell company Garfield Games to shelter it from the legal battle with Palladium. The success of Magic generated revenue that carried the company out of the original basement headquarters and into its own offices.

Expanding

In 1994, they expanded their role-playing game line by buying SLA Industries from Nightfall Games and Ars Magica from White Wolf, Inc.

In 1995 they released Everway and then closed their roleplaying game product line with Peter Adkison explaining that they were doing a disservice to the games with lack of support and had lost money on all of their roleplaying game products.

In 1997, Wizards of the Coast was granted U.S. Patent 5662332 on trading card games, followed by the purchase of TSR, Inc., the cash-strapped makers of Dungeons & Dragons. Many of the creative and professional staff of TSR relocated from Wisconsin to the Renton area, and Wizards re-hired many game designers who had been laid off during the troubled last years of TSR. TSR was used as a brand name for a while, then retired. Wizards of the Coast allowed the TSR trademarks to expire. The game and toy giant Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast in September 1999. Between 1997 and 1999, they spun off several well-loved but poorly-selling campaign settings (most notably Planescape, Dark Sun and Spelljammer) to fan groups, focusing their business primarily on the profitable Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms lines.

In July 1997, Wizards of the Coast also acquired Five Rings Publishing.

In 1998, Wizard of the Coast introduced "The ARC System", a TCG system developed for new players. WoTC produced three games using the ARC system, and each of them was compatible with the others: C-23, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.

In July 1998, Wizards also published Earthquake and Instinct, independent card games that that feature Magic artwork.

From 1999 on, Wizards of the Coast published the highly successful Pokémon Trading Card Game for a number of years before Nintendo took back control.

In the same year, WotC acquired The Game Keep, Inc., one of the largest retail games chains in the United Stats. The following years, they ran their chain of gaming retail stores under the names "The Game Keeper" and "Wizards of the Coast," including their flagship gaming center on the Ave in Seattle. The gaming center was closed by March of 2001 and eventually Wizards announced in December 2003 that it would close all stores in order to concentrate on game design. The stores were closed in the spring of 2004.

The Faithful Begin to Fade

Wizards of the Coast is a household name for many of us, be it for good or as of late the bad, many of us know the name. I myself have aspirations of playing on the returned Pro-Tour for Magic: The Gathering, but even my resolve for that has been wavering of late instead looking at other games. More & more as of late it is hard to be excited for news from the company, feeling myself moving further into the casual side of EDH over getting sweaty aiming for the top. Sadly I am not the only one feeling the burn, nor is it just this one game. What was just product fatigue & feelings of voices ignored from the MTG side of Wizards has seen Dungeons & Dragons being added to the list of misgivings from the company.

Hasbro being the parent company pushing for more revenue from their subsidiary has been gradually causing burnout in their communities. I myself have been playing the Digimon TCG more than Magic, and enjoying it more. People where & continue still with the canceling of their D&D Beyond subscriptions after the announcement of the intention to change their OGL in such a way that would harm creators. This sadly after mounting pushes for more is unsurprising, but to change decades old agreements to force people into deals that would only harm them is worse than the amount of Secret Lairs released last year, which says a lot.

Speaking from the side of an MTG player & consumer it is hard to look forward to new product when Secret Lair alone had 27 bundles and/or superdrops totaling 110 single lairs, and that isn’t including the astrology lands which would change those totals to 51 & 134 each. Then we have the disaster of the Magic 30 box & it’s price tag of $1,000. While the amount of base core product hasn’t changed, the amount of supplementary releases has seen many a player simply worn out from it all.

Wizards of the Coast at one point reigned as king within the world of trading card games & table-top RPG’s, but they have themselves out there balancing on a tight rope they may not be able to cross. Seeing first hand what damage is being caused, my only hope is for them to get under control what ever may be the cause of their problems & start proper community growth again. Because at the rate they are going, and with making comments such as “Our customers are obstacles to our money”, will eventually lead those obstacles to become tumbleweeds on a once glorious landscape that was Magic the Gathering among the Wizards of the Coast skyline.