Hello again! Last week, I promised I’d discuss the changes we’re making in further detail here. I figured the easiest way to do this was to just answer the questions and comments you guys have been pelting me with via e-mail and in the forums.
Before we dig in, here’s the revealed schedule for Premium from last week. Some of you were skeptical as to whether we could make such things worth your while. I hope we did, but we’ve only begin to fight that battle.
Monday
— Terry Soh wrote about
his rogue R/G concoction that helped him finish tenth in Amsterdam
. Jonathan Medina
discussed the Magic economy and taught you how to get the most from your trades
.
Tuesday
— Michael Jacob debuted with
a great article on Extended Grixis
. Stephen Menendian covered
Attacking Jace in Vintage
, expensive sorcery Master Shaheen Soorani debuted with
an article discussing U/W Control in Standard
, and future Hall of Famer Anton Jonsson
kicked off a run on Drafting With
…
Wednesday
— Waaaaaafo-Taaaaaapaaaaaaa! Guillaume covered his trek from
PTQs back to the Pro Tour Top 8
, Antoine Ruel recapped
his Amsterdam trip
, and Sam Black discussed
an Extended deck that played Primeval Titan and Iona
.
Thursday
— GerryT delivered
his report from Portland
(including his feature match win via Demon’s Horn), more
Drafting With Anton
, and Raph Levy and Kyle Boggemes covered their trips to the ‘Dam.
Friday
— Hall of Famer Gabriel Nassif took a look back at
his favorite stories in his brilliant career and covered the process leading to the design of Paul Rietzl White Weenie deck
. Patrick Chapin reviewed
his testing adventures for Amsterdam
, and Hall of Famer Brian Kibler used his meteoric rise and fall at Grand Prix Portland to
deliver some strong lessons about dealing with losing
.
That was just on Premium. The free side included a ton more like Kai Budde
Amsterdam report
, Ben Bleiweiss discussing
the Top 10 DQs
, The Magic Show with Evan Erwin, free Jamie Wakefield, Geordie Tait, Sam Stoddard, Adam Prosak… it was a lot. No one even comes close to publishing as many articles each week as we do, and that’s not about to change.
Right. On to the questions.
Q&A
Let me start by thanking everyone from last week who had a question, criticism, complaint, or request about the site. I don’t mind the anger I’ve been seeing in the forums because it means you care. You guys are passionate about what you see on this here site here, and that’s fantastic. In the past, StarCityGames.com has always been community-powered. As you can see from the improved level of editorial communication and responsiveness, we will be returning to that. What you guys have to say will sculpt what we will be in the future.
The vast majority of these are actual questions from actual readers. As such, I’ve tried to attach names wherever possible.
RocketFuel says:
Maybe it’s just me, but I got a picture of a clown in a cheap suit flogging junk on 3 a.m. infomercial. Not the best way to reintroduce yourself with credibility.
Answer:
This was where we started at last week. My reputation for awesome clearly preceded me. Next time I revamp the site, I will go for maximum credibility and wear this:
Question:
What changes have you made so far?
Answer:
First off, we’ve moved away from the column format for most of our writers. The reason we’re doing this is to remove the whole “deadline issue” that has lowered the overall quality of what we’ve printed. We’re going back to publishing stuff our writers are excited about without grinding them down with weekly expectations. You’ll still see most of your favorite authors on the site, but they won’t necessarily appear on the exact same day, week in and week out.
As most of you know, Abe Sargent and Peter Jahn have been put on hiatus to allow us to fill their column slots with new voices and test out some ideas we’ve had brewing (more on this in two weeks). Rich Hagon, Olivier Ruel, Antoine Ruel, Craig Wescoe, and Manuel Bucher are moving on to other sites. We wish them all the very best.
Some of the new voices you will be hearing from regularly include Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, Michael Jacob, Matt Sperling, Shaheen Soorani, Adam Prosak, Sam Stoddard, and Thea Steele — all of whom we are delighted to welcome aboard. I can assure you we are not done yet.
Finally, we have split the former editor position into two separate roles. I am currently acting as Content Manager, while Lauren Lee was hired last week as our copy editor trainee (she will be learning directly from The Ferrett over the coming months). The purpose of this was to help make the site more dynamic and interesting while being able to maintain a high degree of quality and editorial oversight.
Redshirt asks:
Will there be more transparency going forward?
Answer:
Absolutely. Back when I did this shindig the first time around, I interacted regularly with the readers via my own writing, and via forums and letters in my editorial role. I was around for a number of controversial events, including overseeing the initial transition to Premium. Community interactivity and responsiveness is one of the things that I’ve always liked about StarCityGames.com, and we will be recapturing some of that going forward.
Question:
Will you be making changes to the website itself?
Answer:
Yes. There was already a revamp going on before I arrived. We’ll be making the site more readable, friendlier to mobile readers, better able to host video, and sundry other things I am not allowed to mention just yet. It will also become more efficient in terms of displaying information that you want to see.
Many readers have asked:
Will there be draft videos?
Answer:
Yes. Hopefully soon. We may even go one step cooler than video…
Many readers have asked:
Are you doing away with casual content on the site? Will there be less casual content on the site?
Answer:
No and no. The goal will be to have at least one casual article a day, every day of the week. If I find the new talent I’m looking for, there may be more than that.
Some understandably grumpy readers have asked:
Will Premium be worth it?
Answer:
That’s my job. The goal here is to make Premium highly relevant again, with excellent articles written by excellent players. If you already liked Premium, great. However, I don’t think we’ve been doing a good enough job there — and so I need to make Premium worth the value of a year’s subscription to me. My standards are crazy high — we will meet those standards.
If you want to hold off on subscribing, I totally understand. We understand that we need to prove to you that we’re worth it. We will be.
Question:
Will person X/Y/Z (ffeJ, Aten, The Ferrett, Rizzo, etc) come back to the site?
Answer:
Maybe. We’re obviously recruiting writers new and old. My love for Jeff Cunningham is well known, and I heard he recently lost a bet that may or may not have involved writing something as a result…
Question:
Will you start taking submissions from the community again?
Answer:
I will discuss this in far greater detail on Monday, October 4th. The short answer is yes, but the devil is in the details.
Question:
Can we have more Draft Walkthroughs?
Answer:
Yes. These will flow like clockwork from now on, and they will even be done by different writers. We will also be introducing regular video. I expect there to be growing pains, but we’re way behind the times here and have catching up to do.
Bostant asks:
Ask people to write more on deck tech than tournament reports. Ask Zvi to write more often.
Answer:
We will do more deck techs, but our tournament reports should also be more fun and entertaining going forward. As for Zvi… let’s just say he’ll be on here soon.
EagleEye asks:
Will Mixed kNuts be back? Will The Ferrett be back (writing columns, that is)?
Answer:
For my part, I’m unbelievably busy and won’t be able to return to my old series any time soon. I will instead choose to poke other writers into writing
about things I would have written about had I had the time. Like music. And pop culture. And
cheesecake
. I also have a Conversations piece coming soon with some guy named Mark Rosewater.
As for The Ferrett, he has made rumblings about writing some more for SCG in the near future. Thus you’ll need to watch this space to find out if he follows through. (If anyone particularly feels like playing casual in the Cleveland area,
call me
! — T.F.)
EagleEye also asks:
Is there some way you can push/prod/force/beg the content of tournament reports to shift, or at the very least provide a little bit of tournament-report diversity? I have harped before on wanting more writers like Jeff Cunningham or Tim Aten because when I read their writing, I feel like I am pulled into a great story. I am entertained — and perhaps, more importantly, hooked. Some of the writers here do have that style… but I want more. I’m just greedy that way, I guess.
Answer:
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I’m greedy, too. (BDM suggested that my helping out with the revamp might be a thinly veiled excuse for me selfishly dragging writers I love back to writing.) You can see the start of the changes by clicking on the best of last week’s articles from Amsterdam
(expressed particularly well in
Michael Jacob
,
Wafo-Tapa’s
, and
Nassif’s
articles).
Gwendly asks:
You mention Draft videos — can we also get Constructed videos?
Answer:
Yes.
Sperry suggests:
Please get rid of the (deck x vs. deck y) series that is currently taking up about a third of the premium articles.
Answer:
Done. I think this series was actually pretty interesting to start, but rapidly ran its course. I certainly think it can be reprised for short runs from time to time, but it will not be a regular feature on StarCityGames.com any longer.
VictorVonDoom:
Free Jamie Wakefield!
Answer:
You got it!
That covers pretty much everything people seemed to want to know last week. However, if there are more questions that you want to see addressed, hit me up in the forums and I’ll discuss what I can.
Thanks for reading!
Teddy CardGame
Editor Emeritus, StarCityGames.com