 |
Classifieds: |  |
| |  |
| |  |
| |  |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Daniel Sondike knew he was going to win in Round 2 when he drew a triskelion. A mere 4-foot-11, Sondike, 13, of Short Hills, N.J., had all the power he needed to extinguish the last four lives of his opponent.
"I attacked with wood elves and was able to sacrifice the three counters on the triskelion to do the last three damage and win," he explains. Daniel, like hundreds of other players, parents and fans who converged here over the weekend, was speaking the language of Magic the Gathering. Eleven years after its introduction by a Seattle-area company, Wizards of the Coast, Magic is the most successful game most Americans have never heard of — unless their children have come under its spell. Played by more than 3 million Americans and another 3 million people overseas, Magic has become a subculture in more than 70 countries. Drop into any suburban American toy or hobby store on a Friday night and you are likely to find a bunch of intense-looking youngsters, as well as a sprinkling of adults, slapping down bizarre-looking cards and debating the relative advantages of the "creatures," "artifacts," "lands," "spells" and "enchantments" in their hands. Those who are not playing are leafing through three-ring binders to find cards to trade in pursuit of a deck that will vanquish others.
The game has become so successful that Hasbro, the toy company that bought Wizards of the Coast for $325 million in 1999, awarded $100,000 in college scholarships this past weekend to 64 top players among 313 entrants who were 15 or under when they qualified for the junior national championships. Older "professional" players competed for $70,000 in prize money. Magic is draining support from chess and is so addictive that it has been dubbed "cardboard crack." Richard Garfield, who created the game while a grad student at the University of Pennsylvania, says Magic allows players to "in some sense design games themselves." New types of cards are issued every year, and more than 6,000 cards are now in circulation, making for an enormous variety of ways to construct decks. The game, which requires more skill than luck, has clearly benefited from a renewed fad for fantasy, from The Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter. Some religious groups object to the cards' imagery, which, while frequently creepy, is intended to be PG-13. Some parents worry about managing the obsession, money spent mailing cards and the litter factor: Cards end up all over the house. "The postage is beastly," says Jackie Scott of Arlington, Va., whose 15-year-old son, Nathan, "has become a bit of a wheeler-dealer" of the cards. Most parents here say the game has sharpened their kids' mental skills, kept them away from drugs and gangs, helped shy children make friends and, like other sports, taught them how to win and lose gracefully. "He's learning money-management, vocabulary and social skills," Betsy Arnold of West Lafayette, Ind., says of her 14-year-old son, Tommy. Adds her husband, Bill: "Peoples' perception of the game changes greatly when you tell them that your kid has won a $1,000 scholarship." |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
