TTC 112 - Oath of the Gatewatch Leaks

[Graham]

Graham, James and Alex discuss the recent Oath of the Gatewatch leaks. Please note this episode was recorded prior to Wizards of the Coast actions taken against the group responsible for the leak.

[theycallmejokke]

Nice episode guys, it was very interesting to hear about the leak from someone with a fod in the door at Wizard's, but not actual Wizard's employees.
I think Paul really hit the nail on it's head with these spoilers, I follower Mark Rosewater's blogatog and becourse Wizard didn't get to present the new way colorless is now showne he have just been inundated with questions from angry/confussed players, and sure there would still have been some of that, but I don't feel it would ever had come to this magnitude if Kozilek and wastes hadn't been spoiled.
The art looks super cool i Oath of the Gatewatch can't wait to see the actual cards!

[OneirosGolem]

I think the way you feel about leaks reflects how you feel about advertising / marketing as a career. There are people at WotC that work hard creating an exciting series of small reveals. And now someone has thoroughly undercut all of those moments, to such an extent that WotC couldn't continue its regular campaign without taking us all aside to talk about it first.

What's most bizarre to me is people who present as Serious Magic Players who insist that this doesn't matter at all. It was hidden information! I have seen way too many threads where people go nuts about revealing information that your opponent doesn't actually have to know! It's a similar principle to a spectator leaning over your shoulder and saying "Oh cool, you're only one turn away from casting Kozilek".

And in reference to the closing: the space elevator plays the theme from Full House when the doors open at your destination.

[mrverbal]

So I think this is more complex than as presented.

Different people build hype through different mechanisms. And different people have different needs.

On the hype front: For some people, the mad speculation *is* what gets them excited. Looking through possible spoilers, trying to work out if they are real (which people are near universally awful at) - it's a thing.

However, obviously, it allows for deflation and confusion, especially when cards are spoiled slightly wrong. (I recall giant solifuge being spoiled as a 4/3, and then when it was a 4/1 I thought it was awful because it wasn't as good as the spoiler.) It makes the expecations management game harder for wizards as well, because when they spoil cards they choose it allows them to paper over the flaws in cards or the set.

What I'm trying to say is hype isn't mono-directional, and I don't think small leaks hurt sets (I think they actually help them) although large leaks are more complex. (The Judgement leak was the worst; for those who weren't playing, there was a brief period immediately after the release of torment where the whole judgement set was viewable on MODO. So it was full spoiled basically as torment hit the shelves, leading to torment selling probably less well and the block being 'solved' in a way that stagnated the hell out of everything).

On why competative people look at spoilers or distribute them: It's mostly a profit motive. It's true, we give no shits that the vorthoses out there aren't having as good a time due to the spoilers.

Because the problem is tournaments - often very large ones - happening right after the release line. If you've had two weeks to prep for a big event, and I've had 4 weeks, or 6 weeks - that's a pretty massive advantage. It's kind of a prisoners dilema, but with 500 people, and unless *all* of them agree not to look at the spoilers, those who didn't look get hosed.

[Jonci]

In a friend-created Cube draft, I ended up with a Temur Sabertooth and a Shriekmaw and that combo got ridiculous one match.

[SixFootTurkey]

I'm definitely interested to hear if the crew has any insight on the ramifications of the leaks (suspensions, etc). Being upfront, my initial inclination is to lean towards WotC being 'more right' than wrong here, but I am not saying it's clear cut black and white. My main issue has been with the community response - or at least the section that has been about knee-jerk radical responses that only end up hurting the community as they try to 'show WotC what's what'. Too much of the community made snap judgement calls based on limited information - often from a single, biased source - and then proceeded to further promote that incomplete view. Much of the community that feels they have been wronged by WotC here, has also been far too divisive, turning everything into a question of 'us or them'.