Magic: the Gathering goes hybrid fantasy! End of the world as we knew it?

[Mr. President]

A Peruvian website has obtained (no doubt from mtgnews or another spoon-fed "rumor" site) artwork from the upcoming Mirrodin expansion.

http://www.afn.org/~afn50094/ilustraciones.html

The tone is decidedly science fiction-y. The official Wizards of the Coasts boards are in uproar, predicting (yet again) the death of Magic: the Gathering.

Now I'm no expert, but I think the new art looks super-cool. And I also question how people could accept Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern and not accept hybrid fantasy in Magic.

[Panda]

I see Icy Manipulator is back ... and I agree: the artwork does look mostly good

[Urban Ranger]

Yeah, do you get planeswalkers in Dragonriders of Pern? Eh, do you?

[FrustratedPoet]

Magic fans are so conservative. The best thing about the game is how the rules are constantly changing and updating to keep it fresh, and yet any time something is changed the fans predict doom and gloom for the game.

[FrustratedPoet]

Besides, they're probably fakes anyway.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
The best thing about the game is how the rules are constantly changing and updating to keep it fresh

That's why you need a team of lawyers to figure things out

[Nikolai]

End of the world? Doubt it. Especially since I hardly know what it's all about. Is it this card thing?

[Richard Bruns]

None of that art looks especially sci-fi to me. The Magic game has had similiar stuff since way back in the beginning, especially in the Antiquities expansion, the one with all the artifacts.

And it does look pretty cool.

[MattH]

Platinum Angel- looks nearly unglued

[Victor Galis]

This game became crap around Mirage if not sooner.

[Verto]

This game was, is, and always will be witchcraft!

[zorbop]

for 8th edition they are changing the card face.
fortunately, the cards back is not changed.
look at this:

[Mr. President]

I have some of the new-face cards, and my verdict is definitely .

Platinum Angel- looks nearly unglued

Have you heard about what her ability allegedly is?

[DrSpike]

So if you have spent loads of cash on cards are they suddenly worthless?

[Jamski]

I wouldn't be surprised, the cards are from the same company (Wizards of the Coast) that hold the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, and they're always bringing out new editions, meaning one has to buy all the new books (books, not just book) every year or so. Of course characters created in the old system are obselete. I wouldn't be surprised if they're appying the same marketing stratagy to the M:TG cards too.
But WotC are not alone... Games Workshop, the international board and war games company has a policy of regular new rule editions, requiring the customer to purchase not only the new rule sest, but whole new lead figure armies. Of course, people do.
At least people are getting wise to it slowly. There are clubs which play only with old rule sets, and how many people rushed out to buy Windows XP and de-installed 98 or 2000? This shows there is some hope for the endless update money grabbing.

-Jam