Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #435: Principles of Magic

Episode Date: May 12, 2017

R&D has a sign hanging on our walls explaining the principles of Magic R&D. In this podcast, I walk through all the items on the list and explain why they're important and how they impact the way R&D makes Magic.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time to drive to work. Okay, so today my topic is the principles of magic R&D. So the first question is, what are the principles of magic R&D? Okay, so a while back, what we did in R&D is we wanted to write up, we wanted to figure out what our principles were. What did we stand for so that we could produce something that would then hang on the wall to let new people, like, one of the issues is when you come in R&D, there's a certain culture to Magic R&D, and we wanted to sort of explain it. We say, you know, what do we represent? What do we think about? What do we care about? And so we spent a whole bunch of time writing down what are the things we think about, what do we care about, and so we spent a whole bunch of time writing

down what are the things we care about, and then we iterated for a while. So the way it started was, so Ken Troop, who is one of the leaders in R&D and spearheaded this project, said, okay, send me any adjective you have about magic, or about, sorry, about magic R&D. You know, what, sorry, about magic R&D. You know, what is the role of magic R&D? What do we do? And a whole bunch of people, everybody sent in stuff, and then we slowly massaged things to figure out, like,

oh, well, the words are slightly different, but they mean the same thing. And so we spent a lot of time working on this and slowly coming to it. Now, there was no set agenda. For example, there were 11 things listed. So clearly, if we were trying to make a list and maybe we do top 10 or something,

it's not what we did. We just wanted to write the things that mattered. So it came out of us producing the material and then us coming down to the right number of items that fit. And then what we did is we printed it. And in fact, one of them is right by my desk that we put a bunch of boards up. And so it says the principles of Magic R&D, and it lists, it has a sentence about what we are,

and then it has a little sentence that follows describing it. So I'm going to read through this today, and I'm going to explain what the principles are and why we believe those principles. So today you're going to learn about what we care about in Magic R&D. Okay, I don't know, I mean, I know we spent a lot of time about the order and stuff. I don't think necessarily this is meant to be the order that we care. I think this is the order we felt it was best to present it in. So anyway, I will start and walk through.

Okay, so number one, we are stewards of magic. We want magic to last forever and to be better tomorrow than it is today. Okay, so this first principle is something that I know I was really big on when he asked us to say things. And that is, we believe very firmly that magic is a force of good. I interact with the public all the time. I constantly get stories. And I've even written articles where I collect these stories. Magic does a lot of positive things for a lot of people.

It brings people together. It helps people have something to focus on. It creates a community for a lot of people. And so, we believe, the members of R&D believe in magic very much as a positive thing. In fact, I will say that the members of Magic R&D probably

have more allegiance to the game of Magic than even the company. You know, Magic, I personally, I've talked about this, like Magic has done so much for me. I mean, A, I believe it's the best game ever created. So I'm, as a game lover, I obviously have a lot of connection to. And it has just been something in my life that's created all sorts of positivity. I made many friends on it.

I got my dream job. I met my wife. I traveled the world. You know, I've got a fulfilling, enriching, I've got a fulfilling enriching, you know, it has done so many positive things and I think all of R&D definitely feels like that magic is this wonderful thing, that all of us

came to working Magic R&D through the, through magic, that we first fell in love with magic and magic became something important to us and so everybody working in Magic R&D has a love for magic and magic became something important to us. And so everybody working in magic R&D has a love for magic. And then all of us believe that it is our job

to take care of magic. That it is this important thing that we, we're the stewards, we're the stewards of magic. We need to make sure that it is something that is constantly, you know, that we need to keep it special and keep it alive and doing wonderful things for it.

And not only are we stewards in the sense that it's our job to attend to it, but we want to constantly make it better. We want it to constantly improve. As we said in the thing, we want it to last forever, so we want to make something that can be continual and ongoing, and we want it to be better tomorrow than it is today. That we want to strive to improve it. and we want it to be better tomorrow than it is today, that we want to strive to improve it. And so the first principle really is talking about how magic is this thing that we all owe a debt of gratitude to,

and that we think it's a force of positivity in the world, and that we want to work to constantly make it better, to keep it alive and to constantly make it better. Okay, number two. They said there's 11 of them. They're not numbered, by the way, on the actual thing up on the wall. They just list them. So the second one happens here, though.

We are passionate about magic. We love magic. We love playing it, talking about it, and reading about it. Okay, so the first thing is we feel a sense of importance to the game, obviously. But the second part is, look, we live and breathe magic. We are magic lovers. We are people, you know, that if it was our job to take care of the game and keep the game going, well, hey, it's important to us that we care about it.

That it's not just a job to us. It's not just, ah, I clock in, I do my work, I go home. This is something that we all feel very passionate about. And that you'll notice that when you're not at work, you know, people are playing Magic or interacting with the community or reading things or like, you know, we're always doing something off the clock, interacting with Magic in some way

because we are passionate about Magic. It is a game we all love. It's a game that we not only love playing, but love talking about, love interacting about, and the community is really important. You know, R&D spends a lot of time trying to understand what the audience is feeling and, you know, we do a lot of reading. You know, whenever we put something out, there's a reaction and we want to understand the reaction so we we read a lot to do that um and so part of doing our job is it is important that for everybody who works in magic r&d that we we have a passion about the

thing we are making that we care about the thing that we're making that we are fans we are giant fans of what we do and that you know magic to us is something the reason that we are fans, we are giant fans of what we do. And that, you know, magic to us is something, the reason that we're such good stewards for it is we truly love it. It is something we truly, truly care about. And that is the second principle of magic R&D. Okay, the third. We believe magic makes a difference.

We cherish that magic is a meaningful part of people's lives. So part of this is saying, you know what, that magic has a role that goes over and above just being a game. Magic isn't just a game. That magic has a lot of other properties to it that are important. You know, that magic, for example, is a social connector for people. That magic is a means that a lot of people get out of the house and interact. Or even if you stay in the house, there's communities, even online, that you can interact with.

That you can become part of something. We believe that magic, there's a lot of skills that come through magic. I constantly get letters from parents and teachers who are like, my son was having problems with thing X and then magic. You know, whether it was math or reading or probability or problem solving, whatever. Magic is a game that really requires a lot of skills to be good at it and that the game really encourages people you know, I've told this story a million times,

but like, you know, the number of times I've had a parent pull me aside and say, look, because of magic, my child has changed. Or people just write to me, because of magic, I had a hard time in my life and I really needed something I could focus on to get me over a great loss, and it did. Or through magic, I've just bonded. My friends, my

fiance, my husband, my wife, I have made long-lasting friendships through magic. I have, whether it's a love of story or a love of game making or whatever passion you have that magic overlaps with, the fact that you, through magic, have helped make a difference. And so, not only, you know, I mean, one of the ways

that we are stewards, one of the ways that is that we have to understand the role that magic plays in people's lives. That it's important to always understand, I mean, obviously we're trying to make an awesome game, but it goes beyond being just a game, and Magic R&D understands that. Okay, next. We focus

on growing Magic's audience. We want to remove obstacles to enjoying Magic. So one of our goals at Magic R&D is we are constantly striving to figure out how to make Magic more accessible to more people. And there's a lot of different ways to do that. There's a lot of different vectors that that matters. One is, and I know we work a lot on this, especially the creative team, is diversity.

We want people to be able to see themselves in the game, to play the game and go, oh, that speaks to me. I see me or my friends or my family. I feel bonded because the game represents who I am. It also means trying to stretch the kind of people that play. You know, we're always working to say, hey, how can we move into new markets and do new things and have magic mean something to a different group of people? Part of that is with stuff like New World Order and saying, you know what, we want to

make sure the game's accessible. We want a sense of depth for the advanced player, but we want accessibility for the beginning player. So it is something we constantly strive to ask ourselves, is there ways and means for us to grow the audience? That part of, if you believe magic is a positive force in the world, well, one thing you want to do is bring it to more people. So one of our goals, one of our jobs is to make sure that we are able to connect with and get more people into the game. And like I said, there's a lot of different ways that plays

out. But that's one of our goals. And so we've already done. Okay, next. We believe in discovery, surprise, and strategy. Magic is a game of exploration, and we believe providing depth is essential. Okay, well, the last one was about, hey, we want to make sure it's accessible to people, and that's where we make sure the game is something that people can enter no matter where they're at. This one also talks about, hey, a lot of what makes magic magic to people is just a game of exploration. That we want to make sure that we are spending time and energy

that not everything is on the surface. That not everything is something you can find right away. That we want magic to be a proverbial onion, if you will. That as you peel off the layers, you discover new things. And that comes from a off the layers, you discover new things. And that comes from a very deep level, which is we want a lot... I talk a lot about this in my various talks

about how important details are to a game. And we spend a lot of time on the details. We have a lot of details. We spend a lot of time on it. Whether it's world building and figuring out how exactly the world works or the cosmology of the world. Or the story and all the pieces of how the story comes together. Or the mechanics, whether it be for standard or modern or commander or draft.

We are constantly trying to find lots of different ways to bring nuance to all the different ways people play magic. That not only do we want a lot of different kinds of people to play, but we want every person to play, that magic at its core is about a sense of understanding and learning what magic is. I often talk about how Richard Garfield, when he created the game, said magic is bigger than the box. That it is not a game where the first time you play, you've seen everything. It's just not that kind of game.

And so one of the things is we want to layer things at every level. Part of it is, obviously there's lots of different cards to explore, but part of it is even within the cards that we'll put nuance in things. We love making references to other cards, and we love having little Easter eggs, and we really enjoy letting you play with something, or even just combinations or card interactions that you'll play with something,

and all of a sudden you'll play a game, and then in limited one day you get another card, and you're like, oh, I never saw this interaction. I never saw how this card... This card is a different way that can be played. The discovery is not just at the creative level, but at the mechanical level. That when you play with it, you go, oh, you know, the surface, you know, there's a surface way to play with it, but then there's interactions that maybe you slowly learn, you know, come to learn with.

And with time you can go, oh, here's another application. So we really want to build into our game the sense of that there's this inherent depth to it. And part of that means that we acknowledge that we want a lot of... I mean, here's the interesting thing between the last two things I just talked about. One is we want things accessible. We want to make sure people aren't overwhelmed when they come because we want to expand the game to as many people as possible. But at the same time, we want enough depth that once you get into the game,

there's things to explore and learn and find. And doing those two things are definitely tricky, but important. Okay, next. The six on the list. We listen. We involve and engage our community in what we do. So this really acknowledges that part of our job is not just making the game. Part of our job is interacting with the audience to understand how they

feel about what we've done. Now obviously, obviously I do this quite a bit but I'm not alone. R&D is very active in interacting with the public. You know, if you on social media, for example, a good chunk of R&D is on Twitter, not everybody, but a good chunk is. And there's a bunch of people on other things. You know, I and a few others have Tumblrs. You know, I know there's people active on Facebook. There's a lot of different ways to sort of interact with magic R&D.

And that one of the things that we learned is, I talk about magic design, or magic creation, actually, is an iterative process. That we're going to do something, we're going to make it, we're going to put it out there, we're going to see what you think, and then we're going to interact to that information. That it's not just about make something and put it out there and we're done. For example, I work very hard, you know, on my part, part of the spectrum

of making design and figuring out visions for a set and figuring out what a set should be about and what mechanics make sense and what the essence is. And then,

I have to, once the set comes out, for example, Amonkhet's coming out shortly. I'm not sure when I'm recording this versus right now. In fact, by the time you listen to this, we've started previews. You guys will know Amonkhet by the time, by time, That's coming out shortly. I'm not sure when I'm recording this versus right now.

In fact, by the time you listen to this, we've started previews. You guys will know Amiket by the time, so I can talk about Amiket. So one of the things was we knew, for example, that a lot of players really wanted us to do an Egyptian set. And we've known that for a while. It's something that, you know, you've been, and we've been looking for a place. I opened my, today was the first pre-article that I wrote. And I started, I started by talking about how Egypt actually was almost the theme for Kamigawa, that we were down between Japan and Egypt and ended up going with Japan,

obviously. But Egypt's something that we knew people wanted and we keep, you know, and we kept sort of trying to find spots for it. And finally we found a spot. And so there was a lot on my plate of, okay, we're finally doing the thing that people have asked forever for. How do we deliver? How do we do that? And then once I do that, and once the thing comes out, okay, let's look into it. For example, a couple weeks ago, the invocations, which are the masterpieces, came out. And, hey, you know, while you always want to have, you know, nothing but positive responses, that wasn't the case with invocations. There were a lot of people that had what we'll call constructive criticism on ways we can make them better. And so we listen to that.

It is not, eh, whatever. No, whenever a player has a complaint, I always want to listen. And R& so we listen to that. It is not, eh, whatever. No, if, if, if, whenever a player has a complaint, I always want to listen and R&D always wants to listen. Now that doesn't mean that every complaint is correct. It doesn't mean that every, you know, like one person might hate something, but most people love it. So there's different audiences and different reactions, but you know, I'm always interested to understand who is interacting with our product and what are they feeling about it and why. The why is an important part, by the way.

If you notice, if you ever come on my blog, I ask questions all the time. And usually I will give a multiple choice to help you guide you on an answer, but then I always say why. Given these choices, A, B, or C, which would you choose, and why? Or what did you think of this and why? You know, given these choices, A, B, or C, which would you choose? And why? Or what did you think of this? And why? I'm very interested in understanding not just what you think, but why you think what you think. Because it's the why that's going to help me in the future. That if you like something or you don't like something, that me understanding the nature of what it is

you do or don't like and why you do it like it means that we can improve the next time. And one of the things when you come into R&D that is disorienting is we have a very interesting relationship with our audience. There's not a lot of products that have as much interaction as we do. There's some. Obviously, there's products with interaction. But we have a relationship with our audience that is very unique. Now, the funny thing is I think that we were very groundbreaking, for example, for games,

that we were more transparent than most games are in a way that I think has shaped how game companies interact with the public, that there's a lot more transparency now than when we started and I think because of our transparency that I think we really set some expectations and that Magic's had a really big influence on game designers of other games and I think that the means by which we've interacted with the audience has become something that some people came to associate with how games function. And so now you're seeing a lot more communication.

You're seeing a lot more communication with other game companies, which I like to think we had a lot to influence. We had a lot to do with that. But anyway, what's important? We listen. Okay, next. We improve.

We believe in perfecting our processes, our games, and ourselves. So this one's talking about how one of our missions is that we want to do what we do, but our goal, one of our goals, is we want to keep getting better at what we do. You know, we are a game. This year, our game is 24 years old. Most games do not live to be 24 years old. That is, you know, and most games don't live to be 24 years old and are still making original content. I mean, there are obviously games that, like, oh, it becomes a part of the game.

You put it out there. The game's out there. And, you know, hey, Monopoly's still sold. But the game Monopoly doesn't really change all that often. I guess recently they changed the pieces. But, you know, the fundamental game of Monopoly itself, you know, is pretty much the same game you played back when the game first came out, you know, in the 30s, I think. But Magic is a dynamic game that keeps changing and we keep making more content. And we are 24 years in.

So we are a unique situation for games where we are a game where we're constantly making new content, and we're as old as we are, meaning that we have had so much opportunity for improvement, and that it's something we've really baked into how we function, that it is not enough to just make the game of Magic. We want to improve the game of Magic. And not just the game itself, by the way.

When I say we improve, we want to improve not just the game itself, we want to improve the processes by which we make the game, the process by which we communicate with each other. That if I look at my time at Wizards, every element of making magic has gone through some change for the better,

to try to make it a better process, to try to improve how we make the game, how R&D functions as a group. I look back to the early days in R&D and there's almost like a Wild West mentality, like early magic, R&D. We didn't really know all of what we were doing. A lot of us, this was the first time we'd ever made a game,

and it was a very young game company, and we were experimenting early on. Early Wizards especially was, you know, I'm not sure unprofessional is the right word, but it really was young in the sense that we didn't know the ropes. That most of us that were making this game had not made a game before. And so we were, there was a lot of, there was a high learning curve in the early days. But one of the things that Magic R&D has always done is said, okay, look, the way we make the game is iteration. That we are constantly creating material, putting it out, getting feedback, and making the loop.

We have a constant feedback loop where we produce something, you have feelings about it, you tell us, we listen, and then we try to improve upon it. And so that's a big part of R&D. It's a big part of saying, hey, newcomer that's just joined R&D, you know, yes, there's a lot of processes we have, and there's a lot of things that we've joined R&D, you know, yes, there's a lot of processes we have. There's a lot of things that we've learned how to do and we have a lot of traditions and there's a lot of ways that we function that you have to learn about because there's a lot of sort of craftsmanship to the making of magic and structure to the way we do it. But we are always looking to improve.

So you, new person joining R&D, you know, if you have a new way to do something, if you think you have a way to do something better than how we do it, we want to hear that. The culture of Magic R&D is not, look, we've done this forever, just do it the way we do it. It's we do it the way we think is best, but if you have new ideas, if you have ways to adapt, we're constantly striving to improve And you can be part of that improvement. That we are not asking you to just do it the way we've always done it. We are asking you to make the best product possible.

And part of that is the ever-ongoing desire to improve. Okay, next. We collaborate. Teams are the basic building blocks of our processes. And what that means is, and I talk about this a lot, the basic building blocks of our processes. And what that means is, and I talk about this a lot, magic is not a solo endeavor. It is not like one person sits down and makes a magic set.

You know, there are many, many people involved. In fact, you know, just at Wizards, there's hundreds of people involved. You know, I'm talking about Magic R&D. Magic R&D has 45 people in it. And almost every person in Magic R&D touches every product. Now, some people work harder than others on a product. But even if you're not on a product, I mean, first of all, we have design development teams.

We have creative teams. We have creative teams. We have editing and digital. And, you know, there's all sorts of different people overlooking stuff. But even if you're not working specifically on a project, you know, we are going to, you know, we ask you to be involved in play tasks, to look at the file and make notes. You know, we want feedback from everybody at Magic R&D. And even though you're not part of the project specifically, you're not on a team, you are involved in the product because everybody's involved in the product. If you see something and you have a way, you know, you have a note of somehow to make it better, do that.

You know, we are constantly working on a whole bunch of projects at once. And part of the system is understand what each person's strengths are and play to that. That there are things I'm really good at and there are things I'm not good at. And part of being part of a team is understanding when you can go elsewhere for expertise. And knowing that, you know, a collaborative process is different than an individual process. I've done things. Look, I'm a writer. You know, there's things I do, you know, when I write my column or I record this podcast.

And that's for an individual. I mean, I occasionally get interaction with other people and talk to other people. But, you know, that's mostly something I do. But the act of making magic is not so solo. You know, I start and I work with the team. Even if I'm often leading the early team, I'm still working with the team and I'm trying to get the feedback from the team. And it's important that I want every set to feel unique. So I want to make sure that I'm not putting too much of my stamp on things because I don't want everything to feel too much the same. So I lean a lot of my team to make sure that I'm not putting too much of my stamp on things because I don't want everything to feel too much the same.

So I lean a lot of my team to make sure that each set has a very different feel from it. And meanwhile, while my team is going on, I'm reaching out to lots of other teams to talk with who's the lead developer going to be, who's the creative rep, who, you know, are there rules issues and editing issues and digital issues and organized play issues. And there's an endless number of people we interact with. And a lot of the people aren't even within R&D. I mean, there's a lot of interaction within R&D and there's a lot of action outside of R&D.

And that's so an important thing to understand is if you want to, if you join Magic R&D, you are part of a team that we as a group are making this. It is not something that one person in a vacuum does. And that part of sort of putting this on the list was we want people to understand that, you know, this by nature is a collaborative process and you need to learn how to collaborate. For some people, that is very hard. What we've discovered is some people have not done a lot of collaboration. That collaboration, you know,'ve discovered is some people have not done a lot of collaboration. That collaboration uses muscles that some people have not really stretched. And at first, when they join Magic R&D, it is a little bit of a struggle for them because they are used

to sort of just making the call and doing things. And while in the solo world, that is great, in a collaborative world, you have to be careful. You have to understand when it's your call to make. And understand that there are other people out there that you can reach out to and interact with. And that part of making magic the best project it is. Like, I came from a world where most of the projects I was working on were less collaborative. I mean, I've done some collaborative things. TV writing, obviously, is collaborative.

But I've done a lot of projects where really it was my call and I was doing the thing. And it took me a little while to get in the swing of sort of saying, hey, I have other people to lean on. I have other people who can help me. I have other people who are experts on things that I'm not expert on. And so it really was interesting to sort of learn the ropes of how to be collaborative. And now, you know, almost 22 years in, hey, I got the hang of it. I understand. I know who to go to when

and how to use my team effectively to try to, you know, bring out the strength of every team member. But anyway, me collaborate. Next, we debate. We believe vigorous and constructive disagreement is the most efficient way to discover the best ideas. So this was the most controversial thing on the list. Because not everybody in R&D necessarily enjoys the debate. A lot of people do. I think the point we were

trying to get across here is not everybody's going to agree on everything. And that part of the way that R&D functions is that we want to stress test things. We want to sort of put things in and we want people to say, hey, is that really the best idea? And sometimes the debating is not even that the person on the other side believes the other side is the correct answer,

but they want to make sure that they stress test something. I think this is the best way to do it. Really? Have you tried thing A or thing B or thing C? You know, and that a lot of the way that R&D functions is we want the interaction. We want each other pushing ourselves to be the best. You know, like I said, I've done this a long time. Why do I not get bored?

Because it's a challenge every time. A, because we're always doing new and different things. And B, because I'm working with some of the best people in the world. You know, that these are people that are really good at their, I'm good at my job, they're good at their job. And that I might make a decision that someone else goes, you know what? Maybe that's not the right decision. Or maybe I made the right decision, but I need to defend my decision. You know, and a lot of times in defending your own decision,

you realize maybe mistakes that got made. You're like, well, no, this is the right call, but this is not the best execution of it. Or, you know, in talking with you and debating with you, I now have clarified the thing that matters more to me. Ah, I get it. I now understand the thing that I want. That, you know, sometimes when you debate, you realize that, oh, I made a decision,

but really the thing I care about is a subset of that, so I don't need to do everything I did. I just need to, you know, and that comes out because you had the debate. You had the argument. Now, one of the things we've learned, and there's some caveats to this one, is understand how people debate in R&D and then everybody debates the same

way. There are people that are more than happy to have large shouting matches in the pit. You know there's people that will do that. They'll go to the mat and really have you know really have a debate and walk away from that going, oh that was good that made the process better. There's other people that it's not so animated. It's more questioning. So one of the comments on this is understand how people debate and be aware that, and this is why this one was a little contentious, is that understand, you know, we want to make sure that we test our ideas,

that we stress test what we're doing, but make sure you understand how each person debates. And there are some people that enjoy the debate, but maybe not in the same way that all of R&D in the past has traditionally... We're a boisterous group, and not

everybody in R&D necessarily. We're not all, you know... We're not all as loud as me, for example. So one of the caveats in this one is debate is important. Discussing, you know, we're not all as loud as me, for example. So one of the caveats in this one is debate is important. Discussing, you know, having the ability for us each to have our opinion and feel things out is important. Okay, we are inclusive and respectful. We never dismiss viewpoints that are different from our own.

So one of the things that's valuable is, and this comes up from time to time, is you will believe something and you will believe something very strongly. And then someone comes and says, hey, I respect that you believe that, but I believe something different than you believe. And I think there are players that are going to side with me that not all players are going to believe in what you believe in.

And the one thing we've learned is, and this is one of the arguments for diversity within, is that if you have diversity within your department, it helps you connect with the diversity without. It is something we spend a lot of time working on. I will be the first to admit we have more room to work. But it's something we do care about. And we want to make sure that

if somebody's speaking up for voices that might not have been heard, to make sure they speak up for them. That, you know, if something, for example, makes you uncomfortable, if we are doing something that makes you uncomfortable, speak up. Even if it's clear the majority are not uncomfortable by it. If you

are, speak up. Because if you're uncomfortable, somebody else will be uncomfortable. You know, and that one of the things that's really important to us in R&D is we want everybody to feel like what they say matters, what they feel matters, and that even if you're in the minority, even if it's clear by listening to other people that what you're about to say is not the majority opinion, it doesn't matter. I talk all the time about how Magic is, you know, we are mini-games for mini-people.

And that if we're going to do our job, we need to understand all the different types of players we have. It's why we encourage Magic players, or sorry, Magic R&D to play in all the different formats that Magic is played. It's not that every person has to play every format, but as a&D to play in all the different formats that magic is played. It's not that every person has to play every format, but as a group, we want to understand all the formats. And we want to understand all the different kinds of players and kinds of people. And so it is important, and we really try to be open-ended and say, look, we're inclusive to all

ideas. So if you have a thought that's different, even though we'll debate things, we still want to hear from everybody. Don't let our debate shy you away from bringing up a minority opinion. That's very important for us to hear and understand. The final principle, we expect greatness. We want teammates to embrace the responsibility of making magic. And the idea there is that we are passionate, that R&D is not, we are a group of overachievers. We are people who grew up, many of us being the smartest in the room, many of us, you know, really wanting to do, part of magic is we want the sense of excellence in magic R&D.

We are looked at through our industry as being one of the pinnacles of our industry. You know, that magic R&D is considered to be a really, really strong R&D group. And we take great pride in that. And that part of what we're saying is, look, if you have joined magic R&D, you know, we want you to step it up. We want you to be the best that you can be. And that we work really hard, you know, and we put a lot of energy in and a lot of passion in and a lot of heart in. We really care what we do. We really care about, you know, like I said, magic is something personal to us. We strive to make it better. And we are doing our best to make that so.

You know, and that however it is, however you bring your best, however it is that you find a way to add to magic, we want that. That we are looking for people who shine. We are looking for people who you know, magic is not easy

to get into. And one of the reasons is we expect the best of the best. We're the creme de la creme and if you join Magic R&D we want you to be the best of the best. We want you to be the best that you can be. And so one of the things that we really stress is Magic R&D has a very high work ethic that we expect the best of what we do. And so, hey, you're joining us? Be aware.

You're with a bunch of people that love what we do, that are good at what we do, and care a great deal about what we do. And that leads to us going over and above. That it's never just enough. We never do something and go, well, that meets the bar of, you know, whatever quality we need or something.

We overshoot bars all the time. There's no minimum guide. It's not like, oh, we've done enough. In fact, normally, usually it's the deadline that stops us. We keep striving to make the thing we're working on as good as we can make it until physically we must hand it over

to the next group or send it out to print. Although I guess in R&D we're always handing it to the next group. We're never the end of the process because other people have to make it. But the idea is we are striving up, you know, if I'm working on a design, I'm working to make that design better every moment

that it is in my hands. Every moment that it's under the control of my team. And it's only when I hand it off to another team that I stop. In fact, I don't stop trying to make it. Even when it's up to another team, I still poke my head in. I still pay attention to it. I still read the file. I still play and play test.

I, in fact, am trying to make that set a better set up until it is out of R&D, sometimes even out of R&D's hands. I will work with marketing. I will work with other sections of the company to improve the process. So I literally will not stop trying to make a set better until the set is out.

That's not even true. Once the set is out, I'm doing everything I can to help the audience understand it, to help the audience appreciate it. I am working. So I never stop. I'm always striving to make it better.

I literally, I don't know, even sets that are done and players have played with and moved on. The history of magic is important to me. I make sure that people understand what made importance of things long after they're no longer in the public eye. I spent a whole podcast going back and looking at old sets so you could learn to appreciate them. So people that did not appreciate them. So the answer is I never give up. I never ever give up. R&D doesn't give up. We keep striving to make things better. You know, at every

level, I want magic to be the best experience it can and that starts from the very inkling. You know, I'm involved at the very beginning when it's just a twinkle in someone's eyes to bring something to life. All the way to the very end where it's part of the public consciousness. And I want you to appreciate the past

of magic and what it meant to magic. So from its early, earliest days to its latest, latest. I'm involved in all of that and I'm always striving to make it better. Just as R&D is. Okay guys, I'm almost to work. Rachel has spring break

so I'm not taking Rachel to school today. So that, my friends, is the 11 principles of magic R&D. Let me go over them one last time before I drive into the... I'm almost to work. Number one, we're the stewards of magic. We want magic to last forever and to be better tomorrow than it is today. We care quite a bit. Magic matters to us.

We are passionate about magic. We love magic. We love playing it, talking about it, and reading about it. Magic means a lot Magic matters to us. We are passionate about magic. We love magic. We love playing it, talking about it, and reading about it. Magic means a lot to all of us. It's something that we came to our job through a love of magic, and that love has stayed. We believe magic makes a difference. We cherish that magic is a meaningful part of people's lives. We understand that it is more than just a game, that magic means a lot to a lot of people, and that we have to understand that in making of it. We focus on growing magic audience. We want to remove obstacles to enjoying magic. We want everybody to play magic.

We want to constantly get more and more people involved and there's many different ways to do that and we look at all of them through diversity, through making sure that things are accessible, through all the different means we can. We want to open up magic's audience. We believe in discovery, surprise, and strategy. Yes, we want to expose new people to it, but we also want to make all the old people happy. And we want to make sure that when you're coming to the game, that we continue to make it a game of exploration, a game of discovery. There's always things to learn. Even if you're playing Magic for the hundredth time, or the thousandth time, or the millionth time, there's always new things to discover. We listen. We involve and

engage our community in what we do. That is not just about making the game. It's about listening to the audience so we understand what is and isn't working. We improve. We believe in perfecting our processes, our games, and ourselves. That not only are we trying to make it better, but we're trying to continually make it better. We're trying to figure out what we can do better than the last time we did it. We collaborate. Teams are the basic building block of our process. We believe, you know, we do not just make games,

we make games in teams. And understanding that is a core experience of Magic R&D. We debate. We believe vigorously in constructive disagreement is the most efficient way to discover the best ideas. We want to make the best of the best and we push ourselves and we will discuss things within ourselves to do that. We are inclusive and

respectful. We never dismiss viewpoints that are different from our own. Everybody has a different vantage point and everybody enters the game differently. We want to use that and make sure that part of being a team is listening to everybody's ideas and how everybody approaches things. Finally, we expect greatness. We want teammates who embrace the responsibility of making magic. You know, we are the best of the best and we want to be the best of the best. We expect every person who works in Magic R&D to do their best work and

deliver time and time again. And that, my friends, are the principles of Magic R&D. Like I said, we put these down because every day I look up from my desk and I see this sign. It's up, up, up, up above so that I can see those things to remind myself this is what Magic R&D is. And that's for me, the veteran that's been working there forever, and for the person that started today, that they

can see what Magic is about, what Magic R&D is about, and learn and adapt and become part of our processes. And that, my friends, is the principles of Magic R&D. But I'm now at work, so we all know what that means. This is the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic using these awesome principles. See you guys next time. Bye-bye.