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'''Play Design''' is a ''[[Magic]]'' [[R&D]] team solely dedicated to the health of [[tournament]] environments, to make sure that playing ''Magic'' in structured settings is as enjoyable as possible.<ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/160771962008/play-design|title=Play Design|May 17, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{DailyRef|play-design/shoulders-giants-2017-06-16|On the Shoulders of Giants|[[Dan Burdick]]|June 16, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Vision, Set and Play">{{DailyRef|making-magic/vision-design-set-design-and-play-design-2017-10-23|Vision Design, Set Design, and Play Design|author(s)|[[Mark Rosewater]]}}</ref>
'''Play Design''' is the name of several ''[[Magic]]'' [[R&D]] teams that are tasked to make sure that playing ''Magic'' in structured settings is as enjoyable as possible. It is the successor to the [[Future Future League]].


==Task==
(Competitive) Play Design was introduced in [[2017]], while Casual Play Design was created at the end of [[2021]].
The team was introduced in [[2017]], after R&D had missed the [[copy cat]] [[combo]]. Play Design is primarily focused on [[Standard]], [[Booster Draft]] and [[Sealed]].<ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/160879338488/are-there-plans-for-the-play-design-team-to-work|title=Are there plans for the Play Design team to work on Legacy and Vintage as well as standard? |May 20, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/160885477293/what-exactly-is-the-difference-between-what-play|title=What exactly is the difference between Play Design and what the Future Future League does?|May 20, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/161901704393/can-you-help-me-understand-the-difference-between|title=The difference between Development and Play Design?|June 16, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/161930634793/ellerycrane-blog-asked-can-you-help-me|title=Play Design?|June 1
 
==Competitive Play Design==
Competitive Play Design is solely dedicated to the health of [[tournament]] environments.<ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/160771962008/play-design|title=Play Design|May 17, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{DailyRef|play-design/shoulders-giants-2017-06-16|On the Shoulders of Giants|[[Dan Burdick]]|June 16, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Vision, Set and Play">{{DailyRef|making-magic/vision-design-set-design-and-play-design-2017-10-23|Vision Design, Set Design, and Play Design|author(s)|[[Mark Rosewater]]}}</ref> It focuses on the highest level of play: cards that effect tournaments, and getting the card distributions (the rate/probability at which cards appear in [[draft booster]]s) and power level right for cards that will see the most play in Standard, whether that’s at [[Friday Night Magic]] events, on the ''[[Magic: The Gathering Arena]]'' ladder, or at the [[World Championship]].
 
The team was introduced in 2017 after R&D had missed the [[copy cat]] [[combo]]. Play Design is primarily focused on [[Standard]], [[Booster Draft]], and [[Sealed]].<ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/160879338488/are-there-plans-for-the-play-design-team-to-work|title=Are there plans for the Play Design team to work on Legacy and Vintage as well as standard? |May 20, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/160885477293/what-exactly-is-the-difference-between-what-play|title=What exactly is the difference between Play Design and what the Future Future League does?|May 20, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/161901704393/can-you-help-me-understand-the-difference-between|title=The difference between Development and Play Design?|June 16, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{EzTumblr|http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/161930634793/ellerycrane-blog-asked-can-you-help-me|title=Play Design?|June 1
7, 2017}}</ref>
7, 2017}}</ref>


Play Design does the bulk of its work roughly one year before a set is released. The team has four three-month segments in the [[Design]] process, one for each play environment (with four Standard-legal sets released each year there are four distinct play environments). Each one lines up with [[Set Design]] such that the first two months are the last two months of Set Design and the last month is the set after Set Design hands off (but when there's still time to tweak numbers if necessary).<ref name="Vision, Set and Play"/>
Play Design does the bulk of its work roughly one year before a set is released. The team has four three-month segments in the [[Design]] process, one for each play environment (with four Standard-legal sets released each year there are four distinct play environments). Each one lines up with [[Set Design]] such that the first two months are the last two months of Set Design and the last month is the set after Set Design hands-off (but when there's still time to tweak numbers if necessary).<ref name="Vision, Set and Play"/>


Play design interacts with digital ''Magic'' — including [[MTG Arena]] and [[Magic Online]] — and how it affects the design and development of cards.<ref>{{DailyRef|play-design/play-design-and-digital-magic-2017-12-15|Play Design and Digital Magic|[[Melissa DeTora]]|December 15, 2017}}</ref>  
A major upheaval in the state of Standard was the movement towards a three-year rotation lifetime instead of two. One of the notable issues was that with two years, Play Design never gets to see any real-life data of what cards are being played in time to change any cards, at most putting some cards in the seventh or eighth set in response to data from the first set. The change in rotation was to lighten this load, while also giving them the chance to power up some synergies that were unsuccessful.<ref name="Revitalizing">{{DailyRef|announcements/revitalizing-standard|Revitalizing Standard|[[Aaron Forsythe]] and [[Billy Jensen]]|May 7, 2023}}</ref>
 
Play Design interacts with digital ''Magic'' — including [[MTG Arena]] and [[Magic Online]] — and how it affects the design and development of cards.<ref>{{DailyRef|play-design/play-design-and-digital-magic-2017-12-15|Play Design and Digital Magic|[[Melissa DeTora]]|December 15, 2017}}</ref>  


===Current members===
===Current members===
* [[Bryan Hawley]] (founding member; manager<ref>{{DailyRef|play-design/checking-play-design-2019-04-24|Checking in With Play Design|[[Bryan Hawley]]|April 24, 2019}}</ref>)
*[[Dan Musser]] (manager)
* [[Ian Duke]] (founding member; technical lead)
*[[Chris Kvartek]]
* [[Adam Prosak]] (founding member)
*[[Michael Majors]]
* [[Melissa DeTora]] (founding member)
*[[Andrew Brown]] (founding member; technical lead)
* [[Andrew Brown]] (founding member)
*[[Jadine Klomparens]] <ref>[http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/38134_How-I-Wrote-Magic-Strategy.html Jadine Klomparens (December 31, 2018), "How I Wrote Magic Strategy". Starcitygames.com]</ref>
* [[Michael Majors]]
*[[Michael Hinderaker]] <ref name="Melissa">[https://twitter.com/MelissaDeTora/status/1103815103168733184 Melissa DeTora on Twitter]</ref>
* [[Jadine Klomparens]] <ref>[http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/38134_How-I-Wrote-Magic-Strategy.html Jadine Klomparens (December 31, 2018), "How I Wrote Magic Strategy". Starcitygames.com]</ref>
*[[Donald Smith, Jr]] <ref name="Melissa"/>
* [[Michael Hinderaker]] <ref name="Melissa">[https://twitter.com/MelissaDeTora/status/1103815103168733184 Melissa DeTora on Twitter]</ref>
*[[Carmen Klomparens]] <ref name="Roster changes">{{WebRef|url=https://magic.gg/news/2020-21-season-magic-rivals-league-roster-changes|title=2020-21 Season Magic Rivals League Roster Changes|author=[[Blake Rasmussen]]|date=December 11, 2020|publisher=[[Magic.gg]]}}</ref>
* [[Donald Smith]] <ref name="Melissa"/>
*[[Oliver Tiu]] <ref name="Oliver">[https://twitter.com/TheTiuTangClan/status/1330927018142208001 Oliver Tiu on Twitter]</ref>
*[[Ben Weitz]]
*Arya Karamchandani <ref name="Arya"> [https://twitter.com/hogpog_98/status/1608326733090156544 Arya Karamchandani on Twitter]</ref>
*[[John Penick]]
*Abe Corrigan <ref>{{TwitterRef|CorriganAbe|1712934442140938454|author=Abe Corrigan|title=I’m ecstatic to share that I’ve been hired by Wizards to be on the Play Design team.|date=October 13, 2023}}</ref>


===Former members===
===Former members===
* [[Tom Ross]]<ref>{{DailyRef|play-design/player-play-designer-2017-12-01|From Player to Play Designer|[[Tom Ross]]|December 1, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{WebRef | author=[[Tom Ross]]. | title="I'll be playing in #SCGVEGAS next weekend." | url=https://twitter.com/Boss_MTG/status/1060680160985444353 | date=November 9, 2018 | publisher=Twitter}}</ref>
*[[Tom Ross]]<ref>{{DailyRef|play-design/player-play-designer-2017-12-01|From Player to Play Designer|[[Tom Ross]]|December 1, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{WebRef | author=[[Tom Ross]]. | title="I'll be playing in #SCGVEGAS next weekend." | url=https://twitter.com/Boss_MTG/status/1060680160985444353 | date=November 9, 2018 | publisher=Twitter}}</ref>
* [[Dan Musser]] (''[[Modern Horizons]]'')
*[[Dan Burdick]] (founding member; former lead)
* [[Dan Burdick]] (founding member; former lead)
*[[Andrew Veen]] (founding member)
* [[Andrew Veen]] (founding member)
*[[Paul Cheon]] (founding member)
* [[Paul Cheon]] (founding member)
*[[Allen Wu]]
*[[Kazu Negri]]
*[[Zac Elsik]]
*[[Bryan Hawley]] (founding member; former manager)
*[[Ian Duke]] (founding member; former technical lead)
*[[Melissa DeTora]] (founding member)
*[[Adam Prosak]] (founding member)
*[[Eric Engelhard]]
 
==Casual Play Design==
Casual Play Design was created in the last weeks of 2021, under the lead of [[Melissa DeTora]].<ref>{{TwitterRef|MelissaDeTora|1451233445674307586|author=[[Melissa DeTora]]|title=I am leading the new MTG Casual Play Design team at Wizards|date=October 21, 2021}}</ref><ref>[[Melissa DeTora]] (October 21, 2021.) "[https://discord.com/channels/750513920938082404/900864820818087998 AMA]". Magic: The Gathering Discord.</ref> The team is responsible for making [[Commander (format)|Commander]] and other [[casual]] [[format]]s fun and balanced, testing cards that don’t fit the criteria of being tested by Competitive Play Design or that don’t effect [[Standard]] (e.g. ''[[Commander Legends]]'', [[Commander deck|Commander preconstructed decks]], ''[[Universes Beyond]]'', etc.). Balance means something different for casual play than competitive play because of how much more diverse the experience is from player to player, so the team will not focus on balance in the same way that Competitive Play Design does. Their primary focus will be finding card distributions (the rate/probability at which cards appear in all products) and play patterns that make the format most fun for everyone. Some things they consider as they [[playtest]] and balance cards include:
*How likely is the card to show up? Is it fun if it does show up in high quantities?
*How much fun is this for the table (net fun)?
*How easy or difficult is it to include this in your deck?
*Does the card have enough interaction points and counterplay?
 
===Current members===
*Sara Mox (manager)
*[[Melissa DeTora]] (founding member; technical lead)
*[[Michelle Roberson]] (founding member)
*[[Chelsea Santamaria]] (founding member)
*[[Elizabeth Rice]] (founding member)
*[[Megan Smith]]
 
===Former members===
*[[Cameron Williams]]
*[[Jacob Mooney]]


==Column==
==Column==
In June 2017, the column named ''Play Design'' replaced ''[[Latest Developments]]'' on [[Magicthegathering.com]]. It was started by Melissa DeTora,<ref>{{DailyRef|play-design/cycle-torment-2017-06-23|Cycle of Torment|[[Melissa DeTora]]|June 23, 2017}}</ref> but other members also contributed. As of 2019, that column has largely been replaced by a weekly stream on the ''Magic:The Gathering'' Twitch channel.
In June 2017, the column named ''Play Design'' replaced ''[[Latest Developments]]'' on [[Magicthegathering.com]]. It was started by Melissa DeTora,<ref>{{DailyRef|play-design/cycle-torment-2017-06-23|Cycle of Torment|[[Melissa DeTora]]|June 23, 2017}}</ref> but other members also contributed. By 2019, that column had largely been replaced by [[Weekly MTG]] on the ''Magic: The Gathering'' Twitch channel.
 
==Stream==
For community engagement and visibility, Play Designers (most often Paul Cheon and Melissa DeTora, but also others) streamed on the Magic Twitch page starting from July 16, 2018. The stream ran relatively consistently for about a year, ending slightly before the general release of ''[[Magic: The Gathering Arena]]''.


==References==
==References==

Latest revision as of 16:06, 21 January 2024

Play Design is the name of several Magic R&D teams that are tasked to make sure that playing Magic in structured settings is as enjoyable as possible. It is the successor to the Future Future League.

(Competitive) Play Design was introduced in 2017, while Casual Play Design was created at the end of 2021.

Competitive Play Design

Competitive Play Design is solely dedicated to the health of tournament environments.[1][2][3] It focuses on the highest level of play: cards that effect tournaments, and getting the card distributions (the rate/probability at which cards appear in draft boosters) and power level right for cards that will see the most play in Standard, whether that’s at Friday Night Magic events, on the Magic: The Gathering Arena ladder, or at the World Championship.

The team was introduced in 2017 after R&D had missed the copy cat combo. Play Design is primarily focused on Standard, Booster Draft, and Sealed.[4][5][6][7]

Play Design does the bulk of its work roughly one year before a set is released. The team has four three-month segments in the Design process, one for each play environment (with four Standard-legal sets released each year there are four distinct play environments). Each one lines up with Set Design such that the first two months are the last two months of Set Design and the last month is the set after Set Design hands-off (but when there's still time to tweak numbers if necessary).[3]

A major upheaval in the state of Standard was the movement towards a three-year rotation lifetime instead of two. One of the notable issues was that with two years, Play Design never gets to see any real-life data of what cards are being played in time to change any cards, at most putting some cards in the seventh or eighth set in response to data from the first set. The change in rotation was to lighten this load, while also giving them the chance to power up some synergies that were unsuccessful.[8]

Play Design interacts with digital Magic — including MTG Arena and Magic Online — and how it affects the design and development of cards.[9]

Current members

Former members

Casual Play Design

Casual Play Design was created in the last weeks of 2021, under the lead of Melissa DeTora.[18][19] The team is responsible for making Commander and other casual formats fun and balanced, testing cards that don’t fit the criteria of being tested by Competitive Play Design or that don’t effect Standard (e.g. Commander Legends, Commander preconstructed decks, Universes Beyond, etc.). Balance means something different for casual play than competitive play because of how much more diverse the experience is from player to player, so the team will not focus on balance in the same way that Competitive Play Design does. Their primary focus will be finding card distributions (the rate/probability at which cards appear in all products) and play patterns that make the format most fun for everyone. Some things they consider as they playtest and balance cards include:

  • How likely is the card to show up? Is it fun if it does show up in high quantities?
  • How much fun is this for the table (net fun)?
  • How easy or difficult is it to include this in your deck?
  • Does the card have enough interaction points and counterplay?

Current members

Former members

Column

In June 2017, the column named Play Design replaced Latest Developments on Magicthegathering.com. It was started by Melissa DeTora,[20] but other members also contributed. By 2019, that column had largely been replaced by Weekly MTG on the Magic: The Gathering Twitch channel.

Stream

For community engagement and visibility, Play Designers (most often Paul Cheon and Melissa DeTora, but also others) streamed on the Magic Twitch page starting from July 16, 2018. The stream ran relatively consistently for about a year, ending slightly before the general release of Magic: The Gathering Arena.

References

  1. ↑ Mark Rosewater (May 17, 2017). "Play Design". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  2. ↑ Dan Burdick (June 16, 2017). "On the Shoulders of Giants". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  3. ↑ a b author(s) (Mark Rosewater). "Vision Design, Set Design, and Play Design". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  4. ↑ Mark Rosewater (May 20, 2017). "Are there plans for the Play Design team to work on Legacy and Vintage as well as standard?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  5. ↑ Mark Rosewater (May 20, 2017). "What exactly is the difference between Play Design and what the Future Future League does?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  6. ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 16, 2017). "The difference between Development and Play Design?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  7. ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 1 7, 2017). "Play Design?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  8. ↑ Aaron Forsythe and Billy Jensen (May 7, 2023). "Revitalizing Standard". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  9. ↑ Melissa DeTora (December 15, 2017). "Play Design and Digital Magic". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  10. ↑ Jadine Klomparens (December 31, 2018), "How I Wrote Magic Strategy". Starcitygames.com
  11. ↑ a b Melissa DeTora on Twitter
  12. ↑ Blake Rasmussen (December 11, 2020). "2020-21 Season Magic Rivals League Roster Changes". Magic.gg.
  13. ↑ Oliver Tiu on Twitter
  14. ↑ Arya Karamchandani on Twitter
  15. ↑ Abe Corrigan (October 13, 2023). "I’m ecstatic to share that I’ve been hired by Wizards to be on the Play Design team.". Twitter.
  16. ↑ Tom Ross (December 1, 2017). "From Player to Play Designer". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  17. ↑ Tom Ross. (November 9, 2018). ""I'll be playing in #SCGVEGAS next weekend."". Twitter.
  18. ↑ Melissa DeTora (October 21, 2021). "I am leading the new MTG Casual Play Design team at Wizards". Twitter.
  19. ↑ Melissa DeTora (October 21, 2021.) "AMA". Magic: The Gathering Discord.
  20. ↑ Melissa DeTora (June 23, 2017). "Cycle of Torment". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.

External links

Retrieved from "https://mtg.wiki/index.php?title=Play_Design&oldid=293025"