Steve Bishop
| Steve Bishop | |
|---|---|
 Steve Bishop, center, observing the finals of the World Championships in 1994. | |
| General Information | |
| Status | Inactive |
Steve Bishop is a former head of the Organized Play department for Wizards of the Coast and former director of the Duelists' Convocation, which evolved into the DCI. He was responsible for crafting the first version of the Tournament Rules, and presided over the first World Championships in 1994. He is also credited with design contributions to The Dark.
Career
Bishop was placed in charge of the Events department (later named Organized Play), although that was not his original job. He struggled to organize tournaments and was less familiar with Magic's rules than expert players. Mark Rosewater later reflected that, at the time, no one at Wizards had the necessary experience to manage events effectively.[1][2] Bishop played a role in Rosewater's hiring by passing Rosewater's gameplay puzzles to Kathryn Haines, which led to Rosewater taking on further writing work for The Duelist.[3]
To reign in high-powered decks that dominated tournaments in the first months of Magic, he proposed introducing deckbuilding constraints to the game. His initial suggestion would have set caps on the number of cards of each type. Richard Garfield disliked the proposal, and preferred to allow playgroups to self-moderate. Magic ultimately adopted simpler rules than Bishop's initial idea, establishing the four-of card rule, as well as the 60-card deck size for typical Constructed formats.[4] The first version of the Tournament Rules was published on the rec.games.board newsgroup on January 26, 1994.[5]
Bishop was credited with design contributions to The Dark.[6]
Departure
As director of the DCI, Bishop signed a letter printed in August 1995 on the front page of The Duelist Companion.[7] However, the next issue, printed one month later, stated that he had been replaced as director of the Duelists' Convocation by Jason Carl on July 25, 1995.[8]
In December 1995, Vincent Salzillo, the president of Double Exposure, Inc., stated that Bishop would be at his company's DREAMATION convention the following month to run a game of Ars Magica. Salzillo claimed that Bishop had been forced out of the DCI, and moved within Wizards to head the Ars Magica group, but had recently been laid off from that position. Salzillo believed that Bishop's departure from the DCI was due to conflict with Gary Smith, the owner of Andon Unlimited, an event management company that Wizards had purchased in 1995.[9][10] Weeks before Salzillo's post, Wizards had sold all of its tabletop role-playing game properties, including Ars Magica.[11]
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 28, 2005). "A Different Worlds". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on February 5, 2023.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 05, 2005). "Disorderly Conduct". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2018-05-08.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 4, 2012). "How To Get Your Dream Job". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022.
- ↑ Michael G. Ryan (February 17, 2003). "Leader of the Banned". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2019-12-29.
- ↑ Stephen Mendenian (January 26, 2019). "Schools of Magic: History of Vintage – An Alternative History of the Banned and Restricted List". Eternal Central. Archived from the original on January 30, 2019.
- ↑ Ice, Kathy, Beverly Marshall Saling, & Rick Saling Marshall. (1994). "The Dark". The Duelist. Issue 2, Summer 1994.
- ↑ The Duelist Companion, issue 12. August 1995.
- ↑ The Duelist Companion, issue 13. September 1995.
- ↑ Vinny Salzillo (December 30, 1995). "STEVE BISHOP TO RUN ARS MAGICA AT DREAMATION 1996". Archived from the original on May 1, 2025.
- ↑ Designers & Dragons: the '90s. Shannon Appelcline (2014).
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast History. Zippia. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023.