Ok so Innistrad is hot stuff and even though we are back to playing fair games of magic instead of fighting Jace wars and dying over and over to a glorified mountain and being slain by a bird somehow wielding a magical sword, people in my area aren't playing Magic very much anymore.
This is the first and probably only time I will say anything about the Spruce Pine Gaming and Gamer's Haunt 'feud' publicly. I don't care what anyone says, SPG revived Magic in our area. We helped introduce some of the most loyal Gamer's Haunt customers to Magic in the first place. Ben and myself took a huge risk (and ultimately lost a ton of money and not to mention time and friends) creating a community and uniting all of us gamers and we even gave them shelter from the harsh outside world. I met a lot of you guys that read this through that outlet, and we wouldn't even talk today if it wasn't for SPG. Today, it has been nearly a year since Ben and my dream was flushed down the drain. Within that year, I started losing contact with a lot of those that were very important in my life back then. Also, within that year, our primary competition, Gamer's Haunt, decided to move their shop to Weaverville, effectively making playing Magic at a semi-competitive level impossible for so many of us Magic players.
In other words, we got fucked.
I say that not in the petty sense that we lost our SPG because its all their fault, or because they decided to move. I'm saying that the timing was horrible. I have so many "what if?" scenarios popping in my head. The most obvious one is "What if they moved 6 months sooner?" Would SPG still be a thing?
SPG failed for so many reasons, not just one. Its not right to blame the Gamer's Haunt for wanting to make money, that's why we were in the business as well. So take myself out of the equation. I am speaking to you, the local Spruce Pine Magic player. YOU got fucked.
YOU can't play competitive Magic unless you travel over 1 hour away.
YOU can't buy cards at a discounted shop price.
YOU don't even have a place to play cards even just for fun (Hell, my small playgroup plays at McDonalds since we don't have anyplace to play and believe me, its annoying having all those old farts staring you down for 'devil worshipping' in their chapel.)
Magic is only fun with a community of players, each one bringing their skills and traits into the group. I'm trying my damnest to keep us alive, but we can only stay alive on these scraps for so long. My play group has diminished to only 5 players (from 20 something), and even they have started to lose interest. I fear if we don't do something soon, we will just lose this thing that brought us so close together nearly 2 years ago.
In hopes of keeping us alive,
Torio
(PS: Roy, if you happen to read this, I mean no offense to you and your business, I am merely illustrating a point to all of us Magic players that we, together, have brought into this world of Magic, and we both, together, have let them all down.)
Fucked hard...
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