In the early to mid 2000s we used to do MTG booster drafts at the local game shop. Maybe the experience was different for different people.
Re:Addiction Markets
by steve_adams_86 on Friday October 31, 2025 @10:22PM
(#45778759)
I knew a guy back then who would blow hundreds every couple of weeks on booster packs. It was surreal to watch. MTG was everything to him. This was around 2002—2004.
A couple hundred every couple weeks doesn’t seem that bad for a hobby you enjoy
Re:Addiction Markets
by steve_adams_86 on Sunday November 02, 2025 @02:08AM
(#45788406)
Good point. I should have included that at the time he really didn't have that kind of money to spend. We were young and he was struggling to even make rent or eat.
That definitely changes things yeah. Hope he’s in a better place now!
> Again no one thought that was fun in the 90s, everyone hated that aspect of cards in the 90s
How old was everyone in the 1990s? Kids loved this kind of thing in the 2000s.
I can't imagine kids even liked it then. Again most of those packs were junk cards. Like total crap cards. Oh gee a rattata and some energy cards. All you wanted was Ash's squad from the shows.
The kids I knew who played these kinds of card games all loved buying booster packs, but they weren’t paying for these packs themselves and most grew out of playing by the time they reached high school. I can see it not being as fun for adult players who understand the probability metagame being played, but I think one of the reasons these games had so much financial success in the first place was that they identified a behavioral loop that they could exploit, exactly like contemporary developers did with loot boxes.
I loved buying booster packs and trying to make decks from the janky cards in them, until people taking it all Very Seriously came along.
Re:Addiction Markets
by hdjdnsnslsj on Friday October 31, 2025 @08:28PM
(#45778188)
The same age as kids in the 2000's?
I was asking if the “everyone” he was referring to was comprised of children or adults, as it didn’t map to my experience with children who played these games in the 2000s.
Re:Addiction Markets
by rufus_foreman on Friday October 31, 2025 @09:48PM
(#45778619)
>> the move for card people back then was to wait for the card show and just buy the cards you actually want from a card dealer
That's still the move. Unless you want to gamble.
I don't know, in the 90s a bunch of friends and I were into MtG and everyone bought packs. The idea of buying from a card dealer instead wasn't even on our radar. We weren't the most hardcore players but I think we were pretty typical; we went to Comic Con a few times in that era.
I distinctly remember the first time I was able to afford to buy a box from a new magic set release. Had a lot of fun opening new packs. It’s too bad I wasn’t aware of the draft format at the time or it would have been even more rewarding!
Re:Addiction Markets
by FarmerPotato on Saturday November 01, 2025 @02:52AM
(#45779718)
Consider who your peers were then. Were they likely to get addicted? I know my circle was elite--doing the probability calculations, circulating card lists on Usenet, and joking that gambling was taxes on stupid people.
Now as an adult, I see tweens with addictions to multiple things. Watch them beg to buy a Pokemon pack, open it, and lose interest. It's completely the dopamine expectation. And it takes years in recovery. But I think I was ignorant and unaware in the 90s of what other people were addicted to.
Re:Addiction Markets
by vanderZwan on Saturday November 01, 2025 @05:14AM
(#45780290)
Even if you aren't prone to gambling there are other factors that can apply. I never was into gambling, but I grew up in the Dutch countryside in the 90s, so trading with local players was my only option. I spent a ton of money on boosters as a teen without realizing it's all manufactured scarcity.
The thing is now people are marketing the pack opening. You have social media accounts of them pulling cards from packs and getting all hyped up about it. Again no one thought that was fun in the 90s, everyone hated that aspect of cards in the 90s but thats because the unboxing as an experience wasn't marketed by anyone at all. People just wanted cards they thought were personally cool in some way.
And likewise expansion of markets in the internet era means people start to have shared values of what is a valuable card based on market price vs just being interested in some certain cards out of your own interest.