Dear Hasbro Product Owner(s),
I don't really know where to start, so I guess that the chronological order of events will be the logical one.
I played Magic: The Gathering collectible cards game for years, and I started way before 2000, while I was in 6th or 7th grade. Back in the day, the cards were printed on cardboard/pasteboard, and we were trading them like crazy. We also were playing a damn lot, everywhere and anywhere we could, since you only needed a surface (usually the ground, or a table) and your deck.
Now is the age of mobile devices. Nearly everybody carries a smartphone at all times, or a tablet, or a laptop, or even a combination of those. For this reason, MANY companies try to milk out users by flooding the "online stores" with Free To Play (A.K.A F2P) games adapted for those platforms, with micro-transactions, etc.
Magic: The Gathering has been really successful, earning a bootload of money through the years, using the same mechanisms. But that was before. Before the mobile devices were in everyone's pocket, and people had nothing better to buy than your cards.
I think you're already seeing what I'm getting at, but since I don't want to take any chance, allow me to be explicit:
You are wasting a perfect opportunity. I don't know your reasons, but you are. The reason why I write this letter is that I would like to give you my money. But not currently, not for your current products. They are shit.
Here is what you have to do: release an adapted Free To Play Magic game. Create an exchange market, with fees, and your own online currency (so you can take the fees). I suggest 15% fees, like the Steam Market. Sell boosters, decks, and cards. They won't cost anything to you, as you will realize, and people will spend literally bucks each time they want a card, for you to add a single database record in your system.
This could CLEARLY be a MUCH more lucrative market than the one you have with the current Magic games. Plus, people could play anytime, during commute, etc.
Now, you HAVE to release (as aforementioned) adapted games: the PC ones have to be in 3D, beautiful, immersive, stunning. The mobile ones have to be adapted to the size of the screen (I can easily imagine a simplified interface for a smartphone, showing one card at a time); and the web ones have to be light (and maybe feature/support OpenGL, why not).
You REALLY have one of the best F2P-capable product worldwide, as it was already using the same idea BEFORE free to play even existed (it's free to play the card-based MTG game anytime, anywhere; while the cards are not always cheap).
For the record, I did buy the first one of your games on Steam ( http://steamdb.info/app/49400/ ), and then stopped, seeing that it was plain bullshit.
Do that F2P game, and I guarantee you will have my (and many other people's) money.
Thanks for reading.
A long time Magic: The Gathering player who would like to play again.
