Why Does the Storm Scale Not Use Advance Knowledge?
General forum
Posted on Feb. 18, 2021, 4:46 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Mark Rosewater has stated that he does not use advance knowledge of upcoming sets to determine his ratings on the storm scale and Rabiah scale, but that decision does not make any sense, to me, because it seems only logical, to me, to have the scales be influenced by advance knowledge.
What does everyone else say about this? Why are the storm and Rabiah scales not influenced by advance knowledge?
xtechnetia says... #3
A few possibilities (not mutually exclusive):
- Plans can change. The MTG community (like gaming communities in general) tends to treat future possibilities as real spoilers and will hound Wizards relentlessly about anything revealed, no matter how much Wizards tries to emphasize the "we're just talking about this right now" disclaimer.
- Wizards keeps their sets in development under tight wraps, so extra information about future mechanics would be advance spoilers.
- Part of what influences storm and Rabiah scales is popularity (or balance, in the case of mechanics cough companion). There's no way to know that information until the set is out and players have played with them.
- It wouldn't change much for mechanics Wizards is unlikely to plan more than a few years ahead in sets. Non-evergreen/deciduous mechanics rarely show up more than once every few years.
February 18, 2021 5:31 p.m.
sergiodelrio says... #4
Those scales are meme metrics anyway. No one in R&D uses them. It's a way Rosewater communicates with the Blogatog audience. You're reading too much into it and there's really no point to make them more accurate as they're supposed to be very subjective. MaRo only really named them to have shortcut vocabulary to talk about 'return of xyz'.
"Mark Rosewater has stated that the Scale is only a reflection of his willingness, as Head Designer, to reprint mechanics. It does not account for any actual future plans, or the opinions of other R&D members. He has also asked that it be considered a form of entertainment and taken with a grain of salt."
So bottom line, he doesn't WANT to talk about future plans and is likely not supposed to, therefore he doesn't.
psionictemplar says... #2
My guess is that he would not want to lead (most likely competitive) players that certain things are more dangerous than other things. Dangerous being powerful in this case. Using future set knowledge could also influence potential sales in the secondary market. For example, if a currently seemingly underpowered tribe or mechanic rates high on the storm scale, then investors might pick up the more useful cards in that area of play. If the speculation pays off, its almost like having insider information [very vaguely (sp?) saying this]. If this didn't happen, then there could be potential ill will towards him/the company for misleading information.
Another thing that could be considered is the possibility of leaking future set knowledge about what might or might not be in the set. This could almost tie in to the rabiah scale with similar reasons.
But, honestly the most likely reasoning is that given the long time frame they work ahead and with many things changing over time/development with balance (haha, I know), he probably can't give an honest evaluation towards the inquired scales.
February 18, 2021 5:25 p.m.