Core 2020 - Any Upcoming Story?
Lore forum
Posted on July 31, 2019, noon by CrimsonChaos
So the Core 2020 set has been out officially for almost three weeks at this time, but I've seen no indication of any upcoming stories for it. In that time WotC has already announced they will be doing an ebook for Throne of Eldraine, and last year they did Bolas' origin story for Core 19. So what's up with the 2020 set?
CrimsonChaos says... #3
Bummer, well it is what it is I guess. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but was kind of hoping there'd be a bit of a lead-in to the post-WAR story before Forsaken comes out in November. That said, I have been reading the chapters coming out for Gathering Storm, which has definitely been great so far and I've been happy with that.
July 31, 2019 2:05 p.m.
Apparently they're not going to do weekly Magic Stories for ELD either. According to the e-book announcement, "This will be the only way to go deeper than the cards and read the full Throne of Eldraine story. " :-/
July 31, 2019 4 p.m.
CrimsonChaos says... #5
clayperce Yeah, I took note of that too. Shame they're opting to go that route instead of having it freely available as they had for the last several years. If they really want to monetize the story, why not just continue to post things online but also sell a collectible physical version once all of the chapters have been released for a set? That, to me, seems more appealing an option, and would still keep the story available to pretty much everyone without entirely barring it behind a paywall and while still appealing to those who prefer physical books to a digital format as well as anyone who wants to simply collect the books. Plus, with physical books, these can became available to check out at local libraries, which not only supports them but also makes it so they don't necessarily have to be purchased.
Making it exclusively digital through limited retailers essentially forces you to spend money on a story you may or may not even enjoy. The WAR story may have been a mess, but at least it wasn't solely barred behind the paywall. Most of the essential information behind the story there is available on the story site, though it's missing some fairly important scenes from the book. So ideally, if they wanted to continue this, these would be my recommendations:
- Continue to release the entirety of each set's story on the story site in weekly chapters
- As the final chapter for a set is released, they could also release a reasonably-priced physical version along with the ebook version for those who may want it for, say, a long trip where internet access may be limited, so an offline version is still accessible if they don't want a physical copy.
- Gve the physical copy some nice bonuses to incentivize collectors to purchase the book, like a few pages of full-color art from some of the set's cards or maybe a promo version of a card from the corresponding set.
I don't mind having an outlet which supports the writers who work hard to give us the story, but I also don't think its a sound move to force the story behind a paywall in only one single format. Anyway, sorry to turn this into a sort of rant, but while we're on the subject I wouldn't mind hearing what others think, and if they have any ideas to share about it.
RicketyEng says... #2
No story for Core 2020.
The war prequel book, The Gathering Storm, is currently being released one chapter each week via an email subscription.
July 31, 2019 12:45 p.m.