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| Truer words... |
Today I am recovering from MAGIC Live here in Las Vegas. I only got about 20 minutes in the dealer's room to look around but I have seen some videos of random effects popping up. One such video got my usual reaction to the glut of the magic released nowadays... "So what?".
There are so many "minor miracles" released into the magic marketplace disguised as this HUGE thing. Sure in the right hands, almost anything can be a show stopper but how often does that happen? I'm getting kind of sick of seeing mediocre wizardry touted as amazing magic when the effect is basically only good as disposable video fodder.
Long gone are the days of performers putting in many, many hours to make sure an effect was as solid as it can be. This is not new of course, but it slowly seems to be now be the norm. Far too much is being released far too quick for a quick buck. I'm not saying everything I have ever released has been gold, but I at least gave it more than a week of gestation before putting it in people's hands.
I don't want magic that can't drink dammit!
It’s clearly due to the magic market that wants several new items every day. On the one hand, we do recognize that some of the best innovations have actually come from hobbyists and amateurs, and we want to encourage them. On the other hand, the market to sell to those same people is now feeding itself, and nothing is hungrier than someone new to magic.
ReplyDeleteWe need to teach the newcomers that “the latest and greatest” is pretty much never the latter. But is that something you can teach effectively when there’s a beautiful shiny thing in the glass case, or a mere mouse click away? Perhaps the only way to drive the lesson home is to flood the market with terrible products, so that all buyers eventually learn futility.
As you can see, Phase One of my plan is already underway.
Bingo. We've commoditized magic to mediocrity
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