Just a quick heads up about today’s article. Its not going to be about Magic the Gathering, Warhammer, or anything hobby related. No, today’s article is going to be about the future of my content for this site. I know that might not seem like an interesting piece to read for all of you and I get it. But today is an important piece for me, and I would really appreciate it if you would give me the time to explain what is going on. I promise that next week we will get back to more hobby related content, but for now I just need to get some things off my chest.
To start off I want to establish a bit of context. This website, Master of Magics, was originally set up so a bunch of friends could have a place to put our own content after a deal we had with another site fell through. Brought together by Abbie, we produced Magic the Gathering content for our local area and over time we began to cultivate our own little community of fans. As we grew, we welcomed new writers to the site, worked alongside other creators and even began to form a professional relationship with Wizards of the Coast. But more than that, we became a close-knit team that would get together to play games and bond over our shared love of the hobby.
When we were lucky enough to get some free product from Wizards we would get together and draft or play sealed, sharing these small benefits with each other. These evenings were not only a lot of fun but were a great excuse to spend time together with friends. I have fond memories of cracking packs together around a table that (quite often) was way too small for all of us. Things were going very well, and we had even been given our first preview card to share, a task that we all worked on together.
But around two years ago, things started to change. Through no fault of anyone, the group started to drift apart. Some of us moved away, others took breaks from Magic or content creation entirely, and some of us moved on to bigger and better projects. As a result, those massive gatherings of friends and teammates started to get smaller and smaller, and while we would still keep in touch, it would have an affect on the site and its content. At the same time, Wizards had a shift around in staffing, and as a result those professional relationships disappeared as the people we once communicated with were replaced by other people who didn’t know who we were. Despite this, we kept doing what we were doing a worked hard to push and promote the site.
As time went on though, more and more of the team fell away from the content creation side of the project, until eventually I was the only one writing on a regular basis. I took this in my stride and kept on trucking, redoubling my own efforts to promote and grow the site and our community. Then, around eighteen months ago, the world changed. The Covid pandemic hit and now we couldn’t even meet up as a team. To top it off, I had to move out of my home as my wife was vulnerable and had to isolate while I had to continue working, which meant I couldn’t see my family or friends. Despite this, I continued to work on the site as a way to keep myself busy, but also to hopefully give others in the community something to enjoy while they dealt with the pandemic themselves.
I had begun to branch out into Warhammer related content and was having fun bringing new people to the site, as well as working with other content creators on their own projects (including been a guest on Max Makes Magics quiz show Battle of Wits, which was a real joy).
But something wasn’t quite right. I began to feel burnt out as a creator, feeling like I was going through the motions rather than creating something new and exciting each week. I felt stretched out like I was a piece of pastry that was just too small to fit over a pie, and it began to affect my writing. I would start a project, getting excited for the possibilities it would bring, only to abandon it because I needed to test a deck or paint something up for another article. I felt that what I was writing was not good enough, and sometimes would dread even sitting in front of my laptop for fear of making something that I would end up having to scrap because I felt it was not good enough. To put it bluntly, I was losing my spark.
The isolation from my friends and family, the absence of that team dynamic, and the self-imposed pressure to keep up with my own targets for content creation had done the fusion dance and had done one heck of a number on my mental health. I put on weight, began to get depressed, and even contemplated packing in the whole thing. That might have happened if not for one simple fact. I like making content.
See, what you have to realise is that the work I do for Master of Magics is done for free. I don’t get paid for the content I make here, but rather I do what I do because deep down I love making content. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to do this for a living, and in the past I have been luckily enough to have been paid for some other content I have made. But as it stands, I currently don’t make any money off this site. I do it because I enjoy making something for the people that read my articles. I enjoy it when someone contacts me on Twitter or Facebook and tells me they have won an event with a deck I have created. I enjoy it when my content puts a smile on someone else’s face.
Because that was what we aimed to do when we setup this website. We aimed to grow a community and doing that bring me so much joy. However, this last year of writing has shown me that if I am to continue on making content, things have to change. I want to keep growing this community and making content, but my current system is not working. So, after some soul searching, I’ve decided to make some changes to the way I produce content.
Change one, I will be dropping down to a single article a week for the foreseeable future. This is for a few reasons. Firstly, it will allow me to spend more time on the subjects I write about, hopefully making the articles I produce of a better quality for your reading enjoyment. As I stated above, I currently write for free here on the site, and this means I can’t justify spending so much my free time making multiple articles a week. After all, as well as spending time with my wife and children, I also have to go to work and earn a wage. That means my free time is finite, and some of that has to be for me and my family.
Don’t worry. I’ll still be producing Magic and Warhammer based content. But instead of one article of each a week I’ll be moving to a fortnightly schedule, which will look a little bit like this.
- The first and third Wednesdays every month will be dedicated to Magic the Gathering, looking at Magic news, previews, and of course deck techs. I will aim for these to be longer than my previous pieces and will go more in-depth with strategies and player guides to give you the best content I can.
- The second and forth Wednesdays every month will be for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40,000, and also for other hobby articles such as board games. This will hopefully give you all a greater range of hobby related content to enjoy, as well as expand our little community in include other demographics.
- On months where there is a fifth week, we will bring you a bonus article which could be anything for the above-mentioned topics to retro video games or even home brewed fiction. So, expect some wild and weird stuff on those rare few months my dear readers.
The next big change is that I’ll be working freelance on some other projects. This will be done in addition to the work I produce here, so you don’t have to worry about it interfering with my schedule laid out above. I am doing this to expand my skill set and grow as a content creator. I previously avoided this as I felt like I was betraying my friends here on the website. But if I am to grow and make better content, I need to cast my net a bit wider. And since this will be paid work, I can square it away mentally as addition work rather than just eating into my free time.
Lastly, I’m going to do my damnedest to get the band back together. If this last year and a half has taught me anything, it is that the friends I have made here at Master of Magics are important to me. Too often life gets in the way and we drift apart from each other, focusing on other stuff in our lives at the expense of old friendships. But the people I’ve meet through this little website are dear to me, in more ways than they probably know. I might not appear like it to those that know me, but I’m socially quite shy. I often disguise this by been loud and jovial, but the fact of the matter is I feel quite vulnerable in social situation, constantly second guessing myself and feeling more than a little awkward.
But these people I’ve meet through Master of Magics have made me feel more at home and helped with my confidence more than they probably know (well, they probably do now know). And the fact is that not been able to see them as much as I would have liked these last eighteen months has been hard. So, I’m going to do my best to keep those friendships going. We might not meet up as regular as we once did, but if we can at least get together once in a while and relive old times, I will be a very happy man.
Sorry if this article has not been our jam, but I needed to get all this off my chest. I promise, next week I’ll be back with a new content that is more hobby related. Maybe it will have something to do with Squirrels. Who knows?
In the meantime, thank you for your continued support of the site. If you want to support us further, you can become a Patron by clicking the link down below. Also consider liking and sharing our articles to help grow our little community, and if you want to engage with me directly you can leave a comment down below or find me over on Twitter @TenguPlaysGames. I can be often found there posting random memes and teasing new articles before I write them. Look after yourselves and each other, and I’ll see you next time.
