Netflix has a documentary about Magic: The Gathering. It’s a great look at the history and current state of MTG. I enjoyed the look at Wizards of the Coast, where the sausage is made. One clip shows a poster with their principles for R&D (clear image on the MTG Tumblr):
We are the stewards of Magic: We want Magic to last forever and be better tomorrow than it is today
We are passionate about Magic: We love Magic. We love playing, talking about it, and reading about it
We believe Magic makes a difference: We cherish that Magic is a meaningful part of people’s lives
We focus on growing Magic’s Audience: We want to remove obstacles to enjoying Magic
We believe in discovery, surprise, and strategy: Magic is a game of exploration, and we believe providing depth is essential.
We listen: We involve and engage our community in what we do.
We improve: We believe in perfecting our processes, our games, and ourselves.
We collaborate: Teams are the basic building blocks of our processes.
We debate: We believe vigorous and constructive disagreement is the most efficient way to discover the best ideas.
We are inclusive and respectful: We never dismiss viewpoints that are different from our own.
We expect greatness: We want teammates who embrace the responsibility of making Magic.
That’s great. I tried picking a few out to see how I can apply them to building this blog up:
We improve
I’ll build systems and processes to focus on writing.
We are passionate about Magic
I’ll write about things I’m passionate about.
We focus on growing Magic’s audience
I’ll work toward creating content that makes people think, makes people laugh, or makes people feel deeply (stolen from the principles Jimmy V lays out in my favorite speech ever). Someday I’ll write things that do all of those things.