Magic the Gathering, or MtG, is a competitive trading card game. It is enjoyed by millions across the world. The first of its kind, it has a tight-knit community that embraces each other whether it is through online sites, at conventions, tournaments or just in the neighborhood game store. Just mentioning the name of the game itself can be enough to make someone your friend.

But over the weekend, the dark side of the community showed itself.

A well-known cosplayer, often employed by Wizards of the Coast themselves for the game declared that she was selling her collection and costumes following months of harassment from a MtG Youtuber and his subscribers. As more info came out about the Youtuber, other content creators for the community spoke out about how they had been victims of harassment from this Youtuber in the past as well.

Many are accusing this man of sexism and transphobia, as some of the creators were LGBT and the cosplayer was female.

MtG in past years has been trying to bring the game to communities outside of the male shell it has found itself in. Even my group is 95% white, straight guys. The only exception is one of the guy’s girlfriend who joined us on occasion.

While the company’s campaign has somewhat worked nationally, for tournaments and such, my own communities have not seen much inclusion besides maybe a wife or two joining in at an event. That’s a sad thing to see. There’s already the toxic stereotype of the sweaty guys in the local gaming shop. (What, do people think we don’t shower?)

But now, this Youtuber and his followers are harming the progress the community has made regarding inclusion.

God knows the geeky stereotype has been harmful enough in the past. Thankfully in the past few years, this has reversed and things such as Magic have become “cool." It’s actually really surprising. Sometimes, when my friends and I find ourselves playing Magic in a public space, we’ll get people walking up to us saying things like, “Oh wow that looks really cool!” or “Hey, I’ve heard of this, some of my friends and I used to play.” It’s a good feeling.

So where else could opposition come but from inside? The Youtuber in question is a prominent MtG content creator himself, owning two channels with a combined subscriber count of nearly 200,000.

Having not watched his videos myself, I can’t say much more, but I will make sure I avoid his videos in the future.

With inclusion being attacked and the Youtuber coming from within, Wizards of the Coast tweeted soon after the incident stating their sadness concerning the cosplayer leaving the community. The next day, the company released a lengthy official statement on the Magic website concerning player harassment. They have stated that they are updating their official Code of Conduct and are encouraging players to submit harassment reports both to the company and to whatever site it was published on, such as Twitter or Youtube. Their statement was a welcome balm to the community after the frazzling weekend, especially as the geeky community went full bat-s*** on the Youtuber on social media. Really shows the support the community has for its own!

It’ll be a shame to see the cosplayer go, but if there is anything to take from this, it is the normal reaction that only through fire can steel truly be tempered. The community truly showed its strength along with the company’s official statement.

Read the statement here.

Game on-Marty