To Douglas:
"Maybe I'm wrong, and I really am the only one who is tired of being ripped off by Wizards of the Coast..."
You are wrong. Not necessarily because you're sick of paying lots of money to play Magic - a lot of people are probably sick of that, too. What you're wrong about is interpreting that as being ripped off. Wizards doesn't owe you anything; they sold a service, and you and lots of other people paid for it.
There is no such thing as Wizards charging too much. While they do have a monopoly on cards, you can't really compare it to, say, a monopoly on bread. Magic is a luxury, not a necessity, and as long as the market supports it, I don't see why Wizards should change what they charge.
What you also don't seem to understand is that Wizards is a company. They are not some altruistic, non-profit organization that wants to spread the joy of Magic around the world; they want to make money. That may not be their only goal, but it is their primary one. The second they aren't as profitable as Hasbro wants them to be, Magic stops existing altogether. Without the immoral profits that you speak of, you probably wouldn't get to play at all.
Also, remember that there's more to the cost of Magic cards besides the actual production of them. Actual people need to pay their bills through Magic card sales.
As for your tirade about the new Magic Online, you're really off on this. I've been an alpha tester for it since late August, and I can tell you that it is that much better than Apprentice. The error that you have in defending Apprentice is in comparing it to real tournaments - you say that it's not really that much worse than real tournaments. What you don't understand is that Magic Online is better than real tournaments, too, aside from the occasional server shutdown and player disconnection. Besides that, I would also have to disagree with you that playing on Apprentice is about as good as playing in real life.
I stopped playing on Apprentice altogether because of how frustrating it was to deal with people who either didn't know the rules or care to follow them. With Magic Online, I don't have to try to convince people that Ghastly Demise won't count itself as being in the graveyard or that they can't play their spell with that Leech in play. Getting people to take mana burn and not beg me for takebacks has never been easier. I'm not going to go as far as to say that it'll be the death of Apprentice - I don't think it will be for the simple reason that Apprentice is free. But I'll also say that if Wizards is smart about their pricing plan, you'll be part of the very small minority who say that Apprentice is on the same level as Magic Online.
-Dan Levi
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