Titus Chalk

My first experience with Magic:The Gathering was back in 1995 in the band room over lunch with a bunch of kids huddled over two decks. I continued to play casually all through college and enjoy the game today.

This book was about the founding and how the game came to be what it is today and defined an entire genre of card games. The only thing that I didn't enjoy that much was the long chapters about the authors experience playing the game. Knowing how he got started is cool, but it seemed to go on forever in parts.

Recommend this to people who have an interest in the history of games, particularly CCG's and how they got started.… (mere)

GENERATION DECKS by Titus Chalk examines the phenomenon of Magic: The Gathering the game. Chalk cover the game from it's beginnings in the early 1990's through all of the ups and downs as an ever expanding commodity, to the present, where the game continues to thrive as an easy game to start playing, yet nearly impossible to fully master.
Chalk is a Magic player himself and looks introspectively throughout the book about how Magic:the Gathering has been a part of his life. Not only does Chalk give a detailed history of the game of Magic, but looks at so much more. Chalk looks at gaming business as a whole and how the creation of Magic ushered in a revolutionary change in the gaming world. Chalk looks at how Wizards of the Coast, the company that brought us Magic, grew out of a basement into giant company and all of the warts and hiccups that came along with that growth. Chalk spend a lot of time looking at the social aspects of the game; how Magic brought a socially adverse segment of the population together and made them better by having a group of people they can relate to. Chalk considers that as the internet was forming into what we know today, how the Magic community had a hand in the crafting and honing how we interact with the internet. He even looks at the female aspect, or lack thereof, in the Magic community. In the middle of the book ,Chalk gets a little heavy handed about gameplay and the "metagame", and think a reader unfamiliar with the game could get easily lost. Overall though, I think Chalk does a good job looking at so many aspects of Magic; how it's a unique game that has left a unique mark on the gaming world.
Any fan and/or player of Magic will enjoy GENERATION DECKS and its clear that Titus Chalk has a passion for the game and the people who play it, create it and enjoy it.
Thank you to Rebellion, Titus Chalk, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!… (mere)