Wizards Response to customer activities and the content that they created

Event Actions Rosewater Concerns/ Our

Acknowledged the contribution of
Tolarian Community College (the
Professor) and many other content
creators with additional publicity
Inviting them to events or by
giving them a card to reveal
during spoiler season.
Suggestions
The company couldn’t give this level of
attention to every content creator, so it
focused on those with a large audience and
who have a positive attitude toward the
brand.
Company must focus on such type of large
audience with strong brand loyalty.

In the case of Cockatrice Wizards took the right action, Whether the company had responded a bit
sending a cease-and-desist too late, after the simulator had already
letter to its creator. been adopted by too many players.

a player created a set of Magic cards
with a Star Wars theme
Popularity of casual tournaments
that allowed for a small number of
proxy cards.
--
As these were not official
tournaments Wizards normally
would not mind
How the company should respond if the
player started printing and distributing the
set Star war theme set.
Wizards must set protocols to protect their
IP wrights.
Hesitated on how to respond to this, self-
evident that the response needed to be
cohesive and transparent.

Rosewater realize that, at times, Wizards’ responses to activities within the community might not
have been effective. Sometimes the company reacted too slowly or not strongly enough to a hurtful
activity, and too many players were exposed before the damage could be mitigated. Other times, it
reacted too forcefully, angering the community. Often a strong response wasn’t even necessary: if
an activity had a negative impact on the game, other players would act–he thought– as brand
custodians, ensuring that the activity never became popular or was ceased. Perhaps, in these cases,
a more passive response was warranted.

Rosewater wondered if, rather than trying to identify and react on a case-by-case basis, it was time
for Wizards to develop a process to ensure accuracy and consistency in their response to com-
munity initiatives.

 The first question in his mind was whether any Wizards employee should be allowed to
communicate with the community or whether access should be restricted to a small number
of staff members with appropriate training in community engagement and well informed to
respond appropriately. Some within the company resisted this choice, concerned with the
fact that restricting access to a few staff members might hinder Wizards’ ability to monitor
the community and identify issues.
 2nd whether staff members should be allowed to use their own judgment to respond to
issues or if they should consult with a team of peers (or even a panel of experts) before
responding. Perhaps –he thought– it would be necessary to create a protocol with a menu of
possible responsive actions that the firm could take to stimulate beneficial initiatives or to
curb harmful ones. Should it take this path, the company would need to develop a set of
criteria for selecting the right response from the menu. What should these criteria be? To
Rosewater, it was clear that, if a community activity hurt Magic in any way, Wizards should
res- pond, but what if other parties were affected –such as game stores, companies with
 licenses to sell Magic accessories, and individual players or player groups? Could (or should)
Wizards intervene on their behalf?

The more Rosewater thought about it, the clearer it became to him that this was an all-important
issue, yet the more confused he was about how to tackle it. Not responding to a community activity
with a negative impact could cost Wizards substantial revenue. Though he was unsure how many
players were on Cockatrice, he calculated that there were thousands of them testing decks on the
simulator. All of them could have been playing on Magic Online instead, had Wizards contacted
Cockatrice’s creator quicker. In contrast, a forceful reaction could lead to anger in the community
and was often accompanied by players threatening to boycott the game. If Wizards overreacted too
often, it could have long-term negative consequences, as it could result in Wizards losing control of
its community.

As the plane descended into Seattle, Rosewater soaked in the view through his window and
contemplated the way forward. He was convinced that his company needed to rethink the way it
had been managing its community, especially since the number of player initiatives seemed to be on
the rise. He realized that he would not have the time to create such a process himself; there were
too many variables, too many threats, and too much uncertainty around how much dama- ge could
be done. Besides, he had his hands full with the promotion for the upcoming card set, Battle for
Zendikar, and with the design of the sets that came after that. He would have to find someone
within the Wizards organization who could develop this process and come back to him with a
detailed proposal.