wary

i'm well aware of the stereotype that considers games - like videogames, board games, trading card games or miniature games - to be childish, regardless of the huge ammnt of adults who play them. as such, adult players are often considered immature and geek. well, i told you it was a stereotype.

anyway, as some of you might know, i'm a player of several games myself. and while i wouldn't say i could be accounted as immature, childish or geek, i have no doubt that i've learned a lot with games throughout my life. videogames in my early teenage years shown me new worlds, and later on, the famous trading card game magic: the gathering introduced me to many things that are a big part of me nowadays, like fantasy literature (go read urza's storyline and tell me if that ain't good). the funny thing is, i didn't start to play magic because of the game itself - which is very interesting - but rather because of the artwork displayed in the cards, by great artists like john avon, matthew d. wilson, rk post, brom, donato giancolla, daren bader, ciruelo, mark zug, rebecca guay.... and many others i can't recall right now (quit the game four years ago); google them, and you'll see what i mean.

another funny thing about magic: the gathering's cards is, some of them have a flavour text below the text explaining the card's rules. most of times, the flavour text gives hints about the plot, either by describing scenes and events, or by directly quoting characters. older cards could feature quotations taken from famous "real-life" works by shakespeare for example, but this was already rather uncommon during my time as player. alternatively, some cards might feature a random, anonymous aphorism. and some of them are very good actually. like the following:

the cautious are wary of their enemies. the wise are also wary of their friends.

which was introduced in the card cephalid snitch.

sounds oddly appropriated, hum?