Magic The Gathering as a Socialization Tool

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I have a modest investment in Magic the Gathering. A couple starter decks and a PS3 game. Truth be told, the game doesn't interest me much. I'm just using it as a way to put myself in social situations. To be honest, Magic is kind of boring to me so far.

A few notes of comment on that effort. Last friday was the first time I ever played a round at a Friday Night Magic. I got pounded pretty hard. It was my Red/Blue deck against a Black/Blue deck built for destroying other people's decks. Got a few pointers on things to look into and that was it. Round completed and I went home.

I can't say I "made friends" during the whole process. It was more a matter of getting up the guts to ask a stranger to play a round with a noob. If there was any "win" for me, it was showing up and asking to play at all.

I still can't say I'm a fan of the game but the friday night encounter lead me to at least get the Playstation version. Having a game console version to train myself on fits my learning style. It's strange homework but it should hopefully be something that makes my therapist happy.

Congrats on asking for a game!

It's much easier to socialize if there's some common ground or structure, some means or reason to approach someone in the first place. I never know what to say to new people in "just because" settings, so I tend to avoid them.

I think that not actually liking the game might be a barrier to truly bonding over it, though. MTG is one of those things that regular players are pretty into. Practice is practice I guess.

I need to dig out my cards one of these days and start playing again. I used to be a semi-avid Magic player, and for a while my skills were pretty decent, but as I started losing interest in the game, my skills massively deteriorated to the point that I would forget key rules, get frustrated with myself, and ragequit often. Ironically, it was around this point that I started attending Friday Night Magic in a nearby city, and since I was playing in a semi-competitive environment against players who were actually GOOD, it just served to discourage me.

The town I'm currently in isn't anywhere near any card stores that do FNM, but given a space to play, and a group to play with, I could probably do my own version.

As a Yu-Gi-Oh! player myself:

If you can thrive in a hyper-competitive environment full of 'sqeakers' (I learned what that means) and can stand the general levels of 'trash talk' and arrogant ridicule mixed with unhealthy doses of body odor smelling like rotten Mountain Dew mixed with yesterday's nachos...

I tried learning Magic: The Gathering once, but didn't know where to start, so I read the rulebook and everything just flew over my head like a supersonic jet....my mind was being 'sculptured' by Jace, so I figured 'better the power-creep you know, than the blocks and sets you do not'.

By the way, congrats for getting up the guts to just show up.

Thanks for the support.

At a job I had a long time ago, I came to this realization that I did not care one bit for the customers or the business whatsoever. I admitted this to a coworker in an elevator and got this nasty glare from some guy in a suit that I think was some sort of manager. Realizing that I no longer gave a crap freed me up to focus more on the mechanics of my job. 2 months later, I ended up getting all these accolades from supervisors for being cool under less than ideal pressure situations.

The point of that little story is that there are some times when not giving a crap about something can actually enable me to get rather good at it almost by accident. I guess there's something to be said about emotional detachment.

That doesn't sound at all the same as making friends, though. People like people who share what's important to them and what's exciting to them, is what I'm saying.

I've always thought that in terms of learning raw social skills, using "tools" like games or activities is sort of cheating. When people do things other than just socializing, they're minds are usually occupied with whatever. That being said, I you certainly can still play magic and work on social skills and at the same time, but its not going to be as "pure" as just straight up interacting with people.

That's great.
I did the same thing with Yu-Gi-Oh a few years back. I made a few friends but it took a while. I don't know how long exactly but several months. That is a good way to meet people, because (if you do start liking the game) you've already got a common interest so there is always something you can talk about, right from the start. I don't know how I became friends with those people, though. It just sorta happened. I didn't go with the intention to make friends, though. I was only in it for the card games. I just went in, played some games and sometimes talked to people.
At first, it was mostly the people I was currently in a match with and it was, of course, about that match. But then I guess I started developing a history with these people. There were those I couldn't' beat and those I'd beat every time, or have close matches with, so that was building a relationship without even trying to. And I learned these people weren't judgemental, or a**holes but were just as nerdy as me and I wasn't the only one being socially awkward, there were several others, one of which also has Asperger's. But even without that guy (who I became good friends with), I think I just fit in because we were all so damn nerdy and most of us didn't have "proper" social skills, so there was like an understanding we all had, without actually having to talk about it. That's probably the most comfortable I've ever felt in a social situation.