Cartoonish cards

If you know anything about me, you probably know how staunchly opposed to capitalism I am. It’s one of my primary driving forces behind my ideals. You may think that is odd to bring up in a piece about gaming companies, but I promise my socialist ideals are relevant.

Recently, I found myself getting into the trading card game “Magic: The Gathering”. Me and a few friends get together when we can to play with decks we’ve purchased or made. It’s fun most of the time. But because of that interest I have recently been more closely following news and releases within the MTG community. Which is how I discovered the latest case of Cartoonish Evil perpetrated by Wizards of the Coast. This May will see a follow-up release of cards to the recent story beat “March of The Machines”, known as “March of the Machines: Aftermath”. And as Wizards of the Coast often does, they try to tease a few cards in advance, this is called “Spoiling”. However, it appears that WOTC only likes it when they do that, because when a small YouTuber by the name of “Oldschoolmtg” received (on accident) a few packs of Aftermath cards, and took this opportunity to make a video opening them and discussing them. In response to this, Wizards of the Coast sent members of the Pinkerton Detective Agency to threaten him into returning the cards and deleting the video.

In case you were not aware. Yes, the Pinkertons are still a thing. And

Editor’s note: This column has been printed with permission from the ESU Bulletin

This year has broken me.

The day the 33 professors were fired was a never-ending torrent of mourning faces, broken hearts and ghosts. I saw professors walk in a building I was locked out of and emerge a few minutes later with news that their lives will never be the same.

Even so, the next day was harder.

Sept. 16 was a day of student protest. Over a hundred students came and went from Plumb Hall, protesting the dismissal of their professors.

I began the day with them, sitting watch as police officers walked in and out, saying they were protecting everyone in the building while staking out in front of the president’s office.

I had to go take a Theories of Persuasion exam that day. I did alright, but the rest of the class didn’t seem to do as well based on what I heard from others in case you were super unaware, the Pinkertons are a private army of union busting thugs that can be hired by any corporation with enough money to do basically whatever they want. They have no legal authority and only get their results through violence and threats thereof. Many people know that the Pinkertons are the primary antagonists of Rockstar’s “Red Dead Redemption”. Yes, you’ve read that correctly. The main villains of a cowboy video game are going around threatening people for stuff they received on accident.

The Pinkertons are also well known for being the folks who were sent to break up a strike, and when that failed they killed 16 men and wounded 23 more.

Either way. This isn’t even the first time Wizards of the Coast have done something this stupidly evil. At the start of the year they announced a change to the license they use for fan creators that would essentially and what the professor told us. Students were struggling but classes didn’t stop. I had to watch dozens of professors get fired the day before, covered a campus protest, helped direct the Bulletin staff to where I heard there was news and still, I had to leave to go take a test, then come back to resume my watch.

When I came back from the test, I interviewed one of the fired professors. I walked up and down the Plumb Hall stairs with him, following his tiny daughter as she ran around, having no idea her dad was talking to me about a day that not only changed his life forever, but hers as well.

Then that night I had to go back and study like it was a normal day of homework.

That’s the thing about being a student hearts sprinkled around town that I count, the school’s very own butterfly garden in the fall, the murals on main street now take up my camera roll. If there is one thing I have learnt here, it is to appreciate the little joys in life. One other thing that I can sing high praise of about Hutch is that the locals I’ve met have got to be some of the nicest people on the planet. I am the first one to say that I stick out like a sore thumb here - it’s not everyday you come across a 6-foot-3 red headed Australian walking around in central Kansas. This being said, everywhere I go and every time I open my mouth, I am hardly inconspicuous and the combination of a chatty Victoria and the chatty Hutch locals is nothing short of a match made in heaven. I have spoken to so many wonderful people, all asking for tidbits about my trek from the land Down Under, and each time I have felt they had genuine interest in what I was saying. I have made more friends with people double my age here than I have ever in my life, and many days of mine have been made by saying a quick good morning to the custodians at the dorms or exchanging laughs with the cafeteria staff. So many people here have made me smile and feel at home when the woes and stress of being an international student came creeping up on me, and they all hold a special place in my heart.

It is very strange to me that I am coming up to my last week living in Hutch. It will certainly be a bittersweet goodbye returning home and no doubt some tears will be shed. I would definitely like to think that I will be leaving a mark on Hutchinson Community College, because I know that it has most definitely left a mark on me.

Victoria Lewis is a Brisbane, Australia sophomore studying journalism

Cartoon by Briana Payne/Collegian give them rights to all the stuff fans made. In an absolutely cartoonishly evil movie, they tried to claim that they just weren’t making enough money off of the most successful tabletop role- playing game of all time. When fans canceled their subscriptions in droves, WOTC walked that decision back. However, we can’t really do that with this. We can just sit back and laugh at how entirely journalist on Emporia State’s campus. I’m working an emotionally gut-wrenching job while also being a full time senior trying to graduate. There’s no way to tell how many hours I work. Some days it feels like I don’t have time to breathe with all my work and classes. I find myself helping staff with their stories at all hours of the day, writing stories in the office until 3 a.m. and sometimes waking up as early as 6:30 in the morning to prepare for interviews and start looking through materials for articles.

There was a night a few months ago where I sat on the floor and cried my way through a mental shattering as I sorted through court documents scattered across the floor and taped torn up pieces of paper covered in Sharpied notes to my bedroom wall trying to organize a stupid this choice was. story about ESU President Ken Hush missing a legal financial disclosure deadline. I was drowning in the mountain of sorrow I had pushed down, stress from trying to survive finals week, pressure to write multiple investigative articles all at once and the knowledge that no matter what I said and how careful I was, there would be hate coming my way after the article ran.

Braedon Martin is a Hutchinson sophomore studying journalism. He is the Opinion Page Editor and the Managing Editor for Design.

In 2020, my everyday life stopped because of a global pandemic. This year has been worse for me.

I may have stopped being a college student in September, but this university will be a part of my story and the stories I tell for the rest of my life.

Sam Bailey is a Pilot Grove, Mo., HutchCC alumna, former Collegian Editor In Chief, and is now a senior at Emporia State. Bailey was the 2021 Kansas Collegiate Media two-year college journalist of the year, and also was named the 2023 KCM four-year college journalist of the year.