Behind the Story: Friday Night Magic

An intimate Q&A session on the dating life for hardcore Magic: The Gathering gurus.

In our video, "Friday Night Magic," we introduced four Magic: The Gathering players of diverse ages and backgrounds. In developing this piece, we actually interviewed over two dozen players. Of these, only two were female. This is an unusually high percentage; even the most generous estimate predicts that only one in every twenty Magic players is a woman.

So, we asked each of the guys if they ever faced negative stereotypes when they told people (especially on dates) that they played Magic. They all did, and it's no wonder. Magic players are notoriously dismissed, even among "geek cultures." I have a friend who admits to playing Dungeons and Dragons but scoffs when I suggest he's on-par with MTG'rs. Even the tech-obsessed Gizmodo published an instantly infamous post about a date of one of its interns going sour when she discovered she was sharing martinis with one of the greatest Magic players of all time.