The FlavOracle ReBorn
Introduction
The objective of the experiment was relatively simple, but ambitious for its time. It would provide official flavor text for Magic cards that lacked space for flavor text on the physical card.
To add an extra layer of both complexity and awesomeness, fans would be able to submit ideas for flavor text, and then vote on their favorites.
This wasn’t just meant to be “honorary flavor text” either, it would be the real thing. Winning submissions would be included in Oracle, the official database of all Magic cards.
So what happened to The FlavOracle?
Keep in mind that as stated earlier, The FlavOracle was incredibly ambitious for its time. It was launched at a time when a website was more a destination, rather than a place to interact. Early social media sites like MySpace existed, but they weren’t prevalent like today, and definitely not a tool used by respectable companies like Wizards of the Coast.
Basically, the concept was fantastic, but it lacked the technology to succeed in its time.
If The FlavOracle failed, why talk about it now?
Because it is no longer 2002, and technology and internet culture have both advanced more than a decade since the original experiment concluded.
It’s time to launch The FlavOracle again, and see if it can reach its true potential.
The FlavOracle ReBorn
To start off, let’s keep things simple. Each week this blog will post a card that lacks flavor text. Fans will be able to submit their flavor text suggestions as comments or (preferably) reblogs of the post. Submissions will be open for one week from the initial post.
After that, a compilation post will be made with all submissions (excluding submissions with profanity or offensive content) for fans to vote on. Voting will be open for one week, and fans can vote for as many submissions as they choose, but should not vote more than once for a single submission.
Votes will be tallied and a winner announced at the end of the week.
So at the beginning of each week, there will be three posts to expect:
- A Magic card lacking flavor text, open for submissions
- A compilation of the submissions for the card from the previous week, open for voting
- Announcement of the winning flavor text from the card posted two weeks prior
What happens to the winning flavor text?!
At this point… not much besides a feeling of satisfaction and fun. This time the experiment is being started by fans, not official Wizards of the Coast staff, so there’s no current path to get the flavor text officially added to Oracle.
If this whole thing is unofficial, then what’s the point?
Well for starters, it’s meant to be fun. As with many projects among the fandom, the chance to be creative and engage with other fans is the real drive and motivation here.
So instead of asking, let’s just work our own magic and bring The FlavOracle back to life!!
