Board 8 > great designer search 3 [mtg] [magic: the gathering] [contest]

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/great-designer-search-3-2017-12-04

i was too young to participate in the first designer search, and not paying attention when the second rolled around.

this time i have both the time and age requirements. unfortunately, I'm not as obsessed with the game as i once was, so will do terribly. Despite all of that, i think it'll be fun to give the written portion a shot.

if any other gathering board 8ers want to try, i'd love to hear about it. we like contests here, right?
---

When I can tomorrow, I'll definitely give it a look
---

I think the questions are fun, so I signed up just to take a crack at those

Id never continue on to the final rounds even if I made it that far just because wizards doesnt actually seem like a very good place to work
---

did they start talking about rivals yet
---

Tag like hell
---

I plan to sign up and compete. I don't have super high expectations, but it's a rare opportunity. I do think I have a decent understanding of card design.
---

The Mana Sword posted...

Id never continue on to the final rounds even if I made it that far just because wizards doesnt actually seem like a very good place to work

Why do you say this?
---

pjbasis posted...

did they start talking about rivals yet

yeah
---

redrocket_pub posted...

The Mana Sword posted...

Id never continue on to the final rounds even if I made it that far just because wizards doesnt actually seem like a very good place to work

Why do you say this?

there's been a number of people who have come out of working there who have expressed concern about the lack of organization and communication between departments making for a very frustrating work environment

I'm also under the impression the pay isn't actually that great, but I don't have concrete numbers for that
---

The pay for the internship is pretty good at least
---

yeah I could be wrong on the pay. maybe it's non-designer positions that are underpaid. I'm pretty sure I remember hearing something negative about the pay, but I could be misremembering.
---

Threw my hat in the ring. Looking forward to it.
---

Still not eligible as I can't work in America.
---

yup, i should have added that you have to be able to work in the u.s. to be able to progress to and past the in-person rounds or theoretically win. when i signed up i didn't have to give them any proof, though

and that the deadline for signups is january 14th (technically 15th but i don't know what time it closes)
---

Here are the essay questions from the second GDS, along with the lead designer's personal answers and advice. This is from 2010, so design is noticeably different today:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/great-designer-search-2-essay-questions-2010-10-06

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/essay-what-2010-11-08
---

I threw my email into the ring cause why the hell not but I don't expect to do well-- mostly because if MtG thinks their game design is good we have different ideas of what good design is.
---

you never know! maybe there are dissenting voices inside the team that you will resonate with.

Here are the multiple choice questions from the second GDS. it's hard to find the correct solutions online, so i've put them in the spoilers below:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/great-designer-search-2-multiple-choice-questions-2010-10-13

CBCBEEAAEDEECCCBBAEBCABCEBDDEBCCEAEEABDBEBDAABADCA

during this round, i think they only took the top 100 scorers to the following round. I think that ended up being 42 or 44 out of 50, for reference
---

I got 38/50, though I sorta punted question 49 because I didn't feel like looking up cycles so I was doing it from memory, had between two, chose wrong. Took way longer than I wanted. With a real test that I wasn't fatigued by taking I would've got 39 though for sure since I know what they meant.

Think a few of them I got wrong possibly have different answers in today's context and I started going faster towards the end due to impatience (second half of the test has like 80% of my misses) so I think I could've possibly got 42 if I'd taken it at the time.
---

Nice! With some studying and internet reference help/"cheating" I'm sure you could have done better.

My first pass got me an embarrassing 32
---

and here are all the articles related to GDS1

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/great-designer-search-2006-08-21
---