# Mark Rosewater's 20 lessons from 20 years of MtG
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-rosewaters-20-lessons-from-20-years-of-mtg/41257
**Category:** Site feedback
**Created:** [18 مارس 2016، 5:53ص UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-rosewaters-20-lessons-from-20-years-of-mtg/41257 "2016-03-18T05:53:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [18 مارس 2016، 5:53ص UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-rosewaters-20-lessons-from-20-years-of-mtg/41257/1 "2016-03-18T05:53:44Z")
I think that these 20 lessons are quite relevant to Discourse’s design and development.
1. Fighting against human nature is a losing battle
2. Aesthetics matter
3. Resonance is important
4. Make use of piggybacking
5. Don’t confuse ‘interesting’ with ‘fun’
6. Understand what emotion your game is trying to invoke
7. Allow the player the ability to make the game personal
8. The details are where the players fall in love with the game
9. Allow your players to have a sense of ownership
10. Leave room for the player to explore
11. If everyone likes your game, but no one loves it, it will fail
12. Don’t design to prove you can do something
13. Make the fun part also the correct strategy to win
14. Don’t be afraid to be blunt
15. Design the component for the audience it’s intended for
16. Be afraid of boring your players more than challenging them
17. You don’t have to change much to change everything
18. Restrictions breed creativity
19. Your audience is good at recognizing problems and bad at solving them
20. All the lessons connect
There were several times when transcribing that list that I wanted to bold an item, but I restrained myself. #20 really says all that’s needed in that respect.
* * *
In the realm of Discourse-specific, many of these just straight-out work if you replace “game” with “product” and “player” with “user”.
Number 7 - with trust levels, the forum participants are allowed to take a moderate role in the moderation of the forum, which helps instill a sense of ownership, of “our” community.
Number 19 - the first post’s recommended solution on Meta is pretty much always not the correct route, but there is a real problem there
Number 5, Number 18 - freeform tagging.
There are more parallels, but I’ll let you think about them on your own 🙂
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [18 مارس 2016، 5:58ص UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-rosewaters-20-lessons-from-20-years-of-mtg/41257/2 "2016-03-18T05:58:38Z")
Nice list, very relevant.
> [@riking](#):
>
> If everyone likes your game, but no one loves it, it will fail
This is super important, and something [Kathy Sierra](http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/01/be_brave.html) is famous for.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [18 مارس 2016، 1:16م UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-rosewaters-20-lessons-from-20-years-of-mtg/41257/3 "2016-03-18T13:16:38Z")
This explains Comcast. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [18 مارس 2016، 1:20م UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-rosewaters-20-lessons-from-20-years-of-mtg/41257/4 "2016-03-18T13:20:45Z")
Why is hate good? Because the haters will stay away?
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [18 مارس 2016، 1:21م UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-rosewaters-20-lessons-from-20-years-of-mtg/41257/5 "2016-03-18T13:21:47Z")
Because it means you’ve touched something sensitive and you’re trying to change some kind of status quo.
Also, often, when there is hate, there is love nearby 😉