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“A Taste of Paradise”
By Minga Wong
You have probably been coming to this website for
quite a while now. In fact, every time you go on the
net, you would log on, check your private messages,
scan through the articles and get mixed up with
various discussions on the forum. By spending so much
time on this Website, you probably have friends here
you have known longer and better than some of the
friends you know in real life. Having been here for so
long, you would like to think that you know everything
there is to know about the various Paradise Websites,
from the names of the moderators to the person with
the highest post count.
Or do you?
If you are reading from Vs Paradise or YuGiOH
Paradise, you might not be aware that the beloved
website you are reading from now originate from Magic,
the Gathering Paradise (MtG Paradise), which I would
explain a bit later. As one of the most experienced
staff in MtG Paradise, I have worked with both the old
and the new owners of the website. The old owner Yaro
built a good foundation for the booming community you
see today but due to a lack of resources, the Website,
at least in my opinion never realized its full
potential. Though Rebecca (Chaoslord) kept the forum
community thriving as a Moderator while I tried to
keep members captivated with my monthly column, it was
difficult to maintain the fight given the little
support we had.
Finally in 2003, I stopped writing articles to pursue
my career while Rebecca moved on to become a mother.
With conflicting interest and our passion for the game
fading faster than Britney Spear's popularity, we have
decided to call it a day. Though some of the old staff
remained, yet morale was at an all time low.
With the owner trying to sell the website and primary
contributors throwing in their towels, it seems that
it is only a matter of time before MtG Paradise fold
like one of the numerous Trading Card Games websites.
It is a situation that one commonly sees online, the
more popular Website would go premium and started
charging for their content while the other webmasters
give up when things got too grim. After all, it takes
a lot of money to maintain a website and the amount of
time you need to invest in it is astronomical.
Just when everyone was about to give up, two Sydney
gamers Scott Hunstad and Paul Vanderwerk has decided
to purchase MtG Paradise from Yaro. The demanding
duties and the expenses of a webmaster were divided
between the two friends. Scott is responsible for
trading and selling of Magic cards and the bulk of the
PR work whilst Paul keeps himself busy with Vs System
cards and administration of the various websites. So
when someone feels that the Magic card prices on MtG
Paradise are a rip off, Scott is the one who cops the
blame. However, if you felt that it is absolutely
necessary for you to bitch because the website was
offline for five seconds, email Paul.
Scott Hunstad, who moved from America to Australia to
marry his wife, is not your typical yank. Sure he is
loud, enjoys his food and is sometimes obnoxious but
he is also widely considered as one of the biggest
social butterflies in the gaming community. Whenever
he is in a game convention, little kids would swarm
him as he tries to find a table to put down his bags
filled with numerous folders. If it isn't for his
trademark purple t-shirt and short pants, one could
easily confuse him with Santa Clause.
On the other hand, Paul Vanderwerk is probably not as
well known as Scott in the gaming circle as he prefers
to play cards more than trading them. In fact, I'd
daresay that he prefers to play cards over a lot of
things like going to work, sleep and sometimes eating.
However, Pauls obsession to games didn't hit me until
I find myself drafting with him on his buck's night.
In the end Paul won the draft and he would be the only
person who can tell you which was sweeter: The top 2
picks of on a draft table or his honeymoon.
Though the front page of MtG Paradise is exactly the
same as the one you see under old management, however
many changes has been made since these two has taken
over. Their enthusiasm in games and their financial
resources has allowed competitions to be run regularly
to reward loyal members and when Scott spoke to me
about the difficulty of securing new writers, I told
him about an idea that I had for a while. With the MtG
Paradise Idol competition running, we
have secured a resource for quality articles up to
2006.
Another major change Paul and Scott brought with them
was the expansion of the Paradise Empire. For those
who are unaware, MtG Paradise used to be the only site
under the Paradise flagship. However, with the
introduction of Vs system and the recognized potential
in the YuGiOH TCG, sister sites like Vs Paradise and
YuGiOH Paradise were born to provide a forum for
players to discuss their beloved game.
With high quality content and our members numbering in
thousands, Scott was successful in engaging Upper Deck
Entertainment, creators of Vs System to provide us
with exclusive content like preview cards and prize
support. In fact, the people from UDE are so nice that
they provided us with free advertisement and lots of
coverage whenever our team members decides to play in
a main event overseas. For gamers like us, it is good
to feel that our work has been appreciated and
supported by the manufacturing companies.
Within the span of a few months, we have increased the
number of competitions tenfold, enlisted some of the
best writers online, expanded our websites and gained
the approval of UDE. However, there are still
potentials that we are unable to tap into and plans we
cannot execute due to the limitation of staff. So if
you have a passion for games and want to become a part
of success, you can do so by becoming one of our staff
members. The positions that are we have available at
the moment are: Editor.
As a staff, you are entitled to the following
privileges:
- Access to our secret staff forum, where we discuss
our plans to take over the world and order Chinese
food
- Random game products to reward your labor
- A personal reference from Paul and/or Scott that
could help you secure future employment
- Renown among forum members
- The chance of becoming a Moderator
- Invites to staff parties when the three of us are in
town for conventions
- Access to premium account
- Free t-shirt!
IMPORTANT - Stupid people need not to apply as our
staffs here are all intelligent and creative
individuals. I was going to put a ban on ugly people
too but since Scott and Paul owns the place.
Later gator
Minga
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Editor: Staff. Sunday 22nd May 2005.
