Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week, Thorne considers why midnight Magic events draw better.

Sitting here in the relative quiet after 24 hours of Magic events makes me appreciate both the rush I get while the events are going on as well as the feeling of satisfaction after they conclude and players thank us for another fun event.  Of course, we thank them for coming as well, since we couldn't put on an event without players.  Reflecting on the three events we ran during the past 24 hours got me to thinking about the importance of making an event an "event."

We had about a dozen people in for our Friday Night Magic Modern event, pretty light for a constructed FNM event.  After some thought I attributed the light turnout to the midnight release following the event.  Since we had touted the midnight release as lasting until at least 5 a.m. it is a reasonable supposition that those who skipped our FNM event did so because they valued sleep over the opportunity to play Magic from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m.   My supposition proved right as more and more players, a steady stream in fact, flowed in post 10 p.m., raising our numbers from twelve to a much more respectable 42 at midnight.  Packs were opened, decks were built, games were won, mazes were completed, prizes were given and a good time had by all.

We had a significant drop-off in players at our Saturday 2 p.m. event.  We used to hold this at noon Saturday but found a number of players who played in the midnight release talked about coming to the daytime event.  However, many of them didn’t show up as they valued sleep more than more Magic play.  By moving the time to 2 p.m., we found most of those who played in the midnight release who also wanted to play in the afternoon event got enough sleep that they could make it to the event.  Still though, it is a significant drop in numbers from midnight and I think I have finally figured out why.

Midnight releases are an "event."  We host two Magic tournaments a week and one night devoted to casual play.  Players get accustomed to them.  They know when they are starting, what sort of deck to bring and approximately how long it will last.  Midnight releases bring the "shock of the new."  This is out of the norm, this is unusual, this is getting to play at a time of day when the players don’t normally get to play.  This is the store staying open at an unusual hour and doing something different.  This is anticipation, having heard about the event for weeks, wanting to see what the new cards are.  Even with spoiler lists, there is the still the "shock of the new" when a player holds new cards for the first time, especially when they get these new cards at a time of day when they are normally wrapping up their day's activities.  It is an opportunity for a party with their friends at a time outside the norm.  A Saturday afternoon release just cannot compete with this, nor can Sunday afternoon events, even the evening one that lasts after the store's normal closing hours, for they often play Magic here in the afternoon and evening.  But playing after midnight, long after the rest of the city has gone to bed and heading for bed just as the city starts to wake up, that’s something special.  That is the "shock of the new."

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.