My name is Matthieu, I'm 24 and a young male software-developer from Belgium. (I know, sorry, to few females, I can consider a chirurgical operation if this community needs it)
Like many of us my interest in playing cards started when I was younger, maybe 12-13yo. The first magic box, the discovery of double lifts on Youtube aaaand I was taken.
I've done mostly magic moves but also studied the trilogy of Dan and Dave back then, I needed something I could occupy myself with on my own and that was the perfect hobby for that. I also did lots of sports, still try to do lots of sports, but when you get older that gets harder, or at least it demands more will. But once I'm on a tennis court or dancing with my dance teacher, I'm always happy. =)
Reaching 17-18 years old you have some decisions to make and time often lacks in this period. I had to let go of my interest of playing cards, also I felt like the community was at a change at that point, the custom deck era was about to arrive and with struggling to find time to keep up to date, I let it for what it was.
But once you're bitten by the playing cards interest, that never really goes away. I've always had a fascination for playing cards, in my youth we did play a lot of games with my family but playing cards especially had a real attraction to me.
Playing cards holds so much. First of all the versatility of it, and the possible creativity and imagination that can be expressed with those little pieces of paper are incredible. It's so simple, just paper with ink (or no ink but pure foil, that's a new technological prowess I'm discovering), but at the same time it has an uncountable amount of possibilities. You can play games with it, you can count with them, you can memorize them, you can handle them. It's absolutely incredible!
Secondly it holds something else, which is logic. And I love logic (it's not for nothing I do software-development). Man, you can use a lifetime on games, analyzing every move, every possibility, and still face yourself with the incredible amount of unkown that exists in this universe. And all this holds in just 52 pieces of paper, with court cards, numbers from 1-10 and 4 suits. Absolutely mind-blowing.
Thirdly, everyone knows playing cards, it's so simple, no one even notices them. It's such an enjoyment to interest yourself in something that no one even looks at (just the thought that I can enjoy myself with so little makes me humble and is a great knowledge, f*ck materialism, f*ck consumerism), but if only they would look closer at them they would discover a whole universe, whether it's logic or design. Again, my mind is blown.
Ok I said f*ck materialism and f*ck consumerism but since getting back into it in november 2019 I did buy way to many decks. I'm fine with it, I had some catch up to do. But now, and that's even more important then when I was collecting in 2009-2014, I'll only pick what I really like, even if that means not buying any cards for 2-3 months.
I have to say that some decks look incredible and some designs were unthinkable back then (I'm certainly thinking at lotrek and the whole oath-team behind those). But I also find Theory11 have kept their standards and did ride along well with those new designs, unlike some other companies (I look at you Elusionist, NOC/HOPC --> I just remember that HOPC did sell those NOC decks back then). You have to be more cautious of cash grabbers then before, with all those gildings and changing tucks etc. (I'll still have a kind word for Ellusionist and NOC, at least they don't do those never-ending gilding and tuck changes, I'm more ok with color changes, but still none of those things is to the standards of what we expect of a designer, playing cards creator).
If you haven't guessed already, I almost never post something on internet, only some questions on stackoverflow which get downvoted right away or not answered...
and sometimes here in the playing card community whether it's on reddit or IG, but when I do post something I'm the TL;DR kind of guy I was pretty active back then on the playing card plethora forum (Hi to Don Boyer, your name I'll never forget), but I've been lurking for 1 month on this forum now and thought it was time to create an account.Anyway, I'll stop here, I'm still at work and I have to get back to that logic, but the mind needs some rest sometimes
Hope you have a great end of your week, good luck with everything you do
Cheers!
Matthieu
