ooc → d e v i c e s
Magic in Game of Fate requires two genetic traits; empathy and magic capacity. If you have them both then you are set to use magic! However, if you only have one half of the requirements then you can't use your magical powers, no matter how strong your magic or empathy is. Further more, using magic is incredibly unhealthy and can shorten a person's lifespan.
So what is a society to do?
They create magic devices!
The original magic devices in Game of Fate land were more like charms. They could be used once or twice to cast simple pre-set spells before they broke. But charms were never very effective. Not everyone could make them safely and not everyone could use them safely. Those that did make them often sold them at crazy prices, so the safety a charm might provide wasn't available to everyone.
For magical society as a whole they were actually quite useless.
Then, around the time of World War II, magic research had a major breakthrough. They developed magical devices that could make up for a missing piece of genetics and even help people use magic more safely. The concept was fairly simple; they had a substitute form of empathy that could identify emotions and collect them for magic and also had the ability to process magical power.
This was all around a better way to use magic. Devices could find the feelings you needed much faster than an actual human could and could do so more accurately. Further more, their ability to process magical power took away all of the health risks originally associated with magic. By having a magic device, often in the shape of a wand or staff, you could become a magic user even if your genes hadn't blessed you with the ability!
But that was also a problem.
Because of devices, a n y o n e could become a magic user. Using a device also meant not suffering the price of magic, because that was attached to genetics. The MASQ stepped in as quickly as they could and ordered that all magic devices needed MASQ approval. They would be programmed to only understand the secret language of magic, Magien, so that only those educated enough on magic could use them. The MASQ also put limiters directly on the devices that kept them from being dangerously powerful.
Even though the MASQ limited devices that does not mean that they do not approve. It's the opposite. The MASQ fully supports devices and encourages everyone to use them. They will even supply a basic device to anyone who asks for absolutely no charge. There isn't a law requiring that everyone use them but there's a lot of support given to those who want to.
Tampering with devices is an option to increase their potential, but they will never be a substitute for actual magical potential. 75% of magic users are stronger than the average device. Still sometimes you have no choice but to use one, whether it's because you're missing half of the required DNA or don't have magic at all to begin with.