Why not distribute these in 1:10 real life packs? You'll encourage people to give online a try without breaking either economy.
More Offline and Online Linkage -When I posed the question of “biggest MTGO peeve” to our twitter community, the most common peeve was the inability to use copies of paper cards that you already own, online. This probably will never happen for several reasons. Wizards of the Coast very much values their paper trading game. It will be the backbone and primary way of playing Magic the Gathering for the foreseeable future. They will do nothing that jeopardizes it. If players were able to create a second copy of their cards online it would cause irreparable turmoil in both the MTGO and MTGOffline economies. Cards would be less special and you could theoretically play only online. Wizards wants you to play both online and offline (as I do) supplementing one form of play with the other. They are staging a careful balance by keeping them separated in important ways. While I do not agree with the twitter community that wants a 1 for 1 card exchange online, I do think the two could be linked more effectively.
Pro Tour Qualifiers have come to MTGO already but why not a Pro Tour Event? Why not include “1 free Event Ticket” inserts in offline boosters? DCI rankings could be more appropriately connected at least in PTQs and online Grand Prix’. Even a free foil promo would be acceptable. As the lines continue to blur between online and offline Magic, there is no excuse for avoiding the further linkage between the two.
Why no love?
Mac Support – The Mac community is approaching 10% of the online user population. I would be willing to bet that the Venn diagram of Magic players and Mac users includes much more than 10% corresponding parts. If you take in to account that, in terms of home computers (as opposed to the windows dominated business scene), Apple, by some estimates, accounts for nearly 20% of users. Today, it is no longer acceptable to simply say “we do not support Apple” for seven years and have that be an okay business policy. As Apple continues to grow its empire, Magic needs to get on board with support for the increasingly mainstream platform. On that note, an iPhone/Smartphone application couldn’t hurt either!
Tournament Oversight – Online tournaments aren’t monitored by DCI or WotC officials… even Pro Tour Qualifiers. Just this month I participated in the first ever online PTQ. Going 4-1 I was about to go 5-1 and qualify for the next round when the game crashed. I came back to discuss this with an official and none were to be found. The only recourse in this instance is to “file a report” and get your money back three days later. Not exactly a 1 for 1 trade. If only there were one or two officials who actually had the power to restart games, reinsert players and monitor the events. I realize staff cost money but with Magic Online constituting 50% of your business and now with PTQs being an every week affair, Wizards should consider putting staff in place for proper monitoring and disaster resolution. ORCs (Online Response Crew) are very friendly and helpful but have no real power to make things right.
Stability – As a webmaster and IT specialist by trade, I empathize with WotC. Coding is tricky business, and supporting thousands of computers with thousands of different configurations is nearly impossible. But fortunately, games like World of Warcraft, and even Call of Duty have managed to do online without major bugs. During any given session, Id give MTGO a 25% chance of crashing or requiring me to log out. I can forgive a once in a blue moon crash but 3-4 times per week?… silly. This is one of the more major complaints with the game because it prevents you from actually playing Magic the Gathering. An overall stability overhaul is needed in every department. Drop the cash to get as many servers and coders as you need. You’ll make it all back with customer satisfaction.
Actually, I think Diablo looks a little more polished than MTGO...
Visual Face Lift - If you haven’t played Magic the Gathering Online, the interface looks like it was taken straight from Diablo. Yes, Diablo I not Diablo II. With clunky buttons and blurry trimmings, MTGO gives Everquest a run for its money in the “best looking game of 1999″ category. Perhaps they think it adds charm to the game? Perhaps they just don’t have the budget? Either way, MTGO is in desperate need of a visual face lift from top to bottom. When I can play better looking 300K apps on my iPhone, you know your 800MB game is lacking in the graphics department.
Revamp the Trading/Singles System -When I first started online I had no idea what I was doing. Packs seemed expensive at four dollars so I wanted to make my money count while quickly grabbing some decks that would allow me to actually play. I grabbed the Jace vs. Chandra set for $20. Not a bad deal, I thought at the time. But after I figured out how the MTGO singles market works, I was upset. Magic’s economy is based on things called “event tickets”. These tickets are used to enter events and such but have become more like “Magic Bucks” online when buying/trading from online vendors. For example a Baneslayer Angel costs 30 “tickets” which essentially means $30.
Is this some sort of secret code? Is this Craigslist on Acid? No, this is the MTGO economy.
None of this is explained, you have to to figure it out on your own. Trading/Buying singles involves “trading” with automated 3rd party bots in the “classifieds” room. The whole process is somewhat of a mystery to the uninitiated and dangerous for first time buyers. Why not give some of these automated bots their own “stores” with easy to use features and universal prices? The whole idea of buying Event Tickets from Wizards to pay automated bots for cards isn’t intuitive. It would be better if they were just called “Magic Bucks” and you spent them on packs, cards, tournaments, in 3rd party stores etc. Trading, collecting and visiting shops is a huge part of MTG. Why not make it a pleasant and simple experience? I guarantee people will spend more money if this were the case.
Change the Official Store – - MSRP is fine for new sets. I understand not wanting to compete with the cardboard bread and butter stores that have made Magic great. But why not charge $3 for sets that aren’t standard like Lorwyn/Future Sight? Is that really competing with card stores? They aren’t even in print. And most of the time the offline stores only charge $3 for old sets anyway. Paying $4 for a pack of Kamigawa and $12.99 for a theme deck that doesn’t include anything of value is nuts and Wizards is not only discouraging their purchase but ends up forcing us to visit 3rd party trade bots by charging so much. I’d also like to see better options for beginners such as a discounted package with 5 packs of each standard set and five event tickets that you can only purchase once. How about booster boxes at a discounted rate? 36 packs at $4 a piece ($144) is madness and has no basis in offline or online reality. I don’t mind the official store being the most expensive place to buy cards but MSRP on everything, all the time isn’t encouraging me to buy. I’ll take the confusing and often scam-o-riffic bots over the current official store any day and that’s saying a lot.
Voice Chat – Played Xbox live lately? It’s totally possible to have an online game with voice support simply by plugging in a microphone and using a $2 application I could code in my basement. Why not integrate it into MTGO? Sure the servers are strained as it is but that’s another problem that could be easily solved with that 50% income ration MTGO brings in. Social experiences are part of what makes the game “sticky” so why not have real, trash talking friends online? Cursing? Get over it. Ban people’s entire accounts if they continue to break the rules. That’s how they deal with that sort of thing in other games. They should pay moderators to moderate. It’s one thing to be an internet fuckwad and get banned in World of Warcraft. You might lose your level 40 paladin and have to start over. But losing all of your Magic cards if several complaints come your way? That will be a control in and of itself. You have to pay 20 bucks just to start an account and cards cost about the same as they do offline so people wont be as vulgar as you think they’ll be. The risk is too great. Voice is a modern feature of most online games and should be in MTGO’s future.
For all its flaws, I would recommend MTGO to any serious Magic player. Though it might sound silly, playing in a PTQ, in your underwear, watching the Seahawks and grabbing something to eat from the fridge at your leisure is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. The fact that I no longer have a closet full of useless commons is also a plus. This article isn’t to suggest that Magic Online is better than offline or vise versa. It is simply a list of things I’ve noticed that could be easily remedied by the game’s tenders. Last week, several MTG community leaders were given a sneak peek at the next version of Magic Online. Set to be released in the latter half of 2010, the new version is said to address several of the aforementioned beefs. Even so, software updates often get left on the cutting room floor so it is important that we let Wizards know just how much we care about this game’s future. Magic Online is far from a perfect experience but it is inevitably the future of MTG and all CCGs for that matter. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get out of these restrictive pants and on to MTGO.
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I haven’t played MTGO since it was in open Beta all those years ago. Sure, it crashed a lot but the ability to draft for free whenever you wanted? So much fun. But since then, the whole redemption program failed (does anyone know anyone who actually redeemed a whole set?) combined with the limited sale of cards. Honestly, I think the game is limited by the idea that people are “collecting” digital objects. If I could go online and pay $5 to draft Invasion Block, I would in a heart beat. Make MTGO different from Magic.
I’m not sure I needed to know that you were anxious to get your pants off.
I play Magic so much better without those constricting pants! Such a boon!
Hey everyone! Pantsless Magic party at Reinhart’s place! Be there or be square!
I used to play it years ago I thought my computer sucked XD I didnt know it was the game xD well I hope they make it kool like that but I doubt it I have lil hope in WotC.
Great article — hope they take note!
I follow this site on my phone and it is one of the few sites that is good on mobil. Sorry that you have problems with mtgo but try checking out wizards on mobil. It realy sucks. I cant even log in to my account. Post decks chat ect. Any good mtg mobil sites?
I’m glad someone else is using that feature! I have the site looking good on my iPhone and smartphones but I can’t promise much after that
DailyMTG.com could definitely go for some smartphone support, I agree. But you could always just set up RSS with them, or us for that matter!
I haven’t found too many MTG sites that use have mobile support like we do! I’ll talk to my fellow webmasters on twitter and see what everyone’s plan is with regards to that.
I enjoy both the paper and the virtual game. There are certainly problems with the virtual one that discourage me from playing. I have entered several competitive events and had them crash only to give me a flurry of reasons that were totally false. For example “not enough players to start” when in the middle of a game with plenty of time left in the round, etc I usually get at least 3 reason why it crashed when I am kicked off and I can only hope that one of them is correct. I now fear playing anything other than casual because of all the forms you have to fill out to get your money/product back. I sincerely wish the forms to get product back were more intuitive and simple. It is my perception that they intentionally make it difficult to people will not bother and they can get more $ out of folks. Now I will every now and then try the competitive side of magic online and when things go well I go nuts with it. When I get multiple crashes back to back and later in the week it is very disheartening to invest in those events. Please Wizards hear out pleas and make customers happy. I know you can’t make everyone happy, but having a functionally working game I would think would be at the top of the list. If I could just log in and hope to play some games w/o problems would make me more interested in spending more online. Does anyone else agree with this? surely I am not the only one who thinks this way.
Stability is FOR SURE the biggest problem. Maybe I didn’t emphasise that enough in the article. But out of the three guys in my meta who want to try and play MTGO.. one has a Mac (no support) one has a router that won’t support MTGO for some reason.. and I’ve been kicked out of a PTQ event after going 5-1. Not a very good track record of 0-3. We’re all pretty techy and it’s doubtful that it’s our fault. I’ve yet to meet someone who has said “Oh yeah MTGO is great for me! It never has problems!”
Oh, Yeah, MTGO is great for me! It never has problems!!
Both computers I run it on are Windows XP, SP3… and it 100% NEVER crashed when I did play it… I promise i’m not kidding you!
You must be running the one system setup that WotC tests the game for.
Congrats!
Magic Work Station. It’s not without it’s faults. But you get the entire MTG library to test online against other players with the same card pool to build from. Oh and it’s 100% free (and illegal). I would subscribe to a similar service if Wizard provided one and pay around 20-30 bucks a month for it. But paying the same price per pack for digital cards seems very foolish to me.
Yeah, I think a per month payment for the whole library would work better. It would level the playing field. I wouldn’t mind paying the 30 bucks if all the cards were free.
This is a great idea. But wouldn’t everyone then gets their Magic ‘fix’ online and not bother with the offline?
This is a good point. Many believe this was the issue with newspapers. They offered an identical product for free online. Why buy papers then?
Same could be said for MTG maybe.
and yet the newspapers still sell.
newspapers, magazines arent really endagered by laptops or desktop computers. however, with the rise of mobile phone technology and the internet being more and more accessible on these gadgets, paper might see a bigger threat.
people dont wanna carry their laptops netbooks whatever just to read news and check some sites, even though theyre much lighter than before theyre still quite heavy if carried for some hours. BUT – mobile phones? who wouldnt wanna carry one of those – esp if you can make your calls and send out messages with it AND go online as a bonus.
it will probably be a battle between ‘old school’ and ‘new school’ but nevertheless i dont think the strongest of both sides will never lose their established popularity and gained market share
as for mtg the thing thats killing it is the
1- laziness – people simply choose socializing through MMO games. the whole process of getting ready to go out and play cards with some friends (not to mention random people) with your backpack filled with your decks and trade books became too much.
1. MTG problem is: a lack of DEDICATION.
2- WotC’s not keeping up with market wants and needs. there are quite a bit of mtg sites that are very popular, thus a LOT of opinions and suggestions are flowing through online courses – discussions. are none of them considered? ridiculous mtgo problems, offline magic (card/color balance, consistency, etc) – they seem important to WotC. mtgo, which is the future of ccg/tcg, as said in this article, actually has the UPPER hand, as its the first commercial project of that kind and if they do it right they might get those lazy ass players mention in (1) to play again.
overpricing cards and services for something thats its in a total mess wont help anyone, not even WotC, no matter how much they want that.
@joe (It wouldn’t let me reply directly.)
This will probably seem harsh, but I think it needs to be said. It’s a little hard to take your opinion seriously when you can’t form complete sentences. Additionally, if I disagree with some of your claims, I’m dissuaded from trying to reason with you because you’ve already given the impression (through your writing) that I can’t have an intelligent discussion with you.
However, I strongly suspect that you’re actually capable of substantially better writing. When you want to convince people of something or make a case for your ideas, please take the time to write in a way which shows that you can process information rationally.
I wrote it in a rush and I didn’t plan to go into a discussion over my opinion. Perhaps a bit of chatter, but definitely nothing serious.
I used to be quite into the MTGO before this much-vaunted, long-delayed, version 3 platform was released. It was awful and they took away the one format that was of any reasonable money-to-gameplay value: the leagues. I still log on once a month to check if leagues are back. No dice. You won’t catch me forking out $14+ for (at most) three hours online play. I have plenty of $20 computer games that cost _nothing_ beyond original purchase.
Some things I’m missing in MODO:
- Gameplay shortcuts/record function: Some combo decks aren’t possible online because of the clock. I’d like to have a record button which remembers a set of actions. Then if the opp agrees, the game would let me repeat that “macro” N times.
- Cube drafts!
- Defining custom deck building rules with a modular system (to enforce/enable wacky formats like PPS, Rainbow Stairwell, ext/std/…-pauper)
- Linux/OSX-Port
- a casual player/deck rating which would make it possible to find an equal opponent which a deck that similar good
- rochester draft
- team draft
- real 2hg
- planechase!
- Non-Multiplayer Commander
At this rate I’d like to see MTG GBA/DS! Why can there be Yu-gi-oh games that play by all there game rules and game play is fun! Maybe a stand alone with real card/video game link up that allows you to play what’s in hand instead of online! Or have an offline section of MTGO that allows you computer opponents game play against cards you have in hand…
GAH! They should just do something similar to what yugioh does: put codes on real cards, then make it so that you can get those cards via entering the code!
That could certainly work going forward.. but the older cards would still have to be bought. It would also change the economy irreparably.
I think the fact that you see Magic in Target/Walmart is a really good sign and may mean that something like this may be possible soon because the cardstore/local 4.99 per pack shops could still compete if there were more people playing Magic. Not to mention the boost theyd get because online players could shop offline as well!
Putting in a code to have you paper cards online would be nice but they would have to make those cards untradable. Imagine you open a pack and find a nice shiny foil Lotus Cobra, then you run online and put in the code. Now you have 2 nice shiny foil Lotus Cobra’s. You quickly sell the online version for $20-$25, not bad but wait somethings wrong (or right depending on how you look at it) because you still have your real Lotus Cobra.
i think it be awsome that when you bought a single online that a card was shipped out as well then ican see spending the money.
Wow… I quit really playing MTGO about 2-3 months ago… I bought a box of M10 (cardboard) and thought wow, if I did that online it would cost me 50+ dollars more. I won’t go back to even part time until they offer boxes (or the equivalent of) for a discounted price. Even Fat Packs would be nice. But It would be really easy for them to offer 100 dollar ‘boxes’ of Type 2 legal cards, and maybe 75-80 dollar ‘boxes’ of older cards. Anyway, that’s my 2 cents! GREAT article!! keep up the great work!
The MSRP thing is what has always killed it for me. Why spend any $$$ on boosters when singles are so easy to acquire.
I recently came across a nice App called “Wagic the Homebrew” (official site is at http://wololo.net/wagic ) that lets you play MTG against a CPU opponent on the PSP, Windows or Linux.
And unlike MTGO, it’s free…
I highly suggest it if you’re in need for cheap MTG from time to time, or when you don’t have an internet access.
It’s actually quite addictive for a free app.
[...] their ambitious potentials. Faults and issues relating to MTGO have been covered ad nauseum here. Needless to say, if the vision was a seamless way to play MTG with duelists from around the [...]
MTGO III was a B-A-D overhaul. I’m still not entirely happy about it and since then my life depends on mac. NET framework is a load of crap. They need to completely revamp MTGO again so it is portable but more so that it doesn’t need to be dependant on MS database code crap. You fools at WOTC. I pity you!!! Thanks for pissing it away on Microsoft. You should of invested in the cloud.
[...] year. I think Magic will become more and more integrated with the digital world. I’ve written about that as well. The future of Magic looks very bright and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it more [...]