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Why Magic Online Will Suck

Posted by michael on from the hard-knocks dept.

An anonymous reader sends us a link to this funny dissection of online gaming. The writer obviously speaks from bitter experience. :)

2 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. another reason why it will fail.. by DMaster0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is because the Wizards have the intention to charge full retail price for virtual cards. That's right, the same money you could spend in a store, and get real physical cards and at least have something to look at (or take elsewhere) when you're done playing. For this idea alone, I don't see how it can work very well beyond a very dedicated core of people.

    Unlike most MMORPG games, MTG: Online isn't going to charge a monthly fee. The draw for EverCrack, Ultima Online, etc is that you pay your 10 bucks same as everyone else, and it's what you do in the game that makes you better or worse than everyone else. MTGO, it's all about the size of your wallet and how much you can afford to spend on getting better. Sure, some of you can say "but you still have to know how to play the game or 10,000 dollars worth of cards don't help". Yeah, true. But during the beta, I estimated that it would cost well over $500 to become "competitive" at the game, with little or no way to change that. Things would be pretty even for about a month, and then the "Mr. Suitcase" players would overwhelmingly dominate the game, much like that one guy who figured out Magic just a little too early at your local comic/card store and whipped the crap out of almost everyone on a regular basis.

    My major attraction though, was Tournaments. This is where MTGO really lacks IMO. A typical tourney with 128 players (or so) can and will take up to 8 hours to finish. 8 hours! And you can't leave and go anywhere else either, cause the round might finish early and you'd default by not showing up! I tried a few of these tournaments and they don't have the appeal of a physical tournament where you can go and mess around doing other things (like side tournaments) since you have to sit at the game for a solid 8 hours (or until you lose).

    Yeah, it'll suck if hackers do their thing, and if people rip other people off.. but it has to get people to play first if that's going to happen, and I don't think it will.

  2. Why it doesn't suck (IMO) by goober · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Was just playing it this morning. The software and gameplay is very good. Most of people's complaints about it however, is the pricing. This may be a good thing. Online players are less likely to make a whopping huge investment in virtual cards. (Like I have in Real Life...ugh!) Thus you can actually have fun playing with crappy decks as you are not repeatedly pummelled by some luser with his $400 pile of rares.

    Also, no teenager stench, which is always a bonus...