Locations
[caption id="attachment_5290" align="alignright" width="155" caption="Why not distribute these in 1:10 real life packs? You'll encourage people to give online a try without breaking either economy."]
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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.
[caption id="attachment_5286" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Why no love?"]
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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.
[caption id="attachment_5293" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Actually, I think Diablo looks a little more polished than MTGO..."]
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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.
[caption id="attachment_5303" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Is this some sort of secret code? Is this Craigslist on Acid? No, this is the MTGO economy."]
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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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