Morningtide MTGO Anticipation

[raybomb]

This thread is for the discussion of the article "Morningtide MTGO Anticipation" by Robin Russell. You can find it here - http://Magic.TCGplayer.com/db/article.asp?id=7982

Discuss!

[Hookhand]

Quality > Quantity

[RoninX]

Hey all, if you have any other MTGO market tips, or sleeper cards for this I would love to here about them in this thread.

[snowden]

Here's one...Sell anything expensive you crack week one. Prices always, always, always go down. When Llorwyn came out I cracked a Thoughtseize in my very first casual room draft. I then sold it for 23 tickets. You can now buy them for less than half of that. A few cards go up in price after the release, but those mostly start low. Uncommons always go down in price. Sell anything you crack over 15 tickets this week. Chances are you can buy it back in a week or two at a lower price. The exception, of course, is if you can fire up some 8-mans with those cards in the meantime.

[Rakavolver]

Robin, I concur 100% with Hookhand when he said:

Quality > Quantity

Well done, gent.

Hey Robin, what do you think with the following rather bold reply by magicthegathering.com poster TheGoldenVoid to Rosewater's latest "literary" spism of an article, "Assume the Acquisition?" (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr321) As one (me, not MaRo) who is one hundred percent cardboard Magic yet holds zero malice towards those who are one hundred percent online virtual electron card Magic such as yourself, your opinion would be very much appreciated and I suspects, eye-opening:



I think this article was very short-sighted.

If there is one MASSIVE ace up its sleeve that Wizard's seems to be ignoring, it is Magic Online. That alone will get you further in the acquision stakes than anything else you could possibly think up that involves bits of cardboard. You should be shooting for the World of Warcraft audience, not the hobby game geek audience - they are all pretty much already aware of Magic for one thing, and if they are remotely interested, then they ALREADY play it. The WoW crowd, on the other hand, is oblivious and ripe for picking.

Don't try to sell a CCG, sell a MMOCCG!!! WoW proves the world is ready for it. You just need to target the members of the WoW crowd who like a bit of a strategy game on the side. There are millions of them. They are waiting....

This is absolutely the era of mass online gaming in massive groups spread across the globe, NOT the era of bits of cardboard gaming in small groups gathered in the basement. That era is PAST. The sooner Wizards recognizes this the better. Magic Online is your long term FUTURE, and short-term acquision enabler, Magic Not-Online is absolutely your PAST.

[asulia]

Wow, Garruk is only 6-7 ticks online? He's still $20 IRL :/

[RoninX]

Wow, Garruk is only 6-7 ticks online? He's still $20 IRL :/

Yeah, its supply and demand. Everyone sells their extras online because it is so easy AND because you can have many decks or version supported by the same sets of 4 there is never really a reason to a have more more than 4 of a given card (from a players perspective). Because the results of all those open pack are kept within the same huge trading pool, and anyone can get any card pretty much anytime they want the price (Goyf as an exception) tend to drop considerably over time.

[RoninX]

As one (me, not MaRo) who is one hundred percent cardboard Magic yet holds zero malice towards those who are one hundred percent online virtual electron card Magic such as yourself, your opinion would be very much appreciated and I suspects, eye-opening:

Hmmm. Well, while I understand the basics of supply and demand I don't really have the background to comment intelligently on ramifications of MaRo or GoldenVoid's positions. With that caveat out of the way I'll be happy to comment anyway. My understanding is that wizards would love to push to electronic game much further than they have. However the current client/server configuation can barely withstand the regular loads placed on it (400-1000 or so players).

Supposedly this instability is a huge reason for the need for a 3.0 client. Until they can actually support more users then it doesn't make a lick of sense to try and spend money trying to reach those users, right? I don't know what the technical answers are, but whatever those answers seem to be the bottleneck to Wizards fully exploiting a willing online community.

I've never played WoW, but I have played a few other server based games (like some of the Halo style games) a bit, and if they can handle thousands of players online at a time then there is no excuse for MTGO not to be able to handle 10 to 100 times that number of players given the huge difference in graphical and real time commands that their servers must have to balance.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it. The less than encouraging news is that version 3.0 was pushed back again (no new release date announced) after an attempt at a massive beta test to test the flexibility and load of the new server set up. I'm not certain what happened with that test, but the timing seems ominous. Anyone out there take part?

[Rakavolver]

My understanding is that wizards would love to push to electronic game much further than they have. However the current client/server configuation can barely withstand the regular loads placed on it (400-1000 or so players).

Supposedly this instability is a huge reason for the need for a 3.0 client. Until they can actually support more users then it doesn't make a lick of sense to try and spend money trying to reach those users, right? I don't know what the technical answers are, but whatever those answers seem to be the bottleneck to Wizards fully exploiting a willing online community.

Bottleneck is the perfect word.

Here's 3 more words: Buy more servers. Oo-o-h, more expense. Eh, so what?

Randy Buehler is in charge of MTGO as far as I know, having been kicked upstairs there from the excellent job he did heading R&D. Randy is a smart guy. Randy is also one of the most dynamite cardboard players of all time, which is why he was hired by Wizards in the first place.

Yet I have to ask this question: Is he the right guy for the job?

I'm too ignorant of in-house operations at Renton WA where Wizards fume to answer that question, nor do I really care. I don't want to know who these people are. I just want them to do their jobs properly.

Like my mailman, er, mailwoman, er, mailperson. Gets my mail to me everyday. Like clockwork. 100% reliable. Awesome.

Why can't Wizards be at least as effective as a quasi-government operation?

Just asking.

[Falkor]

I hate it when I can't play Magic, it makes writing about Magic extremely difficult. I find that I go through lulls when I don't want to go through lulls, yet play a ton when no one else is.

I guess when summer rolls around, and I can simply take care of my son (hey, teachers!) and plot out the next school year, I just wish there were more events to attend. I hope that I can find a couple of PTQs to hit up this summer.

For me, this is the primary reason I like to attend prerelease events, since you gather so much information. Unfortunately, MtGO loses all of that since the virtual set is released later than the cardboard.

Sorry you were too sick and had car difficulties, so you missed the GP in Vancouver. I was looking forward to your tournament report. What were you going to play, and why?

[Losrithtilenma]

My understanding of the MTGO problem is that it is not a hardware problem so buying more servers won't help any. It is a software problem. The program that runs MTGO can't handle more people. Maybe MTGO could do what WoW has done and make cloned servers which cannot interract with each other, but I suspect that most people would not accept that solution.

[RoninX]

My understanding of the MTGO problem is that it is not a hardware problem so buying more servers won't help any. It is a software problem. The program that runs MTGO can't handle more people. Maybe MTGO could do what WoW has done and make cloned servers which cannot interract with each other, but I suspect that most people would not accept that solution.

Well, 3.0 is supposed to be built on a totally different platform specifically designed to support high loads, hopefully relieving this issue. I just worry when they have to push back the release again after their major load test, and give nothing but the usual "we're working to make the best possible product" line - this is of course true, but it doesn't give any information, after awhile people (meaning me) start to assume the worst.

Sorry you were too sick and had car difficulties, so you missed the GP in Vancouver. I was looking forward to your tournament report. What were you going to play, and why?

For awhile I was planning to play my druids build, but in the end I was just going to go up to help Riki do coverage and get to know people a little better.

[biofeedback1]

I am dabbling in this "fake card" thing. What i've seen is every "borg" is running prowler. Is it because it is cheap? Is it the black appeal? Is it the bandwagon?

The media have made us brown. mix all the colors, and it turns out brown (try it, it's fun). Must have the latest JLO thing, wow, this card must be good it has protection from black! Can my cell procreate...In all eventueality, this is a whisper to a scream. We sense the unease of paying hard bucks for virtuel. but progress is progess. The one that will sit alone at the train station, is Mundy Fisk, the one who's mom ODed on prescribed "happy pills", and his dad is with an another woman that has 3 kids (from a another affair..), He just does,int know him.

Mundy will enter the living as a survivour, but will be hampered for the rest of his life.
Maybe he will find the strenght to overcome this black staw that was delt to him. Maybe he will rationalize, and become a great person.

That said, the window is great. we can now play with lots of players from around the the world. That is the appeal. If you don't know what to buy in, go with the merfolk, people cry at the fact you take so much time gaining life!

Peace.

PS. I'm french speaking, so don't be to hard on the "dove".

[RoninX]

If you don't know what to buy in, go with the merfolk, people cry at the fact you take so much time gaining life!


Actually thats not bad advice. Barring cryptic commands most of the stock merfolk list is dirt cheap online (though most don't run Judge of currents).