f13.net

For anyone still doubting that WotC was purposely sabotaging MTGO :

http://www.wizards.com/magic/playmagic/Sizzle/sizzle_en.html (http://www.wizards.com/magic/playmagic/Sizzle/sizzle_en.html)

It's an elaborate online ad I saw on Penny Arcade.  I doesn't contain a single link to MTGO.

?

That's an ad for Wizards annual summer "bring in the noobs" events for stores,  which are heavily subsidized with prizes.  I'm not sure why that has any relevance for MODO.

Because it might, you know, exponentially expand the market of MTG players… …being able to click a few buttons online as opposed to being seen in public with a bunch of dorks in a comic book store…

The quality and production value of that ad is also much much better than MTGO.  It just show that they can actually do something when they really care.

They want to shutter the online game but they can't for fear of lawsuits. So they are sabotaging MTGO to dive people away.  And when the numbers get low enough, that be justification to shutter it. Kinda like the plot of Major League.  Is that the conspiracy theory?

Yes, that exactly it!  They also use moles on the intarweb to discredit anyone that uncover their evil plot.  Said moles usually have strange avatar of a burly guy (them) abusing a geek(us)!

Some conspiracies are true.  If Wizards thought MTGO was a mistake, they be a sticky position.  Can't sell it.  Can't close it.  But at ridiculous price of MTGO, its hard to imagine them thinking it was a mistake.  It would take truely monumental stupidity for someone to not be able to make a good profit off of a money tree.

Reading between the lines it looks like there are two major problems:

1. They are afraid online magic will cut into paper sales.

2. The people in charge of the digital division were chosen based on the typical Wizard practice of hiring and promoting from inside the inner circle of nerds rather than based on talent.

It's pretty clear that few people in the digital division know much about software, and they hire other equally clueless people. The job descriptions they advertise for are a total mess, stressing the wrong technology and products and actively driving away anyone competent.

How can they produce such a good ad then?

The ad is Flash-based. They either contracted it out or gave it to some Flash expert withing the company. Writing an interactive Flash ad is quite different from programming a client/server game in C#.