mtgo v3 going live : 28th Jan

[eldaec]

v3 launching on the 28th of next month. Barring any further delays.

As previously trailed, v3 will not include leagues (at least at launch) so leagues from here out will be shortened to accomodate the switch off.

Multiplayer is also confirmed as not in v3 at launch. Rredemption will not be available either.

Mtgo v2 will be switched off 7 days before v3 launches (so 21st Jan).


More:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=968497

[schild]

HOW CAN IT NOT HAVE MULTIPLAYER? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? I THOUGHT IT WAS A FUNNY JOKE UNTIL I READ THE BLOG AND THEN MY CAPS LOCK KEY TURNED A BRIGHT BLUE.

SERIOUSLY.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

[eldaec]

HOW CAN IT NOT HAVE MULTIPLAYER?

No team play, FFA, or 2HG.

1v1 is not considered multiplayer.

[schild]

That is... bullshit.

[Margalis]

They have a counter but the counter can be paused? LOL. Obviously they have a lot of faith in their product.

Go go crystal ball! These guys don't even understand the concept of a countdown. Amazing.

[naum]

no leagues?

WTF?

[eldaec]

no leagues?

WTF?

Indeed.

It is hard to imagine what you would now tell a new player to do with their first few mtgo dollars?

PEs? Hardly, new players rarely want to play for five hours straight, and most couldn't construct a sealed deck in the limited time given for deck construction.

Drafts? Come on, $12 for an hour's play if you lose the first match.



PS. Drafting is Nix Tix from 8pm this evening (Zulu time) until the new year. Lorwyn is... not great for drafting... imo this is one of the few formats where sealed is more fun, but nix tix makes everything more fun.

[Aez]

Still waiting for a real alternative for MTGO.  Anything on the horizon?  I tried allot of online collectible game with much better software but none of them have the same depth and player base.  Most don't have league or draft, some have draft but no one is playing...

[naum]

Still waiting for a real alternative for MTGO.  Anything on the horizon?  I tried allot of online collectible game with much better software but none of them have the same depth and player base.  Most don't have league or draft, some have draft but no one is playing...

Y, can't believe this is a nut that nobody else can crack.

This one died before it barely even got off the ground…

They (Decipher) had a Star Trek game that was also online but it didn't grab me either… …and I 'm not sure if it's still active…

[schild]

Hi All,

The Magic Online III countdown is currently paused. Here is the current situation as I understand it:

We are addressing a potential problem with the how our system handles eCommerce transactions at moderate or heavy loads. We've learned from Magic Online 2.5 how important it is that our customers have faith that their purchases are processed in an accurate and timely matter, so we need to make every effort to try and mitigate the chance of issues in this area when we launch. Given the somewhat complicated nature of our eCom architecture (connection with various servers and systems), it's somewhat harder to test end-to-end than some of our other systems.

We also need to merge Weatherlight into our release candidate. We're currently testing the integration, but we can't move forward with the merge until we have a release candidate that is otherwise ready (which means that all the "Must have" features are in place and ready to go). The current plan calls for us to have a release candidate ready at L-19.

One additional issue was that we needed to do a full conversion of 2.5 database into our new one. This has been successfully completed and we're good to go on that regard.

I don't have an idea on when the countdown will restart. When it does, we also have an 18 hour discrepancy between our public countdown and our internal one, which we need to address at some point. (The public one is 18 hours ahead) We had originally hoped we could resume the countdown tomorrow or Friday, but it may not happen until next week. I'll provide an update on Friday if it looks like we'll remain paused through the weekend.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. I'm not sure how much additional information I will be able to provide, but I'll try my best to answer any questions and provide additional updates while the countdown is paused.

Thanks,
-Mike

[Margalis]

They have a counter but the counter can be paused? LOL. Obviously they have a lot of faith in their product.

Go go crystal ball! These guys don't even understand the concept of a countdown. Amazing.

Heh, I accidentally edited the post above where I made the original statement. Oops

[Calantus]

MTGO is dead to me now. Like Steam.

[Raging Turtle]

I'm pretty sure my collection is worth something in the thousands now (go go foil Rith and starting early!) but yeah, wow, I'm scared to even redownload the client now. 

Incompetence at this scale is amazing.

[cmlancas]

Lorwyn is... not great for drafting... imo this is one of the few formats where sealed is more fun, but nix tix makes everything more fun.

Disagree. I opened six packs yesterday and thought red/black could draft very well for Lorwyn. Maybe I'm wrong.


Edit: Tense.

[eldaec]

I just find that pretty extreme tribal decks can come out of the draft so it feels more about falling to the right archetype, and hoping you luck out with pick 1 on packs 2 and 3, plus there are too many uber bombs - particularly the PWers and some of the incarnations.

[Johny Cee]

I just find that pretty extreme tribal decks can come out of the draft so it feels more about falling to the right archetype, and hoping you luck out with pick 1 on packs 2 and 3, plus there are too many uber bombs - particularly the PWers and some of the incarnations.

I agree.

There really is so much synergy in tribes that a lucky few picks in the right archetype turns mediocre-to-bad tribal cards into bombs.  It's tough to lose when your picks 12-15 are likely to give you very solid cards.  Not counting the actual bombs,  that basically say "win this game" like PWers, Vigor, etc.

Basically Lor throws away the accepted draft strategies of drafting removal or stall, efficient or evasive creatures, and a couple finishers or unsolvable threats.

[cmlancas]

Again, I think not. In a draft, I'd take a weenie deck over a PW. I think that I could beat you as long as you didn't have that really uber PW from Lorwyn. I pulled the white one -- he's not so bad.

I constructed a red/black goblin/faerie/changling deck that held its own pretty well against the pre-construct white weenie from Lorwyn (which i think is pretty damn strong) out of six packs.

I dunno. The only busted draft I ever entered was a tempest draft. Yeah.He was playing blue, and it hurt when I was one turn to win. 

[Thrawn]

I played in City Champs last saturday (not on MTGO) and drafted an almost mono-black weenie-ish deck that pretty much dominated all day until I lost in the final match by getting mana screwed games 1 and 2. 

The highlights of the deck were -

3x Peppersmoke
3x Nightshade Stinger
3x Dreamspoiler Witches
3x Thieving Spirte
1x Profane Command
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Eyeblights Ending
1x Cairin Wanderer
1x Makeshift Mannequin
1x Mournwhelk

[Johny Cee]

I'm pretty sure my collection is worth something in the thousands now (go go foil Rith and starting early!) but yeah, wow, I'm scared to even redownload the client now. 

Incompetence at this scale is amazing.

So,  got curious about my collection.  Used MTGO brain here (http://cards.mtgnews.com/TUser?MC=PMOE) and got:

To buy these would cost $5,928.83
You could sell them for $730.48

Scary.

[cmlancas]

I played in City Champs last saturday (not on MTGO) and drafted an almost mono-black weenie-ish deck that pretty much dominated all day until I lost in the final match by getting mana screwed games 1 and 2. 

The highlights of the deck were -

3x Peppersmoke
3x Nightshade Stinger
3x Dreamspoiler Witches
3x Thieving Spirte
1x Profane Command
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Eyeblights Ending
1x Cairin Wanderer
1x Makeshift Mannequin
1x Mournwhelk

Profane Command and Thieving Sprite are great. I want to find a good use for the B - Discard your hand card.

[Johny Cee]

I played in City Champs last saturday (not on MTGO) and drafted an almost mono-black weenie-ish deck that pretty much dominated all day until I lost in the final match by getting mana screwed games 1 and 2. 

The highlights of the deck were -

3x Peppersmoke
3x Nightshade Stinger
3x Dreamspoiler Witches
3x Thieving Spirte
1x Profane Command
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Eyeblights Ending
1x Cairin Wanderer
1x Makeshift Mannequin
1x Mournwhelk

Profane Command and Thieving Sprite are great. I want to find a good use for the B - Discard your hand card.

One with Nothing actually saw some play in sideboards when it was standard legal.  It was a good response to the "Owling Mine" decks,  which did damage to you based on your hand size (using Howling Mine and bounce to keep your hand full).

[cmlancas]

Nods. I own a few Howling Mines. You put that deck together in a draft? Goddamn son! I didn't read that to begin with.

[eldaec]

The next 19 days will be at least another 29 days long.

As of right now, we are still paused and it seems unlikely that we will unpause before the end of the week. The main issue is that we’ve discovered some additional load issues that it is extremely imperative that we fix or at least significantly mitigate before launch. The silver lining is that we’ve been able to make some good progress in a few other areas while also working to address the load problem. While this doesn’t guarantee that the timer won’t be paused again once we restart it, it does reduce the chance of another pause.

[eldaec]

New launch date : 15th Feb.

Clock is running again, and v2 disappears next week unless there is yet another delay.


The last leagues will start on saturday, after that no more leagues in v2 or v3 until and unless wotc can be bothered to program them in v3.

[tazelbain]

Is there any indication this is affect cards sales?  Seems like a monumently fuckup of NGE proportions.

[eldaec]

It's hard to tell on card sales, but online populations and secondary market prices have dropped since the v2 server started crashing more days than not, redemption was made unaffordable, and since life for sales bots (the only practical way to trade as it is) has been made awkward because wotc regularly have to apply the 1 connection per ip rule to stop the server burning through the floor. I'm not sure the v3 fiasco is having any noticable effect over all the rest of the noise.

[Johny Cee]

Is there any indication this is affect cards sales?  Seems like a monumently fuckup of NGE proportions.

MODO is different from standard subscription style services.

As long as the cardboard game stays healthy,  and MODO supplements and doesn't cannibalize it, Wizards could drop MODO service for months and make a recovery.  The fact that Extended and Standard Constructed are playable gives people a chance to deck test easily as practice.  That type of player is always going to need to own the Constructed playable cards.

Leagues and Drafts being out of commission/difficult hurts,  but it's not a mortal blow.

[WayAbvPar]

Is there any support for old school sets? I quit playing 15 years ago. Played a bit during beta and a bit after release, but don't know shit about any of the newer sets or mechanics.

Also- anyone know if there is still a market for actual physical cards?

[Raging Turtle]

Old sets are slowly being released online, but they're less popular than any of the more recent sets, making the online card pool a lot smaller. 

Basically they're there but more expensive to get. 

And yes, your old physical cards are worth money, possibly quite a bit.  Although the media has long since lost interest with it, Magic is still growing every year.   

[cmlancas]

Put it this way: Back when I played during Urza's, an advertised booster draft at a local card shop would garner about eight people.

Last booster draft I went to for Lorwyn had 40. 

[Johny Cee]

Is there any support for old school sets? I quit playing 15 years ago. Played a bit during beta and a bit after release, but don't know shit about any of the newer sets or mechanics.

Um.  Beta and release of MTGO,  or the cardboard game?

The two big formats for MTG (as a whole, online and cardboard) are:

A. Constructed -- You play decks of 60+ cards,  15 cards on sideboard, that you have built from your collection. 

  1. Standard (Type 2):  The latest few sets and "core" set released.  Usually cards released in the last 1-2 years.  Presently,  this is 10th Edition, Timespiral block, and Lorwyn block.  The most casual friendly of the "serious" Constructed formats,  since this is recently released cards.

  2. Extended: Goes back a few more years, usually between 4-7 years.  Right now,  everything back to Invasion block is Extended legal (7th Ed, Invasion, Odysee, Onslaught, 8th, Mirrodin, Kamigawa, 9th, Ravnica, 10th, Timespiral, Lorwyn).  More power intensive then Standard.  Games are quicker and less forgiving,  with some decks able to win turns 3-5 regularly.

  3. Legacy (Basically Type 1.5):  All cards printed,  minus the extremely broken stuff.  Very power intensive. 

  4. Vintage (Type 1): Everything.  Turn 1 wins not uncommon.

  5. Block: This is Constructed using one "Block" of cards.  A Block is made of of the 3 sets in that specific storyline/setting.  Less power intensive than Standard.

B. Limited -- These are events where you build a 40+ card deck from a small card pool,  usually based around a Block,  from boosters or tournament decks given at the event.

  1. Draft:  You sit at tables of 8,  each person has 3 booster packs.  Open a pack,   pick a card,  pass the remaining cards along.  You receive 14 cards from the person passing to you.  Repeat until you've drafted all cards from that pack.  Open the next pack.  You alternate which direction you pass/receive cards from.  Emphasis on deck construction, knowledge of the cards/set being drafted, drafting ability (reading what colors people next to you are in based on cards received), and play ability.

  2. Sealed:  You get a Tournament pack and two boosters.  Open them,  build a deck from the cards.  More luck dependent then Draft.
  ______________________________

Basically,  Old School stuff isn't used unless it's reprinted.  The Old School formats are expensive (need certain cards, in high demand) and have a degenerate level of power.

On MTGO,  Leagues are basically ongoing Sealed tournaments.  Great way for a noob to get started,  since you just need to shell out for some cards and then can play as much as you want as long as the League goes on.

Also- anyone know if there is still a market for actual physical cards?

Y-E-S.

For the Alpha-Beta-Unlimited sets,  these cards can be worth huge amounts of money.  Moxen and Black Lotus,  Power Nine can go for hundreds or thousands of dollars.  Hell,  Beta or Alpha Islands can go for a couple bucks a piece.

After Unlimited,  not nearly as much money in it.  Dual lands from Revised,  a few other cards, are worth a fair amount but not crazy.

In "modern" sets, there will usually be a few chase cards per set that will top out at $15-20 a card.  Tarmagoyf,  a rare from Future Sight,  is going for $35ish a pop now.


Cardboard Magic has been a top 5 CCG since its release.  Sometimes,  it'll slide down a few ranks to new CCGs (like Pokemon, or Yugioh) but has had amazing staying power.  Some of the best play design and mechanics,  combined with good attention to short and long-term playablility. 

Wizards does a pretty good job of supporting the Tournament scene.  DCI rewards is a good program,  giving out high quality foil cards based on number of events attended (for example,  foil textless Damnation is a current reward card.  The Friday Night Magic and Arena programs are low-intensity tournaments where Wizards kicks in foil reprints of good cards as prizes.  Good support and prizes for the "big" events like Grand Prix and Pro Tour Qualifiers.

[Thrawn]

Is there any support for old school sets? I quit playing 15 years ago. Played a bit during beta and a bit after release, but don't know shit about any of the newer sets or mechanics.

Also- anyone know if there is still a market for actual physical cards?

Ignore Johny, no market for those old beta cards at all, I'll PM you my address and you can mail them to me to dispose of. 

[eldaec]

Btw, v3 has been delayed again.

[Raging Turtle]

 

[eldaec]

The countdown clock has now been abandoned.

And there is no prospect of launch for at least a few weeks.

Leagues are being turned back on in v2 because it is expected that they can run more complete leagues before the switch off (still no sign of them in v3).

Morningtide launch : 3rd March. In V2.