mtgo3 pushed back (again); now October 2nd

[eldaec]

Various e3 reports now indicating mtgo3 has been pushed back again. Here's one...

http://londes.com/article.php?id=909

[Trippy]

Gee what a surprise. At the rate they've been going you would think they had one guy doing all the coding by typing with his nose.

[StGabe]

It really isn't that much of a change from what I saw.  The client has 3d avatars now and the screen is a little bit less cluttered.  The card store is integrated into the client.  The nicest feature was the ability to zoom in on cards and view more clear represetations of the original art.  It's ok but pretty much just a facelift of the old.  The version I played still had a good ways to go (you couldn't play multiplayer, they just had a single-player demo where you could play cards on your side of the table).  One thing that kind of annoyed me is that they use a d20 to count your life now.  It's pretty clunky.  If you go up to 24 life the d20 shows a 24 on it.  I have no idea what it will do if you pop a 100+ brightflame or play an infinite life deck.

The best part of seeing this at E3 though was getting to hover over Antoine Ruel's shoulder as he won the invitational. :)

[Margalis]

They are going in the wrong direction with the client. Adding 3D avatars and expecting people to actually walk around with them is silly. When I play MtGO I only use the spreadsheet view.

The entire 3D world part of it is just grafted on and has nothing to do with the game. There is no need to physically walk around or do anything like that. It's like the discussions we've had on the 3D web - it just doesn't fit. Nothing about the game needs rooms you walk around in with some character.

[schild]

Actually, I sorta liked the new client. I played with it for a few minutes at E3 and there's a lot of good design going on there.

But at the end of the day, Margalis is right - bells and whistles HURT the game. Thankfully they seem to be toggleable when it comes to the actual gaming. So  maybe it won't be so bad.

[Margalis]

Bells and whistles that people will turn off after 10 minutes are fine, but not at the expense of memory leaks, missed dates, etc.

MtGO needs a 3D navigatable world as much as poker or scrabble does - not at all.

[eldaec]

I may have misunderstood, but I don't think they actually plan to have people walk about with the avatars, afaik, they are just the new version of the avatar images used in current mtgo to give an opponent a face in games, and signify a prescence at a table in the game matching lobbies (for the seven people who don't use spreadsheet view for everything).

The 3d bit is just becuase someone decided you should be able to spin the camera around and zoom in/out in the lobbies. This is also a complete waste of time,money and resources ofc.

[eldaec]

In summary the following interview says this...

Q> Release Date?
A> Currently October 2nd 06. Public closed beta is due late July-late September. Open beta likely to run for a week in September (this effectively means a free drafting week).

Q> Will the existing card trading facilities used by the vast majority of the player base to get hold of the vast majority of cards used in casual constructed still work?
A> LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

Q> Will a decent trade interface ever be introduced?
A> OH WAIT THEY DIDN'T EVEN ASK THAT

Q> Weatherlight?
A> Not likely till 2007 because of mtgo3 workload.

Q> Macs?
A> HA-HA!

We all know what you've been waiting for, so without any delay let's jump right into some MTGO III News from Magic Online's producer Brian Lindley and Magic Online Brand Manager Justin Ziran.

ITA: It's been a while since we've heard news here about Magic Online III. What's the current status?
Justin Ziran: We just wrapped up internal testing and are busy incorporating feedback from the team.

ITA: What functionality have you got nailed down?
Brian Lindley: The majority of what we call the "Core" game functionality is in place. This includes UI navigation, collection, deck editor, trade, community features (clans, buddies, etc.) and basic game play.

ITA: What functionality are you still ironing out?
BL: We are still working on the integrated online store as well as tournaments, leagues, and fixing as many bugs as we can. We are also working on the layout of the duel screen to make for an optimal (and familiar) game experience.

ITA: Is there any functionality that will need to be put off for updates after the initial MGTO III rollout?
JZ: We still have a significant amount of coding and bug squashing to go, but, at this point, everything seems to be on track. We've been pretty good about not letting feature requests “creep” into the current release. We'll be rolling out all the new stuff shortly after the release of the new client.

ITA: Will there be any “macros” you can set up to more easily repeat steps for combo decks trying to “go off”?
JZ: No, not at this time.

ITA: A lot of players utilize ‘bots for automatic trading and buying cards, getting price checks, etc. Will these ‘bots still function on MTGO III or will they require reprogramming?
JZ: As you know, we don't support any third party applications that interact with the client.

ITA: At the Magic Invitational, you mentioned players having free access to the Beta a week before MTGO III's release. Any more details? When is Beta going to be rolled out? What are the details on the “free week”?
JZ: We expect to be in public beta within 30-60 days. The beta will function much like our current betas – We'll solicit applications, select a pool of testers and then increase the size of the pool as we move through the process.

Regarding “free play week” – About 1-2 weeks before launch, we'll open the system up to everyone (with or without) and account and allow people to play on the system for free.

ITA: The Invitationalists got a first look at MTGO III; what was their reaction?
JZ: The players that got a chance to check out Magic Online III were impressed. They commented on the improvement of the look as well as usability of the new interface.

ITA: Do you have a ballpark release date? I believe it was reported on Londes that it would be sometime in Quarter 3?
JZ: We are shooting for a launch date of October 2nd.

ITA: Some fans have expressed concern about whether their PC will be able to handle more dynamic and rich graphics that are assumed to be part of MTGO III. Will there be an option to switch to a low graphics interface?
JZ: As in the current client, you'll always have the option to switch to spreadsheet mode and bypass all the 3-D graphics. In addition, we're trying to keep the 3-D graphics as manageable as possible. As you have heard, you'll need a basic 3-D card. Anything purchased within the past few years should work fine.

ITA: I get an email at least once a week from a Mac user wondering when or if MTGO will be available on that platform. Is there anything in the works yet?
JZ: No, no plans to support a Mac version at this time.

ITA: Any “war stories” you can share about some unforeseen challenges you and your team have had bringing MTGO III to fruition?
BL: We knew from the beginning that building MTGO III was going to be a significant effort, but were a little surprised at the amount of work it took to integrate the existing game rules engine into the new server architecture and communicating with the game client. It took us several weeks to get to the point where we could just start a game. And although the first game on MTGOIII was immediately conceded, we celebrated the fact that we finally got it working end-to-end.

ITA: What's the first thing you're going to do once MTGO III rolls out successfully? Throw a party? Take off to Disneyland?
JZ: Take a vacation!

ITA: Anything else you'd like to add?
JZ: We're focused on two things right now – Current card set releases and Magic Online III. Once we have those under our belt, we'll start talking about the fun stuff. As for Weatherlight, realistically speaking, we're probably talking about an early 2007 release given everything that is coming out this year.

Taken from wizards website.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/bs62

[Margalis]

Is this even coming out in October? I've heard nothing about it in months.

[eldaec]

Not a single word.

Personally I doubt we'll see v3 before the new year at the earliest.