Wizards is sitting on one of the most highly coveted IP in gaming and they're being idiots when it comes to the computer game division. It's so frustrating to see what could be so great, be left so neglected.
I love the Professor, and this is clearly the best MTG channel on UA-cam, but sometimes I feel like he's making letters to Wizards instead of videos for the players.
+Johnathon Smithard Who better to voice our concerns? I think its good that someone at the forefront of the community is striving for change that will benefit us all, and the entire channel is not content of this nature.
+Johnathon Smithard Magic for to long has not had enough community leadership that will directly challenge Wotc's dominance over the game. I am thankful we have someone like the professor who can elegantly air the issues Wotc has when it comes to the game. For to long we have had people, like yourself who essentially say, "Don't rock the boat or we will all fall in!" Wotc needs to be taken to task for their poor choices and bad business practices. I for one consider the professor a good spokesman for the community. IF you want pandering to the community Wedge is over there ------>
+Johnathon Smithard That's great for us though, he has a lot of followers and presence in the community, so I imagine his videos will carry some weight with WotC.
I've been watching a lot of videos from you recently. And somehow I always think you must be a teacher on a school, college or whatever you can think of. You explain really well for both new and experienced players. I like that a lot.
A way for the combo thing to happen: Hit a hotkey and a "Record Play" window comes up that is essentially just the same play screen except whatever move is made is taken down. Once the record window is exited, that play is put onto the stack and your opponent has the chance to respond as they normally would. If something that the opponent would do would cancel the interaction in any way, everything on top of the opponent's action on the stack is countered from the stack with no benefits. If the play resolves, you just have to hit another hotkey to reenact your recorded play assuming that all is still well in the board state, and you can do this any number of times - your opponent just has to F6 or whatever to let it happen as many times as you like. It'd be a little tedious for the opponent while they wait for combo input, but it saves a whole heck of a lot of time in the long run. Alternatively, you can state to the game that you have a combo online and the game will check to see if there is in fact a combo, then if it recognises one it will make whatever needs to happen happen. This is the sketchier option as every infinite combo inthe game would need to be banked somewhere, so the first option seems like a better one.
I so agree with the repeat this patern option, when I have gotten the same mindslaver with the same academy ruins and only tapped their lands 5 times then I should be allowed to jsut repeat it automatically until he is milled out, it might be hard to implement for every single combo in the game but for the most well known combos it should be just hard coded so that if you have say the abzan coco combo in modern on the board and demonstrate the loop you should be promted to repeat the loop x times.
I play Pokemon TCG online. It's free; they give me lots of free cards for playing; I play top tier decks I got just from being a loyal player. If I buy cards, I get codes so I can get the digital product as well. I can play it on ipad. Magic is a better game (in theory, arguably not in practice); but MTG is a cash grab that drove me away.
RevolverPhantom It's certainly worth it, When I started the app there were codes for free starter decks; but if you bought a single starter you'd be good. (You get a free booster every 5 log ins; you get coins to buy packs and you get free, often good, cards by doing their monthly "ladder." There are daily challenges with rewards; etc. Oh, and there are a number of tier 1 decks that you can build "cheap" - Nightmarch, for example.
Please do not waste resources on an "achievement system". Achievement systems are basically just psychological marketing tools that don't actually improve gameplay.
+naejin Well... it's psychologically rewarding the same as anything and everything in games, really; maybe you don't care and maybe I don't care(which I actually don't, for the record) but a lot of people do. It's no different than arguing all the aesthetic changes are irrelevant to the gameplay, they are... but they improve the experience for people regardless.
+naejin I guess a comparison would be getting winning a door prize of a free pack or something at an LGS. For many of us it would make little difference but for some players it makes them feel better about the experience.
***** my main point is if you're going to spend money on Magic, i'd rather buy real cards and play IRL than buy into a phoned-in digital version. if WOTC actually gets off their butt and drastically improves MTGO, i might consider going back to it.
I think that if wizards made cockatrice but made it so that if forced payers to follow MTG rules and automatically added counters and tokens when needed I would be willing to play mtgo drafting on mtgo is fun, the games not so much.
that idea about having all the explanations for keywords immediately and easily availablsle would make life a lot easier, especially against crazy pauper decks with odd commons from when Jesus was in short trousers featuring keywords like Flunge.
To improve combo viability online, you could have a very short pause on the match timer (or a secondary timer specific to this state) when abilities are being addressed on the stack. This could help beyond just combo, leaving match time untouched by things that are related to the program's operation and not a fault of the players, while making it a limited amount of pause or secondary pool can still be enough to discourage slow-play or clock abuse.
Hey professor just want to say I love your channel for its honesty and how you mainly look out for the core group of magic players. I recently got back into Magic about 2-3 years ago and am proud to say have gotten my girlfriend into it as well. The main question that the two of us keep asking ourselves is are you going to do more videos of budget decks for the formats. Just keep up the great quality of videos and best wishes for the future
I just got MtGO (literally 2 days ago) what I would have liked would be an intro tutorial into how the battlefield works. They could build a basic deck from the auto include cards you get and bring up a basic Ai. Or good tutorials I still haven't gotten any cards (from the trade system) past the auto includes.
For those that remember the Leaping Lizards days.........many of these suggestions where in the original version of MTGO. I really miss the ability to change the background (play-mat). One of the reasons I quit playing MTGO for 6 years was the change from the original interface. Although I will admit the interface is better now, than it was when they made the first change.
I enjoy your videos. I have a suggestion. do you think you'd like to make an updated video to the one where you showed the best of your reviewed products?
Can't count the times I said "Oh please, thiiiiiis!" while you said all the suggestions. There are some that are very, very needed. Most of this suggestions can be summarized in categories like: Make MTGO more like real paper Magic. Make MTGO more customizable and make the program to remember those customizations. Make MTGO less awkward to use. My personal fav is the repeateble secuence of actions allowing combo playing without being rushing against the clock. Still I do not understand what it means what Brad Nelson said xDDD
I found what the next card expansion would look like:"Creatures will have "Whev enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 soldier token with lifelink and a 2/2 soldier with vigilance on gameplay*.That was we can get different token copies plus a cool new mechanic,making tokens feel mroe unique.
I agree with all of these 100% i would add: 50 play points with each update (Or month). i say fifty because it still promotes the purchasing of tickets since most places where play points can be used require more than 50.
Awesome video professor!! I would suggest something: maybe put the number 40 for the first way to improve mtgo, 39 for the second, 38 etc etc. I would give a 9/10 for this video!
I've thought many times that creating your own cube and then hosting an open tournament would be pretty awesome for all involved. I'm crazy enough to buy the cards to put cool cubes on there, and wizards could even charge a few tixs for the tournaments like they do for their own cube. Also, it would sell a lot of cards for the secondary market that they normally would not sell.
Hey Professor, I love your channel. I think I've learned something from it. I know this is an old video, but I just thought of an improvement suggestion. Somewhere there should be a "Best Of" like Craigslist for some of the strange chat box stuff that happens. Or at least a way to save your conversations before they disappear when you finish a game. Admittedly, I'm a new player, and it is obvious to people who are experienced. I just took a Shakespearian text lashing. But I won the match. And I thought other newbies would enjoy laughing at a good player, but maybe not so good a human.
Have one more: being able to play players of a similar skill level, like playing in ranked and unranked matches. IOW, you can set a filter to only play those with a 50% win rate with 50 or more wins. I am talking about practice of course but beyond the friendly league, there should be more options to play with newer players and lower prize payouts but the league is a good start.
As someone who's played a lot of other games: One SIMPLE feature they should install is some kind of sound effect and/or visual effect that denotes that the game you are in has ended, and that you lost/won the game. The current abrupt disconnect is so anti-climactic and lame! Heck, if you wanna go CRAZY here (we're in 2016 after all!) you could even offer a selection of choices, i.e. a simple 'you lost' message, or maybe a trumpet fanfare and a small animation of a pumped fist when you win? If you need more incentive than just making your game look like it's being played in the new millenium, how about offering a basic package for free, and some dlc effects that could correspond to your favorite color/tribe/guild?? I can't believe they haven't implemented stuff like this, it should be incredibly basic. Hopefully the new 'tech-minded' CEO is gonna take some of these basic steps.
Hey Professor, Your videos are awesome and are a pleasure to watch! I had a quick question for you, regarding a sub-type of MTG that is hard to find. Could you possibly do a gameplay video of Arch-Enemy? It'd be fun to watch! Stay awesome!
Sounds great cept for the turn system after time runs out. I feel like that exists irl in a way to mitigate slow play; which is not a thing in mtog given the clock being 2 sided.
I'd like to have the search function for trades to be where I can type in the card I need and receive available traders that have that card, not just ones that advertise as having or needing it.
WotC will have a new president begin working for them this summer (Chris Cocks). He comes over from Microsoft. It is projected, by many in the mtg community, that this shows the intent to focus more heavily on improving MTGO. We can all hope. As a person who no longer lives close to an LGS I really do rely heavily on MTGO to get my cardboard crack fix and would love it if the product was a lot better.
RE: Combo option - I can't help but feel that (in MTGO at least) the timer is one of the things which prevents combo decks from being as oppressive as they can get in paper magic - this option would make combo decks too good online but that's just my two cents.
I've been contemplating trying out MtG:O for some time now. My schedule for work is inflexible, and I have to work on Friday nights, so no FNM for me. Also, a group that I once was able to play weekly with has drifted away from the game (we maybe play Magic one every other month now). I have played Magic Duels, and I like the free to play nature of it, and earning booster packs, but the limited card base, plus restrictions on cards due to commonality, really limit deck building options, and this shows in the limited metagame in vs. matches. But everything that I read about MtG:O seems to really tearing it down, with the most favorable review that I have heard is the one from the Professor himself. And to be honest, a lot of the suggestions in the video make me realize just how much Online seems to be missing. So, what's my point? I guess it would be that I hope Wizards really pays attention to the suggestions here, and incorporates maybe also some of the things that Duels has going for it. Because while I would like to play Online, I just don't think I can justify the investment on my part when it seems that Wizards doesn't seem to be putting too much of an investment into it on their part. Thanks for reading this, and thanks to the Professor for making this video.
There was a casual draft room back in v1 fifteen years ago, where you could host a private 8-man draft (with no prizes, of course). I believe it was removed because nobody ever used it.
Like the idea for a subscription for unlimited drafts! Would also like this for constructed, pay a fee and pick from 1 of a few predetermined competitive decks
I'd like it when you unearth a creature, you get a visual indicator telling you that it's unearthed so if there are similar creatures on the board we know which are unearth and wich aren't
I would like an option to play private matches with every card available to me (like, not having to pay for anything, but not being able to play on any tournaments etc.; just for fun). Sure there is other software, but I would love to be able to play with a judge AI on the official mtg software.
hola professor what are your thoughts about magic duels. i know thats mainly for casuals but arent casuals the biggest part of most games. is wotc ever going to make a good casual electronic mtg
I think some of these things are in there... and we have HUGE amount of Avatar Options. I do like a lot of there, and I think that maybe some guide to how to change things (Such as your avatar options and window locking) could be very useful. The things I want are more community based. I don't always want to be facing off tier decks. Sometimes I just wanna play stupid games with Guild Feud, or the All newt deck... and I just wish there was a way to advertise that better than the notes that won't be read, by the way the current interface works.
Apparently KMC has developed a new series of hyper matte "PREMIUM" sleeves, can we have a review of these as well as a follow up to dragon shield hypermattes, as i recently had a couple of packs of them basically feel like sandpaper and was wondering if this was a quality control issue or a change in the production in general
I think ongoing, evolving digital games like Magic: Online need to have some (legal, curated) system in place for the community to add to the game the same way Steam Workshop games do. In fact, do exactly that. As I wrote that first sentence, I realized that this pipeline already exists. Time and time again, community members have shown their ability to modify games in ways that surpass the original dev team's vision/capability despite not getting paid for the work. And somebody seriously need to sit Wizards down and explain to them how important and lucrative their digital offerings could be. It blew my mind when I realized that there was no way to change the "tabletop" artwork, that they weren't selling skins for EVERYTHING the way Duels half-heartedly does. And while we're at it, put MTGO version (current + 1) on Steam, already. Somehow it seems as if Wizards comes to some conclusion about how this game should be marketed/treated/implemented in all its forms a few years AFTER the community has come to the same conclusions. I haven't given MODO much thought lately despite the potential convenience, despite the lesser cost of participation, despite the vast community I could join at a moment's notice. Magic: Online just isn't a good client. I would rather play (and lately, have been playing) Chronicle: Runescape Legends, SolForge, Magic Duels and the four games I mention in the next paragraph. One looks at Hearthstone or Eternal Card Game and sees some of these 40 improvements built in to those games' clients. I haven't spent enough time playing Spellweaver or Hex: Shards of Fate to tell you how they handle manipulating your collection, but both Hearthstone and Eternal give you a one-button method for divesting yourself of extraneous cards, and have great filters for deckbuilding. I honestly rejoiced when I found out how easy it was to do certain things in those games' clients both in-game and in-menu. (And, honestly. If you want a digital Magic-like experience, the four games I mentioned above come pretty close to Magic gameplay.)
The loop option is, i think, the biggie. the amount of time that could be saved if I can just click "repeat x times" is phenomenal. Which is why I think they don't do it. I've played in a few games against people with loops that I was able to hold them off just long enough that they timed out trying to get the loop off. Perhaps a possible solution would be you have to perform the loop 5 times, then it will auto-perform using the average time each of those loops took.
It would also be cool if there were better options for displaying cards in your collection that have varying rarity levels. And maybe a good way of looking at cards in-game that you don't own.
The interfaces on the "FREE TO PLAY" (yes, with quotation marks) Magic games offered on STEAM are easily ten times more beautiful, interactive and easy to use. Sound effects, zooming options on all the card... Almost every year they put out a Planeswalkers-like game, but they can't invest in overhauling and redoing the interface on MTGO?
one of my biggest pet peeves is when I have to investigate what my opponent has played by looking at there graveyard because it was on the stack for a nanosecond
Hello prof all the way from the Philippines!! Love the videos. Love the game. But this really got me thinking though. These are FOURTY small things that can improve magic online. Not to mention the big one (being able to play on all platfroms etc.). And the physical game itself, amazing as it is, is having troubles (lack of reprints and the not consistent quality across their line of products, some amazing and some are simply not worth it). And its been a long time since they released a pretty solid set (original innistrad). Im thinking, why cant WotC do the things to just simply improve the game/experience? Its hard to get in. And its even harder to keep on playing. I do love the game though :)
I really, really, really wanted to draft some SOI, so I got a new account and lost two games because of the game failing to explain how the hell to declare blockers, and one because I ran out of time as I was new and playing a decktype I have never played before, it was a game I was set to win next turn unless the opponent ran an ultra boardwipe, not even avacyn could have cleared what I had up....
A few months ago i downloaded the Pokemon TCGO on my tablet having never played it before, after the tutorial i knew how to play, i got a starter deck, i started playing in casual games and adding cards to my deck. Unfortunetly my app went weird and every time i went on it i either couldn't log in full stop or when i did i had seemingly lost all of my stuff and had to do the tutorial all over again and i couldn't be bothered to do that. But up untill that completley game ruining bug/glitch or whatever it was it was fun! I wasn't the biggest fan in the world of the actual TCG itself, i found it a bit too simple and i could see myself getting bored of it quick, but everything about the app was amazing, if Magic made something close to it, it would be so popular it would be ridiculous.
the rearranging thing is one of my most hated thing. I constantly forget to activate PWs in commander because Ill make some tokens or play some things and suddenly they have moved across my board
Getting MTGO in it's current form to run on the Mac isn't a huge engineering effort. There's a Windows environment simulator called Cider that has commercial support for businesses to run Windows applications, especially games, on OS X. Officially wrapping MTGO on Cider isn't going to give the smooth, seamless experience as a full port, but it would be YUUUUUUUUUGE, as Bernie would say. (Bernie being the guy who ran the bodega near my old apartment in Brooklyn, not Sanders)
hey professor, any chance I can talk you into going over an equipment deck tech for commander. I know I'm stuck with white for the best tutors for equipment, but does that really force me to have to play mono white???
Most of those suggestions might be "simple" in concept but from a programming stand point, they are complex. A better example of a simple change would be to update the look and style of the user interface by simply applying a new skin/texture to the buttons, menus and text boxes.... that way maybe it won't look like a program for Windows 95...
The timer mainly exist on MTGO because people used to start a game then just go afk and wait until you got bored and quit. So i would prefer not to have the five turns after rule show up it would bring them out again.
Some of these are impossible with the current client. If I remember correctly the client is based on 1998 technology. Unless I am wrong and they have updated their software. It think the usage of memory is hard. Also, it can be that they have not bought enough server space to save a bunch of the user specific information. I doubt it though, space is pretty cheap these days. Some things like hosting drafts, cubes, and tournaments require rehauling the entire program, or at least programing a way the program will handle this and how. You need to program in types of drafts, cubes and tournaments and add the ability to make them private so you can invite only friend. Easiest is to make them password protected, but drafts would require de system to interact with your packs, simple, and cubes with your collection. Cubes becomes complicated when you have a pre build cube you want to use. Easiest way is to have you submit a deck but then you would require a program to check that none of the cards repeat themselves. Customization should be the easiest one to implement. Worse case they could make it so that it works like the wallpaper of your cellphone, and you can put whatever picture you have. Sure will make it so your opponent's can't see your playmat, or whatever you customized but now you can. Might bring require adding things in the terms and conditions about copyrights. Rearranging your board is hard. Even I it is just you who sees it. Not even Hearthstone allows this, it just allows you to control the placement. It is resource intensive. You need to have specified spaces for thing to be moved to. All things considered they could look for an open sourced project as a basis for the new MTGO. There are some out already and they would just have to implement the rest of the automatization. Timers, auto yields, automatic life total adjustment, implementing counters automatically, selecting targets, declaring attackers, and so on if itis not implemented. Which they already have in the original program, so they would just need to copy it. Unless the original program is a mess. Implementing it so you can never sell cards already inside a deck or putthose cards in your binder. simesimest way would be to add an extra tracker on your cards. Checking them when they are in a deck. The hard part would be changing the code for the selling to omit cards with this check, or give you the option to omit those cards. Borrowed cards might be harder, because I think the way it is programed borrowing cards is handled outside the card itself. Like an extra subroutine that automatically add a card to your collection and then takes it away. Not sure it is currently possible to handle this without doing the same thing as the previous implementation. They sound like easy fixes but the main problem is that they need to program a way to handle the change in nomoclature of the cards. Adding an extra line of code in a card will make it so cards that do not have that cannot be handled by the client and can cause crashes. A complete rehaul is the same, if they did not program the basics correctly then changing the code is going to be hard if not impossible.
+ODDnanref Well, the main reason Hearthstone doesn't let you rearrange the position of your cards on the fly is because some cards care about adjacent minions so position on the board matters.
Matthew Young yes, that too. However you do not know they decided upon the mechanic because they were constrained on the design, or constrained the design because they had a mechanic in mind.
well I thought if anything wizards should do something like what pokemon has been doing. for each pack, booster or anything past 2012 has a bonus code to input In their online game and use the exact cards you find in pack.
Knowing a tad of programming, I can say that while a lot of these things sound like 'minor' improvements, of all of them likely 5 to 8 were actually 'minor' things to add programmatically. Still though, I dearly hope WOTC has their community team scouring over that twitter confersation, facebook postlist, and this youtube conversation... seeing we all know WOTC HAS to come with a overhauled version sooner than later, it's good to know what their customer base wants out of it... And the only thing to find that out, is to have it asked ;)
Does Magic Online have a free version to play? I remember looking into magic online before and there was a price barrier to entry of 10-20 dollars. I wish they would remove it so we can dip our toes into the game before we have to start paying. Even something simple as everyone starting with one welcome deck. Allowing free players to play against free players would be a great start. Once new players are comfortable and interested in magic, they will start to pay and buy into magic themselves. I believe it is a better idea to make Magic Online free to play instead of a price barrier entry. For comparison, alot of online games nowadays are all free with inapp purchases. Clearly this is a working strategy. Please incorporate this into magic online ! Thanks.
There is a "play free trial" tab on the launcher. I don't know what it consists of as I've never used it. But just download the game without making an account and give it a try. Maybe comment back for others as to what the trial lets you play.
I don't play MTGO, but have been considering it for a while. Now that I hear these suggestions, many of which sound like features that should absolutely already be in the game, I'm not sure I'd enjoy playing on MTGO.
They need to improve the way the game handles shuffling. I've got screenshots drawing every land in my deck unshuffled prior to a match that my opponent didn't show up to. The rest of the cards in my deck were shuffled though. When I asked Wizards about this they told me they couldn't comment, hmmm. Why they don't randomize the lands with the other cards confuses me and seems like a major flaw to the shuffle.
Dear Proffeser, I recently bought a few packs of dragon Shields. I was suprised to see that they were of awful Quality! I could easily split them in all directions, and considering they have such a high price, I was extremely unhappy. Has the quality of your DragonShields deteriorated recently?
Hey Professor, have you ever heard of "xmage"? I know it is not comparable to MTGO at all but it is a great free alternative to test some decks online or vs bots, since all cards are available to everyone. You can even play draft, sealed and cube, as well as every constructed format with other players. Maybe you could have a look at it and tell me/us what you think about it. Greetings! :)
For me as a new fresh player who getting more and interested in mtg, I really asking myself why does wizard are not interested in improving mtgo? I really would like to jump into online games because I'm a dad of two kids and not able to attend local events. :/ But hearing about so many issue with mtgo lets ask myself if I really should start playing mtgo....
Wizards is sitting on one of the most highly coveted IP in gaming and they're being idiots when it comes to the computer game division. It's so frustrating to see what could be so great, be left so neglected.
I love the Professor, and this is clearly the best MTG channel on UA-cam, but sometimes I feel like he's making letters to Wizards instead of videos for the players.
+Johnathon Smithard This is more like a letter to Wizards FROM the players? Those are important too.
+Tolarian Community College
Airing grievances is something natural and beneficial for the community.
+Johnathon Smithard Who better to voice our concerns? I think its good that someone at the forefront of the community is striving for change that will benefit us all, and the entire channel is not content of this nature.
+Johnathon Smithard Magic for to long has not had enough community leadership that will directly challenge Wotc's dominance over the game. I am thankful we have someone like the professor who can elegantly air the issues Wotc has when it comes to the game. For to long we have had people, like yourself who essentially say, "Don't rock the boat or we will all fall in!" Wotc needs to be taken to task for their poor choices and bad business practices. I for one consider the professor a good spokesman for the community. IF you want pandering to the community Wedge is over there ------>
+Johnathon Smithard That's great for us though, he has a lot of followers and presence in the community, so I imagine his videos will carry some weight with WotC.
I've been watching a lot of videos from you recently. And somehow I always think you must be a teacher on a school, college or whatever you can think of. You explain really well for both new and experienced players. I like that a lot.
A way for the combo thing to happen: Hit a hotkey and a "Record Play" window comes up that is essentially just the same play screen except whatever move is made is taken down. Once the record window is exited, that play is put onto the stack and your opponent has the chance to respond as they normally would. If something that the opponent would do would cancel the interaction in any way, everything on top of the opponent's action on the stack is countered from the stack with no benefits. If the play resolves, you just have to hit another hotkey to reenact your recorded play assuming that all is still well in the board state, and you can do this any number of times - your opponent just has to F6 or whatever to let it happen as many times as you like. It'd be a little tedious for the opponent while they wait for combo input, but it saves a whole heck of a lot of time in the long run. Alternatively, you can state to the game that you have a combo online and the game will check to see if there is in fact a combo, then if it recognises one it will make whatever needs to happen happen. This is the sketchier option as every infinite combo inthe game would need to be banked somewhere, so the first option seems like a better one.
I so agree with the repeat this patern option, when I have gotten the same mindslaver with the same academy ruins and only tapped their lands 5 times then I should be allowed to jsut repeat it automatically until he is milled out, it might be hard to implement for every single combo in the game but for the most well known combos it should be just hard coded so that if you have say the abzan coco combo in modern on the board and demonstrate the loop you should be promted to repeat the loop x times.
Having a monthly subscription for drafts or just making phantom drafts really cheap would do wonders for MODO.
I was a little late to mention it yesterday, but a feature I would love is if they made it pausible to delete old draft decks in mass.
Happy you've grown to be such a prominent figure in the magic community, well deserved and keep it up!
I play Pokemon TCG online. It's free; they give me lots of free cards for playing; I play top tier decks I got just from being a loyal player.
If I buy cards, I get codes so I can get the digital product as well.
I can play it on ipad.
Magic is a better game (in theory, arguably not in practice); but MTG is a cash grab that drove me away.
+William Simkulet It's been many years since I was into the Pokemon TCG but if that's the case I might actually give it a try.
RevolverPhantom It's certainly worth it, When I started the app there were codes for free starter decks; but if you bought a single starter you'd be good. (You get a free booster every 5 log ins; you get coins to buy packs and you get free, often good, cards by doing their monthly "ladder." There are daily challenges with rewards; etc.
Oh, and there are a number of tier 1 decks that you can build "cheap" - Nightmarch, for example.
Please do not waste resources on an "achievement system". Achievement systems are basically just psychological marketing tools that don't actually improve gameplay.
+naejin Unless the achievements give you rewards like in hearthstone and other games. Getting thrown a few Tix every once in a while would be great.
+naejin Well... it's psychologically rewarding the same as anything and everything in games, really; maybe you don't care and maybe I don't care(which I actually don't, for the record) but a lot of people do. It's no different than arguing all the aesthetic changes are irrelevant to the gameplay, they are... but they improve the experience for people regardless.
+naejin I guess a comparison would be getting winning a door prize of a free pack or something at an LGS. For many of us it would make little difference but for some players it makes them feel better about the experience.
honestly this is why things like Cockatrice or Xmage are better.
Cockatrice is only good cause it's free
right. you arent paying through the nose for a very sad UI and bad features.
***** my main point is if you're going to spend money on Magic, i'd rather buy real cards and play IRL than buy into a phoned-in digital version. if WOTC actually gets off their butt and drastically improves MTGO, i might consider going back to it.
I think that if wizards made cockatrice but made it so that if forced payers to follow MTG rules and automatically added counters and tokens when needed I would be willing to play mtgo drafting on mtgo is fun, the games not so much.
Xmage would be better then mtgo if it was more stable.
that idea about having all the explanations for keywords immediately and easily availablsle would make life a lot easier, especially against crazy pauper decks with odd commons from when Jesus was in short trousers featuring keywords like Flunge.
To improve combo viability online, you could have a very short pause on the match timer (or a secondary timer specific to this state) when abilities are being addressed on the stack. This could help beyond just combo, leaving match time untouched by things that are related to the program's operation and not a fault of the players, while making it a limited amount of pause or secondary pool can still be enough to discourage slow-play or clock abuse.
Hey professor just want to say I love your channel for its honesty and how you mainly look out for the core group of magic players. I recently got back into Magic about 2-3 years ago and am proud to say have gotten my girlfriend into it as well. The main question that the two of us keep asking ourselves is are you going to do more videos of budget decks for the formats. Just keep up the great quality of videos and best wishes for the future
nice cinematography and music! I always pay attention to those two
Great thoughts! I have not gotten into MTGO because of some of these issues.
bit rude Wizards haven't said thank you for you time to research. They should be doing this! Thank god we have you professor!!!! :D
I just got MtGO (literally 2 days ago) what I would have liked would be an intro tutorial into how the battlefield works. They could build a basic deck from the auto include cards you get and bring up a basic Ai. Or good tutorials I still haven't gotten any cards (from the trade system) past the auto includes.
For those that remember the Leaping Lizards days.........many of these suggestions where in the original version of MTGO. I really miss the ability to change the background (play-mat). One of the reasons I quit playing MTGO for 6 years was the change from the original interface. Although I will admit the interface is better now, than it was when they made the first change.
I enjoy your videos. I have a suggestion. do you think you'd like to make an updated video to the one where you showed the best of your reviewed products?
Outstanding, so many of these would fix issues that drove me away from MTGO before.
Can't count the times I said "Oh please, thiiiiiis!" while you said all the suggestions. There are some that are very, very needed.
Most of this suggestions can be summarized in categories like:
Make MTGO more like real paper Magic.
Make MTGO more customizable and make the program to remember those customizations.
Make MTGO less awkward to use.
My personal fav is the repeateble secuence of actions allowing combo playing without being rushing against the clock.
Still I do not understand what it means what Brad Nelson said xDDD
I found what the next card expansion would look like:"Creatures will have "Whev enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 soldier token with lifelink and a 2/2 soldier with vigilance on gameplay*.That was we can get different token copies plus a cool new mechanic,making tokens feel mroe unique.
+Kostas Kavourinos what?
I agree with all of these 100% i would add: 50 play points with each update (Or month). i say fifty because it still promotes the purchasing of tickets since most places where play points can be used require more than 50.
Awesome video professor!! I would suggest something: maybe put the number 40 for the first way to improve mtgo, 39 for the second, 38 etc etc. I would give a 9/10 for this video!
I think all of these are needed, though. It would be tough to organize by importance.
I think all of these are needed, though. It would be tough to organize by importance.
I've thought many times that creating your own cube and then hosting an open tournament would be pretty awesome for all involved. I'm crazy enough to buy the cards to put cool cubes on there, and wizards could even charge a few tixs for the tournaments like they do for their own cube. Also, it would sell a lot of cards for the secondary market that they normally would not sell.
Hey Professor, I love your channel. I think I've learned something from it. I know this is an old video, but I just thought of an improvement suggestion. Somewhere there should be a "Best Of" like Craigslist for some of the strange chat box stuff that happens. Or at least a way to save your conversations before they disappear when you finish a game. Admittedly, I'm a new player, and it is obvious to people who are experienced. I just took a Shakespearian text lashing. But I won the match. And I thought other newbies would enjoy laughing at a good player, but maybe not so good a human.
Have one more: being able to play players of a similar skill level, like playing in ranked and unranked matches. IOW, you can set a filter to only play those with a 50% win rate with 50 or more wins.
I am talking about practice of course but beyond the friendly league, there should be more options to play with newer players and lower prize payouts but the league is a good start.
As someone who's played a lot of other games: One SIMPLE feature they should install is some kind of sound effect and/or visual effect that denotes that the game you are in has ended, and that you lost/won the game. The current abrupt disconnect is so anti-climactic and lame!
Heck, if you wanna go CRAZY here (we're in 2016 after all!) you could even offer a selection of choices, i.e. a simple 'you lost' message, or maybe a trumpet fanfare and a small animation of a pumped fist when you win? If you need more incentive than just making your game look like it's being played in the new millenium, how about offering a basic package for free, and some dlc effects that could correspond to your favorite color/tribe/guild??
I can't believe they haven't implemented stuff like this, it should be incredibly basic. Hopefully the new 'tech-minded' CEO is gonna take some of these basic steps.
Hey Professor,
Your videos are awesome and are a pleasure to watch! I had a quick question for you, regarding a sub-type of MTG that is hard to find. Could you possibly do a gameplay video of Arch-Enemy? It'd be fun to watch!
Stay awesome!
Sounds great cept for the turn system after time runs out. I feel like that exists irl in a way to mitigate slow play; which is not a thing in mtog given the clock being 2 sided.
I'd like to have the search function for trades to be where I can type in the card I need and receive available traders that have that card, not just ones that advertise as having or needing it.
WotC will have a new president begin working for them this summer (Chris Cocks). He comes over from Microsoft. It is projected, by many in the mtg community, that this shows the intent to focus more heavily on improving MTGO. We can all hope. As a person who no longer lives close to an LGS I really do rely heavily on MTGO to get my cardboard crack fix and would love it if the product was a lot better.
i am so glad i found this channel.
A bearded Professor is a better Professor. :)
I disagree.
RE: Combo option - I can't help but feel that (in MTGO at least) the timer is one of the things which prevents combo decks from being as oppressive as they can get in paper magic - this option would make combo decks too good online but that's just my two cents.
Cockatrice it is. Great video Prof.
I've been contemplating trying out MtG:O for some time now. My schedule for work is inflexible, and I have to work on Friday nights, so no FNM for me. Also, a group that I once was able to play weekly with has drifted away from the game (we maybe play Magic one every other month now). I have played Magic Duels, and I like the free to play nature of it, and earning booster packs, but the limited card base, plus restrictions on cards due to commonality, really limit deck building options, and this shows in the limited metagame in vs. matches. But everything that I read about MtG:O seems to really tearing it down, with the most favorable review that I have heard is the one from the Professor himself. And to be honest, a lot of the suggestions in the video make me realize just how much Online seems to be missing.
So, what's my point? I guess it would be that I hope Wizards really pays attention to the suggestions here, and incorporates maybe also some of the things that Duels has going for it. Because while I would like to play Online, I just don't think I can justify the investment on my part when it seems that Wizards doesn't seem to be putting too much of an investment into it on their part.
Thanks for reading this, and thanks to the Professor for making this video.
There was a casual draft room back in v1 fifteen years ago, where you could host a private 8-man draft (with no prizes, of course). I believe it was removed because nobody ever used it.
Nice job Professor!
I wish that the "Duel of the Planeswalkers" series would take over as MTGO, of course adapted to add the various needed features they lack.
Like the idea for a subscription for unlimited drafts! Would also like this for constructed, pay a fee and pick from 1 of a few predetermined competitive decks
I'd like it when you unearth a creature, you get a visual indicator telling you that it's unearthed so if there are similar creatures on the board we know which are unearth and wich aren't
Can we just pitch mtgo entirely and turn magic duels into what mtgo should be?
Thank you for the video professor! May I ask, what is the large sized card on the shelf?
Also a private channel pauper tournament would be so awesome!
+alex h (rumpleteazer8) That's Baron Sengir
Hex, a Steam game I play, is on Mac and Windows and has fixed almost all those problems. I still like MTG more in real life though.
I would like an option to play private matches with every card available to me (like, not having to pay for anything, but not being able to play on any tournaments etc.; just for fun). Sure there is other software, but I would love to be able to play with a judge AI on the official mtg software.
anyone else who would like the professor to do deck techs?
hola professor what are your thoughts about magic duels. i know thats mainly for casuals but arent casuals the biggest part of most games. is wotc ever going to make a good casual electronic mtg
I think some of these things are in there... and we have HUGE amount of Avatar Options. I do like a lot of there, and I think that maybe some guide to how to change things (Such as your avatar options and window locking) could be very useful.
The things I want are more community based. I don't always want to be facing off tier decks. Sometimes I just wanna play stupid games with Guild Feud, or the All newt deck... and I just wish there was a way to advertise that better than the notes that won't be read, by the way the current interface works.
Apparently KMC has developed a new series of hyper matte "PREMIUM" sleeves, can we have a review of these as well as a follow up to dragon shield hypermattes, as i recently had a couple of packs of them basically feel like sandpaper and was wondering if this was a quality control issue or a change in the production in general
Can you do a video about Grand Prix's and going pro in magic the gathering?
I think ongoing, evolving digital games like Magic: Online need to have some (legal, curated) system in place for the community to add to the game the same way Steam Workshop games do. In fact, do exactly that. As I wrote that first sentence, I realized that this pipeline already exists. Time and time again, community members have shown their ability to modify games in ways that surpass the original dev team's vision/capability despite not getting paid for the work.
And somebody seriously need to sit Wizards down and explain to them how important and lucrative their digital offerings could be. It blew my mind when I realized that there was no way to change the "tabletop" artwork, that they weren't selling skins for EVERYTHING the way Duels half-heartedly does. And while we're at it, put MTGO version (current + 1) on Steam, already. Somehow it seems as if Wizards comes to some conclusion about how this game should be marketed/treated/implemented in all its forms a few years AFTER the community has come to the same conclusions. I haven't given MODO much thought lately despite the potential convenience, despite the lesser cost of participation, despite the vast community I could join at a moment's notice. Magic: Online just isn't a good client. I would rather play (and lately, have been playing) Chronicle: Runescape Legends, SolForge, Magic Duels and the four games I mention in the next paragraph.
One looks at Hearthstone or Eternal Card Game and sees some of these 40 improvements built in to those games' clients. I haven't spent enough time playing Spellweaver or Hex: Shards of Fate to tell you how they handle manipulating your collection, but both Hearthstone and Eternal give you a one-button method for divesting yourself of extraneous cards, and have great filters for deckbuilding. I honestly rejoiced when I found out how easy it was to do certain things in those games' clients both in-game and in-menu. (And, honestly. If you want a digital Magic-like experience, the four games I mentioned above come pretty close to Magic gameplay.)
The loop option is, i think, the biggie. the amount of time that could be saved if I can just click "repeat x times" is phenomenal.
Which is why I think they don't do it. I've played in a few games against people with loops that I was able to hold them off just long enough that they timed out trying to get the loop off. Perhaps a possible solution would be you have to perform the loop 5 times, then it will auto-perform using the average time each of those loops took.
It would also be cool if there were better options for displaying cards in your collection that have varying rarity levels. And maybe a good way of looking at cards in-game that you don't own.
The interfaces on the "FREE TO PLAY" (yes, with quotation marks) Magic games offered on STEAM are easily ten times more beautiful, interactive and easy to use. Sound effects, zooming options on all the card... Almost every year they put out a Planeswalkers-like game, but they can't invest in overhauling and redoing the interface on MTGO?
one of my biggest pet peeves is when I have to investigate what my opponent has played by looking at there graveyard because it was on the stack for a nanosecond
Hello prof all the way from the Philippines!! Love the videos. Love the game. But this really got me thinking though. These are FOURTY small things that can improve magic online. Not to mention the big one (being able to play on all platfroms etc.). And the physical game itself, amazing as it is, is having troubles (lack of reprints and the not consistent quality across their line of products, some amazing and some are simply not worth it). And its been a long time since they released a pretty solid set (original innistrad). Im thinking, why cant WotC do the things to just simply improve the game/experience? Its hard to get in. And its even harder to keep on playing. I do love the game though :)
I really, really, really wanted to draft some SOI, so I got a new account and lost two games because of the game failing to explain how the hell to declare blockers, and one because I ran out of time as I was new and playing a decktype I have never played before, it was a game I was set to win next turn unless the opponent ran an ultra boardwipe, not even avacyn could have cleared what I had up....
Great video. Thanks Prof
A few months ago i downloaded the Pokemon TCGO on my tablet having never played it before, after the tutorial i knew how to play, i got a starter deck, i started playing in casual games and adding cards to my deck. Unfortunetly my app went weird and every time i went on it i either couldn't log in full stop or when i did i had seemingly lost all of my stuff and had to do the tutorial all over again and i couldn't be bothered to do that. But up untill that completley game ruining bug/glitch or whatever it was it was fun! I wasn't the biggest fan in the world of the actual TCG itself, i found it a bit too simple and i could see myself getting bored of it quick, but everything about the app was amazing, if Magic made something close to it, it would be so popular it would be ridiculous.
I did not have MTGO, but I have a question : can you change the card text font ? I want my online cards looks like my real cards.
Offer the people who ran Cockatrice to take over MTGO and implement their software.
Hey Professor, many Magic players ask, do you have a Tolarian Academy?
the rearranging thing is one of my most hated thing. I constantly forget to activate PWs in commander because Ill make some tokens or play some things and suddenly they have moved across my board
i wish they would let us make our own cubes for drafting with rating systems and top cubes of the month pages
4:00 Have your graveyard in the same place AND the same location! Brilliantly repetitive and redundant! XD
I wouldn't mind a small box that would allow me to search for a specific card to see the oracle text
I think way back in the Leaping Lizards days you actually could do casual drafts with your own packs.
Getting MTGO in it's current form to run on the Mac isn't a huge engineering effort. There's a Windows environment simulator called Cider that has commercial support for businesses to run Windows applications, especially games, on OS X.
Officially wrapping MTGO on Cider isn't going to give the smooth, seamless experience as a full port, but it would be YUUUUUUUUUGE, as Bernie would say.
(Bernie being the guy who ran the bodega near my old apartment in Brooklyn, not Sanders)
i agreed with all that i understood, thanks
hey professor, any chance I can talk you into going over an equipment deck tech for commander. I know I'm stuck with white for the best tutors for equipment, but does that really force me to have to play mono white???
+Brian Wise No. I have a Noyan Dar deck that has an equipment sub theme. Being that blue has artifact tutors it's pretty sweet.
excelent video!
Most of those suggestions might be "simple" in concept but from a programming stand point, they are complex. A better example of a simple change would be to update the look and style of the user interface by simply applying a new skin/texture to the buttons, menus and text boxes.... that way maybe it won't look like a program for Windows 95...
The timer mainly exist on MTGO because people used to start a game then just go afk and wait until you got bored and quit.
So i would prefer not to have the five turns after rule show up it would bring them out again.
Some of these are impossible with the current client. If I remember correctly the client is based on 1998 technology. Unless I am wrong and they have updated their software. It think the usage of memory is hard.
Also, it can be that they have not bought enough server space to save a bunch of the user specific information. I doubt it though, space is pretty cheap these days.
Some things like hosting drafts, cubes, and tournaments require rehauling the entire program, or at least programing a way the program will handle this and how. You need to program in types of drafts, cubes and tournaments and add the ability to make them private so you can invite only friend. Easiest is to make them password protected, but drafts would require de system to interact with your packs, simple, and cubes with your collection. Cubes becomes complicated when you have a pre build cube you want to use. Easiest way is to have you submit a deck but then you would require a program to check that none of the cards repeat themselves.
Customization should be the easiest one to implement. Worse case they could make it so that it works like the wallpaper of your cellphone, and you can put whatever picture you have. Sure will make it so your opponent's can't see your playmat, or whatever you customized but now you can. Might bring require adding things in the terms and conditions about copyrights.
Rearranging your board is hard. Even I it is just you who sees it. Not even Hearthstone allows this, it just allows you to control the placement. It is resource intensive. You need to have specified spaces for thing to be moved to. All things considered they could look for an open sourced project as a basis for the new MTGO. There are some out already and they would just have to implement the rest of the automatization. Timers, auto yields, automatic life total adjustment, implementing counters automatically, selecting targets, declaring attackers, and so on if itis not implemented. Which they already have in the original program, so they would just need to copy it. Unless the original program is a mess.
Implementing it so you can never sell cards already inside a deck or putthose cards in your binder. simesimest way would be to add an extra tracker on your cards. Checking them when they are in a deck. The hard part would be changing the code for the selling to omit cards with this check, or give you the option to omit those cards.
Borrowed cards might be harder, because I think the way it is programed borrowing cards is handled outside the card itself. Like an extra subroutine that automatically add a card to your collection and then takes it away. Not sure it is currently possible to handle this without doing the same thing as the previous implementation.
They sound like easy fixes but the main problem is that they need to program a way to handle the change in nomoclature of the cards. Adding an extra line of code in a card will make it so cards that do not have that cannot be handled by the client and can cause crashes.
A complete rehaul is the same, if they did not program the basics correctly then changing the code is going to be hard if not impossible.
+ODDnanref Well, the main reason Hearthstone doesn't let you rearrange the position of your cards on the fly is because some cards care about adjacent minions so position on the board matters.
Matthew Young
yes, that too. However you do not know they decided upon the mechanic because they were constrained on the design, or constrained the design because they had a mechanic in mind.
an Achievement system would be sweet! :)
wow, MTGO sounds terrible. It almost makes me glad I can't play it on my Mac.
+Duncan Ellis (Dunx) It is awful. Really awful. But it is still better than no magic.
+Duncan Ellis (Dunx) Almost as bad as a Mac ;D
+Simon Sjöström-grönkvist Perfect description of MTGO.
+Duncan Ellis (Dunx) - Honestly it kind of is. I'd love to play it more, but I'd rather just use Duels.
well I thought if anything wizards should do something like what pokemon has been doing. for each pack, booster or anything past 2012 has a bonus code to input In their online game and use the exact cards you find in pack.
Knowing a tad of programming, I can say that while a lot of these things sound like 'minor' improvements, of all of them likely 5 to 8 were actually 'minor' things to add programmatically. Still though, I dearly hope WOTC has their community team scouring over that twitter confersation, facebook postlist, and this youtube conversation... seeing we all know WOTC HAS to come with a overhauled version sooner than later, it's good to know what their customer base wants out of it... And the only thing to find that out, is to have it asked ;)
Does Magic Online have a free version to play? I remember looking into magic online before and there was a price barrier to entry of 10-20 dollars. I wish they would remove it so we can dip our toes into the game before we have to start paying. Even something simple as everyone starting with one welcome deck. Allowing free players to play against free players would be a great start. Once new players are comfortable and interested in magic, they will start to pay and buy into magic themselves. I believe it is a better idea to make Magic Online free to play instead of a price barrier entry. For comparison, alot of online games nowadays are all free with inapp purchases. Clearly this is a working strategy. Please incorporate this into magic online ! Thanks.
There is a "play free trial" tab on the launcher. I don't know what it consists of as I've never used it. But just download the game without making an account and give it a try. Maybe comment back for others as to what the trial lets you play.
I want to be able to play cultivate in my battle of wits deck without the client shitting itself.
I don't play MTGO, but have been considering it for a while. Now that I hear these suggestions, many of which sound like features that should absolutely already be in the game, I'm not sure I'd enjoy playing on MTGO.
I Wouk want prize support for regular games like 1 ticket for 20 games?
was mass deck deletion mentioned? Those draft decks cluttering up my mtgo is annoying
Make it easier to untap lands AND to clarify the order that cards with specified and generic mana costs are paid.
They need to improve the way the game handles shuffling. I've got screenshots drawing every land in my deck unshuffled prior to a match that my opponent didn't show up to. The rest of the cards in my deck were shuffled though. When I asked Wizards about this they told me they couldn't comment, hmmm. Why they don't randomize the lands with the other cards confuses me and seems like a major flaw to the shuffle.
maybe, add a notification when your timer is running out?
A monthly subscription for unlimited phantom drafting is pure genius
So, turn it into more advanced magic duels?
Most, if not all, of this does not sound very difficult to implement. All very reasonable.
Dear Proffeser,
I recently bought a few packs of dragon Shields. I was suprised to see that they were of awful Quality! I could easily split them in all directions, and considering they have such a high price, I was extremely unhappy.
Has the quality of your DragonShields deteriorated recently?
awesome ideas
Hey Professor,
have you ever heard of "xmage"?
I know it is not comparable to MTGO at all but it is a great free alternative to test some decks online or vs bots, since all cards are available to everyone. You can even play draft, sealed and cube, as well as every constructed format with other players.
Maybe you could have a look at it and tell me/us what you think about it.
Greetings! :)
This is so EPIC
Preach professor!
Filtering by color identity. Also not all of these would be an easy fix.
For me as a new fresh player who getting more and interested in mtg, I really asking myself why does wizard are not interested in improving mtgo? I really would like to jump into online games because I'm a dad of two kids and not able to attend local events. :/ But hearing about so many issue with mtgo lets ask myself if I really should start playing mtgo....
btw professor, dat five o clock shadow doh.
I would say update the CSS to something past 1997. It's looks like a myspace page.