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Magic: the Gathering |OT12| Hour of Devastation - Hour of Jace getting dunked on
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
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FreedomFrisbee
Member
It's like everyone forgot about those screenshots we already have. There's another one with a dragon in it. There's a reason people are fearing for MTGO and it's not unfounded.
SigmasonicX
Member
Did that conference publicly reveal anything besides the name and day we'll get more info?
That might not be MTG Arena though. Arena and the MMO are both under the Magic Digital Next umbrella, for all we know whatever they are cooking to replace modo could be something else entirely.
charlequin
Banned
It has absolutely zero chance of being true in the long term, but they have to target this in stages. It's trivial to look at what Duels does and completely replace it with a new platform because it's an incomplete card set and rules engine and fairly simple F2P model -- a more robust platform designed ground-up to be F2P online Magic with full rules support can easily do what Duels did but better.
MTGO, on the other hand, has a bunch of stuff it does that's incredibly difficult to replace but also fairly low-value monetarily. People who play Vintage mostly do it online, and it's very beneficial to Magic's brand that people do stuff like that, but they don't directly generate a lot of cash. Same with people doing Cube drafts or whatever.
When Arena launches, they'll have to have some limited card set -- probably Standard+. It won't even support Modern out of the box, and they have a far far far greater challenge now with 20+ years of history unsupported at launch compared to just five blocks MTGO had to cover. They can't just dump all those cards out at once, and they probably can't even sell them as packs the same way since nobody would ever get the cards they need -- so they probably have to do something weird like roll them out over time as one-time purchases. Getting all the way back to the early days is gonna take forever that way and the backlash for killing off MTGO when that isn't in sight would be way bigger than letting it slowly naturally decline but stay alive until Arena is much closer to a full replacement, cardpool and format-wise.
SigmasonicX
Member
Gaming side thread
So it is just a logo and a date?
So it is just a logo and a date?
FreedomFrisbee
Member
I totally agree with everything you just said, I just can't be assed to type it out.
If they do an accurate rules system in a better interface, I'll basically never touch MTGO again. I don't expect to be able to play modern or anything, but hot damn if they do the above and launch Dominaria with QR codes that give you boosters in game I'll be Scrooge McDucking that shit.
I'm not a crazy person for wanting QR codes am I? I feel like everyone forgot about that possibility. If the game is on phones it would be so easy.
charlequin
Banned
I'm confident they considered that and ultimately rejected it because the MTGO rules engine is too bad to keep. We've seen some indicators of just how fucked up this design is lately, like the thing where foil and non-foil versions of the same card worked differently because they're actually stored as completely independent game objects in their database. With the scope of the game today and literal decades of advancement in application and game development, I think they can do a far better job building from the ground up.
They want this to compete with Hearthstone but the only possible good pitch there is "the actual game of Magic but with the convenient interface of Hearthstone." If your only option is babby Magic built to be as simple as Hearthstone, there is actually zero reason not to just play Hearthstone instead.
I don't know why anyone thinks they would willingly have Duels and MTGO be separate tracks. That happened up until now because MTGO was an unworkable piece of crap and they needed to move faster on actually having a digital acquisition strategy. Given the actual budget to work from the top down there's no reason not to just build one platform that serves both needs.
(There's also no reason whatsoever to have the MTG online game be a TCG. Make it F2P with crafting and let people buy the equivalent of Dust directly.)
And a stream announcement.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
nah they need something to replace masterpieces anyway.
FreedomFrisbee
Member
My impression is that it's being held together with rubber bands and bubble gum. And also I'm pretty sure there's employee testimony that said there wasn't anyone still around who worked on it originally and it wasn't appropriately documented so nobody has any clue how to do anything with it.
So, this part of Dominaria looks a hell of a lot like Serra's Realm: https://twitter.com/jay13x/status/893199489758048256
FreedomFrisbee
Member
Thats the Tolaria West art from the Planechase planes.
Edit: Ah, I did not see the other art
charlequin
Banned
So I invite people to look back at this older thread with transcripts from calls like this one: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1345845
There isn't actually a lot of ambiguity, they are very explicit that they have three design goals for this project: to have it be "real Magic" (as opposed to Duels), to have it be visually spectacular and fun to look at, and to have it be easy and pleasant to stream. That's not a pitch you make for an intro-only product, it's what you make for an all-encompassing digital representation of your brand.
I think you would be for expecting "1 paper pack -> 1 digital pack" but something like X dust or random inserts for free packs/sleeves/avatars in some subset of packs would only make sense.
Those are both pretty heavily confirmed, yes.
The actual Hasbro corporate people were very explicit that their goal is to not do this, yeah.
There isn't actually a lot of ambiguity, they are very explicit that they have three design goals for this project: to have it be "real Magic" (as opposed to Duels), to have it be visually spectacular and fun to look at, and to have it be easy and pleasant to stream. That's not a pitch you make for an intro-only product, it's what you make for an all-encompassing digital representation of your brand.
I think you would be for expecting "1 paper pack -> 1 digital pack" but something like X dust or random inserts for free packs/sleeves/avatars in some subset of packs would only make sense.
Those are both pretty heavily confirmed, yes.
The actual Hasbro corporate people were very explicit that their goal is to not do this, yeah.
Its been in Alpha for a while. People that have played it have said it is the full rules engine that MTGO has with the harthstone style front end. What hasn't been talked about yet is if it will have the same set library and how it will be monetized.
charlequin
Banned
Ten bucks says there's a "New Church of Serra" that built a floating city over Benalia or something in that general neighborhood.
It's going to be a F2P CCG, i.e. non-tradeable collections with crafting. The details aren't known but that's gonna be the general thrust of it.
I like the idea of using the Saga/Legacy time periods as keystones. New Serra, Tolaria West, etc.
Of course you probably won't be using the Phyrexians for the Mono-B part of town tho.
Or... Benalia is now gone. Urza has been resurrected and he cast Crop Rotation for Serra's Sanctum...
... because he's mono green baby!
Where have you seen these impressions of the alpha? That is more info than I've ever read about Arena right there...
FreedomFrisbee
Member
Some kind of currency that can be exchanged for all of the above is the likely answer, and probably the one that would make them the most money.
I think this goes back to when we talked about having color factions themed to old magic stuff. I liken it to if they did the magus cycle, but at faction level. Serra is clearly our white. If black isn't Urborg with Yawgmoth and necromancy stuff I'll be surprised. Blue is clearly Tolaria at this rate. Green the should just make Kroyavimallowar and call it a day. Red I actually wonder what they'll do with because there isn't anything visually striking that comes to mind in terms of setting for them. Like Shiv is obvious, but what does Shiv look like? The Pardic mountains seem more notable in my head. Unless they do the Shiv mana rig or whatever the big structure was and that becomes artifact-ville.
Doesn't Pokemon do straight physical pack to digital pack?
Lets not kid ourselves though... they probably wont do anything like that.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Wouldn't you do something Keldon or Otarian Barbarians for red?
FreedomFrisbee
Member
that one?
That would be the one. Otherwise it's just generic indistinct mountains and stuff.
Otaria def had better red story stuff and location. But whether Otaria is even present is up in the air.
You clearly weren't playing during Urza's Saga lolHuh. Benalia is floating now? Some sort of watchful eye thing defense system?
The image
What? I know it looks like Serra's stuff. But Serra was worshipped on Ulgrotha, not Dominaria.
It also could be Tolaria, maybe even the Riptide group merged with them? Idk. I'm really interested though because it's Dominaria.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
urborg is RB literally and maybe all the way to jund
SigmasonicX
Member
Wait, wait, hold on. People have already played the Arena alpha? Where did you get this information?
FreedomFrisbee
Member
Serra had her own plane. Ulgrotha was just a place she went later.
In places people post without caring about NDAs
So, 4chan
I know that. But what does that have to do with Dominaria?
haha I dont think I have even been to 4chan in my life.
FreedomFrisbee
Member
Serra's plane collapsed and the angels were taken to Dominaria. Really, storywise it doesn't matter. They're clearly going for Serra's Realm here. The floating islands are clearly that and the structures are just riffs on Serra's Sanctum.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
It's funny that with how much of a focus Kamahl and Jeska were that the Barbarians where near nonexistent in the story and set, I couldn't even find a single red card in either odyseey or onslaught with buildings on them.
I'd say the most iconic thing to rebuild in red would be
FreedomFrisbee
Member
When it comes to red in old magic I think of Goblins and Shivan Dragon and Lightning Bolts but no particular place. The Mana Rig I believe made power stones and is located notably closer to other likely places to be visited. Alternatively, having red become Otaria with The Pits would be neat. Gladiator combat seems like something that magic wants more of.
blindrocket
Member
I hope they do. It's pretty much their only plane I think? Dominaria and Shandalar, but the latter has only been in Core sets so far.
FreedomFrisbee
Member
Slivers should be the multicolor cards they always put into things for draft.
The Shandalar were the horrible looking humanoid ones, so better forget about those.
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