any one play magic online?

[raztat]

I just got me an account today, any one play?

[MrPopo]

Back when I was in college I used to play a bit online. I played heavily with real cards in high school, since we had a great playgroup, but I lost that in college. I was never seriously in to it, as I refuse to netdeck, so I mostly would draft and sell the rares for tickets/packs to draft again. I was never quite able to get good enough to not have to pay any more money, though. And now I don't really have time to play online, as a draft requires 3-4 hours of time in the worst case (and there's always the one guy who drafts UW control that goes to time). Far too many other games to devote time to that are free after the initial investment.

[ott0bot]

I used to play back in the day, when Legends first came out. I played all the way until 5th edition and it started get really convoluted with all the new abilites. I had alot of good unlimited, beta, revised, arabian nights, antiquities, legends, the dark, and some other good stuff that I ended up selling off to help buy some music geat. I used to really enjoy it, especailly big mulitplayer games. But like mr popo, i couldn't see myself investing real money for vitual cards with nearly no resale value. Plus I liked the personal interaction.

I did actually play with some friends(with crazy expensive collections) a few years back for the heck of it. It was fun, i made a Megrim and Underworld dreams discard and draw deck....people were complaining so i changed it up sot a fun artifact deck. It was fun...but I can't see myself spending much time with it. I'd rather play non-card based video games.

[Niode]

I played it heavily in school. It really annoyed me when PokÉmon cards became really popular and all the normal kids would be like "haha magic is such a ripoff of pokemons!!!1".... Yeeeeaahh....... except your cards wouldn't exist without this game, since Wizards of the Coast made the game and it's almost identical to Magic but with pocket monsters instead of fantasy creatures, except you've never played the damn game, you just collect the shiny cards pointlessly. ... their reply: "wizards of your mum!!"

*sigh*

When I went to college nobody had even heard of it let alone played it. At University there was quite a following among the geeks, but going in with the music crowd segregated me from that. Besides my fiancée ridiculed me whenever I mentioned it.

I could never get my head around not being able to put your own cards into M:O. I really couldn't justify buying my collection twice. That makes no sense to me.

[MrPopo]

It makes sense from a business perspective to not allow you to just import your personal collection, unless they wanted to have a service wherein you scan your card, the card gets shredded, and now you have digital cards instead. That's why I usually used Apprentice when I wanted to play. Yeah, you don't get all the automatic triggers or the pictures, but it does help you be a better player in a sense (since you can't rely on the triggers anymore).

I do wish Magic online had some kind of a solo mode where you can use any card in the game in a deck, so you can try out some cool timing tricks. That's the big advantage behind the software, as it knows all the timing rules by heart.

[Ack]

Let me put it to you like this. I had cards from Beta. I quit a little after Weatherlight came out.

[Niode]

It makes sense from a business perspective to not allow you to just import your personal collection, unless they wanted to have a service wherein you scan your card, the card gets shredded, and now you have digital cards instead.

Yeah, but those are digital representations. They don't cost anything for magic to make. They're just images of the real printed cards. I've already paid for the card... why do I need to pay again. That's the real reason. I'd have no objection paying a monthly fee to play, but having to buy all my cards again just to play. That's just stupid. That's like buying CDs and then having to pay to play them on a different format other than a Hi-Fi. That makes no sense to me.

If you've never bought Magic cards in real life, or only have a small collection then, yeah, I can see the bright side. If you are like me and have a few thousand cards then you can probably see why I wouldn't like to pay again just to play online.

I'd play the hell out of a version of Magic that didn't force you to buy virtual cards.

[raztat]

if the cards were free every one would have a major kick ass deck. I dont have any friends that play so magic online is great for me as theres always a match. I dont like the idea of spending a lot of virtual cards but I dont mind spending 5 to 10 a month, thats like paying for an mmo.

[glynnahab]

I used to enjoy playing as a teen in the mid 90's. My collection and skills were average. I played in a few local tournaments and was an unremarkable .500 (6 wins, 6 losses).

One of my favorite personal nerd stories actually involves one of those tournaments:

I had just beaten a gothic kid in a trench coat (in mid-July in Louisiana!) in my first games with a Pestilence deck (black nights and circle of protections). It was the most epic Magic game of my life. His deck numbered around 150 cards - about 75% of them healing spells. I questioned the legality of such an astounding deck, but apparently it was okay. The game reached the point where we had all of our creatures and mana out at a stalemate. I was dealing him about 30-40 damage A TURN! He was healing himself up at each turn. Eventually it got to the point where everyone in the store was watching and I finally beat him with 3 cards left.

Right after, I played some ubergeek who, in the middle of the first of three games, had a random nosebleed and disappeared for 20 minutes. Then he returned with 5 minutes left he thoroughly thrashed me with a fast red deck. Fuckin' lightning bolts. He must have had like ten of them in there.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, but those are digital representations. They don't cost anything for magic to make. They're just images of the real printed cards. I've already paid for the card... why do I need to pay again. That's the real reason. I'd have no objection paying a monthly fee to play, but having to buy all my cards again just to play. That's just stupid. That's like buying CDs and then having to pay to play them on a different format other than a Hi-Fi. That makes no sense to me.

So yes, they could go with a model that's just a monthly fee, and you can use any card for constructed, and get free packs for draft/sealed. The problem is, the margin on that is likely much lower than the margin on the physical cards. Wizards still needs to pay for the servers (which isn't much in the grand scheme of things) as well as for the R&D that makes the new cards. Plus, having a divide like that would devalue the paper cards. Why do I want to get in a room with several sweaty unwashed guys when I can stay at home with my porn and play for much cheaper?

Like I said, Apprentice is free to play, and people are regularly playing games using IRC for matchmaking. I'd recommend it to you.