I know that this announcement is over a month old, but I can't remember you commenting on it at the time. Do you see great things to come to Magic Online as a result of Magic Digital Next?
In fact, if you can provide me with compelling evidence that this exists, I'll happily support your claims on this very site and defend you against the nay sayers. You seem to be trying to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, so how about you spill the details?
I'd be happy to have a private conversation with you via whatever medium you choose. You make some pretty wild accusations; seems it's time to put up or shut up, as the expression goes. What say you?
I fear you might be right about this. However, I would add that I believe we might be shown a new client towards the end of the year, with a modern UI, but then we will be teased with it for a long time with the release date being pushed back and back and back...
Care to elaborate? You've been around players colluding and cheating the system? I seriously hope you reported these players to the DCI. As you seem to know who even the coffee lady is at Wizards of the Coast, it seems you must have some connection to the inside, so why not use your position of privilege in order to get something done about this cheating and colluding?
Jeffrey Steefel has been appointed the Vice President of Digital Games Studio, which has Magic Online under its umbrella, but this is not the same role as Worth's.
It seems to me that WotC did not replace Worth's position on a like-for-like basis, instead choosing to give Jeffrey the role to oversee all of the company's digital offerings. If this is the case, this seems bad news for us, because Jeffrey's scope is so wide that he may be stretched too thin, not able to dedicate 100% to improving Magic Online (30% is a closer estimate). Whilst he has a team which he supervises in Digital Games Studio, we have not been informed of the names of those who work in DGS, and Magic Online is still one of the many projects of DGS, so who knows if it will be enough. Any opinions?
My opinion: We are going to see the same slow progress for a long time. ie. Every news story coming out about Magic Online will be either "Here are the events which are coming up over the next month!", or "Here is the Bug Blog" (a very incomplete one, mind you), or "Hey, we've made great changes to Magic Online! What are those changes? Drum roll please...Oh we changed the default sticky keys!" (acting as if this is some major news we should all be rejoicing about!).
The elephant in the room is "Why has the UI not improved after so many years?" Very basic improvements which the community has been asking for for years, like giving us a chat bar by default for all players in that room, giving us skins like in previous versions of Magic Online, improving the multiplayer experience, improving the casual experience, reducing all the rediculous wasted space in the in-duel screen so that cards don't look tiny, will all fall by the wayside.
If you don't believe me, just read through the last 2 years of Magic Online articles from the Archive and you can see that there were no functional changes in the Magic Online interface. What tops off the irony is that WotC justify this by saying for years that they are focusing on "stability and performance", when this is the only game that I know of that has stability and performance issues despite their years of focus trying to solve this problem.
The biggest thing is there is a 2 minute delay between streaming and viewing the stream. I don't think this leads to much cheating in general. Sure it can happen but it is impractical and slow and also obvious when it does happen.
Not only that, but people are known to share their screens on Skype and have people help. I've even done this, to help out people getting used to the client or the game.
It is acceptable, otherwise streaming wouldn't be a thing. After all, what's the point in watching someone play Magic Online live if you can't interact? In theory every single opponent you play could be streaming and/or have friends helping them. That's a hard thing to police.
Also, the downside of streaming is your opponent could open the stream and have perfect information about anything you do. Generally speaking I think most high profile streamers don't need the help. "Chat lethal" (chat providing a play that they believe is lethal but is not) is a thing.
I don't know if it's cheating, but I have watched streamers and they get tips in their chat about what cards to play. Maybe they are playing casual games, I don't know. Maybe this behaviour is acceptable.
And I agree that MTGO could use some strong direction but as I understand it, they don't pay enough. Pay peanuts, get monkeys. And monkeys is indubitably what we have now.
And I do miss the chatrooms, why that feature was slaughtered is a mystery. Maybe someone thinks that chatting customers are not paying customers.
Few mtgO players is also because of the cheating and collusion in higher paper events. Since they cheat and collude you get fewer (new) winners to create (new) circles of players that might aspire to play on the pro tour/gp level. In order to play on that level you would have to practice a lot on mtgO.
There was 'playmats' in a sense previously. However, they were bugged and your opponent always saw the green background.
I'm with the poster below that effectively losing chat is one of the worst aspects of the current client. I think when everyone was in a chatroom that was stuck on screen, there was far more chance to make friends. We are all still put in the chatroom for each room (Just for Fun, etc.) but you have to manually open it, which no one does.
Fortunately, we've already got you covered. http://puremtgo.com/node/58385
We went over the article at length here.
Nice podcast this week.
Is there any chance your next podcast could address your opinions about this official Announcement: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/state-magic-o...
(scroll down to the part about Digital Games Studio which starts at the italic text)
I know that this announcement is over a month old, but I can't remember you commenting on it at the time. Do you see great things to come to Magic Online as a result of Magic Digital Next?
Anyone who thinks that the coffee lady has as much decision-making power as Mark R or Jeffrey S cannot be taken seriously.
In the imaginary world in which Hearts dwells, I could imagine this conversation taking place at WotC headquarters:
Coffee Lady: "Good Morning Mark, a coffee with 2 sugars and milk as usual?"
Mark Rosewater: "Not interested in the coffee Laura, I'm more interested in your designs for the next block after Ahmonkhet!"
Coffee Lady: "Glad you asked, here are my design proposals. Look forward to your feedback, hope it's all positive!"
In fact, if you can provide me with compelling evidence that this exists, I'll happily support your claims on this very site and defend you against the nay sayers. You seem to be trying to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, so how about you spill the details?
I'd be happy to have a private conversation with you via whatever medium you choose. You make some pretty wild accusations; seems it's time to put up or shut up, as the expression goes. What say you?
It would be nice to have a lot of people. Those who are totally involved. - HomeLife Warranty Protection
There is always a perfect day for it. People can actually find it interesting. - HomeLife Warranty Protection
For the reason that the problem is the DCI itself (and DCI is wotc, dont get fooled by names and titles again).
I could give you details about a lot of stuff/happenings, but being behind a dummy nickname I dont see the point.
The field is getting difficult these days. Most especially with the values in the game. - Dennis Wong YOR Health
It is learning for the better. People will never stop learning. - Dennis Wong YOR Health
I fear you might be right about this. However, I would add that I believe we might be shown a new client towards the end of the year, with a modern UI, but then we will be teased with it for a long time with the release date being pushed back and back and back...
Care to elaborate? You've been around players colluding and cheating the system? I seriously hope you reported these players to the DCI. As you seem to know who even the coffee lady is at Wizards of the Coast, it seems you must have some connection to the inside, so why not use your position of privilege in order to get something done about this cheating and colluding?
Been around the higher level play scenes and seen things with my own eyes.
Laura Darlington at wotc decides just as much as Mark Rosewater and any Worth or Jeffrey Steel, and she is just the coffe lady there.
Titles this and departments that, dont be fooled, and dont get me started about design and stuff, it is mostly done on sketches in the lunch room.
I like the points in your video, Spencer.
At the same time, the golden age before the internet was even better, when home brews were the norm. Sadly those days can never return.
The price of progress.
Jeffrey Steefel has been appointed the Vice President of Digital Games Studio, which has Magic Online under its umbrella, but this is not the same role as Worth's.
It seems to me that WotC did not replace Worth's position on a like-for-like basis, instead choosing to give Jeffrey the role to oversee all of the company's digital offerings. If this is the case, this seems bad news for us, because Jeffrey's scope is so wide that he may be stretched too thin, not able to dedicate 100% to improving Magic Online (30% is a closer estimate). Whilst he has a team which he supervises in Digital Games Studio, we have not been informed of the names of those who work in DGS, and Magic Online is still one of the many projects of DGS, so who knows if it will be enough. Any opinions?
My opinion: We are going to see the same slow progress for a long time. ie. Every news story coming out about Magic Online will be either "Here are the events which are coming up over the next month!", or "Here is the Bug Blog" (a very incomplete one, mind you), or "Hey, we've made great changes to Magic Online! What are those changes? Drum roll please...Oh we changed the default sticky keys!" (acting as if this is some major news we should all be rejoicing about!).
The elephant in the room is "Why has the UI not improved after so many years?" Very basic improvements which the community has been asking for for years, like giving us a chat bar by default for all players in that room, giving us skins like in previous versions of Magic Online, improving the multiplayer experience, improving the casual experience, reducing all the rediculous wasted space in the in-duel screen so that cards don't look tiny, will all fall by the wayside.
If you don't believe me, just read through the last 2 years of Magic Online articles from the Archive and you can see that there were no functional changes in the Magic Online interface. What tops off the irony is that WotC justify this by saying for years that they are focusing on "stability and performance", when this is the only game that I know of that has stability and performance issues despite their years of focus trying to solve this problem.
The biggest thing is there is a 2 minute delay between streaming and viewing the stream. I don't think this leads to much cheating in general. Sure it can happen but it is impractical and slow and also obvious when it does happen.
Not only that, but people are known to share their screens on Skype and have people help. I've even done this, to help out people getting used to the client or the game.
It is acceptable, otherwise streaming wouldn't be a thing. After all, what's the point in watching someone play Magic Online live if you can't interact? In theory every single opponent you play could be streaming and/or have friends helping them. That's a hard thing to police.
Also, the downside of streaming is your opponent could open the stream and have perfect information about anything you do. Generally speaking I think most high profile streamers don't need the help. "Chat lethal" (chat providing a play that they believe is lethal but is not) is a thing.
I don't know if it's cheating, but I have watched streamers and they get tips in their chat about what cards to play. Maybe they are playing casual games, I don't know. Maybe this behaviour is acceptable.
And I agree that MTGO could use some strong direction but as I understand it, they don't pay enough. Pay peanuts, get monkeys. And monkeys is indubitably what we have now.
And I do miss the chatrooms, why that feature was slaughtered is a mystery. Maybe someone thinks that chatting customers are not paying customers.
How do you know this level of cheating and collusion exists? I'm genuinely curious.
Please submit evidence of cheating and collusion to the DCI.
Few mtgO players is also because of the cheating and collusion in higher paper events. Since they cheat and collude you get fewer (new) winners to create (new) circles of players that might aspire to play on the pro tour/gp level. In order to play on that level you would have to practice a lot on mtgO.
There was 'playmats' in a sense previously. However, they were bugged and your opponent always saw the green background.
I'm with the poster below that effectively losing chat is one of the worst aspects of the current client. I think when everyone was in a chatroom that was stuck on screen, there was far more chance to make friends. We are all still put in the chatroom for each room (Just for Fun, etc.) but you have to manually open it, which no one does.
An excellent summation. The loss of the social aspect and the casual formats saddens me.