Oh Magic Online 3.0, how I love thee, let me count the ways… 0, that’s it.

Getting started should be easy…. should be

When you want to play Magic Online, you better have a credit card ready, because it costs $10 just to run the app. By that I mean accounts cost $10 just to create, but come with a $10 coupon for anything in their online store, neat eh? Well not if you wanted to pay with PayPal because you assumed the PayPal button on the account creation screen is anything but decoration. If you try to use PayPal you’re fucked, the account wont process no matter what you do, even if you switch back to credit card.

I call support and they guy makes the *click/sucking in air* noise when I tell him I tried to use PayPal, he informs me I can’t and the name I wanted was now “lost” and I would have to do everything again with a different name. Not only do they have a big “fuck you” button on there that’s a trap, they also say I’m SOL about getting my name back. Right foot, consider yourself started out on.

But at least the software is good, right?

Wrong. The software is clunky and resource intensive, which is surprising for a CARD GAME with no other effects than “shimmer” on foil cards. When you maximize the window you don’t get more real estate, no, all of the interface items just scale up. The way windows are managed inside of the app is acceptable at best, everything is done in “scenes” and in the sidebar, except the sidebar is too narrow because it’s just scaled and not expanded.

Maybe that’s a little strong, Magic Online has a tremendous burden placed on it, that burden being the rules. It has to keep track of every single possible card interaction, every single ruling and it has to add new sets every few months, and it does it pretty well. For that, things suffer. The way the cards zoom in on middle click is very awesome though.

An example of how they just get it wrong is when I first got my account to work the servers went down. All servers need downtime and maintenance, I know, that’s fine. But there is absolutely no indication on the app that the servers are down, instead I get a socket error. I’m a computer guy, so I know what a socket is, but the error is so obtuse that I end up uninstalling and redownloading the multi-GB app trying to get it to work. The solution to this would be to say in the error “Unable to connect to the Magic Online servers, please check your internet connection. If the problem persists, check the server status link below.” but no, socket error, fuck you fuck face.

What about the team behind it?

Incompetence is a harsh word, and I’m using it. The way everything is handled is abrupt, direct and unrefined. Even Dreamhost has better PR than the Wizards Magic 3.0 team. Everything gets labeled with “We’re on it, it gets done when it gets done.” including things like a new “Collections Server” that would resolve SHOW STOPPING issues like trades not working and 1 person losing “tickets” (de-facto in-game currency) and not gaining the cards the payed for. I briefly played in the beta for 3.0 and I got to see first hand how it feels more like 3 guys working in a basement and not a team that’s working under a division of Hasboro. But I’m sure they’re not to blame, I get the feeling that they’re understaffed and over worked with unreasonable deadlines. It just would have been nice for Wizards to splurge and actually have a real developer make their cash-cow of a game.

Cash-cow?

They print no cards, they ship nothing to nowhere, they use art of the paper cards. The online business is a nearly 100% profit venture for them, they pay for the software development and servers, that’s all. They sell boosters/tourny packs/theme decks all MSRP which is about a dollar higher than what they cost at a store and they keep all of the money. Don’t even get my started on the Theme Decks and what a disrespectful ripoff they are.

So why even bother?

At the end of the day it is the best way to play Magic. The rules engine works, so even noobs can pick it up without worrying about the “phases” or the stack, it prompts you and holds your hand along the way, automating every automatible process. You can play literally any time of the day and get in a game in < 2 minutes. That can't be beat and is a good experience... if you can afford it.

How much does it cost to play Magic Online?

$10, if you just want to sit there staring at the screen. $50 if you want to be competitive in casual constructed, >$100 if you want to be competitive in standard constructed tournaments. Most of this, of course, you have to rebuy every year or so when a block/core set rotates out. Drafts cost $15 (3 packs at $4 + 2 tickets at $1). People will try to tell you different, but your fun in this game does depend on how much you’re willing to spend, and that, for me, is Magic’s biggest downfall.

So what do you really think?

If you have the cash, Magic Online 3.0 is the best game in town. Everything works well enough to keep you sane and playing whenever you want is great.