I've been becoming increasingly frustrated by some of the seemingly arbitrary changes that are occuring on MTGO lately. Not that there are a ton of things I disagree with, but I'm having problems blindly accepting some of the changes they've made / are planning on making recently and I'm going to vent about a few of them. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree, because I think that's one of the things that're missing... player input. So many of these decisions are being made without it.
1) MOCS (Magic Online Championships)
This was something that I was recently been made aware of by a friend and fellow MTGO enthusiast Dan Wilson (DeeDubs) when I told him that I thought it would be cool to actually compete in one by winning my 15 QP's (Quaification Points).
Me: "It's got to be something awesome. right?"
He rolled his eyes, and whenever he does that I can tell that I've opened a can of worms and hit a spot of contention with him. Now this has probably already been discussed to death, and outrage has probably already ensued all across the interwebs but it's the first I've heard and I found it quite disheartening.
Dan: "Yea, well, about that..."
He then preceeded to tell me about what a great thing it USED to be. About how "back in the glory days" if you qualified, you were entered into the MOCS and received your 6 free packs in order to play in a sealed event with only the best of the best. An environment full of winners, where you know that if you take a game, you aren't just beating up on a random newb who needs to ask you how to properly place his triggers and presses enter a thousand times in a row instead of F5. He told me stories about how if you weren't able to actually compete in the event because you had, say, a job that conflicted, or another event that required your attention, that you'd still be veto'd at least those 6 packs. Almost like a "thank you for playing so much and filling our pockets with your virtual gold, we appreciate your hard work and dedication and here's a little something to show you that you're appreciated."
Then a few months ago, everything changed.
First, not only did you NOT get the packs if you weren't able to attend. Now this seems reasonable from a certain vantage point I suppose: You don't play, you don't get the packs. They really were designed as a gift and pre-requisite for you to participate in the event, so cool, I can get behind that.
Second (and this is where I have a problem), they changed the tournament so that even if you DID play, the 6 packs that you open are PHANTOM PACKS! What does that mean? It means that the cards don't actually exist in your collection. It means they exist for purposes of that tournament exclusively then *poof* gone. Granted if you manage to place highly you were still rewarded with packs, but when only a few hundred each month even make it that far, it's already an accomplishment in itself.
But why should we / wizards care? Why should these greedos get ANYTHING for free?
... because it's NOT free!
When I play MTGO, I draft. If you WIN a draft (3 rounds, going 3-0) you get 1 QP. That means you would have to win 15 drafts to qualify. Let's take a best case scenario here. Let's say you're a magic GOD and never lose a game. You play 15 straight drafts and win all 15. You qualify for the MOCS! Right on! But what did that cost you in both $$$ and time? Let's find out!
Time:
Each round is 50 minutes. Plus deck construction. Plus the actual drafting portion. Not every game will go the full 50 minutes, but you're not going to get away with them all being 15 either. Let's for assumptions sake say each round lasts 40 minutes. (You have to wait for everyone to finish before the next match, so if even 1 match goes the full 50 minutes, everyone waits 50 minutes, even if you finished in 15... so enjoy your wait! Watch some replays or something!) *More on replays later in this very post!*
Anyways, that's 40 * 3 = 2hrs. + Deck construction and draft and the obligatory 2 minutes between rounds, let's be super generous and call a tournament 2 1/2 hours. Now multiply that by 15 to get all 15 QP's you need... THAT'S 37 1/2 HRS!!! You've just dedicated over a day and a half to the game in the BEST of circumstances!
I doubt even Brian Kibbler or LSV can claim that they've gone 15 straight, but this is a best case scenario afterall. Even an amazing player probably isn't better than 50%. I consider myself pretty good and I only win MAYBE 1 in 3. So for me to qualify I can expect to devote 37.5 * 3 = 112.5 hrs... approx 4 and 2/3 days of straight playing just to qualify. When a "MOCS season" is just under a month, I can basically forget about eating, sleeping, working, or doing anything else if I want to qualify. That means I have to devote my life to playing, and those that make it are truly the hardcore.
Money:
To draft you need 3 packs @ approx $4 each and 2 tix (worth a dollar each). That's 4 * 3 + 2 = $14 each draft. In our "invincible god scenario", sure, you put down your initial $14 and just roll around in the piles of money you make. But let's use myself as an example, a competent player who can run through 4-3-2-2's with a good deal of success.
My averages look something like this
2/6 = win = 4 packs
3/6 = make it to 2nd round = 2 Packs
1/6 = Fail = 0 Packs
So in 6 rounds I win back about 14 of the 18 packs and make 2 QP's. That's a loss of 4 packs per 6 games... respectable! I'm almost "infinite"! Lets assume that the cards I open cover the 2 tix. Often you get $0 tix, others you open a Thragtusk and can pay for a few in a row.
So I need to play 6 * 7.5 = 45 matches to make my QP's, and it costs me 7.5 * 4 = 30 packs worth of loss to qualify. 30 packs * $4 each = $120 to earn my 15 QP's.
Sum it up:
So for your average "good" player like myself I need to spend $120 & 112.5hrs just to qualify.
If that isn't somehow worth the meager 6 packs (or you can call it 6 * 4 = $24 if you'd like) they used to give out in digital object that basically cost nothing to make... I don't know what is. That's a heck of a lot of time and money I invested into wizards to at least get that small token of appreciation.
2) No More Ratings!
One of the things I used to love about magic was when there were ELO ratings. It was amazing to know that if I had an 1850 rating that comparatively speaking I was doing well. Even 1750 was nice. 1600 was still ok, at least I wasn't losing anything! And when you go under 1600, well, that means maybe I have to start asking others for a little bit of help to brush up on my game... it MOTIVATED me!
Society these days seems to have an aversion to allowing people to "not win". I'm not going to say fail, but "not win"... because that's how we protect and coddle our little egos these days. For example here in London, Ontario there is a Kiwanis Music festival. There used to be a First, Second and Third place... now there are only "participation" ribbons. We wouldn't want to hurt anyones feelings, right? Oh, sorry, this one group put in hours and hours of practice every week and this other team met up twice after school in a month and rightfully sucked, but let's hold their precious little hands and tell them that they're equally as good even though they didn't try and the the "real winners" did.
THIS IS A SOCIETAL PROBLEM PEOPLE!! By taking away any kind of measurable variable we're not giving anyone anything to look up to / strive for.
The new beta client is eliminating ELO altogether. It's already abolished in paper MTG and replaced by "Planeswalker Points" so that we can all feel good about ourselves when we look at our rating instead of actually having a measurable metric with which to compare ourselves to.
So let's all wear our purple participation ribbons and dress in khakis and shop at American Eagle together, m'okay? :S
3) Modern Masters 4 pack Sealed - The Jack.
Wizards has been trying to push legacy on magic online recently. They've got the holiday cube coming up, which will definetly generate interest in the old format staples. The problem seems to be that there are not enough legacy cards out there to be able to build affordable decks.
Ted Knutson (@nextlevelspec on Twitter... follow him!) recently wrote a very nice article on how he believes the cost of Force of Will is pricing people out of legacy and that we need to get more cards into the market. You can read his whole article here: http://mixedknuts.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/562/.
I can agree with most of what he's saying. If they want the format to grow, they need to introduce more cards into the system to lower some prices. Sure you can argue that legacy cards are expensive in paper magic as well, and that you pay a lot more for cards like FoW in MTGO but less for duals etc, but the fact remains that having more cards would be better for the environment.
I was very pleased when Wizards decided to run a few of the old school ME1-4 sealed tournaments a few weeks ago! I happily paid my 20 tix to get a pack of each Masters Edition (ME) 1 through 4, opened nothing good at all (0 tix worth) but still managed to go 2-1 on the back of a Rubinia Soulsinger / Skull Catapult combo. I was estatic to learn that 2-1 was enough to earn 4 packs... One of each ME! YAY I could play in another sealed for only a few tix, right? WRONG!
There was no option to join the sealed event using packs + tix... the only option was to shell out another 20 tix! I would have had to go 2-1 three times before I'd even be able to use the packs in one of the scheduled events which require 3 of the SAME booster, and were never firing to begin with.
Perturbed, I decided to write WotC to see if it was an oversight on their part. Here is a copy of the message I sent to their customer support to address my concerns:
"Hello! I am wondering why there is no option to join these events using packs that you may have won? I have a pack of each of ME1-4 and would like to play in sealed again, but it does not give the option to use my winnings, and that doesn't seem right / fair and I have heard the same from other people on the boards. Even if it ended up being something like: "OPTION 2 - A pack of Me1-4 + 4 tix" or something, at least that would let us use our winnings from the sealed tournaments. What are we supposed to do with these if we cant use them in the sealed again? We cant use them in the 64 player drafts as they are all one ME set, so they just seem kinda useless unless we sell them for tix to other players, which just affects YOUR income as a business since you dont make anything from player to player sales / trades. Any hope of this changing before you take this format away again? I'd love to keep playing sealed, but being forced to pay 20 tix a time when you HAVE THE PACKS seems kinda counterintuitive and makes me want to play less instead of more :(. Could you pls explain why you did it this way? Was it an oversight? Thank you for your time! Carl"
Their answer did not surprise me:
"Hello Carl,
Thank you for contacting Wizards of the Coast Game Support, we appreciate you for providing feedback. This email is to inform you that we have received your comments, and while we cannot guarantee an additional response, we do appreciate that you took the time to share your ideas. We unfortunately do not have any information as to whether this process for Master's Edition sealed events will be changed in the future.
Thanks again, and if you have any additional questions or comments for us, please contact us again. Have fun, and good gaming!"
So basically their answer was "we do it because we can because we know people will shell out the 20 tix".
C'mon Wizards. That was a bitch move.
4) Innistrad / Rotating sets only available as 4-3-2-2
Not a huge deal, but one that I find frustrating regardless.
We all know the math that 4-3-2-2 = 11 packs, 8-4 = 12, and Swiss pays per round win. To only have 4-3-2-2 available to play for Innistard and older sets means that WotC is saving a pack in prizes per event and are limiting what we are even able to play. Personally, I like to swiss... I don't get that option, and I'm sure WotC is fine with it because they are saving a pack per round. It's easy to claim that they keep it 4-3-2-2 because it's the "most popular", but when you're saving 1/12 profit per round, it adds up.
5) No more Replays!
Starting December 12th you will no longer be able to view replays during an active match. The full report from Wizards can be found here: http://community.wizards.com/magiconline/blog/2012/12/05/disabling_replays_during_events.I for one love replays for a few reasons:
1) It gives you a slight advantage if you take the time to watch them.
2) It gives you something to do while waiting for a round to end.
3) It's FUN!
I have a problem with WotC's announcement for a few reasons.
They say that thay are doing it because "many players feel required to watch them, if only because they might gain some slight advantage otherwise missed. We feel like this behavior is detrimental to the overall experience and reduces fun, and this change is being made so players can focus on playing and enjoying Magic rather than studying replays of games at a breakneck pace between games or rounds." I'd like to know where they got this idea? I didn't see a poll asking if players liked replays or not. I never heard anyone complaining about how replays were ruining the game? And like I said, I actually find replays FUN to watch, so clearly we are not all against it. Why did they make this arbitrary decision without consulting us, the players?
I have a theory: Something to do with in game replays is messing up the beta client, so instead of fixing it properly they're phasing it out. Conspiracy theory!?
I just dont understand why they'd do this. MTGO is already less interactive than paper magic, and watching replays was as close to spectating as you can get online. If we're not allowed to watch replays (aka: spectate) on MTGO, how long will it be before at a tournament we're each exiled to a cubicle with high walls so that no one can watch us IRL either? That's the next step, isn't it?
Polling the community would have been nice guys. This is a major change and asking for feedback / input isn't too much to ask of your loyal customers.
That's All Folks!
Despite the fact that this is a post targeting what I believe to be the negative aspects of MTGO, I still think it's a great client and amazing game. Only by sharing our thoughts / opinions can we try and improve the system and my making ourselves heard, we're taking that first step.
... Now I just need to decide if I should crack those ME1-4 packs or hold them :).
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