So, as I sit here in the midst of another MTGO crash, I wonder how on earth the same management team has stayed in place through debacle after debacle, including the complete bungling of v4.
I understand that collegiality and being friends with your co-workers is important, but MTGO is not your local game store. It's a big business cash cow that's quite expensive relative to comeptitors, and is bringing in tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue. It's beyond belief frustrating to me that this potentially fantastic program is allowed to be continually mismanaged, to the detriment of the player base and community as a whole. When you chrage as much as MTGO charges, a level of professionalism and competence that is not even close to existing in the current management team should be expected.
Honestly, besides the U.S. Congress, where can you fail this consistently and continue to be employed? I'm sure Worth is a nice guy, but he's clearly in over his head managing MTGO, and the program's mismanagement affects everyone, not just MTGO players. Increased revenues and positive exposure from MTGO can do nothing but help grow the game on both the online and paper sides.
Thanks for the post. I just tried to log on and need a place to complain.
Why must they perform maintenance several times a week? If the program is that messed up, and really needs the maintenance, why can't they do it at around 4:00 am? MTGO has been around for 12 years. All they have to do is add cards, and maybe change some mechanics each year. On top of that, we are talking about a very simple program. It doesn't have to do much. A third year computer science major should be able to write a comparable program. Doesn't WoTC make like 40% of their revenue from MTGO? What in the world is their problem?
While I'm at it, you should be able to redeem all your cards, not just complete sets. I would spend far more money on the game if I felt my "investments" were more tangible. It would also all but eliminate any difference in online and paper values.
But I'm not sure what you're question is...? I think the great majority of people who have played MTGO for more than three months agree there is a ton of mismanagement going on. Not really a lot of controversy there. Not a ton to do about it either, except keep reporting bugs and crossing fingers for divine intervention. Alternatively to jump ship, but that's not a real option for me personally.
I've argued with people over the number of cards in a deck many times, and I feel that having a high number of "good cards" is better than having a small number of "really good" cards. I laugh at the people who argue that with a smaller deck you're more likely to draw what you need, because if you get in that situation you're gonna NOT end up drawing it many many more times than you would.
But I'm not sure what you're question is...? I think the great majority of people who have played MTGO for more than three months agree there is a ton of mismanagement going on. Not really a lot of controversy there. Not a ton to do about it either, except keep reporting bugs and crossing fingers for divine intervention. Alternatively to jump ship, but that's not a real option for me personally.
More just a blind hope that anyone who makes decisions will read this. Obviously not going to happen. It's clear that whoever is in charge is okay with the status quo, and not interested in shaking things up. That decision-maker is also likely a personal friend of Worth Wollpert.
I was going to join MTGO until I learned how bad it is. Now I am never going to join it.
It's good 90-95% of the time, which is quite a bit better than my paper LGS (which is only good ~50% of the time, when it is open).
Should be 99-99.9% of the time, but it's not as bad as it sounds.
If it isn't as bad as it sounds, then why are there so many complaints about it?
Because Magic players play it? The same group that loudly complained when WotC added (ADDED, note) pro player cards to packs. Over the ~200 events I've played I've filed 3 or 4 reimbursement requests, all quickly fulfilled.
If it isn't as bad as it sounds, then why are there so many complaints about it?
Because it could be, and should be, better.
But as for the main concerns, client rules errors are rarer than incorrect judge calls; tournament crashes happen perhaps 0.2-0.5% of the time (about on-par with the number of paper tournaments that encounter problems due to venue-related emergencies or organiser illness, I would wager); server uptime is over 90% compared to the ~50% of my local game store; and you can play Magic without pants and not get arrested for it.
There are definitely improvements that need to be made, however. Just remember - customers may be satisfied 95% of the time, dissatisfied 4.5% of the time and furious 0.5% of the time and that will still result in 50% of feedback being from the furious people and 45% from the dissatisfied while only 5% comes from the people that are presently happy.
Don't forget it is the most expensive software people own. It is probably several times more expensive than my Steam library, which has probably several times more quality than MTGO software. So, of course people are complaining. If you pay so much, you'd expect something in return. This is not freeware or some indie developer, where you can be a bit lenient. We are talking about big money here.
This a HUGE factor. MTGO is insanely expensive, when you think about it, and it's also insanely profitable. That comibnation should lead to a much more professinoally run product.
Don't forget it is the most expensive software people own. It is probably several times more expensive than my Steam library, which has probably several times more quality than MTGO software. So, of course people are complaining. If you pay so much, you'd expect something in return. This is not freeware or some indie developer, where you can be a bit lenient. We are talking about big money here.
That's not quite true. I'm fairly certain if I'd quit MTGO I'd get most of my investment back. My Steam library I could at best illegally(not 100% sure) sell on ebay for maybe 10-20% of it's value.
Also on the first post: You can also continously fail horrible if you're employed by Square Enix. Proven by them not being able to get stable servers for their online games & also needing emergency downtimes like 5x a month.
The only way you get most of your investmetn back is if you're purchasing constructed cards and playing majority constructed. Obviosuly that is one way to play the game, but it's not the only way, nor even close to the most popular way. They offer a much more expensive version of the game, aka limited only.
It's like saying that you can't expect excellence at an expensive country club, because you can play golf for cheap with garage sale clubs and playing only at your local municipal golf course.
WOTC makes serious bank with MTGO. Like... crazy margins. It's hard for me to even fathom, but they are essentially charging for space on their Database. 3.95 per pack ... and how many drafts fire off daily? How many tickets are sucked back in through events? I would LOVE to see the numbers on this, truly brilliant business plan.
So they take all of this money, and theoretically invest a portion back into this archaic software and b-rated developers to create it? It's astonishing how dated the MTGO client is considering how polished some of their other software (think DotPW) can be!
The crashing, server problems, management - totally inexcusable. These things happen in shoddy environments with poor IT management and security. No excuse at ALL for it to happen when you have the resources they do.
The company I work for has a very minimal budget regarding server hosting and security, but somehow we manage 99.999% up-time for our hosted applications (which are 24/7/365). Granted it's not apples:apples, but the comparison can still be made considering the resource availability.
Still love the idea I can play magic "any time", but man is it frustrating to know that the money I flush into it doesnt even go towards improving the experience. I can't tell you how many emails or support tickets i've opened to comment on the beta client and basic improvements that could be made... some of them have been addressed but for the most part it is still B-rated software from a AAA company.
You think you have it rough? What about being European and getting eeeeevery damm week the downtime during the afternoon after you come back from work and have some time to play?! I really envy Japanese players... hell, even US players since most people are at school or work during the downtime there. But us Europeans, we get the finger from wiztards.
Today the downtime was extended until 12PM european time, which is when I go to bed. GREAT.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened. MTGO management asked how much it would cost to "make MTGO decent" (which would probably involve throwing everything out and starting over, not cheap). They then asked how much additional revenue it would gain vs. the current patchwork approach. Clearly the costs don't outweigh the benefits.
To be honest, I mostly agree with them. Would I play twice as much MTGO as I currently do if it looked better? No. I might play one or two more drafts if it was a nicer UI, but for the most part I go to MTGO when I want to play Magic Online. I don't think any version is ever going to have me say "Wow! The cards look amazing! I should enter another draft RIGHT NOW!"
Understand, Dredge is not really a Magic: The Gathering deck. When a card is playable in it, it doesn't mean it's a tournament playable card. It means it's playable in whatever crazy fantasy world that Dredge operates in.
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I understand that collegiality and being friends with your co-workers is important, but MTGO is not your local game store. It's a big business cash cow that's quite expensive relative to comeptitors, and is bringing in tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue. It's beyond belief frustrating to me that this potentially fantastic program is allowed to be continually mismanaged, to the detriment of the player base and community as a whole. When you chrage as much as MTGO charges, a level of professionalism and competence that is not even close to existing in the current management team should be expected.
Honestly, besides the U.S. Congress, where can you fail this consistently and continue to be employed? I'm sure Worth is a nice guy, but he's clearly in over his head managing MTGO, and the program's mismanagement affects everyone, not just MTGO players. Increased revenues and positive exposure from MTGO can do nothing but help grow the game on both the online and paper sides.
It's just frustrating that this isn't an isolated event.
Why must they perform maintenance several times a week? If the program is that messed up, and really needs the maintenance, why can't they do it at around 4:00 am? MTGO has been around for 12 years. All they have to do is add cards, and maybe change some mechanics each year. On top of that, we are talking about a very simple program. It doesn't have to do much. A third year computer science major should be able to write a comparable program. Doesn't WoTC make like 40% of their revenue from MTGO? What in the world is their problem?
While I'm at it, you should be able to redeem all your cards, not just complete sets. I would spend far more money on the game if I felt my "investments" were more tangible. It would also all but eliminate any difference in online and paper values.
But I'm not sure what you're question is...? I think the great majority of people who have played MTGO for more than three months agree there is a ton of mismanagement going on. Not really a lot of controversy there. Not a ton to do about it either, except keep reporting bugs and crossing fingers for divine intervention. Alternatively to jump ship, but that's not a real option for me personally.
More just a blind hope that anyone who makes decisions will read this. Obviously not going to happen. It's clear that whoever is in charge is okay with the status quo, and not interested in shaking things up. That decision-maker is also likely a personal friend of Worth Wollpert.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
It's good 90-95% of the time, which is quite a bit better than my paper LGS (which is only good ~50% of the time, when it is open).
Should be 99-99.9% of the time, but it's not as bad as it sounds.
If it isn't as bad as it sounds, then why are there so many complaints about it?
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Because Magic players play it? The same group that loudly complained when WotC added (ADDED, note) pro player cards to packs. Over the ~200 events I've played I've filed 3 or 4 reimbursement requests, all quickly fulfilled.
Because it could be, and should be, better.
But as for the main concerns, client rules errors are rarer than incorrect judge calls; tournament crashes happen perhaps 0.2-0.5% of the time (about on-par with the number of paper tournaments that encounter problems due to venue-related emergencies or organiser illness, I would wager); server uptime is over 90% compared to the ~50% of my local game store; and you can play Magic without pants and not get arrested for it.
There are definitely improvements that need to be made, however. Just remember - customers may be satisfied 95% of the time, dissatisfied 4.5% of the time and furious 0.5% of the time and that will still result in 50% of feedback being from the furious people and 45% from the dissatisfied while only 5% comes from the people that are presently happy.
This a HUGE factor. MTGO is insanely expensive, when you think about it, and it's also insanely profitable. That comibnation should lead to a much more professinoally run product.
The only way you get most of your investmetn back is if you're purchasing constructed cards and playing majority constructed. Obviosuly that is one way to play the game, but it's not the only way, nor even close to the most popular way. They offer a much more expensive version of the game, aka limited only.
It's like saying that you can't expect excellence at an expensive country club, because you can play golf for cheap with garage sale clubs and playing only at your local municipal golf course.
WOTC makes serious bank with MTGO. Like... crazy margins. It's hard for me to even fathom, but they are essentially charging for space on their Database. 3.95 per pack ... and how many drafts fire off daily? How many tickets are sucked back in through events? I would LOVE to see the numbers on this, truly brilliant business plan.
So they take all of this money, and theoretically invest a portion back into this archaic software and b-rated developers to create it? It's astonishing how dated the MTGO client is considering how polished some of their other software (think DotPW) can be!
The crashing, server problems, management - totally inexcusable. These things happen in shoddy environments with poor IT management and security. No excuse at ALL for it to happen when you have the resources they do.
The company I work for has a very minimal budget regarding server hosting and security, but somehow we manage 99.999% up-time for our hosted applications (which are 24/7/365). Granted it's not apples:apples, but the comparison can still be made considering the resource availability.
Still love the idea I can play magic "any time", but man is it frustrating to know that the money I flush into it doesnt even go towards improving the experience. I can't tell you how many emails or support tickets i've opened to comment on the beta client and basic improvements that could be made... some of them have been addressed but for the most part it is still B-rated software from a AAA company.
Today the downtime was extended until 12PM european time, which is when I go to bed. GREAT.
To be honest, I mostly agree with them. Would I play twice as much MTGO as I currently do if it looked better? No. I might play one or two more drafts if it was a nicer UI, but for the most part I go to MTGO when I want to play Magic Online. I don't think any version is ever going to have me say "Wow! The cards look amazing! I should enter another draft RIGHT NOW!"
http://www.glassdoor.ca/Reviews/Wizards-of-the-Coast-Reviews-E4718.htm
Modern:
Something new every week
Legacy:
Something new everyweek