While at Game Developer's Conference last week, I had a chance to talk with a few of the PR reps that were at the Wizards booth. They've announced publicly that they're hiring upwards of 50 people for a new game division at the Wizards HQ (i believe), and in the next year a possibility of another 100 or so - this is some major scaling, geared at competing with AAA developers. Most likely we'll see other WOTC franchises see online iterations, as apparently the MTGO model has proven it is profitable.
It may even result in a new core team programming 4.0 (or 3.1, whatever you'd want to call it), complete with a ground-up version of Magic online - at least I'd like to hope that's what they'd devote so many resources towards
I'd imagine the new MMO they're working on will get most of the resources, however..
Also, Wizards gave out those seal-top thermus style mugs this year, rather than art mousepads. Not quite as cool as at E3's past, but hey, it's GDC.
Does anyone else have details on their expansions? I may just be in the dark on something that's obvious to everyone else
They're developing a framework. Inside this framework you can create games at a lesser cost with the same quality graphics, architecture, server structure, etc.
There are several game developers who do this sort of thing, for CCGs even. WOTC is just getting in on that, or at least it appears. I'm sure we'll see Netrunner come back if they can even halfway justify it, as the cost of electrical bits vs. paper production is very much david vs. goliath.
And they've got that 'Goblin Game' of sorts that they're also developing. Probably the same framework, or at least server architecture.
What I don't know is if they are developing it in-house or outsourcing the development. I believe they may be doing this one on their own, as R-to-the-B mentioned Leaping Lizard in his MTGO 3 blog. Gotta be some resentment there and 'we'll never do that again' feelings.
Yeah - I'd imagine all their game dev from here on is in-house. No royalties or shared ownership... Leaping Lizards - yeaaaah... the problem is that they learned the lesson of "do it yourself", but didn't quite yet learn "HOW TO do it yourself".. Maybe this major effort is their first step!
Well I hope they do some stand-alone games (IE none online games) an update to the original Shandalar game from Micropose would be AWESOME.
I mean Battlegrounds was Ok, but it wasn't Magic. I want something along the lines of the Yu-Gi-Oh series with Magic, now that would be worth having.
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Hrmm... Maybe if they start making actual games based on their properties, we'll get something better than that horrible Battlegrounds game on the Xbox. I'd kill for a Ravnica game, either in an Elder Scrolls style or, even better, an MMO.
I know they have said that they will never do anything like an Yi-Gi-Oh program for TV, but I personally think that it would be cool if they made a show that was about Ravnica or Kamigawa. I mean they do have pretty much everything they need to make something great out of it, two great writers and a good relationship with a tv station, well with [adult swim] at least.
Hrmm... Maybe if they start making actual games based on their properties, we'll get something better than that horrible Battlegrounds game on the Xbox. I'd kill for a Ravnica game, either in an Elder Scrolls style or, even better, an MMO.
Agreed. Ravnica Online could make for an interesting MMO. The Multiverse in general lends itself to the MMO world quite well. Choose your plane and go. Similar to Jedi in SW:G, they could make it very challenging to ascend to become a planeswalker giving you a new storyline and the ability to travel between worlds.
You could be a lawmage on Ravnica, a Samurai in Kamigawa, etc. etc.
I was thinking more along the lines of a pc or console game like yugioh where I can build a deck and play the computer
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A show would be really cool but could easily be made horrible. Ravnica would be cool. Rakdos vs. Azorius one day and Dimir vs. Gruul the next. i think that would be pretty cool. IMO
Battlegrounds was actually surprisingly good, stop ragging on it, people.
You all have no taste.
But yes, they're making a new dev team for online games. Makes you wonder what they're going to make.
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my mouth is full of winsome lies -
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
Ohh, don't say anything about Magic MMORPG, I'll kill myself if they won't do that Ohh, I want to play it! Wizards, do it or I'll grow donkey ears on your backs!
And i liked Battlegrounds. In fact, I still want its sequel...
A MTG MMORPG? Does that mean we could have multiple races? And there would be classes too! And multiple planes/realms to travel between?! WoW, I've never even imagined something like this before.
[/sarcasm]
IMO, the last thing WOTC needs is to start giving people a reason to compare it with the inexplicable phenomenon that is World of Warcraft.
Oh? I untap with my Djinn in play? Then I'll cast High Tide 5 times, let the copies resolve, cast Remand 3 times, the first and second targetting the original High Tide, and the third targetting the first Remand. After the stack empties, I'll cast a Turnabout with 1 replicate, and triple-remand again. Net Effect: Draw 4 cards, Islands all produce 4 extra blue, lands untapped. Repeat until I draw Vision Charm and proceed to deck several hundred players.
Ummm...people compare every MMO to WoW, even if it came out before WoW. The only one that can't logically be compared to WoW is Guild Wars.
Which is exactly what Wizards doesn't need. Although, thinking about it again, pitting WotC against Blizzard could produce interesting results. I only wish it were in a TCG instead of MMO.
Oh? I untap with my Djinn in play? Then I'll cast High Tide 5 times, let the copies resolve, cast Remand 3 times, the first and second targetting the original High Tide, and the third targetting the first Remand. After the stack empties, I'll cast a Turnabout with 1 replicate, and triple-remand again. Net Effect: Draw 4 cards, Islands all produce 4 extra blue, lands untapped. Repeat until I draw Vision Charm and proceed to deck several hundred players.
I'm sorry... I really dont think the world of Magic: The Gathering lends itself to an RPG in any way, shape, or form.
I mean, the Plane of Ravnica does to a degree, but what sort of quests would you have? How would it work? You have the 10 guilds, but then the city covers nearly the entire plane. What else would you have? Would it just be a really big PVP game?
As for a Kamigawa MMORPG... RPG's based on Japanese mythology are a dime a dozen. It'd have to be really really amazing to compete with them in any way.
As for a ground-up version of MTGO... That's what V3 was supposed to be. It's not, however.
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Cyme we inne frið, fram the grip of deaþ to lif inne ðis smylte land.
I'm sorry... I really dont think the world of Magic: The Gathering lends itself to an RPG in any way, shape, or form.
I mean, the Plane of Ravnica does to a degree, but what sort of quests would you have? How would it work? You have the 10 guilds, but then the city covers nearly the entire plane. What else would you have? Would it just be a really big PVP game?
You can't be serious, can you?
The world of Magic doesn't lend itself to an RPG?
Ravnica would work wonderfully. Create a character in one of the guilds, have a few classes per guild, and then craft the game around the guilds interacting. You would have PVP, certainly, but it would have to be in very specific situations, otherwise the Legion would come down and arrest you. Think about it:
-As a new member of the wojek force, your quests would revolve around gathering evidence for bigger case-like quests, helping other Legion members subdue large rioting forces, and even basic "Run around and stop crimes" kind of quests.
-A Simic mage could revolve around finding new species and making alterations to them. Honestly, a mage that focused on buffing him or herself up instead of casting spells at people would be interesting.
-Hell, even the Gruul is easy: Fight the other guilds! Survive out in the "wilderness" against the Nephilim!
Seriously, I don't get how you can think Magic doesn't lend itself toward any kind of RPG.
I would play a MTG based MMO. That would be awsome.
So looking forward to system-wide crashes for hours on end whenever they add ANY new content.
OHH... and the amazing attention to bug fixes (crime still not working on auras?)
Not to mention a language filter that makes even basic communication impossible ("Alright team, they are using the word "tap" too much, need to filter that out ").
Yup, I so look forward to WoM:tG... werd o_O
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It may even result in a new core team programming 4.0 (or 3.1, whatever you'd want to call it), complete with a ground-up version of Magic online - at least I'd like to hope that's what they'd devote so many resources towards
I'd imagine the new MMO they're working on will get most of the resources, however..
Also, Wizards gave out those seal-top thermus style mugs this year, rather than art mousepads. Not quite as cool as at E3's past, but hey, it's GDC.
Does anyone else have details on their expansions? I may just be in the dark on something that's obvious to everyone else
There are several game developers who do this sort of thing, for CCGs even. WOTC is just getting in on that, or at least it appears. I'm sure we'll see Netrunner come back if they can even halfway justify it, as the cost of electrical bits vs. paper production is very much david vs. goliath.
And they've got that 'Goblin Game' of sorts that they're also developing. Probably the same framework, or at least server architecture.
What I don't know is if they are developing it in-house or outsourcing the development. I believe they may be doing this one on their own, as R-to-the-B mentioned Leaping Lizard in his MTGO 3 blog. Gotta be some resentment there and 'we'll never do that again' feelings.
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I mean Battlegrounds was Ok, but it wasn't Magic. I want something along the lines of the Yu-Gi-Oh series with Magic, now that would be worth having.
Spread the word.
Agreed. Ravnica Online could make for an interesting MMO. The Multiverse in general lends itself to the MMO world quite well. Choose your plane and go. Similar to Jedi in SW:G, they could make it very challenging to ascend to become a planeswalker giving you a new storyline and the ability to travel between worlds.
You could be a lawmage on Ravnica, a Samurai in Kamigawa, etc. etc.
** DigitalLogic on MTGO **
Spread the word.
You all have no taste.
But yes, they're making a new dev team for online games. Makes you wonder what they're going to make.
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
And i liked Battlegrounds. In fact, I still want its sequel...
[/sarcasm]
IMO, the last thing WOTC needs is to start giving people a reason to compare it with the inexplicable phenomenon that is World of Warcraft.
Try doing a google search for Shandalar.
Ummm...people compare every MMO to WoW, even if it came out before WoW. The only one that can't logically be compared to WoW is Guild Wars.
Which is exactly what Wizards doesn't need. Although, thinking about it again, pitting WotC against Blizzard could produce interesting results. I only wish it were in a TCG instead of MMO.
I mean, the Plane of Ravnica does to a degree, but what sort of quests would you have? How would it work? You have the 10 guilds, but then the city covers nearly the entire plane. What else would you have? Would it just be a really big PVP game?
As for a Kamigawa MMORPG... RPG's based on Japanese mythology are a dime a dozen. It'd have to be really really amazing to compete with them in any way.
As for a ground-up version of MTGO... That's what V3 was supposed to be. It's not, however.
You can't be serious, can you?
The world of Magic doesn't lend itself to an RPG?
Ravnica would work wonderfully. Create a character in one of the guilds, have a few classes per guild, and then craft the game around the guilds interacting. You would have PVP, certainly, but it would have to be in very specific situations, otherwise the Legion would come down and arrest you. Think about it:
-As a new member of the wojek force, your quests would revolve around gathering evidence for bigger case-like quests, helping other Legion members subdue large rioting forces, and even basic "Run around and stop crimes" kind of quests.
-A Simic mage could revolve around finding new species and making alterations to them. Honestly, a mage that focused on buffing him or herself up instead of casting spells at people would be interesting.
-Hell, even the Gruul is easy: Fight the other guilds! Survive out in the "wilderness" against the Nephilim!
Seriously, I don't get how you can think Magic doesn't lend itself toward any kind of RPG.
So looking forward to system-wide crashes for hours on end whenever they add ANY new content.
OHH... and the amazing attention to bug fixes (crime still not working on auras?)
Not to mention a language filter that makes even basic communication impossible ("Alright team, they are using the word "tap" too much, need to filter that out ").
Yup, I so look forward to WoM:tG... werd o_O