Poor Boreez is arguing with two different ends of the spectrum of players and trying to talk them down. One side uses Hearthstone as an example of a good UI even though it wastes an unbelievable amount of play-space with cartoon like graphic that make the game look like Farmville. The other end of the spectrum, voiced by SteB wants a stripped down look that is reminiscent of Cockatrice. I point this out because it shows what WotC (who have honestly not done as good a job with v4 as they should have) has to deal with when creating a new interface for the players. The UI has to be scalable, realiable, and as customizable as possible while maintaining the first two requirements. V4 has it's problems, not the least of which is the massive memory leak, but so far it is much more reliable and is very scalable. It can handle vastly more cards on the field than any other game I have seen, and maintains their interactions clearly.
JacetheMindFoo: looking to twitter and message boards for a honest read of the opinions of people playing the game is absurd. It is a known phenomenon that it is the people who are unhappy about something who are the most vocal and the most likely to make their opinions heard, it come as no surprise to me that forums and twitter are skewed to the negative. I expect that wizards own marketing data is a more accurate representation of the player base.
The fact of the matter is that most MTG players are Geeks by nature, and we geeks tend to be obsessive about the things we love to the point that we react very negatively to change. I myself shouted "**** off" at the TV when I found out who the new Doctor would be on Doctor Who. My wife thought it was hilarious, but I kept saying foul things to the TV as a got my coat and went for a walk too cool down. Most of us, like the OP, eventually give up our irrational holds on past comfort and find the positive in the new thus becoming comfortable again*. Some freak out, rant wherever anyone will listen, and refuse to accept the change on some kind of principle. I expect there will be some of those people who will quit the game, but since MTGO is adding more and more accounts every hour of every day I suspect they and the rest of us player will live without them.
*I still utterly refuse to accept Peter Capaldi as The Doctor, and do not plan on watching the show. Who knows if I will keep that up, but right now I am still in Geek denial.
EDIT: I think they may be really working on the memory leak issue because I have had the beta UI open for hours, watched a couple of games and did some deck building and it is still really responsive. I have to see if this keeps up.
Well I do agree that there is a lot of stupid people on the internet and that the opinions online are not the most accurate, there is still some meaning within them. If people were ok with the beta, there would not be as much hate towards it as you see. There are reasons to why people rage the way they do. It doesnt just arbitrarily happen. Especially when even the Pro Players are involved. Theres been multiple pro players and respective leaders in MTG that said the beta sucks. Its not like the opinion is really split either. I have yet to find a single pro that is ok with the beta. Even if one person was ok with it, it doesnt do anything justice. The reality is that the client looks and plays like something from 2001. For a game like MTG thats been around forever and is heralded to be the most popular and best TCG on earth right now, thats sad.
Big difference between a TV show and MTGO is a bigger investment than a random TV show that's on basic cable. Not only does MTGO cost a lot more, but theres the time investment of playing and learning the game. There is also not many other options if your trying to play competitively (since all the freeware garbage has nothing but noobs on them), unlike with basic cable where theres 60+ other shows, probably 5+ of them being similar medical drama clones. Also, MTGO is a product from a business. If that business cares about profits, then people's opinions matter. Its not a matter of "geeking out". Its better for both the business and the consumer for the product to be good. The consumer is happy and the business is happy with their money. When something about that isnt right, theres problems and nobody really wins. People would rather be playing Magic on a better client instead of spending time complaining about it.
The one thing I agree on is that the raging won't bring any change. Similar to how people rant about all the other bs on the internet like sports or politics. Proactive change in the form of not giving money Wizards will either make them go out of business or force them to do things to stay in business. I feel they are smart enough to do the later and would not want them around anyway if they didnt make decisions that were trying to bring in customers.
Well I do agree that there is a lot of stupid people on the internet and that the opinions online are not the most accurate, there is still some meaning within them. If people were ok with the beta, there would not be as much hate towards it as you see. There are reasons to why people rage the way they do. It doesnt just arbitrarily happen. Especially when even the Pro Players are involved. Theres been multiple pro players and respective leaders in MTG that said the beta sucks. Its not like the opinion is really split either. I have yet to find a single pro that is ok with the beta. Even if one person was ok with it, it doesnt do anything justice. The reality is that the client looks and plays like something from 2001. For a game like MTG thats been around forever and is heralded to be the most popular and best TCG on earth right now, thats sad.
Big difference between a TV show and MTGO is a bigger investment than a random TV show that's on basic cable. Not only does MTGO cost a lot more, but theres the time investment of playing and learning the game. There is also not many other options if your trying to play competitively (since all the freeware garbage has nothing but noobs on them), unlike with basic cable where theres 60+ other shows, probably 5+ of them being similar medical drama clones. Also, MTGO is a product from a business. If that business cares about profits, then people's opinions matter. Its not a matter of "geeking out". Its better for both the business and the consumer for the product to be good. The consumer is happy and the business is happy with their money. When something about that isnt right, theres problems and nobody really wins. People would rather be playing Magic on a better client instead of spending time complaining about it.
The one thing I agree on is that the raging won't bring any change. Similar to how people rant about all the other bs on the internet like sports or politics. Proactive change in the form of not giving money Wizards will either make them go out of business or force them to do things to stay in business. I feel they are smart enough to do the later and would not want them around anyway if they didnt make decisions that were trying to bring in customers.