• State of the Program - September 17th 2010   14 years 39 weeks ago

    what is the source for card prices? and why are some names are repeated?

  • Full Value #3 -- You Still Play Magic, Right?   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Good article, agreed on all points. This is the reason I only draft, and the reason I draft significantly less. I'm more likely to spend my money elsewhere than I am to give my money to a company I've lost all respect for. It's very likely I may eventually quit magic all together, because it's just uncomfortable to have to look at the game of my childhood in such a deplorable state. Even a great series of games in a limited match can still leave a sour taste in my mouth due to the knowledge that I have helped a company I no longer approve of. Magic is almost a complete lose-lose situation for me now.

    I quit paper drafting because it cost me more money, the local store doesn't let you use your winnings to play more drafts. More specifically, more of my money was being sent to wizards. I tried to hang onto it because I still have friends who play paper, but I just can't enjoy myself knowing that I could have given Wizards less money to play their game. I don't feel like they have done anything to deserve that extra money short of owning the rights to a game I grew up with, a game they're hellbent on draining every last drop from till its dry.

    The funny thing is I have far more money to spend on this game now that I'm older, and instead I spend far less because I've found better things to do with my money. For the price of a hot Tier 1 standard deck plus sideboard I can: buy a decent television, a video game system and a few games, get work done on my car, go on a short vacation, buy a bunch of christmas presents, go to the movies every weekend for 6 months, or save it to help ride out of a bad economy. If you have to buy both digital and paper version to help you go or stay "pro" then the price just doubles to an absurd amount.

    Bottom line: New customers look better than old customers, but anyone who knows business can tell you that makes for bad policy in the long run though. As it is, it looks like this customer's days are numbered. :-(

  • Learning Though Losing #3   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Even then, if someone's dedicated enough, they'll get whatever information they need. This is particularly true when there are no apparent ramifications for their actions.

  • Semi Pro - A HUNDRED! YEP!   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Congratulations on your future baby boy. It's nice to have more fathers/future fathers who play Magic Online. Just remember, don't try to play Magic and hold a baby at the same time.

    And on the topic of 100 singleton. It is one of my favorite formats. It's crazy, skill intensive, and always new and exciting. I just wish Urza's Saga's packs weren't so worthless right now, otherwise I would be playing it a lot more.

  • Learning Though Losing #3   14 years 39 weeks ago

    I can honestly say I don't know how you feel, because it has not happened to me. I hope it never does. However this is nothing new to online gaming. It's been going on for as long as I can remember when I started playing Everquest. Account hacking is not as hard as people say it is. I went to school for Network security and administration and I am here to tell you it is quite easy.

    Most of the time the hacker gets your password, however if there are holes in the security of the software, or backdoors, hackers can get into your account without a password. Look at it this way, if the people who work for Wizards can look at your collection to do and investigation without knowing your password, then other people can to. MTGO may just be a digital game, but there is a lot of money involved and I wouldn't put it past someone with a sophisticated way of hacking accounts.

    My suggestions to avoid being at risk?

    Use a complex password. 8-16 characters with at least one capital letter, a number, and a special character. Treat it like a bank account.

    Dont give out your password, use someone elses pc, or write it down where it can be found.

    Don't buy cards from a dealer you do not know. See if they have some sort of feedback section or rating somewhere. MTGOTraders has this in the forums.

    Don't use untrustworthy bots. My suggestion, if you don't know a bot, don't use it. Bots are not supported software and you are taking a risk using them. They could have codding to imbed a Keylogger on your system.

    Don't trade with someone you do not know. Would you go out into the street and stop someone at random to come in your house and trade Magic cards with? Probably not.

    If you use a laptop or any kind of wireless access, make sure it is encryped. Most people don't know that Windows uses the default user group of MSHOME, and fail to change this or password thier network. I can sit in my house and pick up 5 unseccure home networks and access the internet on my laptop.

    One of the Downsides to playing Magic online is the security is not tight and the money and the money need to make it tight is not spent. If Magic had been a monthly subscription game, there would be more security. So the effort to reimburse anyone is minimal if any. It sucks and unfortunatly no one is going to look out for us, we need to take measures to protect ourselves

  • Full Value #3 -- You Still Play Magic, Right?   14 years 39 weeks ago

    I couldn't agree more with this article. I love drafting, but sure would like to play more constructed Magic. It's just not worth the budget it requires to me. I know you can build bad semi-competitive decks without all the mythics, but if you want to play the best decks, you have to pay.

  • 4 Booster Swiss - Now Available with Eldrazi   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Another nice article on 4 pack sealed. I really like your format. I hope I am able to try and get into an ROE 4 pack sealed on thursday night, but unfortunately another strike against it is the Fringe season opener this week. ROE drafting just didn't last long enough, and I'd like to be able to play it a few more times before it disappears. Archetypes were so strong in that set that it would also be interesting to see how it plays out with a small pool.

  • Full Value #3 -- You Still Play Magic, Right?   14 years 39 weeks ago

    I agree, Mythics were made to increase sales for sealed/draft formats.

    Draft and Sealed deck tournaments are the money makers for the WotC. They are also the best places to recruit new players. Most new players are going to try a draft or sealed deck tournament before they try out constructed tournaments, and if one of those new players opens a Jace 2.0 or another high price mythic, that player is probably going to continue to play Magic. He might even tell his friends about how he opened that Mythic rare and how cool a game Magic is.

    Sure Mythics make it much harder to play standard magic competitively, but there are other cheaper formats. There's also probably a budget top tier deck out there like RDW if you really want to play standard.

    If Mythic rares are getting new players excited about the game and keeping it from dying out, I don't see a problem with them.

  • Learning Though Losing #3   14 years 39 weeks ago

    I feel your pain, having been hacked on another account before. That said, and not to kill your hope, historically their stance on account hacking is "If it happened in a trade you weren't hacked. There's nothing we can do."

    I really hope you prove that to be wrong though.

    EDIT: Okay I wasn't reading closely enough to see that WotC did NOT in fact compensate you. This puts a grim outlook on my future for the game.

  • Full Value #3 -- You Still Play Magic, Right?   14 years 39 weeks ago

    What mythics did in limited is upped the variance in card pools, thereby making limited a less skill based format. Anything which raises variance (i.e. luck based results) in a game of skill is bad for those with the skills. (A pool with 2+ mythics is a higher power level than a pool with 0 mythics.)

    As for your other point, mythics are raking in money! Wizards loves them. In the long term, over-farming with too much profit-taking depletes the resource you are farming (in this case, the player base). As someone 'farmed out', I wonder at the tolerances of others. To put it a bit better, if people like me who were spending $100/month keep quitting, how many people at $250/month will wizards need to show 'profits?' They can lose 50% of their current player base and still come out ahead. Instead of two guys at $200 total, now they have one guy at $250 total. Is losing half the player base a good move towards a healthy game? I don't think so. But if they make more money, then obviously mythics are great! Right?

  • Semi Pro - A HUNDRED! YEP!   14 years 39 weeks ago

    I know, I wish I wasn't such a cheap bastard -.-

  • Semi Pro - A HUNDRED! YEP!   14 years 39 weeks ago

    WoG and..... DoJ ?
    You play Esper, you should Damnate the Board !

  • Learning Though Losing #3   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Feels the mental lethargy writing about the incident. I will answer any questions in order to educate others on how to protect themselves but the rage against Wizards fuels me to write.

    Phil: No compensation. The reply given was that I logged into different accounts at the same time from them checking the log in history. Don't you guys go to your friend's place and use their internet connection once awhile? Seriously, if I let someone else to steal the cards and file a case with the police makes no sense.

    I'm waiting for Wizards to reply me in providing me the IP address of the last trade session between the suspected account and mine. 3 days and no reply yet. Is it that hard for them to answer? Definitely makes me a sitting duck and the suspect runs off. Had I not requested them to suspend the suspect's account they will just let him continue to use his account. This is what makes me so pissed off! They are so inefficient and dumb where they can't even give an appropriate response in trying to protect the victim instead of the criminal. They just let him go.

    Eg. Your paypal gets hacked and your money was transferred out. You called up the paypal and asked them to suspend your account and the suspected account. You more or less given up on getting back the money but if you are able to get details regarding the last transaction, you would have a chance of nabbing the crook who did this with the help from police. But paypal said you have a history of transferring money between 2 accounts so no compensation will be given and says nothing about the suspect running off with your money. Makes sense?

    So what is the point of investigation? Just a process where they can find excuses to not compensate. It is really common sense where they should check on the other account and see where did the cards or products went, not just checking my account and saying I don't get compensation. I WANT TO KNOW WHO DID IT!!! Not just wanting to get compensated but know who the hell did this to me!!!

    Paul: I use fingerprint security for my laptop sign in and I don't use wifi at home. I will continue writing as the credits earned from articles help repay my friend's who loaned me the cards. Just bad beats but Wizards is making it worse. Have not updated my MtGO from the last patch, still feeling disillusioned about the incident.

  • Full Value #3 -- You Still Play Magic, Right?   14 years 39 weeks ago

    The $$ is what has driven me out of magic as well, I think. I hadn't really thought of it until I read this article, but I basically stopped playing MTGO (except for I'll usually do 1-2 prerelease events) a while ago.

    I was a pretty casual player, and would spend maybe $60 online a month (OK maybe more but I tried really hard not too). I'm not a Spike, but I still wanted the "fun" cards to play with... and it just got too hard to acquire the "fun" mythic cards - especially when they happened to also be good. I never opened a single Baneslayer or Jace 2.0, nor had anything worth trading for one. I probably drafted more WWK than anything else, just because I wanted to get a stupid Jace 2.0. Such a waste.

    I can't say I'd come back if they killed mythics... but I might at least think about it.

    I mean, I totally understand why Wizard did the Mythic thing, it seems brilliant from a marketing perspective, and I can see the "dominating limited" argument to an *EXTENT*... but otherwise it just looks to me like something to alienate casual players.

  • Learning Though Losing #3   14 years 39 weeks ago

    The only way to get into another persons account is to know the password. Yeah, you could use a password cracker, but unless you knew what was in the account you would be wasting alot of time. Almost for sure this was done by someone you knew.

  • Full Value #3 -- You Still Play Magic, Right?   14 years 39 weeks ago

    A little off topic but you mentioned that you play Torn City and are tiring of it. I have played Torn for about 5 years and it has definately lost some luster to me. If you are still playing it and need some cash, let me know. I have way more cash/points/items than I know what to do with. My tag on Torn is danlen, feel free to message me ingame, that goes for anyone else that plays TC and reads this forum.

    I have only been playing Magic for about 6 months now and so I obviously have no memory of the days before mythics. My strategy has been to slowly build up my card pool and draft mythics when I can so someday I will have a deck that is competive in the standard enviroment. Also, I exclusively play online and so that eliminates some cost.

    I heard that wizards is coming out with some type of precon deck that is supposed to be legitamitly playable. Supposedly in February they are releasing 75 card decks that you can crack and bring to a FNM with a hope of winning. Some speculation is that it might contain different bordered cards that may not be playable above the FNM level of tournament, but will contain the mythics. We will see.

  • Learning Though Losing #3   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Wow horrible story. I think it would interest us all if you could provide details in how your account was hacked. Did you give a site your password? Did someone log onto your laptop remotely? Did you get keyloggered? Did you make an easy to guess password? Did you leave the laptop on while you were gone? Does your laptop have any security on it? (User passwords etc?) You use a laptop so I assume you have wifi, so is that secured or not? Who among your circle of acquaintances knew of your temporary riches (in the form of the borrowed cards)?

    Answering those questions may be a pain and probably not your number one priority right now but it is something that impacts how safe you will feel in the future.

    Anyway sorry to hear this has happened to you. I hope somehow it works out for you and that you and your friends stay in the game.

  • Semi Pro - A HUNDRED! YEP!   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Honestly I didn't know how that game was gonna end, as to be honest even though I was continuing to neutralize your threats I didn't really have any of my own XD

    Well I guess beat the will out of you will just have to do lol.

  • Semi Pro - A HUNDRED! YEP!   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Heh, thanks both of you for the insight. That's something I'll remember in the future.

  • Semi Pro - A HUNDRED! YEP!   14 years 39 weeks ago

    awesome 100CS rocks. nice article

  • Learning Though Losing #3   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Really sorry to hear that account was hacked. I hope you are not exhausted talking about it still because I would really like to know what WOTC response is when you get it.

    That is really scary when there is little you can do to protect ourselves it seems.

    Can anyone shed some light of what to do to prevent this? Or are we just sitting ducks? Hate to think that is the case.

    -Phil

  • Full Value #3 -- You Still Play Magic, Right?   14 years 39 weeks ago

    So many people say that they have quit playing constructed, and just started playing limited because of the mythics. They state this as a mistake. Umm, do you think Wizards makes more money off of the secondary trading of rares, or off of an increase in limited events? People say that Wizards made an obvious mistake, and that they are killing the game, but I don't see it that way. Mythics are incredibly healthy for the game from a limited standpoint because they make rares less rare in limited, but Mythics become more rare. That is fine.

    I agree with the preconstructed decks problem. Don't put cards like Drana in a preconstructed deck. It is totally unfair, and it breaks game balance in limited. Please don't do that anymore Wizards. It isn't fun.

  • Learning Though Losing #3   14 years 39 weeks ago

    I only log into MtGO on my personal laptop. I'm still waiting for Wizards to provide me details of the last trade session IP address for me to file a police case and no idea why is it taking so long. I did not receive any compensation but I really want to find out who did it. If it was done locally within my country the police will be able to find out but if it is overseas, I have no choice but to concede.

    I am sharing this in hope that it will not happen to others in the future.

  • State of the Program - September 17th 2010   14 years 39 weeks ago

    Hi hamtastic

    I know this is off-topic for your article this week, but have you heard anything in the last while about the Silverlight interface that you reported on about 11 months ago? Like whether development continues or if it's all been scrapped/vapored?

    Thanks

  • Semi Pro - A HUNDRED! YEP!   14 years 39 weeks ago

    GG- In hindsight I should have tuffed game 3 out. I might have been able to come back. It didn't helped that I tutored for the wrong spell and you were out of Scapeshift range. I had to figure out how to get rid of Karakas either via getting my own Karakas or Wasteland and try to get Emrakul or my sideboard Iona out on the board for some pressure. I took out Progenitus out of main deck which was biting me in the ass game 3. Safe to say that you beat the will to fight out of me lol.

    Great games, congrats to you and your wife, and thanks for the special treatment for my foils :)

    p.s. Still looking for that last card a foil MOCS Promo of Mutavault heh.

    -Phil