Magic online Vs. apprentice is a battle I doubt none of you have heard of. There have been many, if not too many things written on the subject, with one major thing in common: most of the things written were done so with a complete lack of information, and as much as I enjoy speculating, I prefer hard knowledge, so what is there to do? Instead of sitting all day writing annoying comments on how "I will never pay to play magic online", "I will quit real life magic to fund my playing" and other people taking extremist views, I choose to sit still and say nothing about something I don't know of. Well, that day has passed now, so beware as the flood gates are opening.

First topic that was really at the heart of the debate between these two giants was pricing. Everyone took a guess at what pricing was going to be like, with no real information. No one had the scoop on the pricing, no matter what they told you, because the pricing was not set at that time.
Random comments ranging from "no one will pay a monthly fee", to whom I simply replay everquest, to a range of comments ragarding "virtual cards" and why the heck should I buy one? "and what if the server crashs?" "And why should I buy something that doesnt exist?". Well let me explain something to all of you people out there with high dreams of a free world. Nothing in this world is free, and 99.9% of the people and especially companies are out there to make a profit, period. Sure, they like to change the world and influance people, but their real goal is to make money. The minute you realize the size and complexity of magic online, you will realize that someone out there must keep everything in order. Furthermore, the servers which this game relies on are not you average irc server. These servers have a MASSIVE amount of traffic, from chat rooms, to downloading images you are missing, to the secure game itself, this is one mighty task. Ad to that all the moderating, regualting and real time uopdate of sets as to the point of having an online pre-release, and it will be clear to you that magic online costs money.
This amount of money isnt something that an online store can found, as this isnt a league composing of 100 people, as in the case of some Irc leagues. Getting back at the objective of making a profit, it is clear wotc isnt into this project to lose money, so the money has to come from somewhere, right?
If you can come up with an executabl;e plan as to who the money can come from that isnt us, email it to me and I will get it to the developing team and make sure it is heard. Until then, welcome to reality and realize that WE have to pay for this thing.
I doubt anyone really wants to pay for playing an online game, although I sincerly believe that many would prefer paying some reasonable amount to keep everything in order and prevent this thing to die from the lack of care.
Many ways of collecting money from us users have been given thought as to how and there the money should come from. The idea of a monthly fee has been suggested several times, yet I really believe that is not the best way to go as casual players will have to pay for the hardcore players, even more so than in real life.
Then came all the rants on how I should never pay for a virtual cards and the like which im sure you have all heard, but think about, it makes SO much sense. the casual players who will only buy a very small amount of boosters could take them a long way, while the 24/7 users will probably spend some more as they use the system more. The other option of riding this game free is possible as much as it is in real life. when coming in second for a draft, you will recieve four boosters as your prize. you can easily trade some of the cards in the draft or one of those boosters for some event tickets with 3 tickets equalling one booster and get into the next draft having to provide 3 boosters and 2 tickets. If you down right wion the draftm, this becomes much easier as you can ride free while building up a collection.

So, at this point you are asking yourselves why did you read so far down into this thing without me making a new and reaonable point, well here it is. as far as it looks right now, the pricing for magic online appears to be set. for a long time beta testers have been buying their boosters from the wizards web store for points value. A booster was 3 points, a tournament pack 10 points and an event ticket 1 point, similar to real life. However, with a recent update to the store, I stumbeled upon an amazing discovery, when I discovered dollar values neing substitued for the points value, and here is when the shock settels in folks. One point in the web store will cost you one cent of real cash. Yes, that means a booster pack will cost you a whole $0.03 dollars, while a tournament pack will cost you 0.10$ and a draft will cost you $0.11. If you wanna start crunching numbers, 100 boosters, which is almost 3 boxes worth will cost you the same as a single booster of "real" magic. This is provided this system isnt changed and that there are no additional charges, which do not appear to exist at this time. As for the actual game, it will be pried about $14.99 and might even come with a cupoun for the store, although that remains to be seen.

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Originally posted by yonyb:
Well, this is going to be another rather random rant about magic online, but not in the way you think it will be, so do try to bare with me.

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Uhm, no thanks. I like to keep my clothes on, even when I'm alone at my computer.

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All hail Hansolo6385

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King Woopywoopy of the Penguin Clan

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Originally posted by HanSolo6385:
Unless you get DCI points for using Magic Online, I won't be wasting money on it, I'd stick with Apprentice, it's simple, free, and has everything I need. There's no point in spending money on something without a reasonable result.

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