Community

I'm pretty sure the cotd theme so far is previews, albeit storyline previews. But, fear not; read deeply into them and we may be able to closer guess what the cards themselves in Conflux do.

Wizards continues to not comprehend the fact that YouTube is beyond the abilities of a part of their audience. Still, knowing the topic, I made an exception to my policy of staying 11 feet away from YouTube at all times, and actually activated the video in today's Arcana to try and pick up some information about DOTP. From the 30 seconds that I had the patience to watch (it takes about 15-20 seconds for my dialup to load 0:02 of the video), I got two pieces of information - the game is being made in the British Isles, which is awesome because the United Kingdom tends to have their **** together and thus suggests promising results; and damn does Randy Buehler ever have a high-pitched voice. Actually, what the flip is he doing as a coverage reporter anyway? I thought he was like the #2 person in the whole company, exceeded only by Bill Rose and giving orders to Aaron Forsythe who in turn gives orders to MaRo. Apparently my understanding of Wotco's structure is way out of date.

Anyway, Duels looks interesting and potentially impressive, though I'm saddened to hear that the non-Xbox version is single-player only. Still, at least there is a non-Xbox version; maybe someday I'll be able to acquire a computer capable of playing it. (Wizards: even if you're keeping the game features a secret, PLEASE at least release the system requirements ASAP so those of us with technology-related acquisition plans can prepare in advance.) I noted with some curiosity that the cards appear to have a controller-shaped expansion symbol, suggesting the product won't acknowledge the actual expansions, which is kind of sad. Even so, it looks promising.

What I'll be eager to learn, though, is what controls your card supply in the game. They can't just let you have four of everything because that would put MODO out of business, but it's a video game, I don't see how they can make players pay per card either, except maybe through the Xbox mode. My theory is that the single-player campaign allows you to "unlock" the cards a few at a time, so that you have to log a lot of time on the game to get access to anything resembling a complete collection, and the results may or may not be importable to the online dueling version. I certainly don't see them giving you access to limitless deck design, not even with a card pool as small as 10th Edition (and there's no guarantee it will be).

I'm also curious as to whether they've managed to give it a decent AI. Writing a computer program to play Magic has to be fiendishly difficult. Granted, it wouldn't be hard to improve on the old Microprose game, which on occasion would cast Giant Growth on its opponent's attacking creature, tap a white mana for Swords to Plowshares, cancel the casting of Swords, take the damage from your inflated attacker, and mana burn for 1 after taking the damage. But even if the AI isn't that incompetent, will it be good enough to comprehend a game as complex as Magic? I have my doubts. Programming it to play aggro or control competently will be hard; making something that doesn't roll over and die when you spring a hard-to-predict combo on it will be an epic-level challenge for the Computer Programming skill.

Sikyanakotik wrote:

You do unlock them. They said that in the part of the video you didn't watch.

Thanks! It's good to know people who have the resources one doesn't, whether "broadband" or "patience".

So far, it looks like I'll be sticking to good ol' Shandalar. I didn't see any world map or any way to non-linearly proceed through the game. Looks more like a Mortal Kombal battle-up-the-ladder kind of deal. A little disappointing, but at least the visuals are awesome. Imagine if MTGO adopted this visual style, where it actually looked like you were sitting at a table across from your opponent's avatar. One can dream.
Since it's an XBLA game, I'm expecting a pretty cheap price, which might make it worth picking up. If they threw in a mode where you can draft with seven people online and then battle it out... oh man that would be heaven, even if you don't keep the cards in your collection after.
Is it true only Tenth Edition will be represented? Can we expect downloadable content with more sets?

"Wildfire, Earthquake, Windstorm, Flood, and Void" ... that's interesting ...