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BigBlue

Guest
Sorry, I answered this question in another post of yours, but it is not the case that you can play with cards you don't own "virtually," even in the casual rooms. This is one of the failings of the game imho, as you can't test a deck without getting all the cards for it first. I think constructed will be crippled by this, and the game will be best used for limited, which may also hurt it. This is my own opinion however, and something may change my mind depending on if they make a change to the game, or pricing is reasonable enough to get a good cardbase. I really enjoy limited, especially drafting, and depending on the pricing for the game, it may be enough. Constructed has gotten to the point where you see variations on a few deck types based on what cards folks have. It isn't like Casual magic where you play a goblin deck(standard goblin decks just aren't the same).

As for the Pricing of the game, I was one who proposed they ought to look at giving points for online when you buy a real booster, but they have not announced anything official on the pricing strategy or amounts yet, not even to the alphatesters.

They have pretty much denied everything as rumor when it comes to pricing. Nothing is official, and they haven't made it sound like they are close yet to any decisions on pricing.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
ademis is a tester too? Cool! So you're a judge or Pro player too? I never really picked that up...
 
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BigBlue

Guest
Originally posted by ademis22
Meh, I was waiting for Oddyssey to come out, so I was saving up my points... I'll be on a lot more now.

Some people have put forth the theory that people with pro tour points and judges were the first people to be invited to thet alpha testing.

I agree completely, I usually only buy 3 boosters in RL, but in MTGo I've "bought" probably boxes. Its a great program, and like Bigblue, I'll answer any questions that I can legally do so.

Where do you apply to be a Mod, Mr. Blue?
Mod app was due by Sat Nov 25. :(

We are not bound by the NDA anymore, so you can talk about anything as far as I know. What we can't give away are any of the URL's for the alpha boards or the game itself.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
So is alpha testing done now?

And regarding your first post, do you know if anyone TRIED to hack some cards in? Just curious...
 
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BigBlue

Guest
"Alpha" is done. It is now in the first Wave of Beta. There will be 2 waves of Beta testing. The first wave is installations in the WotC stores at the malls on their gaming boxes using accounts tied to those boxes. The second wave will reportedly start next week (not official source, just heard it from one of the clerks at one of their stores) and it will involve disks handed out from their "premier" stores. I believe (although I'm not positive) that stores which run Friday Night Magic are premier stores, so they may have more details there. I'm not certain how many copies each store will get or if all stores will get them.

The game is slated to go Gold in 1st QTR next year with no dates given yet.

I am not aware of whether anyone has attempted to hack the game yet, there was a question on the alpha forums a while back where a player wondered how or whether he could get permission to try, but I don't recall the answer or if there even was an official answer (it could have been handled privately).

From what I gather there will be a Server farm when it goes live to handle the traffic, not sure how they'll accomplish it though (Farming is not my forte hehe.) For a while stability was a major issue, but it seems to have resolved itself, and in the Alpha/Beta it is NOT running as it will when it is live, only 2 servers I believe right now, one for authentication and Software maintenence(patches etc) and another where the games and tourneys are kept. It is to my knowledge only ported to PC's, and they are unofficially working on a Linux port (very unofficial as I understand it, like a rogue programmer wants one to see if he can do it.)
 
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terzarima

Guest
Yes... I am a judge. But why me as opposed to others where allowed in escapes me.

No NDA? Cool... I never knew that.
 
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terzarima

Guest
I'm level one as well... But I'm also on the "advisory panel" if it makes any difference.
 
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terzarima

Guest
Hey... who says a 14 year old can't be a judge!! I was actually 13 when I got it.
 
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EricBess

Guest
theorgg, how long have you been a judge? I have several friends that are judges, but are not testing because they just became judges and weren't on the mailing list yet.

As far as tester, I wasn't aware that ademis was online. What's your ID? I'm Engineered. How could you possibly think that I wasn't an alphatester, Blue?
 
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Chaos Turtle

Guest
I have a friend who is an Alpha tester. He's not a judge or on the Advisory Panel, as far as I know. He just answered some questionnaire or something.

The game looks amazing, by the way. Too bad about the fact that we can't use every card in the "casual" rooms, but I like limited more anyhow. :)
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Is the Advisory Panel the same thing Almindhra's on when she asks her occasional WOTC question/poll?

And it could be that you're using a different name, EricBess. From what I gather from the previous posts, it appears that ademis was using a different name but BigBlue was not, so the former might have contacted the latter? Something like that...
 
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BigBlue

Guest
Originally posted by EricBess
theorgg, how long have you been a judge? I have several friends that are judges, but are not testing because they just became judges and weren't on the mailing list yet.

As far as tester, I wasn't aware that ademis was online. What's your ID? I'm Engineered. How could you possibly think that I wasn't an alphatester, Blue?
Pardon Me. :)

I only mentioned Ademis because he was the only one who contacted me about it via PM here a long while back. I'll look you up, I'm "Flame" which I don't really like, but they didn't give us choices did they. . . :(

Ademis is Monk I believe he told me.
 
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BigBlue

Guest
Originally posted by Spiderman
Is the Advisory Panel the same thing Almindhra's on when she asks her occasional WOTC question/poll?

And it could be that you're using a different name, EricBess. From what I gather from the previous posts, it appears that ademis was using a different name but BigBlue was not, so the former might have contacted the latter? Something like that...
I am BigBlue on the alphatest forum pages, which was where Ademis made the connection. In the game we didn't get to choose names, I was dubbed "Flame" and there isn't really any way to tell who's who without looking everyone up. Ademis pm'd me here to ask if I was the same BigBlue.
 
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theorgg

Guest
I've been a Judge since... well, whenever the Mercadian Masques PTQs popped up last year somtime, but I didn't know if I had qualified until I got the present of a Foil Memory Lapse and a holiday card that looked pretty neat.

I checked at school on the big page of judges, and I'm on there, too...

and I'm also on the advisory Panel, too... though I havn't gotten them in a few months...

Is there anything else I'm suppose to recieve as a judge? I've gotten my sanctioning items that I'd applied for afterwards, and have had to cancil all but one tournament...:( ...

mabe they think I'm a bad judge because my school club only gets six to seven people most of the time... :(
 
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EricBess

Guest
Originally posted by BigBlue


I am BigBlue on the alphatest forum pages, which was where Ademis made the connection. In the game we didn't get to choose names, I was dubbed "Flame" and there isn't really any way to tell who's who without looking everyone up. Ademis pm'd me here to ask if I was the same BigBlue.
I probably ought to check out those forums. Its really a time thing for me. I have reported quite a few bugs. The other day, I had a Familiar Ground in play and cast Lure on one of my creatures.

By the rules, he must block with any creature that is able to (Lure), but may only block with one creature (Familiar Ground). As such, only one creature is able to and only one creature needs to. But he has to block as long as he has a creature that can.

So, I attacked. That was the end of that game. The program wouldn't let him announce a second blocker, which is correct, but it didn't recognize the other blockers as unable to block, so it wouldn't let him finish declaring his blockers.

I suppose, if I had wanted to, I could have just let his time run out. Great way to win, feeling like a total cad... Anyway, I wasn't really into it, so I conceded and went to report the bug...

Still, the thing is pretty rock solid when you consider all the permutations.
 
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