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Q3 Updates on Magic Online Client, Current + Future

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Gordon CulpToday Gordon Culp, Director for Game Systems Design, issued an update on the status of the current Magic Online client as well as the continued development of the next generation of the client. The post was originally put on the Wizards Community page, we have reproduced it here.

Summary:

The new Magic Online client is under construction by our vendor and the internal design team is a few weeks away from having a complete design pass done on the new client. Public announcements about the new client platform and features will be made in Q4. We shipped the single managed connection module on September 15. The new trade service shipped on July 14 and has been very successful.

Infrastructure Update:

The Magic Online Client is only making one connection to the system as of the September 15 build. Previously the client had to maintain a connection to a login server, and had to establish a new connection to a Game Server Host or a Draft Server anytime one of those activities started up. This required customers to ensure that a large range of port numbers were open, which could restrict where the user could play. This was a significant update to the server infrastructure, and brought both performance optimizations and much improved logging to the system.

We also shipped the new trade processing service on July 14. This brought about the end of the problematic escrow system that was restricting the ability of the system to tolerate growth in users and activity. While users may not have individually noticed the difference, we have seen an increase in trading activity, and a considerable decrease in cancelled and failed trades. In general, the transfer of ownership of digital objects is much more efficient, and thus much less likely to cause periodic backlogs of server requests.

New Client:

As the client is under construction by our vendor, our internal client team is working on building the supporting components (models) that will bridge the client to the server system. Since shipping the single managed connection, we have confirmed that several of our known issues that impact users are out in the client itself. These bugs have a very low incident rate but lead to a bad user experience when they occur. The model based design that will support the new client is going to have a significant impact on these issues, in addition to supporting a much improved user experience. The client design will be usability tested and will iterate as needed throughout its lifecycle. As Worth and I have mentioned before, the approach to designing this client is a complete reversal of the process that created the current client. The new client will have been designed by UX and Visual Design professionals, in a collaborative team environment, with continuous usability testing by both existing and new Magic and Magic Online players (not Wizards employees). The community and the player base will get a good long look at the new client during the public Beta, which will span at least two card set releases.

Q3 Maintenance:

A number of small and medium performance tweaks were made to the system during Q3 above and beyond the new trade service. Scars of Mirrodin development looks good and we expect the system and the rules engine to be in good shape for that busy release.

Gordon Culp

Director – Game Systems Design

Magic: The Gathering Digital Studio

Wizards of the Coast, LLC

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