Locations
A little over a week ago Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) flew myself, as well as a number of other individuals, out to their Denver studio to experience Magic: The Gathering - Tactics first hand. They had two goals in mind for this visit. First, to give us a look at the game. And second, for us to provide some highly focused feedback and game testing.
Magic: The Gathering - Tactics is a tactical game spun (or spawned) from the Magic game and universe. I got my first glimpse of the game at GenCon earlier this year when they were set up at the Wizards booth. The game I played then left me... concerned. It was clearly an early implementation demoing a very select scenario and it left many problems, issues and questions clearly in my head after I finished playing.
I came into this trip unsure how the game would be. To be frank, I was terrified that the Magic name might be dragged through the mud by a sub-par game. Magic doesn't have the best history with computer games.
I left the SOE studios with a number of things: interviews with the head of SOE, an interview with its lead designer, some nifty gifts, approximately five hours of time playing the game and a feeling of reassuredness & excitement for what this game could be.
Don't get me wrong, the game we played was buggy. In fact I'm not sure the developers were prepared for the volume of glitches and bugs we would uncover. But also, they were truly hungry for our feedback as Magic players so that they could improve and make a better product.
One thing became very evident while we were there: This company LOVES Magic. In fact the Head of SOE is a gigantic Magic geek, and this love for the game from the top to the bottom of the company, showed in Tactics. After the first few hours of playing the game I remarked to someone that the game felt like Magic, despite it being a completely different game.
The Denver SOE Studio is in "LODO" or Lower Downtown, it's in a non-descript office building with the office is split between two floors. The company recently expanded from 20-odd employees to just over 40. Almost all of these job additions seem to be tied to Tactics, which is poised to become the main project for them as they will continue producing for it after its release. Tentatively they say they are hoping for a new set of cards every 5 months.
Of the people who I spoke with, everyone was upbeat about the game, excited about it, and eager to hear what our thoughts were. The game had originally been scheduled for release back in June of 2010, a date which has long since passed and to that I say "good riddance" - I left the studio convinced that they were determined to make a good game, not just a game to fulfill a contract to Wizards. They would not give us a firm launch date, I heard someone say they hoped for it to be within the next month, but I would not expect it.
I say this not as a negative review of the game I played, though I seemed to be particularly skilled in locating bugs, but because a major portion of our time there was dedicated to giving them feedback on the interface and the game about how it felt to us as Magic players. Things like, allowing players to see what spells and creatures are in their opponent's graveyards, or tweaking the system for paying mana for spells, as well as the names of various sections of the application, "Spellbook Creator" will likely just be called "Spellbook" after our visit.
The perspectives were rather wide ranging, though there were no Magic pros there (LSV did not attend for ChannelFireball, instead Tristan trekked out to Denver) but there was the gamut of player types from the hyper competitive to the casual to the nearly-retired player. Each brought with them a unique perspective and experience to bring to their experience sitting down with Tactics.
SOE is an impressive company, with studios in a number of cities. They develop a large range of games (from Everquest to Free Realms.) John Smedley, the company's head, is determined that Tactics is not going to be a footnote in the Magic universe, he wants it to be an equally respected game that could even one day be an e-sport for competing.
The Trip
The trip was organized on relatively short notice, less than a month's heads up as I recall. It ended up being my last trip of the year. Sony contacted me and invited me out, which I snap-accepted and I am very glad I did.
They flew me out on Southwest airlines, the flight itself was a worst-case scenario, boarding in C block, ended up in last row in the aisle seat next to the bathrooms and crying babies (no exaggeration.) I managed to survive the flight thanks to my Nook e-Reader and headphones.
They hooked us all up with hotel room at the Hotel Monaco in Denver, part of the Kimpton chain of hotels. Our itinerary began with a dinner gathering in the hotel restaurant, a 4-star Italian fancy pants place. It was great meeting everyone, it had a unique cross section of Magic websites. Tristan from ChannelFireball, Chris Otwell and Tom from MTGCast, Chris from MTGFanatic, as well as Kevin from MTGOAcademy and a handful of others. We were joined on Thursday by Lauren Lee of StarCityGames (and previously ManaNation) the next morning.
Thursday, our only full day in Denver began by carting us off to the SOE Denver offices, a little mixer/breakfast and then a tour, which are split between two floors. They showed us around, highlighted the different staff groups, and gave us a chance to admire some of the art on their walls. They do have some amazing artists there and the art they're producing for Tactics looked awesome.
After the tour we gathered in a board room and they introduced us to the game, Mark Tuttle who is the lead for the Denver studio, and Rhae (pronounced Ray) who was the Lead Designer on the game. They walked us through the app, and within the first two minutes, we were asking questions and giving feedback.
I don't think they expected it. I mean I think they expected some feedback, but our group was intense and thorough and perhaps a little ruthless.
Our group was both appreciating what they did, but also giving some very detailed and specific feedback. Of the discussions we had, the one which struck me the most was about the game's economy.
What they introduced to us was the 'Bazaar' which was the in game auction house, which is the only way to move cards between players (there is no player to player trading currently.) And they are using "tickets" in the game, but unlike MTGO tickets, these tickets were going to be worth $0.20. I should emphasize at this point that these details may very well change, none of this was decided yet.
So in one game (MTGO) we're talking about $1 tickets and in the other (Tactics) we're talking about $0.20 tickets.
There was a lot of concern over the clash of terminology. Either they needed to change the name and keep the $0.20 price, or keep the name and match the $1 price of MTGO. I think after the discussion wound down it was decided to stay at the $0.20 price but that they would change the terminology.
We explored the game, got our introduction and overview, and then broke for a quick lunch. After sandwiches, snacks and desert, we were split up. Some went to check out Sony Online's other upcoming release, their new DC Universe Online MMO, while the Magic sites almost entirely went after Tactics.
They took us to a room which had eight Alienware laptops and set us down. We were given access to the system, our guest accounts came pre-loaded with 50 booster packs. We were all quite happy to hear a noise played in our headphones whenever we busted packs. It's funny but it seems a requirement for any software which involves opening packs to have that sort of sound.
We built our decks and went into the tutorials and soon after the bugs began coming.
Working our way through the tutorials, we couldn't make it but half way before a bug halted all of us from moving forward. So we eventually skipped it and dove into the single player mode of the game. It was interesting because the tutorials felt largely redundant as they are teaching players both the rules which come from Magic, and the new rules in Tactics. It felt almost as if they needed two sets of tutorials, one for completely new players, and one for Magic players new to the game.
I don't know if it was my history as a programmer (I studied Computer Science after all) or what, but I was constantly battling bugs in the game. Pretty soon I had one of the developers hovering over my shoulder as I pointed out problems that I rant into. And yet...
Despite constant bugs, and problems, I was still having a blast. We were playing a new game, one which we all enjoyed. We played single player initially before they set us up in an "Open Tournament." This was a tournament which has a specific period of time, and at the end of the event, the player with the most wins is champion (in the case of a tie, the player with the most games played wins, and then I assume there were other tie breakers afterwards.)
Our event was an hour and a half long, I believe. We all battled. I won only 1 of my 6 games. The one which I won, was won thanks to a bug in the game (I cast Inferno on my opponent, and it dealt twice as much damage as it should have) and I never successfully lost a game as far as I can recall, I would glitch out in some way during every game.
No matter how I lobbied for a prize for most bugs, they wouldn't budge. Oh well.
I entered the Open with an iffy goblin based deck. Believing that with guaranteed mana I could go with a Sligh inspired red and fast creature deck. I thought red was a safe bet in the unknown metagame. What I neglected was that guaranteed mana means always being able to cast big things on time.
My goblins were repeatedly stomped, trampled, and destroyed by Treefolk, Giants, and Dragons.
As time expired on the Open event, we had the hosts of MTG Cast both vying for victory. Tom was leading, but if Chris Otwell could win his last game, he would tie Tom's win count and win based on the tie breakers (he had played 2 more games than Tom.)
We waited. And waited. And watched. And fiddled. Chris' last game seemed to drag on. We all wanted to try the draft functionality. Unfortunately that didn't get to happen. Our time was up. Chris did eventually win his game and was crowned victor of our tournament. He won a print of one of the art pieces for Tactics. Thank goodness he drove, so that he could just load it into his car and not ship it or check it on the flight home.
Throughout the time we played the game, one thing I found great humor in was watching the programmers and executives sort of hold repeated huddles. Things would happen, they would gather in one of the offices for a few minutes, then disperse again. Then a few minutes later it seemed like they'd be back and gathered again. Over and over.
Once the tournament wrapped up, it was back to the original meeting room where they sort of led a debriefing where we all shared our thoughts and feedback.
The debriefing was about getting our thoughts as Magic players about the game. We all agreed we liked it, despite the bugs we fought through. It is a solid concept and a great system that adapts from the Magic concept and game into a compelling and challenging tactical turn-based game.
When the debriefing concluded the event began to sort of wrap up, some people headed out to get ready for dinner. I hung around and snagged interviews (to be posted in the next few weeks) with John Smedley (head of SOE) and Rhae (the Lead Designer.) Once that was done, I too headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner with the remaining stragglers.
The interviews and hanging late at the offices had delayed us, so it was a sprint to get back, splash some water on my face, freshen up and have a quick call with my wife before heading down for dinner.
Dinner was at what was a very loud, very nice restaurant in Denver called 'Tag.' I managed to snag a great seat near Jeff from TenTonHammer.com, Chris from MTGFanatic.com and John Smedley the head of SOE.
It was a dinner I won't soon forget, trading stories and learning a great deal from John about SOE, the video game industry, as well as getting to know Jeff and Chris. John was also quite interested to learn more about the business side of Magic; while he is an avid gamer he only really knew about the game as a consumer, so he was fascinated to find out about store requirements, box shipping restrictions, and other things that most players are unaware of.
One of the big things John talked about was that he felt the ecosystem around Tactics was a necessary thing. It needed to be built to foster traders, stores and players both casual and competitive. He had lots of ideas about how to do this and I have high hopes for the game with those sort of ideas built in.
After dinner a group went out drinking and to sing karaoke; I'll skip the details except to tell you that I am a horrible Karaoke singer (but I try hard, which is 90% of the battle) and second, be careful doing shots of Tequila, it can get rough.
Friday came all too quickly. I had been up late posting content and I was loathe to get up, get packed and get down to the airport. But I did and so it was with a heavy heart I left Denver and came back to Orlando.
Now, onto what you all really want to read, the game itself.
THE GAME
All caps and bold, that's how important this is.
It cannot be stressed enough, MTG Tactics is not MTG. It is a completely different game, built using some of the same elements, but also using some very new and very different concepts from tabletop MTG.
One of the first things we noticed was that the creatures in the game are similar yet different from the creatures on the cards. They have power and health (as opposed to power and toughness) and roughly game power = 10 x card power, and health = 10 x card toughness. But not always. Also, what abilities a creature has on the card, they have in the game (at least as far as we saw.) You, as a player, are also in the game and you begin the game with 200 health (20 x 10) however you can only deal 5 points of damage to creatures or other players.
Mark Tuttle, the lead of the studio, said this last part was added because he got tired of being killed by little birds which pecked him to death because at the time your avatar couldn't attack at all. So you'd just lose if you couldn't cast anything. At least now you can attack for some damage.
Another thing to notice is that your deck is called your "spellbook" and that you have a minimum of 40 cards (rather than 60 cards.) This is largely because you put no lands in your deck. Rather than muck with lands while also trying to be tactical, the developers decided to abandon lands and go instead with a guaranteed # of mana per turn. On turn 1 you get 1 mana. On turn 2 you get 2 mana, etc. The mana generated is based on the ratio of mana symbols in the deck. So if you have 25 {W} and 15 {R} then you have roughly a 38% chance of getting a red mana on your first turn (and 62% chance of white.) It should be noted there are ways to accelerate mana like Bird of Paradise, Llanowar Elves and even... Black Lotus (yes it is in the game as of when we got to play it.)
The other quirky thing with spells is that when you go to cast something, the game immediately takes the colored mana it needs, but leaves the colorless mana up to you on how you'd like to pay for it (what colors you'd like to use in what quantity.) There are also options of having the computer pay your entire mana cost ala Xbox, but I didn't get to experiment with that.
As we played, I repeatedly had issues with the fact that there is no "second main." With your character you do all your casting and summoning before you move or attack, then when you move or attack your turn is over. I cannot count how many times I moved or attacked, forgetting to cast before doing so. However the developers patiently explained to us that it needed to be this way because otherwise every game would become a game of "chase around the map." Or a game of sniping as players moved out from behind the wall and then blasted you in the face with some spell. Speaking of...
The maps you play on have terrain, basically walls to hide behind or maneuver around. Moving your units proved crucial in some matches, but usually I fell into the strategy of hiding behind a wall and summoning creatures to protect me, then popping out to drop a big spell before darting back behind cover.
Terrain affects where you can place units, and also it provides defense. Both in line of sight for spellcasting, and also to help defend from a situation where you have creatures on both sides, doing so allows them to hit for critical damage which is, I believe a +15 in damage. This sort of positioning can prove vital in the combat tactics. Also similar to D&D and other miniature games are things that feel like attacks of opportunity, etc.
Spell casting requires line of sight, so you can't cast through walls or at characters when others are between you. And you can only summon creatures in the cells immediately adjacent to you. On one single-player mission there are goblins that swarm you and soon you can't summon anything to your aid because all the cells around you are full of attacking gobbos.
Casting creatures puts them on the battlefield as well as into your initiative bar, which is a vertical bar on the left hand side which shows you the order of players and creatures for who can do what. I honestly never quite got the hang of initiative in the game, partly because of game bugs and because I never devoted that many brain cycles to it - when my things came up I did stuff, and when they weren't up I waited to see what would happen.
An example of Tactics adapting an MTG mechanic for the game is Haste. In Magic, you cast a creature with Haste and it can attack that turn. In Tactics it has to do with the Initiative bar, and I believe what it did was insert them immediately next in the initiative bar.
Another strategic element is that if your opponent has Colossus of Sardia out and it is coming up in the initiative bar, you can try to play things with higher initiative in hopes of pushing it back and trying to keep it from getting a turn.
Messing with the initiative bar is one thing Blue mages do frequently in the game, since the idea of instants and countermagic is fairly limited in a turn based game, they get most of their jollies by messing with the timeline of the initiative bar, etc.
I was quite impressed with the AI. Though I was new to the game, I can't recall seeing the AI do anything foolish or glitchy. It seemed to always act logically and in a fairly sensible manner. I think that bodes well for the game as it can obviously be the linchpin for the success of single player. Also there was discussion of having the AI online to provide an always-on opponent which could guarantee a complete game experience (ie: No Rage Quits.)
One thing I wish I had gotten more time to explore was the skills tree system, I am still not 100% clear on how it will function. But the gist of it is, as you beat missions on the single player, you can go buy skills which will allow you to do various things. As I was a red mage, I bought skills which gave my goblins a chance of coming into play beefier. The negative is that these skills are tied to your avatar, not your deck. So if you swap decks, your goblin skills do you no good with your mono-white control deck.
I could go on and on about the game, and I will be monitoring the comments section for questions about the game and I will answer all of them which I can.
Closing Thoughts
Magic has a long history of computer games. From Shandalar to Battlegrounds to Duels and soon to Tactics. And inevitably rather than this article all you want to hear is the answer to, "Will this game suck?"
I firmly believe this game will do quite well. What I played in Denver was a beta version of the game, and based on our issues and suggestions they are making changes and improving the game. The company, as I said earlier, truly cares about Magic and about Magic: The Gathering - Tactics. They are dedicated to making the best game.
The game showed a great deal of promise. I think it will benefit greatly from the free to play model. Supported by booster packs and other online purchases (there was discussion of special promo cards, etc.) Without access to the beta, I can't yet tell you how the game is progressing, but I hope to be able to soon.
You'll be able to continue to follow ManaNation to see what's going on with Tactics. We will be reporting about it, doing casts and articles about the beta (when we gain access) and providing news and articles once the game releases.
I wouldn't be devoting this effort for the site if I didn't think that it had a place with our audience and would be successful. Magic: The Gathering Tactics has the Trick Jarrett seal of approval. :)
Also, keep an eye on ManaNation later this week for some more about Tactics!
So... any questions?
-- Trick
