Customer Reviews

Magic the Gathering Interactive Encyclopedia

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a magic player, I've found 3 huge features enormously beneficial to my game. They are: A) the Deckbuilder, that lets you build, analyze, and control decks to your heart's content. This deckbuilder is awesomely powerful, and contains every single feature I could think of -- it's amazing what they packed in here. B) the listing and viewing of every single card in the Encyclopedia section, that lets me just scroll through cards and compare them to the "real" ones I have in front of me on my play-mat. The fact that everything -- even Mercadian Masques -- is here, really kicks! And C) the Online Play section I think is done perfectly, because it doesn't constrain your style of play -- you just go online and get rocking with a friend. I really like the fact that they've respected how people really play Magic, and I can play championship decks against other people, and I can play decks built from any cards ever made -- I don't have to worry about buying the card -- I can just build a deck and play it. This product is really incredible !

With the number of unique magic cards getting big enough to stretch to the moon and back, I was pretty excited when I first read about Encyclopedia. "Spoiler" lists have long been available from the web, but not with illustrations. Encyclopedia is true to its name, containing pictures of every card in existence--even the oddities and "lost" cards. I was a little disappointed, though not too surprised, to discover that the "play" feature isn't an AI-controlled game like Duels of the Plansewalkers. Instead, it's just a virtual card table to play virtual decks against virtual friends online. As such, not really my cup of tea--it's the encyclopedia and deck analysis that interested me. That's right, not only can you keep track of your decks, but you can get charts of every conceivable statistic--ratios of spell types is only the begining.

It all sounds a litte too good to be true, and without a doubt, there are some significant shortcomings of this program. It's quite slow and resource-heavy, and the sloppy programming goes beyond that--you need a patch (available free online) just to get accurate deck analysis.

Another major problem lies in the fact that your collection as a whole can't be managed with nearly the same flexibility as your decks. You can't see how much your whole collection is worth, for instance--you can only view the price of one card a time. (Price lists are available for free download from the web.) And to see any other important stats of your entire collection, you'd have to create a giant "deck" using all your cards! Ridiculous.

Buy this program for what its title suggests; it works best as a visual encyclopedia of every card in existence. The bells and whistles need some serious work.

This is a marvelous product for those who love magic, or want to love it more fully through a more expansive library of cards to choose from. But ask anyone who's played with its Online segment and you'll find that they have their quips as well as their praise.

The main problem i had besides a few minor bugs that came about as a result of multi-tasking and such, was that the features could have used a bit more tweaking.

Who really wants to read articles and reviews from their Browser? If i wanted to use IE to read about magic i would have. It took away from some of the fun of the program.

The Search feature which allows you to hunt down that one card you love is a bit underfeatured. I wanted to be able to search for more specific items, enchantments and creatures with specific abilities.

Also the Online client worked by linking you up to a "chat room" using your browser then popping magic back up again when you find someone to play. It seemed a bit convoluted. I would have prefered a more unified program.

But as you notice i gave this review 4 stars. For all the little things(not too many of them), this is a SWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET program. It lets you feel a bit hardcore with all the selections of cards you have to choose from and still lets you play as simple as you like.

Snow White may have been beautiful but she had her blemishes too.

I'm pretty seriously unimpressed with this product, particularly from a user interface perspective. Here are a few reasons why.

(1) It has only one graphics option, which is running full screen with a workspace that is 800 x 600. It can't be minimized, run in a window, or run at a higher resolution that wouldn't waste half of my display. In addition, my Start menu isn't accessible while the program is running. I find these kind of limitations frustrating and unacceptable.

(2) The windows are not resizeable, so even though I have plenty of screen space to work with, I can't use it. This means that I have to use the horizontal scroll bar to view only a small portion of any of the tables at a time, which makes the product particularly difficult to use.

(3) There doesn't appear to be a way to indicate multiple copies of a card in my collection without having multiple entries for that card. This might be useful for rare or special cards, but having hundreds of entries for lands, or dozens for commons, makes the feature much less useful.

(4) The text in general is a light font on a dark background, which is not terribly functional. The help text is particularly difficult to read.

(5) The online game interface is a separate application that I am unable to close without closing the product entirely, even though I can have both the online game and the encyclopedia running simultaneously.

The product *looks* very nice. I just wish WotC had put half as much effort into making a product that works as good as it looks.

The first thing to say about the Magic Interactive Encyclopedia is: absolutely great for playing online! Having the chance to play with every Magic card ever made, seeing even their pictures on the play table, is a fantastic experience for an expert Magic player like I consider myself. The game interface is simple and easily understandable for everybody that already knows Magic The Gathering. A lot of fun, it's a promise! But there's a problem, a big one: if you want to search through the database for some specific cards using the categories the programmers have prepared... well, you'll probably have an headache! The program isn't a good one if you were looking for a big help searching the right cards for your deck. I use the deck builder together with a free downloadable database, very good to find quickly the cards you need.

What can I say? Are you looking for a Magic The Gathering program to play online with players all around the world? Well, this 4-stars program is surely for you! But if you're not a wannabe online player... You better forget this software. You can download better useful databases without paying for them! And they'll work even better than the MTG Encyclopedia...

The Magic: The Gathering Interactive Encyclopedia (M:TGIE) promises a lot. It claims to be a playing tool, an encyclopedia, and a deckbuilding assistant all in one. That's a pretty tall order. Is Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) up to the challenge? Let's find out!

The M:TGIE's interface takes up the entire screen. It's a black background that doesn't lend itself to skipping between programs, even though much of the system relies on a Web browser. My preferred weapon of choice is Netscape, so it's possible the interface works better with Internet Explorer. After a couple of extraneous and irritating animations (that you must skip through every time you load the program), you have a choice of five sections:

Magic Online

This section allows you to find an opponent and begin an online game of Magic: The Gathering. It's not quite the same experience as playing a non-virtual game. Essentially, this is just a virtual gaming table.

Like so many other attempts to duplicate in-person, face-to-face gaming, the gaming table is a poor substitute. While it does standardize some aspects of a face-to-face game, like not having to worry about getting soda on your cards or the size of your gaming table, it's not going to replace the card game any time soon. Of course, WOTC knows this, or they wouldn't have created M:TGIE. But at least you don't have to worry about running out of counters anymore.

All the typical elements of virtual gaming are evident, including the ability for coin tosses and dice rolls, so you don't have to guess if your opponent really got a Heads on that last flip. There's also a list of parameters you can set for prospective players, which help ensure you play the game the way you want to play. You won't find an AI computer opponent with this program though.

Beyond the awkwardness of a virtual interface, which takes some getting used to, the biggest problem with this section lies in its communication tools. M:TGIE doesn't provide for audio interaction (although it does have a chat window). This isn't usually an issue with most games, because there are plenty of other shareware programs that you can use to work around it. The problem, however, is that M:TGIE is not Windows friendly. Switching between windows is laggy and can cause the program to crash. The window doesn't minimize either.

Still, considering the chaotic nature of most Magic: The Gathering games, the controlled virtual environment may be a welcome reprieve for gamers with high blood pressure.

Deckbuilder

The Deckbuilder is a fabulous feature for collectors, because it allows you to see what cards you still need. This is also where you can create your own virtual decks. The ability to print data about each card is very useful, but you can't print the pictures. No surprises here - if WOTC did this, you could probably create your own cards at home. But you can print a list of your entire collection, as well as the details of each individual card (including the quotes!).

Let's face it, the best part of collecting is gloating over the value of your Black Lotus. Although WOTC doesn't officially endorse any particular pricing list, they've given you the ability to download pricing lists on the Web. What they didn't give you was the ability to sort or display the prices in any useful way. So if you want to figure out the value of your deck, you'll have to look at each and every card individually. If you're a collector like me, this can take a very, very long time. Still, it's faster than looking up the value of each card, which is something I simply wouldn't bother to do (I'm the lazy collector-type).

There are also a few problems with the Deckbuilder section. Some views do not display correctly on screen. The search view appeared to be broken, as I was only able to display the upper left part of the search window. Patches and updates to the program didn't fix the problem.

Encyclopedia

This is the real meat of the encyclopedia. This section tackles the daunting task of giving you access to every Magic card ever printed. Almost all of them, anyway - there were no Guru cards that I could find. Useful features include the ability to make your own notes about each card, additional information from WOTC about background information on each card, why it was created, its intended use, or strategy tips. One particularly useful feature is the ability to zoom in on the artwork. I didn't think this mattered much until I began to notice the subtle differences between the seemingly endless editions of Magic: The Gathering cards. The only way to determine which cards you have is to carefully scrutinizing those graphics. It's also amusing to see how the game has changed for the better, and how some obviously abusable rules were clarified in later editions.

Strategy Library

The strategy library is a storehouse of articles and writings to help with your game play. It includes rules and formats, articles, the history of the game, and organized play. Don't get too excited though, as this isn't proprietary information - it's all available (and linked to) WOTC's Web site. This guarantees the information is kept up to date, but it makes for an awkward interface that doesn't mesh well with your Web browser.

Magic Links

This is where the true value of the M:TGIE becomes clear. With the speed that WOTC produces cards, this encyclopedia would be rapidly outdated in a matter of months. But just a few simple downloads, and -- voila! - my encyclopedia was up to date. This also included updates to the card pricing, ensuring the latest and most up to date values.

Conclusions

The M:TGIE tries to be all things to all gamers, and only achieves some of them successfully. As an interactive gaming tool, it's a novelty. As a collector's assistant, it's invaluable. As a reference, it's less successful due to the broken search function and awkward Windows interface. Most importantly, the Magic: The Gathering Interactive Encyclopedia utilizes the full power of the Internet, ensuring that its shelf life will be measured in years rather than months.

This program is it, when it comes to Magic on the computer. I bought this and found it to be wonderful. A lot of info and I like the search features, it has pictures of all the cards and you can play on-line. Online play is tricky at first. There is no on-line rules. It plays just like at home. for example you want to lay 10 lands you can. You will have to watch your opp. I love it! this is a must have!

Whether your a Magic Veteran or a Newbie, this is an excellent tool for any player of Magic. It contains all the cards ever made and has FREE downloads of newly released sets. There is online play to go decktesting, see if your newly created deck holds up against the nets best. A deck builder, to fine tune your deck before you go spend your money on card singles. It also analyzes your deck, not enough mana, too much mana. it's just an excellent tool for deck building and fine tuning! Cause we all know how expensive Magic can get. The search engine is great for finding that card that you need. A detailed picture of the card (exact picture of the card to be exact) is also available. Invest in this, and you'll end up saving lots of money. Grade:A+ GAMER247 is OUT!!!!

(Caveat: When I first got this product there was a problem with the Wizards of the Coast server that was preventing me from playing online against others. This seems to have been corrected.)

Good points: The virtual interface is done reasonably well once you are connected and playing a game against someone. All cards thru Mercadian Masques are known by the program (a major selling point). Deck builder is decent as well.

Bad points: My major complaints are 1)that you cannot play against a computer opponent, and 2)the program does not do any rules enforcement at all - it just provides a virtual play area and a chat function with your opponent. (This means rules interpretations can still be an issue. The program is like Apprentice in this regard.) Minor complaints: the program is also quite slow to load up and to quit (install take a really long time), and seperate parts of the program don't seem fully integrated (uses you web browser to connect find opponents at the WotC website). Documentation is not as comprehensive as I had hoped, but the program is easy enough to run anyway.

Overall: Good for head to head play and deckbuilding. Just be aware that you must already know how to play Magic and can't play vs. the computer. Program itself is seems a bit clunky, but this IS the first version of the software.

The Magic the Gathering Interactive Encyclopedia is a very useful tool to stay up to date with the latest expansions. It features an vast library that covers all cards ever printed in the original language (english) and covers every single edition for this game, including Unglued. It features the ability to play online or on LAN. Sadly this feature is not as useful as one might suggest now. Several little problems or missing features make it quite hard to play a decent game. The most disappointing thing about the Online play funtcion is, that you can only play duels. One of the most eagerly awaited things by the magic online community is a program that enables them to play large multiplayer games. Sadly WotC did not implement it. Nevertheless this one is a keeper, and woth the ... you have to pay for it. I just hope that WotC does better next time :-)