![]() ![]() First, they provided you way to set up the battle of Arnhem, and go grab some lunch without worrying that your cat was going to eat the 1st Airborne Division. When the first computer wargames started coming out, they were filling three main needs among the wargame community. The necessity or attractiveness of board game translations to the PC is well illustrated by the first such titles to crossover - wargames. That plus the added expense of starting all over again with your collection tend to make the experience less attractive to veterans of the game than it might be to newcomers. But (you just knew the "but" was coming) the facelessness of your opponents gives the game a detached feeling - which is good or bad depending on how much you want to actually interact with people. Magic The Gathering Online is a great realization of almost the entire tabletop experience and even goes as far as to smooth out a few of the inconveniences inherent in the physical card game while adding a few other new features all its own. The cards themselves are seemingly endlessly varied and this is what gives this game its collectible, quirky status. The goal is to eliminate the other player in two out of three matches and there are countless strategies you can employ, both in the construction of your deck and the way you use it in the matches. ![]() At the beginning of your turn, you draw a card, place land on the table, and use the land to cast spells and summon creatures. ![]() You and one or opponents each have a deck of cards that contains land, spells and creatures (which are just a special type of spell). Magic: The Gathering is a card-based wizard duel. But before we go any further, I should tell the two of you out there that haven't heard of the game just what it's all about. As a guy who has played the card game with embarrassing regularity, these were the two big issues in my mind when I sat down to review the PC game - can they add something to the game (or the process of playing the game at least) and can they give me anything like that same sense of enjoyment I used to get making fun of Tal's Witch Hunter deck? The answers are "yes" and "not really." Alright, so now we're getting to the real evaluation. Otherwise, what's the point? Next: Can a PC offer a comparable level of social satisfaction to a player? Usually not. I think a game has to try to take advantage of something unique in the new technology. For instance: Can a straight port be good if the original game was good? I don't think so. Even so, the issue of games that have been migrated from one setting to another or from one medium (or Entertainment Delivery System, as I call it in the book) to another raises a few important issues for reviewers. The subtitle for today's review is taken from the book that I am writing a book which no one, not even my father, is ever going to read. The rest of you are to be congratulated on your erudition, inattention or just plain bull-headedness. Boy, I bet we lost half our readers with that title alone. ![]()
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