1. It is totally possible to have the player update by connecting to a server and have it check to see if the disk is valid. A:Once the one number is used it is deleted off from the server as a possible upgrade, B:Don''t have a random check generator and you will be fine, C:When people try to upgrade and it fails they get a flag, too many flags and they are banned/deleted. Cost = Personal time from people
2. Bill Gates joins your game and become the most powerful person in your game universe. Cost = positive 1 billion dollar cash flow.
3. You wake up and notice you dreamed all of this, because I stake my life on this game never taking off, even daring to say that if it was free it wouldn''t be as big. Cost = Priceless

There are some things you can''t buy with money, those things you must buy in your dreams. P.S. I didn''t read all the posts.

"Practice means good, Perfect Practice means Perfect"

You could give away the game core as a free download/shareware, with a few items included. This would be great for advertising, then players would be more likely to pay for new items. If you wanted to sell it in shops, you could include the core with a random selection of extra items or a set package.

If the game is basically online only, why not just have the characters saved server-side and have the players buy stuff "virtually." Nobody wants to order discs and have them come through the mail, and you would have a very hard time getting them in stores.

Lestat3D I think youre still missing some of what makes MTG fun. The randomness of the decks. If you send random decks/upgrades and they get duplicates theyll be mad. If they get stuff thats always new they dont get that same excitment. Yes it may still be exciting but it wont be the same as CCGs. Its still an interesting idea, and if it was good enough it would definately be fun and popular. But it has to be VERY good, and very well thought out and organized, and thats the point I''m trying to make. If you can do it go for it but keep in mind that its more risky since its dependant on people buying upgrades.

There was a game that I saw at Origins gaming convention out in Ohio which was basically MtG on a CD. It was made by Sony I believe and was playable online with other people and with ways to trade cards and what not. I think it had an X in the title. I''ll have to go home and find out the name. It had a concept similar to yours but you could buy "subscriptions" to card packs instead of individual cards. It was an interesting concept but I don''t think it went anywhere... *shrug* My two bits...

"Sight Does Not Mean Vision"

It''s true, they''re making a Magic online game. It''s actually in alpha I think, and basically you make an account and pay for points, and then buy decks/boosters/whatever with the points. You get points at the startout to get your first cards and winning games gets you points. Magic''s going to have an online server like a mmorpg with tourneys and trading. It''s basically a way to get people interested in the series again, giving people as many opponents as they want and such.

(This post has not been edited for political correctness. Be warned.)

I really, really like the idea. However, it won''t fly unless your players are all Fortune 500 company CEOs. NOBODY is stupid enough to shell out that much money for a game, even if a pack of, say, 30 cost only $10. That''s why none of these computerized versions of card games take off: you can''t put your hands on the things.


Revolutionary? Nah.

Caveman has just came out of his cave?

Selling diskettes becomes easily victim of piratism and is "expensive". If you really are going to make game like that why wouldn''t you use SMS servers. Ever heard of mobiletelephones text message games? You simply have to make SMS server which updates the players databases depending on from which number did the message come from (Players ID is defined by players phone number). Getting reputation as SMS game doesn''t need that much money than you would need to make huge marketing campaign. In SMS model you could add that to your "local" mobile operators SMS games and they could even give a server for your RPG in addition of SMS server. Two flies with one hit. RPG like Runescape (www.runescape.com) which needs text messages to buy better equipment and etc. could be a big cash hit. Perhaps I will ask if my mobilegame desinging friend could make this happen =D

why dont you treat your diskettes as though they were a booster pack of cards you''d normally buy for MTG?

heres an idea for you..
on one of your standard diskettes, place a single file that contains a small amount of encrypted data, as well as an encrypted ID number.

now, inside the first set of data will be the numbers/ID''s of 15 cards from your game. you then use your game to connect to an online server, which checks the second ID number in your diskette against thousands of valid ID''s already on the site. if they match up, the game will automatically register all your 15 cards into the game, and then the server will "blacklist" the ID so it cannot be used again.

if this is confusing, let me lay it out.

  DISKETTE   |   +-- encrypted data   |     |   |     +-- stores 15 random cards in here   |   +-- ID number  

this wouldn''t be hard at all to do, and it eliminates piracy. once the file is used, it cannot be used again because the ID number is blacklisted.

you can easily write some software that creates a list of 15 random cards from your game, encrypts the list, then creates a random valid ID and encrypts it into one file.

although, if anyone ever deletes their game they will lose all their cards, but if you think about it, if i throw away my MTG card collection, i wouldn''t have it anymore either...

Here is an Idea, SMART CARDS!!
like the ones used here in Costa Rica and some other countries as phone cards and mondex cards, they have a chip that holds binary data, they are as cheap as 75 cents, and you could sell card packs just like Wizards of the Coast sells Magic cards, then you sell a card reader (I once made a paralell one, the schematics are on the net) for say $10, you buy the cards, you can play with the cards as a normal card game, and you can add the data on your cards to the game on the PC (you add spells to your character in the game), you can have different themes for your games, making posibilities infinite, making a copy of a smartcard is harder than making a copy of a floppy.

perhaps even inside the game, in order to cast a spell you have to insert the card, making it so that if you trade cards you cant use the spells you no longer have.

Edited by - kwizatz on November 25, 2001 4:47:10 PM