Magic the Gathering Interactive Encyclopedia

Discount Price: $45.00

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Excellent tool for MTG Players! [Posted on 2001-05-23]
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!!!!

Were Are They All???????????????????? [Posted on 2001-05-28]
Why is everything I want (this prouduct included)at Amazon.com out of stock. You would think that a site that sells so much would not be able to sell so much without keeping the items in stock(could sell much more and make much more if they did; hint hint) My rating of the game is not accurated because I don't have it because it is out of stock!!! HINT HINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want Magic on the PC this is the one... [Posted on 2001-06-25]
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 :-)

M:TGIE tries to be all things to all gamers [Posted on 2002-06-03]
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.

No updates available, No longer supported. [Posted on 2006-06-09]
It is important to note that this product is not supported by Wizards of the Coast and that all updates and patches have been removed from their website. Also it is not really a game. The old Microprose {Duels of the Planeswalkers} game was more entertaining and the main benefit of this software is the additional cards and card art which have the potential of being used in a non profit community supported play group for those folks that don't plan on subscribing to MTG online.

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