Sunday, October 2, 2016

The MTGO Economy

The Magic the Gathering Online (MTGO) economy continues to go in the direction of most cards costing less, and I am happy about that. I do not speculate, and don't care to make any money. I just want to have fun playing Magic online. The people who try to make money on MTGO are losing money, if only in slow motion. They are not losing a lot of money at any one time, yet every move the MTGO folks make, like the recent Treasure Chest announcement, takes one more bite out of their profits.

Who makes money on MTGO? Bots and grinders. Wizards is definitely going in the direction of putting bots out of business, and I am not surprised by the very negative and very public reaction from Goatbots (who I buy from all the time) about the most recent changes. Grinders will also continue to take hits. Ultimately, Wizards needs to make more money from their product, and grinders playing limited games for profit are bad for business. I speak for myself: I really dislike playing in limited events because I know grinders dominate those events and always win. I pay the same entry fee, mostly lose, and come back for more every time a new set comes out. A grinder plays many more events, but recycles winnings by selling the boosters to bots. Back when I started playing on MTGO in 2012, a good grinder probably paid for one event and then could fund the rest from winning packs and selling them to the bots for tickets.

Finally, I think that Wizards should sell Treasure Chests same as they sell other products in the online store.