MTGO has been around for 5 years, 9 months in live form 1.x or 2.x. Since 6/2002 it has been a strange phenomenon. Digital Objects for trade and sale. Digital objects in games that people "license to use from WOTC/Hasbro" yet in most folks held views they own them.
Its been a rough time since 2003 and the release of 2.x MTGO. MTGO has struggled due to its success with 1.x and also with 1.x flaws in design: hard coding each card's rules and a centralized master server as a bottleneck restricting growth. MTGO's team (post Leaping Lizards) tried to fix some things with 2.0 in 2003 but the crash was so horrid and nasty that they had to roll back. Ever since then 2.x has had its problems and crash/lag instability (past 3,000 or so users online at once).
Flash forward to April 2008. We're nearing the launch of MTGO V3. Its not the prettiest UI (I hate the vertical chat bar) and will launch without Leagues/Multiplayer (unless they fix that at the last minute).
Lets hope with the new 3.x infrastructure (cluster servers, better uniform coding for card rules/cards and expandibility) - we get growth in MTGO again.
What has held us together for the last 5 years of pain? Community. MTGO users on the forums and in MTGO have helped grow the community and keep it cobbled together. Critics and fans of WOTC both help make the MTGO Forums and MTGO itself a better place. I applaud one thing WOTC DOES right: They let us speak our minds on the wizards.com MTGO Forums (within some reason).
Regarding PDCWAR: Rise of Commonaria - we will be launching the Beta 1 Post V3. V3 is so close, I dont want a hangover between the downing of 2.x live and the launch of V3.
More news to come soon on PDC and MTGO!
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