{"id":434,"date":"2008-09-24T20:07:43","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T01:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/archives\/434"},"modified":"2016-08-03T17:44:08","modified_gmt":"2016-08-04T00:44:08","slug":"magic-the-gathering-battlegrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/archives\/434","title":{"rendered":"Magic: The Gathering &#8211; Battlegrounds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/mtgbg-duel-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/mtgbg-duel-1-300x225.png\" alt=\"mtgbg-duel\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3907\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/mtgbg-duel-1-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/mtgbg-duel-1-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/mtgbg-duel-1.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>In writing about <em>Etherlords<\/em>, and before that about <em>Puzzle Quest<\/em>, I made mention of how much they drew from <em>Magic: The Gathering<\/em>.  Well, there&#8217;s one sort of game you&#8217;d really expect to draw from <em>M:tG<\/em>, it&#8217;s a game specifically based on the <em>M:tG<\/em> license.  There have been several.<\/p>\n<p>The most straightforward adaptation is undoubtedly <em>Magic: the Gathering Online<\/em>, which is exactly what it sounds like: a system for playing <em>M:tG<\/em> against other humans over the internet.  Before that, there was a single-player RPG-like title, called simply <em>Magic: the Gathering<\/em>, that used straightforward <em>M:tG<\/em> duels for combat, and before that there was <em>Battlemage<\/em> <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_434_1('footnote_plugin_reference_434_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_434_1('footnote_plugin_reference_434_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_434_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_434_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Or, more fully, <em>Magic: the Gathering &#8212; Battlemage<\/em>. It seems to me that Richard Garfield kind of painted himself into a corner with respect to names for derivative properties.  &#8220;Magic&#8221; is a generic enough word that you really need the subtitle &#8220;the Gathering&#8221; there to positively identify the franchise, which results in these multiply-subtitled derivatives.  I don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m going to do about naming these blog posts.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_434_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_434_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script>, a realtime variant.<\/p>\n<p>Since <em>M:tG<\/em> itself is about as realtime as chess, <em>Battlemage<\/em> was a quite loose adaptation, and perhaps better described as an action game inspired by <em>M:tG<\/em>.  It kept the basic notion of a duel between wizards who summon monsters at each other, and a mechanic of regenerating mana, but the mere fact that it was realtime changed the character of the game fundamentally, and not for the better, in my opinion.  Where <em>M:tG<\/em> is essentially about showing off how clever you are, the hectic pace of <em>Battlemage<\/em> basically prevented me from thinking while playing it.  As I remember it, my mind was mostly occupied with trying to remember how to use its user interface, which seemed unbelievably awkward to me for time-constrained use, ignoring obvious mechanisms, such as using the mouse to select spells, in favor of paging through lists with the arrow keys.  (I didn&#8217;t understand this at the time, but the whole UI was just a minimal conversion of the Playstation version.)<\/p>\n<p><em>Battlegrounds<\/em>, released in 2003, was the last attempt at a new <em>M:tG<\/em>-based title.  It&#8217;s essentially a remake of <em>Battlemage<\/em>.  This isn&#8217;t obvious at first, because the presentation is so different &#8212; <em>Battlemage<\/em> used an overhead 2D view and a largish scrolling map (probably intended to give the player time to react to the opponent&#8217;s summons, but it also had the effect that you never knew what was going on outside of your current window), while <em>Battlegrounds<\/em> has a smallish side-viewed 3D arena more reminiscent of a fighting game like <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em>, or possibly tennis.  But it&#8217;s still realtime and hectic, and the whole thing is obviously designed around the PS2 controller, even in the PC version.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I&#8217;m mellowing, but it seems to me that <em>Battlegrounds<\/em> is more successful than <em>Battlemage<\/em> was.  Duels are typically over with quickly, one way or another, and seem to be turning <em>puzzle-like<\/em> &#8212; you may not have time to think during a battle, but you can certainly devise tactics between times.  However, it&#8217;s definitely not as faithful to <em>M:tG<\/em> as <em>Etherlords<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_434_1();\">&#x202F;<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_434_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_434_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_434_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">References<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_434_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_434_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_434_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Or, more fully, <em>Magic: the Gathering &#8212; Battlemage<\/em>. It seems to me that Richard Garfield kind of painted himself into a corner with respect to names for derivative properties.  &#8220;Magic&#8221; is a generic enough word that you really need the subtitle &#8220;the Gathering&#8221; there to positively identify the franchise, which results in these multiply-subtitled derivatives.  I don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m going to do about naming these blog posts.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_434_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_434_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_434_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_434_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_434_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_434_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_434_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_434_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_434_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_434_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_434_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_434_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_434_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_434_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In writing about Etherlords, and before that about Puzzle Quest, I made mention of how much they drew from Magic: The Gathering. Well, there&#8217;s one sort of game you&#8217;d really expect to draw from M:tG, it&#8217;s a game specifically based on the M:tG license. There have been several. The most straightforward adaptation is undoubtedly Magic: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[215,233,234,73],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ccg","tag-magic-the-gathering","tag-magic-the-gathering-battlegrounds","tag-magic-the-gathering-battlemage","tag-ui"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3908,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions\/3908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}