User Reviews (1 - 11 of 22)

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No updates available, No longer supported.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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.

Magic the Gathering Interactive Encyclopedia

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This software should still be in beta testing. Even with the patches it constantly crashes and has errors. When I asked for tech support with the second patch, they say to uninstall the program and NOT install the second patch. The game is great, but the programmers and tech support people should be fired!!

Love the Card Game, Hate the software

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: March 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I love the card game but have little time to play. So I purchased the game to play online. I have had nothing but problems getting the game to work. The tech support is no existant and the patches dont help. This is very frustrating. I can recommend the card game, but not this defective software

This collector is unimpressed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 19 / 22
Date: January 08, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I'm pretty seriously unimpressed with this product, particularly from a user interface perspective. Here are a few reasons why.

(1) It has only one graphics option, which is running full screen with a workspace that is 800 x 600. It can't be minimized, run in a window, or run at a higher resolution that wouldn't waste half of my display. In addition, my Start menu isn't accessible while the program is running. I find these kind of limitations frustrating and unacceptable.

(2) The windows are not resizeable, so even though I have plenty of screen space to work with, I can't use it. This means that I have to use the horizontal scroll bar to view only a small portion of any of the tables at a time, which makes the product particularly difficult to use.

(3) There doesn't appear to be a way to indicate multiple copies of a card in my collection without having multiple entries for that card. This might be useful for rare or special cards, but having hundreds of entries for lands, or dozens for commons, makes the feature much less useful.

(4) The text in general is a light font on a dark background, which is not terribly functional. The help text is particularly difficult to read.

(5) The online game interface is a separate application that I am unable to close without closing the product entirely, even though I can have both the online game and the encyclopedia running simultaneously.

The product *looks* very nice. I just wish WotC had put half as much effort into making a product that works as good as it looks.

Flawed, but a must for every 'Expert' player

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 39 / 41
Date: January 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

With the number of unique magic cards getting big enough to stretch to the moon and back, I was pretty excited when I first read about Encyclopedia. "Spoiler" lists have long been available from the web, but not with illustrations. Encyclopedia is true to its name, containing pictures of every card in existence--even the oddities and "lost" cards. I was a little disappointed, though not too surprised, to discover that the "play" feature isn't an AI-controlled game like Duels of the Plansewalkers. Instead, it's just a virtual card table to play virtual decks against virtual friends online. As such, not really my cup of tea--it's the encyclopedia and deck analysis that interested me. That's right, not only can you keep track of your decks, but you can get charts of every conceivable statistic--ratios of spell types is only the begining.

It all sounds a litte too good to be true, and without a doubt, there are some significant shortcomings of this program. It's quite slow and resource-heavy, and the sloppy programming goes beyond that--you need a patch (available free online) just to get accurate deck analysis.

Another major problem lies in the fact that your collection as a whole can't be managed with nearly the same flexibility as your decks. You can't see how much your whole collection is worth, for instance--you can only view the price of one card a time. (Price lists are available for free download from the web.) And to see any other important stats of your entire collection, you'd have to create a giant "deck" using all your cards! Ridiculous.

Buy this program for what its title suggests; it works best as a visual encyclopedia of every card in existence. The bells and whistles need some serious work.

Wizards have their flaws too.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 15
Date: February 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is a marvelous product for those who love magic, or want to love it more fully through a more expansive library of cards to choose from. But ask anyone who's played with its Online segment and you'll find that they have their quips as well as their praise.

The main problem i had besides a few minor bugs that came about as a result of multi-tasking and such, was that the features could have used a bit more tweaking.

Who really wants to read articles and reviews from their Browser? If i wanted to use IE to read about magic i would have. It took away from some of the fun of the program.

The Search feature which allows you to hunt down that one card you love is a bit underfeatured. I wanted to be able to search for more specific items, enchantments and creatures with specific abilities.

Also the Online client worked by linking you up to a "chat room" using your browser then popping magic back up again when you find someone to play. It seemed a bit convoluted. I would have prefered a more unified program.

But as you notice i gave this review 4 stars. For all the little things(not too many of them), this is a SWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET program. It lets you feel a bit hardcore with all the selections of cards you have to choose from and still lets you play as simple as you like.

Snow White may have been beautiful but she had her blemishes too.

Were Are They All????????????????????

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 23
Date: May 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the game is a fun way to get to know all the cards

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 25
Date: November 14, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This game will let you know what all the cards are and let you see them all you can also play with any of the cards you want. It will get you to where you know all the cards and you can tell all your friends whats what.

MtG Encyclopedia good but not complete

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: January 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

(Caveat: When I first got this product there was a problem with the Wizards of the Coast server that was preventing me from playing online against others. This seems to have been corrected.)

Good points: The virtual interface is done reasonably well once you are connected and playing a game against someone. All cards thru Mercadian Masques are known by the program (a major selling point). Deck builder is decent as well.

Bad points: My major complaints are 1)that you cannot play against a computer opponent, and 2)the program does not do any rules enforcement at all - it just provides a virtual play area and a chat function with your opponent. (This means rules interpretations can still be an issue. The program is like Apprentice in this regard.) Minor complaints: the program is also quite slow to load up and to quit (install take a really long time), and seperate parts of the program don't seem fully integrated (uses you web browser to connect find opponents at the WotC website). Documentation is not as comprehensive as I had hoped, but the program is easy enough to run anyway.

Overall: Good for head to head play and deckbuilding. Just be aware that you must already know how to play Magic and can't play vs. the computer. Program itself is seems a bit clunky, but this IS the first version of the software.

Great for online play, only good for searching...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: April 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The first thing to say about the Magic Interactive Encyclopedia is: absolutely great for playing online! Having the chance to play with every Magic card ever made, seeing even their pictures on the play table, is a fantastic experience for an expert Magic player like I consider myself. The game interface is simple and easily understandable for everybody that already knows Magic The Gathering. A lot of fun, it's a promise! But there's a problem, a big one: if you want to search through the database for some specific cards using the categories the programmers have prepared... well, you'll probably have an headache! The program isn't a good one if you were looking for a big help searching the right cards for your deck. I use the deck builder together with a free downloadable database, very good to find quickly the cards you need.

What can I say? Are you looking for a Magic The Gathering program to play online with players all around the world? Well, this 4-stars program is surely for you! But if you're not a wannabe online player... You better forget this software. You can download better useful databases without paying for them! And they'll work even better than the MTG Encyclopedia...

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