The next two main sections are part of the MtG rules engines, in which I described the Forge and the XMage MtG REs in detail. This section is recommended only for those who are not familiar with the basic rules of MtG and want to get a taste of what the game is all about. The first is an optional and brief introduction to the game of MtG, called the basics of MtG. This article is divided into four main sections. Also, if you spot an error or disagree with something that I wrote or want to improve this article, feel free to get in touch with me. As it is customary with my articles, I try to keep them up-to-date to reflect my current knowledge about the content, so if this is not your first time here, make sure to check the Changelog for updates. If you are interested in using and learning more about Forge and XMage, then keep on reading. Clearly, the issue of intellectual property has multiple layers when it comes to MtG and it would be beyond the scope of this article (and honestly, my expertise) to cover it here. In addition, other people reached via private messages to let me know that in 2000, WotC created the Open Game License to allow easier dissemination of the game and to allow third-party parties to profit from the reproduction of certain aspects of the game. For anyone interested, there is a Reddit thread in which I shared my opinion on this matter and other users explained a few of the legal challenges. *To be fair, since the original publication of this article, I was made aware that the aspects concerning intellectual property related to MtG are more controversial and complex than in the comparison with poker. This is possible because just like no company can claim ownership over the game of poker, WotC cannot claim ownership over the rules that constitute a game of MtG*. More specifically, the article covers the main features of the Forge and XMage REs, how to install and use each one of them, and how you can contribute to maintain their development because these two projects are essentially community-driven. In this article, I talked about two of the main MtG rules engines (RE) currently available for offline and online play: Forge and XMage. On top of that, MTGO only runs on Windows, leaving many of us nix users (e.g., GNU/Linux, macOS) without official support.įortunately, there are free and open source software (FOSS) alternatives to MTGO that do not require users to buy digital objects (cards) to play MtG. The development of such client has gone through many changes over the years but most of the details are unknown to the public because MTGO is not open source and a large portion of its functionality happens in the cloud. The main MtG client developed by WotC is called MTG Online (MTGO) and it requires users to buy digital versions of paper Magic cards to trade and play with other users on private servers. It is arguably the most successful TCG ever made and even though it was originally popularized as a paper format TCG, it has long been ported to digital formats. If you have never heard about it before, MtG is a trading card game (TCG) created by Richard Garfield and released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). I have been playing Magic: the Gathering (MtG) for as long as the game exists. July 22nd, 2022: Publication of the original article Introduction Lastly, one of the core devs of the Forge MtG RE reached out to elaborate on the early development history of the RE, which I included in the introduction of the Forge section. I also added a note about intellectual property to the introduction, following conversations I had with other users in a Reddit thread and private messages. Thanks to user tehdiplomat for making me aware of it. More specifically, there is a new section called Adventure mode that describes how to run Forge in adventure mode, which is a single-player RPG mode that resembles Shandalar. July 25th, 2022: I made a few updates to the article in light of new information I learned and to fix a few typos here and there. Sep 21st, 2022: Forge is now accepting donations via Ko-fi, so I updated the Contributing section accordingly. This was necessary because the domain has been offline for quite some time now, and the best alternative is to use the xmage.today domain, which hosts the beta client and a few public servers. Feb 1st, 2023: I updated the XMage installation instructions to match the beta client instructions.
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