Maybe my setup makes it easier for me to manage against disconnects. I’m running a system with two monitors, so its easy to shrink modo down to something small and shove it to the side. If and when they return, it’ll pop active and I’ll know that somethings up.

Perhaps you have more to do in ten minute bursts than I do but generally I like my time to come in larger blocks.

Thus, I really don’t feel that I am gaining anytime but rather gaining something new to worry about.

Also, I am mostly speaking of drafts. In a draft situation once all the games are done the next round can begin. (This is true in other formats as well but with more games going on, most of the time the clock will run its course.) In other words I would be able to start the next round if not for the fact that this person has disconnected. This wastes the time of not just me but of the other players.

Whereas the other part of me thinks about why I sat down to play Magic to begin with. For me it’s more about having fun playing a challenging and exciting game (win or lose) than getting the win and the points. I feel like the disconnect interrupts my fun, even though I technically get the win my goal of having fun is not being met.

For people falling a little closer to the competitive side of the spectrum, I agree with your comments - go do something else with those minutes before your next match, and view it in the light that your opponent gave you a win and a break.

http://www.ninjakai.com/magic-the-gathering/my-opponent-just-disconnected-on-magic-the-gathering-online-now-what

Completely agreed. Go shopping, people are dicks. Go to the movies, people are dicks. People are people are people.

“While that’s one thing, I would say dealing with the disconnect is another, unique to Magic.”

I respectfully disagree with this point. The time wasted (and I have a further point to make on the notion that the time is wasted) due to a disconnect is, in my mind, similar to being snubbed in a store by a clerk or encountering a rude person.

Sometimes it just happens.

Whats different on MODO is that you feel a victim because now ‘you’re wasting time’. After all, why are we complaining about being disconnected on unless we are losing something tangible in the process.

In the case of a disconnect, what we are allegedly ‘losing’ is time. But are we really losing time? Yes, the situation in which people are most often disconnected on is when they are about to win the match, so from the standpoint of seconds until I get 3 points, you have to ’spend’ more time (10 minutes or less). But ignoring the specific, when you sit down to play a match on MODO you are assuming that it will take 50 to 60 minutes. In that sense, you are trading the immediate win for one 10 minutes (or less) away. Imagine this scene:

“Oh man, I was playing some MTGO last night and had a great game. It was back and forth and we got down to topdecking until time in the round!”

with

“Oh man, I was playing some MTGO last night and had a great game. It looked like I was going to win in a few turns, but instead of scooping to me, the guy disconnected / idled there until time in the round”

Whats the difference? The difference is that in situation two the subject feels like something has been taken from them, but its a similar situation to the first example

except

YOU NOW HAVE AN ADDITIONAL TEN MINUTES TO DO WHATEVER.

In my mind it isn’t ‘he disconnected and I had to sit there for 10 minutes’. You were going to sit there anyways.

In my mind its ‘he disconnected and I knew I had ten minutes to get a snack / respond to an email / tell my wife I love her / check in with my teammates on IRC or AIM / read a few pages in my book’.

Instead of being forced to play it out, my opponent just said ‘feel free to go take ten minutes to live life’.

I’m not going to say that I don’t feel some bit of distaste in my mouth when someone disconnects on me, but being frustrated to HAVE to sit and wait for the game to end?

Read a book, alt-tab to Firefox, go for a ten minute walk.

Go live life.

During the month or two I played Magic online, back around Ravnica, there were a few poor sports, like just about anywhere else. Dealing with some verbal abuse is not exactly out of the ordinary in an online game, unfortunate as that may seem.

While that’s one thing, I would say dealing with the disconnect is another, unique to Magic. It can be pretty frustrating to have to sit and wait for the game to end just because your opponent wanted to end the game but didn’t want to concede properly.

Though all of that has nothing to do with why I stopped playing Magic online (and I see you’ve also stopped, until last week). I enjoyed the leagues but just had trouble scheduling my time around them.

I am glad to say I have never pulled something like that before. I have been a bit rude, as I mentioned, so I can’t complain too much about my second opponent.”

Never been rude at all? Or never been rude in a game of magic? Everyone’s gone on tilt sometime. It doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person, it just means you’re a person with emotions that might get the best of you sometimes.

I acknowledge that people on MODO are often worse than they are in real life in similar situations, but that’s the issue with MODO removing the human element from the game. When all you’re interacting with is a computer screen - not a person - its very easy to get offensive. Again, it isn’t a bad thing. Its just a thing.

If I get pissed off when someone insults me on MODO I know I’m the one who needs to take a step away from the computer. After all, its just a game and if I let their tilt get to me, I’m the one who is losing.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

Plus, I was able to straighten things up so his content came through the way it was intended, no big deal.

(little whiney though… )