2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 34,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Magic Mechanics I’d Like to See

I have been thinking to myself recently about mechanics that I would add to Magic the Gathering. I thought of a couple I’d like to share with you guys.

Engage

Cards with Engage would typically be instants, sorceries, enchantments, and equipment. The card would have Engage X (X would be a value) and the rules would be:

Enchanted/target/equipped player gains a power of X. He or she may attack and deal damage as if he or she was a creature. He or she may also be blocked or block for another player. Damage is dealt as normal. He or she may gain keyword abilities.

So lets say a card gave you Engage 5 and you attack a player with Llanowar Elves on his or her side of the field. He or she can block you with the elves and you would take one damage to your life total. You would deal 5 damage to the elves, killing it. If that creature was a Blighted Agent, you would take a poison counter and you would deal 5 damage to the agent. You can block for other players, but you can’t block for yourself. If a Primeval Titan was heading your way, you can’t block it with yourself. If it was going for your ally, you may block it with yourself as long as you have Engage. The abilities can be flying, shroud, hexproof, vigilance, infect, and other abilities.

Blink

I think that Blink should be a keyword action. I’ve seen many cards that have “blink” and I think that its a very good ability. Examples of cards with blink would be Argent Sphinx, Glimmerpoint Stag (give others blink),  Hikari, Twilight Guardian, Flickerwisp, etc.. Basically, its you may exile the permanent. Then return it to the battlefield at the beginning of your next end step. Permanents can have blink and you can blink permanents. So Argent Sphinx would have, “Metalcraft – U: Blink Argent Sphinx.” Blink will usually be an activated or triggered ability on permanents.

Rage

Rage would be another “X” ability. Basically if a creature with rage would be dealt lethal damage, it gains +X/+X until end of turn. It would typically, but not exclusively, appear on red creatures. So here’s a theoretical creature: Blazeborn Monk; mana cost: R, Creature – Human monk, Rage 1, 1/1. So, if Blazeborn Monk was attacking and was blocked by a 1/2 creature, he would gain +1/+1, enough to kill the blocker and survive the ordeal. I think that this ability could become a nice trick. You can use Gut Shot on him to turn on Rage and make him a 2/1 for 1.

So those are some ideas I have for some mechanics and abilities. What do you think? Do you have any good ideas of your own? Post them in the comments! Thanks for reading!

 

New MTG Comic Series

This is an example of the cover page for the new comics, AWESOME.

Hasbro and IDW Publishing have joined together with Wizards to create a new comic book series for Magic the Gathering. It is said to show the travels of a new unique planeswalker along with appearances of popular characters from the game. The series will start with a four book mini-series. The books will be written by Matt Forbeck and illustrated by Martín Cóccolo. There will be exclusive, playable alternate art cards that will be available only with certain issues. I am personally excited for this because it will add even more lore to the world(s) of Magic the Gathering. I would also like to see the new planeswalker as a card!

Game Graphics are About to Get a LOT Better

About a year ago, an Austrailian hobbyist name Bruce Dell came out with a new way of making computer graphics more detailed called Unlimited Detail. It basically replaces polygons, the flat shapes we use in 3D graphics today, with 3D virtual atoms. These things require enormous amounts of processing power to render; that’s just with one object, much less an entire game level. He claimed that his new technology allows for the unlimited power required to handle such graphics. So much so, that he can create huge landscapes filled with objects created from the virtual atoms. All of a sudden he stopped getting interviews and simply disappeared.

Now he’s back and has some updates for us. He has developed a technique to convert polygons to virtual atoms. He then created an island that’s about 1 square kilometer where every blade of grass, every grain of dirt, everything is made and rendered with these virtual atoms. This tech will allow for ultra realistic gaming graphics in the future.

Here’s a video explaining this in more detail:

Holographic Discs are coming soon

GE Global Research announced that they will be starting a new project aimed at creating holographic storage discs. These devices can hold the equivalent of 20 Blu-ray discs or 100 DVD’s. This is due to the fact that these discs utilize all three dimensions, storing data on the inside of the disc as well as the surface. GE hopes to be able to produce holographic discs that hold 500 GB or maybe even 1 TB of data.

They will probably be expensive once they come out. The first holographic discs were planned to have 300 GB of storage and sell for about $100 – $125.

From Discovery News