Every game I play on octgn nowadays feels kinda samey.
Maybe the problem is that there aren't enough different spellbooks? I've noticed that a lot of people myself included have started to have a preference not to play mirror matches, and that mirror matches have come to mean games where each player uses the same Mage. Not necessarily the same spellbook or the same strategy, but merely using the same Mage is enough for it to be a "mirror match".
It doesn't feel like spellbooks that use the same Mage are different enough from each other to really set themselves apart from each other enough to catch my interest and attention, at least not on octgn. Whenever people talk about their spellbooks, they often just refer to them as their [mage] book. They don't qualify what kind of [mage] book it is in the name, at all. A forcemaster spellbook is just referred to as "my forcemaster book", a beastmaster spellbook is just called "my beastmaster book". Spellbooks that are unique enough to have a name of their own seem less common on octgn.
I have totally different experiences here. Especially on OCTGN I've seen and I've played against many people who tried out extraordinary spellbooks. If a new good deck strategy comes to your mind OCTGN is perfect for just putting a spellbook together and it lets you find an opponent to test it quite quickly. You also have the chance to challenge a huge variety of different players who all can contribute different ideas to your deck which is just not possible in most of the rather small local gaming groups. This is one of the points that makes playing on OCTGN so interesting for me. Of course I don't know what kind of matches you had but for me the thing about very similar decks and strategies is not true.
Also, people don't talk much at all while playing on octgn. There's very little social interaction *during* the game.
I think this is the big point here. Again I've also played against very communicative opponents but you are right that there are also a lot of players who don't say anything during a match. I think its exactly this point which makes playing on OCTGN this "stale" as you said it. When I play irl matches the communication and the discussions make up nearly half of the games fun for me. When playing on OCTGN in addition to the missing consistent communication the discussion about game rules, missing automations, etc. via the chatbox can be really annoying and are in my opinion the main reason why OCTGN matches need so much time. So i absolutley agree with you that voice chat should be used more often in order to increase the motivation to play on OCTGN.
One way to combat the staleness of octgn MW is to try a variety of different modes of play.
Unfortunately, Domination is rarely played on octgn, and academy is almost never played on it. Team games are even rarer. And I'm willing to bet that I can count the number of free for all non-Domination mw games that have ever taken place on octgn on one hand and that I've been a part of every single one of them.
When it comes to team games I think the problem with OCTGN is that the organization is just too bad. In comparison to 1 vs. 1 matches where you can just start a new game and be relativley sure that somebody will join soon team games require more planning as you need more players at the same time who also are able to play together in teams. Again especially here the chatbox is not sufficient for team talk and with 4 players and potential spectators it can get very caotic. There are no applications, websites or forum threads where people can plan those bigger matches at least nothing that I know of so maybe it would be a good idea to create something like this.
Is it just the interface? I mean as far as I can tell it seems like everything about the game online and in real life is the same except for the interface. It's not like there are any significant rule changes between the two mediums. Maybe in order to make MW on octgn less stale it needs to engage the senses more. More sound effects besides dice rolling maybe, or perhaps we could have the chance to personalize our spellbooks more with fanmade alternate Mage art cards? Or if someone fixed the volcanic and marble arenas so that the zone borders in the marble are easier to see and the volcanic zones colored differently so red action markers and card borders are easier to see on it. And maybe people should use voice chat during games more instead of just text chat. I'm not sure these changes would be enough to make mw on octgn really interesting and dynamic like real life MW is, but I'm having trouble putting my finger on why. I mean it has to be *something* about the interface, it just has to be, because there is nothing else that is different between online and offline Mage Wars. Octgn Mage Wars just feels a LOT less interactive than offline Mage Wars and I can't figure out why that is exactly.
I'm not sure about the interface. Personally I like it and it doesn't disturb me while playing. Of course everybody will agree that it is nothing in comparison with an irl game with real cards, action markers, etc. but I don't think that it is a game breaker.
I'm glad that a thread like this exists. Any improvement on an already good gaming plattform is very positive!
