I'm on the train to Melbourne, where I want to be living rather than Geelong. Living in Geelong I'm isolated. I can't play as much magic as I'd like. One solution is modo but for some reason I just don't play it. I believe I want to but when my mouse cursor hovers over the modo icon, I don't click. What is going on? I'm going to use this train ride to explore my thoughts and reasoning for this.
"It's not the same, there's no socialising"
This is partially true. There is nowhere near the level of social interaction as RL. You can't go down to the pub for a beer afterwards and it's almost considered impolite to talk in the chat.
However, I have heard exceptional stories. One was a husband and wife who met on modo. How awesome is that! I met them in Canada and they were fantastic.
Even without the social side though, magic should be fun enough that I want to play it on modo. I fear that maybe it isn't fun enough for me without the expressions and subtleties of human interaction. I want to love magic enough that I play all forms but evidentially I may not.
Streaming would be a great way to make modo more social. I could just bullshit to the camera and if I'm entertaining enough then others can enjoy it too. I'd like to learn the IT side of streaming too. I've done a little bit of that stuff and want to learn more, just handy skills to have.
$'s and the bad interface"
I think I'm a good enough player that I will win enough to make modo affordable. However, that will only be the case once I've become proficient with the interface. Currently I'm too slow and I misclick a lot. In the few times I've tried to get into modo it has been very frustrating when my intent is not delivered by the program. Practice makes perfect though and with enough hours I'll have the familiarity to be fast enough and rarely misclick. Getting to that point however, will cost significant time and lost entry fees. When I get a job in Melbourne and have the disposable income, then I'll pay those costs.
I'm not expecting Wizards of the Coast to improve modo, It's old and held together by quick-fix coding upon quick fix coding. To fix it they'd need to build a new program and burn the old one down.
Initially I'd need to buy constructed cards, which could be a huge investment depending on the format. I could probably reduce this by brewing up a decent budget deck though.
I did some research on the pathways to the Pro Tour that modo offers. I was surprised how many there were. I'll give my brief understanding here: All weekend every weekend there are tournaments which award you tokens. Those tokens enable you to enter a PTQ at the end of the weekend. Nearly every weekend! That's heaps. I had no idea. Not only is there that pathway, there is also the QP system. Whenever you do well in a minor event, you're awarded some QP's. Once you accumulate 35 QP's you can use them to enter a 'monthly'. If you do well in the monthly, you qualify for the 'quarterly'. Doing well in the quarterly qualifies you for the PT. The QP system also has a huge tournament at the end of the year which you can qualify for if you do well enough in monthlies and quarterlies.
It's a constant goal of mine to get on the Pro Tour. Such a shame to not be hitting these modo opportunities.
At the last Pro Tour I attended, Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar in Milwaukee, I got stung by not having modo skills. I was staying with a group of players for the week before the PT. It was great fun and there was always someone happy to jam games against my standard brews. Practicing draft however, was a different story. With only six players we couldn't paper draft. Modo was the only option. There was only a few days before the PT, not enough time for me to learn the modo interface properly. I resigned to birding the other guys' drafts, watching over their shoulder. Besides, I didn't have a constructed deck I liked yet and I could still be productive working on that. I went into the PT only having drafted BFZ about four times, a criminal amount and it showed in my draft record, 2-4. This was a lesson, I need to learn modo because this scenario could very well come up again.
I'm only two stops away from Southern Cross Station now and I feel a little closer to the heart of why I don't modo. Basically I'm putting it down to money at this stage. Perhaps that's just me procrastinating. Magic shouldn't be something you procrastinate from. That's for work and chores. Am I burning out a little bit? Possibly. I did decide to not go to a PPTQ last Sunday, granted that was a huge night, so I don't think that one counts. The spirit was willing but the flesh was tired and weak.
Ok, almost at Southern Cross. When I get a job in Melbourne I'll report back here, see if I've started modo-ing. Ironically I'll have much less time then, which may keep me from modo-ing. We'll see.
Catchaz laterz,
Mulch
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