Caught! Mike Donais Helped Redesign a Magic Card for Hearthstone
A thread on reddit created by cromatkastar early this morning titled "'Can I copy your homework?' 'Sure'" got itself a response from Hearthstone's Principal Game Designer, Mike Donais. Cromatkastar pointed out that the new Violet Wurm card was exactly like a card from Magic the Gathering - Symbiotic Wurm.
Mike came in and noted that he helped design both Kobolds & Catacombs and the 17-year-old Magic expansion the card came from - Onslaught. That's a pretty impressive history!
Quote from Mike DonaisQuick Question: Is it still copying if I designed Symbiotic Wurm for Onslaught 17 years ago and then designed it again for Hearthstone?
(That isn't exactly how it happened but I helped design both expansions and it makes a much better story.)
Self-plagiarism is actually a thing, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism#Self-plagiarism
Of course not! Even if he "stole" the idea from someone else, it still wouldn't constitute plagiarism in this case. Just trying to educate people that it's a thing.
Whenever the patch arrives. They don't reveal golden versions much beyond a few legendaries in reveal streams.
From what I remember of past expansions they usually release the golden cards a bit before it launches. Least I think they did it once or twice. Might be remembering wrong.
Out of all the cards copied, it was a wurm! >.<
Nice little easteregg :)
I hope he used RNG to decide what card to copy...
He sure did! I believe he used the "Life" engine.
The difference is that HS Wurm is a common but MtG one is a rare (equivalent of HS epic rarity)
Please God, let me get MTG Arena beta invite and let the game succeed. PLEASE!!!
Over 15 years of Magic Online beg to differ.
I've played some games IRL that went way slower than Online.
I won't deny MTGO's UI is super clunky. I think a lot of that feeling of slow and clunkiness is more about how the game flow is presented. Having to constantly say "yes, proceed" IRL would get annoying, too. Most newer players get overwhelmed by the constant stopping of game flow, but most don't know you can change it so that it's not stopping at EVERY little trigger.
I played both IRL and Online for years, and while MTGO might be slightly slower overall, I don't think matches are that much longer than IRL. And TBH, until you've played against a full-counter control deck mirror match or a fog/life gain stall-out deck in person, you won't know what a SLOW match really is. :P
i have an idea for the expansion which is came somewhere in 2034:
'Wiolet Vurms... it's a 8 mana spell : summon seven 1/1 and when all of them die summon a 8/8'
In MTG each color have a very defined identity but that because you're not forced to make only monocolor decks. In HS I would like some more specific Class identity but that will probably limit design space by a lot.
Violet Wurm is Izzet
Symbiotic Wurm is Mono-Green
Nice try reddit
I wish he could make paladin more similar to the white class of MTG. At least the white class I used to know (4th to 7th edition)