Would you play Magic Online if it was free?

Assuming you play Magic in paper, I’m willing to bet you’d at the very least download the client, create an account, and give it a try. Maybe you don’t like the interface, maybe for you playing Magic about getting together with some friends and having a good time. But if you wanted to practice or just play more than you can at your local game store, I’m willing to bet a free Magic Online experience would be something you’d jumped into.

I don’t think Magic Online should be free. It’s a product that Wizards of the Coast is selling, just like paper magic. But I do think Wizards would benefit greatly from having the strong majority of players interested in their game on Magic Online. I don’t know what percentage of the total Magic-playing population uses Magic Online. If it was free, I could imagine that number being as high as 80–90%. If that many people playing Magic used Magic Online, Wizards could advertise and promote to the majority of their users in real time. Having direct access to your customers — no intermediaries involved — is incredibly beneficial to a business.

If we assume that Wizards wants us all to be playing Magic Online, what’s the best way to make that happen? Completely free is not the answer — the players gain everything, Wizards only gains easy access to their playerbase, while losing all the revenue that Magic Online provides. However, there is one incredibly obvious way to get the strong majority of players using Magic Online while still maintaining the entire revenue stream:

What if all “Constructed Open Play” rooms allowed you to play with cards you don’t own? This alone would be enough to get me using Magic Online daily. I could try out various decks across formats, see what I like, and very likely consider buying that deck and playing in 8-mans, dailies, and leagues.

Yes, some people would just play in these “free to play” constructed rooms. But it doesn’t take much for Wizards to get you to spend money on a game you love once you’re in the door. Analytics can help guide Wizards’ efforts to convert players to paying (e.g., if they see someone logging in often but never joining paid events, offer a discount for the first). I think this would drastically increase the number of players using Magic Online, and believe strongly that it would result in increased revenue overall (if perhaps less revenue per active user).

What do you think? If you don’t now, would you play Magic Online if you could play any deck for free in the constructed open play rooms?