Ah, commercialization: It’s something that can turn an otherwise good game into raging garbage (see Star Wars Battlefront II). Game developers, especially those who make free games, have to follow a very fine line. Make the game too generous and don’t make enough money, but keep it too small - or at least give it that visualization - and society will drive you into oblivion.

Earlier this week, Cryptic Studios unveiled the commercialization data for Magic: Legends. If you’re a player in other cryptic games like Neverwinter and Star Trek Online, it should be mostly a familiar area. If you’re a player in these games and you don’t like earning them. you might be on the hard road.

Magic: Legends has a Zen gear mechanism from other Cryptic games, and the Magic Legends Aether coins act as a broker. You get unpurified Aether from the game, which you can then improve up to 50,000 a day. The purified ether can then be exchanged for a genuine Zen coin at a rate determined by community action.

Magic Legends Gold is also earned in the game and can then be used by the broker, who is a copy of the game from the auction house. You can buy and sell products there, including those purchased from Zen. A complete list of what you can buy and sell is included in the message describing the feature. Finally, there is also a battle card for the game, which offers other bonuses, including Aether, through both free and paid tracks.

Here’s the point where I usually offer some editorial opinions about the commercialization of the game, but since someone who hasn’t played crypts for a long time, I’m not very familiar with how these systems work and whether they fit equally well into magic: myths. This is particularly significant due to the roots of the card game being collected and the way in which power (i.e., packs and effect cards) is usually gained in this type of game. It’s something I probably won’t be able to form a real opinion on until I see it as practical for myself.