imancit

You know, this is probably a big part of it. On a touchscreen 'haha' and 'hehe' are way easier.

In short, because Magic is one of the best games ever designed, and this is the only sanctioned way to play the full game online. Magic online was created a long, long time ago before more modern concepts of game monetization (freemium / mtx based) were developed. It's ended up as something more akin to an online poker room than a gaming server.

This was the planned input peripheral for the ill-fated "Phantom" gaming console.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2007/12/phantom-keyboar/

Aaaand looks like the keyboard actually made it to market, there's even one on ebay. I had no idea.

Right, but if you compile with warnings as errors, then assignment within a condition won't compile, which prevents the issue.

I'd much rather go that way than write code that reads less like a human wrote it.