Theo wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 10:01 am
Manuel, thanks for sharing. I think your heart is in the right place. I'm not as confident in your rules work or vision.
These seem poor omens to me:
- The announcement was moved to a closed board to specifically prevent responses. How does this represent "open-mindedness?"
- In response to initially (I thought) well stated concerns, the "NetRep team" response is (1) essentially refusing to respond, (2) name calling and other character attacks.
- The actual concerns stated by CDavis7M.
- What were chosen as credentials, with no further contextualizing:
- "Back in the days of Mark Alfano as NetRep/MECCG contributor... I was named a level 2 judge and became part of the NetRep team as an advisor." The approach the Alfano (and predecessor CoE netrep) era took was precisely what has made such a mess of things on the global scale, and as credentials seem to be communicating "more mess please." The leadership strategy might be characterized as, "We're in charge. Do what we say." That's not a credential that holds weight to me. I understand that certain council members believe such an approach is preferred over understanding, but to me it wouldn't actually be playing MECCG, it would be playing a variant by someone that doesn't understand actual MECCG (such that that aren't even properly naming it a variant).
- "Some of my achievements as a competitive player:" Again, this messaging seems to be emphasizing the mentality that promoted the CoE netrep messes the first four times around. I myself am interested in being a competitive player, but that would never be on my list for expressing expertise in rules nuances. Knowing how to play the basic game along with mastering the meta is a disparate skillset. My concern here is that this credential indicates more of a variant-promoting mentality motivated by streamlining competitive play or influencing the meta-game strategy, again without naming it a variant. Noble in its own right, perhaps, but not a solid basis for a rich, cohesive interpretation (and only occasionally-necessary interpolation and extrapolation) of ICE rules that I think the community deserves.
"One [misguided ruling authority] with hammer and chisel might mar more than they make."
Hello Theo and thanks for your input.
I'm currently studying the rules of this game from top to bottom. Of course I did read them in the past, and I've tons of games under my belt in which I've had to consult them, but now I want to make sure I know what I'm talking about, and I know the style of ICE and the correct words so that I am not "inventing" stuff. Hence the academic work on my part. The fact that I was named a judge by Mark Alfano doesn't necessarily mean that I am the same person or even think in the same way.
Having said all this, it'll be impossible to please everyone with any decision on rules that I make. I know that, and I guess anyone could deduct that by reading the discussions in this forum. The community of this game is SO complex rules-wise, there is so much disagreement and tension and long discussions that most people are unable to follow (including me, sometimes) And that makes me wonder if that's the reason why there hasn't been any rules authority (call it NetRep or however you want) during the last 9 years: because knowing that no matter what you do, there will always be loud voices claiming that it's wrong.
I play this game a lot, and I know lots of players too, I've always been in touch with the actual game community: the players that spend much more time playing than arguing about rules. And I know a judge is needed, as Konrad Klar said before me in this same post because whatever the reason (ICE ambiguity, wrong CoE rules, whatever) there are heaps of rules questions during our tournaments. Most players I know are asking for one. I've been asking for one for many years, but since no one has taken a step forward, I've decided (and I've been conviced by others, too) that I should take this responsability.
Funny fact: I still haven't done anything as a NetRep, but there's been one person expressing their doubts about me because he doesn't know me, and another one expressing his doubts because of who I am and where I come from.
I can understand everyone's doubts, but right now the best I can do is accomplish my task as well as I humanly can. All I ask for is some patience and positivity. I'm intending to do a complicated task and I need mental space and peace. If I use my time to discuss absolutely everything in these forums, I'll have none of those, and the community will be left again with no one making certain decisions that could modify their games or their deck building.
I'll do my best; if that is not enough, there will be elections soon. New members of the CoE should be elected and will decide if I should keep up my work or not.
Cheers