Pic: Salt Flats in Moab, Utah.
Two years back I used to go to this dentist down the road. First time there, the dentist is taking a look, making some comments, and I'm thinking, "Man, this guy is a bit of a dickhead." Hey, we all have bad days, I didn't think much of it. Second time I'm there, he's got the same bad attitude, and I'm thinking, "Wow, this guy is a real asshole." Third time I'm sitting in the chair, nothing different, I say to myself, "Why the hell am I here? I can go to any dentist." That's how I am though. I'm a creature of habit. Simple things like, going to a dentist that doesn't talk to you like a child, don't even cross my mind. The same thoughts crossed my mind regarding the trek message boards the other day. A 'why am I still doing this?' moment. 90% of the people I communicate with on it I've never met, or rarely see. And I don't need it to do any Design work (fingers crossed, rumor has it work is returning) or get in touch with any person organizing a tournament I might roll up to in the #whiteknight (my truck). I've been around the block now, most of the people who actually support the game, and promote events, I have their phone numbers. All the CoC 'cleanup' did was replace one set of trolls with another. This new passive-aggressive, snarky wannabe type. Say what you want about the olds one, but at least they were fun.
I guess the main problem with that dentist was that he couldn't communicate. And when he did, he wasn't a professional providing a service, he was a guy acting like he was doing you a favor. That's what CC Management has become. First of, I began using that term as a joke, but the CC operates/thinks like they have 'Management', that passes down information to the public. Now they need the Vice-Chairman to be the puppet that pretends to listen to players complain to management.
I'm confused how this even came to be. What is the CC? When it started it was just a group of players helping to keep the game alive. How can a group of players become out of touch with other groups of players? How did the CC go from a group of players to an Organizing Body? Not playing the game as often is possible, and natural to some degree. My 'clique theory' is still the best bet. Isolation, hubris, inactivity are the ways you lose touch with the people you are dealing with. The CC is way out of touch, and the measures they are taking aren't the answer. Simple is better, less is more.
Shut up and talk about cards! Ok, you got it. The topic is 'affiliation-specific' interrupt & event prevention. Why affiliation-specific? Because if Design is to make more, and for it to be good, it has to be. It can't be generic, like Grav-trap. Nothing wrong with that card, but I was trained by my Design Yoda, Charlie Plaine, that "the stronger the card, the more affiliation-specific is has to be."
I asked on the boards, before my self-exile, for some recommendations. Lustful Distraction was tossed around. I won't list it here (though it might be a previous GCBC), because it's both Good & Bad. Great card to play, but it's a design fail because it doesn't really have a cost.
Why: I'm going to talk about this card in a vacuum. If not I'll rant about Alarming Rumors, and how bad of a card (power creep among the reasons) that is. This card is from Necessary Evil, and Maquis wasn't the Tragic Turn/Defiant No Fun to Play/No Fun to Play Against affiliation yet. Sure, stalling was their thing, but it wasn't until they made the cheapest, no talent to play, dilemma pile ever did they veer off into NPE territory. Whoops, I ranted, back to the card. The first sentence is just there so only Maquis can use it. Then you got, basically, a one sentence card. And that my friends is the Holy Grail of Design. Making a good card with one sentence. The threshold is easy, two Blue Maquis peeps. Non-issue. Then the cost for preventing the interrupt is pitching a Maquis card. Card. That's always code for: extra ship. Easy peasy right there. So enjoy this card, it's from a bygone era of when Maquis cards weren't stupidly overpowered.
Why: A Peak Performance card that isn't broken? It's hard for me to say that's Bad. Reason #1 it's no good, it's fake affiliation-specific, like Security Drills. Blue isn't an affiliation in 2E, it's a color (no pun intended). So making cards like this is cheap Design (Security Drills is from Fractured Time, where everything was intentionally "cheap". To sell boxes, which worked). #2, it's fake interrupt prevention. It's got that goofy 'if one of his or her personnel is facing a dilemma you own' text. Why would we want to single out dilemma cheaters as extra bad? The game is about attempting missions and facing dilemmas. Dilemma cheaters are good for the game, and a large part of what makes this game challenging and fun. It's non-dilemma cheater interrupts that should be singled out more. Design was in a fucked up place during the PP Era. We don't need to get into all that, but we have to make sure like hell it never goes back. Oh, Diversionary has a second part, because it's a 'stone'. Which is code for: Wall of Text. What are we going to really use this Order for? Getting Kirk back, that's what. This isn't the first time a card falls into "Really, more Kirk?" category. I'm starting to come around to Relativity, but even when designing Matter of Time I kept asking Charlie, "We really want to make a sub-affiliation that's all about playing Kirk?" I was wrong, I should've been worried about Chuckles Bros. Did I go off-topic? Oh well, I'm not on the boards. I can do that now without SuperNerds getting high and mighty with me. I'm enjoying this exile already.
1 comment:
Man, as someone that really wants the game to be more multiplayer friendly, this card ticks me off even more.
"Your dilemma"? Really? If that wasn't on there, we'd have at least ONE reason in the game for the rest of the table to be invested while the active player is missioning instead of it dropping down to two players during then. Was there that much of a concern for multiplayer NPE with this?
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