[Armus]

This thread is just another shitshow in a long history of 2E shitshows.
If reading through this garbage tells you one thing, it's how split the 2E community really is.

I'm sorry I took offense at Ross firing you. That's what started this whole thread rolling. My bad.

[monty42]

This thread is just another shitshow in a long history of 2E shitshows.
If reading through this garbage tells you one thing, it's how split the 2E community really is.

Actually this particular thread demonstrates, how united and single-minded this community may be sometimes.

I'm not talking about the pro/con Ross discussion.
I'm talking about the fact that there's some sort of drama almost every other month.

[BCSWowbagger]

I thought James was exiled under the reign of Charlie, first of his name, holder of the sacred 2e Jedi costing texts, and then-King of the 2e realm.

If memory serves, Hoskin:

1. Resigned abruptly from OP in Dec 2013 because of proposals he thought were bad for the game (I have no clue what they were - I was new back then)

2. Spent all of 2014 furiously flaming on Return To Grace as a whole and Self-Replicating Roadblock specifically; I don't think he played that year but I could be wrong

3. Got a warning in early 2015 under the CoC (from me; it was overturned), and then a second warning (from Iron Mike; it was not appealed), and instantly quit everything forever.

Everything Hoskin did was 100% voluntary, and he can 100% undo it any time he chooses to.

For myself, I have taken Hoskin's dramatic flameout to heart as a reminder that, the closer you get to the game, the more you think that your vision is the only thing keeping the game intact and that somebody else's vision (or a bad expansion) will destroy it. This is pretty much never true; the reality is that thinking this is a sign you've lost perspective. Yet it's a constant temptation for everyone behind the scenes, and leads to a great deal of drama because everyone involved thinks they're saving the game from imminent destruction. I see it in testing, in Design, in other committees, and, of course, in myself most of all.

Hoskin took that temptation to its logical extreme. I have no idea whether Return to Grace was good for the game or bad for it (I don't play 2E), but I'm confident it did not, on its own, ruin the game. I hope he comes back someday. And I hope I have the wisdom to remember that, as much as I advocate for my vision of the game, it won't always prevail and that won't usually be calamitous.

[Armus]

You forgot about the part where Charlie unilaterally banned him in the early 2015 pre-CoC days. That's the triggering event that led to his moniker change to "Unjustly Banned" IIRC.

That's what I was referring to.

[bhosp]

This thread is just another shitshow in a long history of 2E shitshows.
If reading through this garbage tells you one thing, it's how split the 2E community really is.

Actually this particular thread demonstrates, how united and single-minded this community may be sometimes.

I'm not talking about the pro/con Ross discussion.
I'm talking about the fact that there's some sort of drama almost every other month.

There’s definitely a “dog chewing at its stitches” feeling around here sometimes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BCSWowbagger]

You forgot about the part where Charlie unilaterally banned him in the early 2015 pre-CoC days. That's the triggering event that led to his moniker change to "Unjustly Banned" IIRC. That's what I was referring to.

Oh! Yeah, I have no memory of that. I believe it, though! And I guess it would have been cancelled once the CoC was instituted, explaining how he later got warned.

[Marquetry]

And more and more... we need a facepalm emoji, or a silent scream one. One of these days I'm going to lose my filter

[Latok]

You forgot about the part where Charlie unilaterally banned him in the early 2015 pre-CoC days. That's the triggering event that led to his moniker change to "Unjustly Banned" IIRC.

That's what I was referring to.

Kevin Jaeger also received the same ban, right? It was when Charlie was like this shit's getting to toxic and banned them for a couple/few weeks while the CoC/moderation was setup.

[MidnightLich]

I did ban James Hoskin and several others in the weeks leading up to the creation of the initial Code of Conduct and moderation team. It was always meant to be a stop-gap measure and not a permanent solution. I'm sure the thread about it is around here somewhere, it was quite long. I believe all of the short-term bans were reversed once the CoC/moderation team went online.

I made a lot of mistakes in my time as Chairman (when it was its own position). My biggest regret about that particular situation was how long I / we waited to take action. 2015 was way too late to implement a code of conduct. I know the people that are anti-CoC will disagree, but that would be true no matter when we implemented it. I wish we'd done it in 2009.

But all of this is pretty far from the original topic. I'll just reiterate what I said before: feedback can and should be given to all board members / volunteers as often as possible. Don't wait for the PoR and don't let any board member dismiss your feedback as "old." I'm striving to be better ever day as Director of First Edition and I encourage all the other board members to do the same.

-crp

[monty42]

btw I always assumed Gannicus was only on hold so it wouldn't drop right before worlds.
Guess I was wrong. Maybe it's still on hold so it doesn't ruin worlds 2020...

[Fritzinger]

Cersan, I think the thing that would have made the biggest difference to me in the discussion in 2016 would be hearing what your plans actually were back then. I had no idea what the brand manager was supposed to do, but you obviously considered Ross's initial statements inadequate. What would you have tried?

(I ask this having been back through all 16 pages of the old thread)

[Ashbey]

Cersan, I think the thing that would have made the biggest difference to me in the discussion in 2016 would be hearing what your plans actually were back then. I had no idea what the brand manager was supposed to do, but you obviously considered Ross's initial statements inadequate. What would you have tried?

(I ask this having been back through all 16 pages of the old thread)

Ok, if I remember correctly, Andrey had some kind of written proposal, that was sent to Maggie immedeiately after Ross appointment. Then, our beloved vice chairwoman ignored his message with these proposals for an YEAR (true story).

As far as I know, War Games project had its roots in that proposals. But who cared? Everyone defended Ross because he was "our guy".

(I found that old file and sent him to Fritz and some other community members).

[bhosp]

[jadziadax8]

Ok, if I remember correctly, Andrey had some kind of written proposal, that was sent to Maggie immedeiately after Ross appointment. Then, our beloved vice chairwoman ignored his message with these proposals for an YEAR (true story).

I apologized for that. I understand you feel it was inadequate, but I'll own that mistake.

[Faithful Reader]

I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to give this thread and your concerns my full attention. This thread exploded over the weekend and into Monday and I apologize for not posting something sooner. I can say that I am just getting out of my busy season at work and a lot of my time for the Committee has been with getting things ready for Gannicus. This is clearly something I need to work on. Below please find explanations along with steps I will take in the future to address them.

Spoilers – For the past few years, I’ve been supplying spoilers to high level events. For the most part, anything higher than a regional gets a spoiler of some sort. I missed last years Online Masters but this year, I sent it out before the tournament even started. It was hidden under a tag. To see it, you would have to click on the word ‘confidential.

In terms of full disclosure, I’ve also sent out spoilers upon a justified request. One person at a Con requested one in order to build additional excitement, and I was more than happy to oblige. While that event was drawing in new players, there were at least ten established players.

These spoilers are typically without a picture and more often than not, straight from Utopia Planetia in rough form. If the final, PDF version with the picture is available, I’ll send it off in that form, but that is the exception. I’ll also take this into consideration when setting up the spoiler schedule.

Confidentiality – This is probably the greatest tenant of playtesting beyond testing cards. There is a post pinned to the top of the board openly stating “Please never reveal the contents of what you see as testers outside of this forum." Ben Liebich not only revealed information about a card in testing, but bragged about it afterwards. He didn’t reveal the exact text, but it was easy to determine what the card did based on his post outside the Continuing Committee forums. Multiple people requested that this tester be removed from his role due to this discretion and after seeing the evidence, he was removed from the playtesting board. I sincerely regret the loss of a valued playtester, but it will be impossible to trust him with any sensitive information going forward.

Gannicus – This set has been delayed, but the ‘four months’ is an exaggeration and requires a bit of further discussion.

This set was still being finalized into early July. Normally a set takes two months to start spoilers, meaning that you should have started seeing spoilers two weeks ago. But there were problems with the set. As they were being templated, Art noticed some serious issues with errors and sent them back. I asked staff to drop everything and go over the set again, making it their priority. This was sent back to Art, but by then it was late July. Not just that, but the two month process had to almost start over again! You are getting the set about a month and a half later than that, a normal production cycle.

Sets beyond 49 – We are in the process of planning beyond the next set, set 49. Project Anniversary is going well and while a few cards need to be finalized with design, the set as a whole should be all set to send off to production in the next couple of weeks. Project Lassie is in testing and will go to Rules and Creative soon, probably very close to Anniversary being finalized. Both sets are strong and I am looking forward to them getting revealed.

Looking past that, the teams are coming together for Interaction 2020. The further out we get, the less details I have, but the team for the first set in that group should be forming very soon. One of the first tasks for these teams will be coming out with a narrative of what they can expect with those sets so that I can share that with the public.

These sets are going at the normal pace. Trust me when I say that there are plenty of people who will ‘nudge’ me when things start to slow.

Long term plans – I have them, but they won’t work if they are my long term plans. They need to be Second Edition’s long term plans. I’m working with my team leaders to develop them, but there is a specific focus for this coming year and one for four years after that. After I speak with the team leaders, I will talk to Second Edition staff on how we can support them. After that, they will be shared with the public.

Playtester feedback – We don’t avoid playtester feedback. We’ve cut cards due to tester feedback. We’ve cut entire mechanics due to playtester feedback. We’ve changed a card in Anniversary due to playtester feedback. I’m on the record that if you feel you are being ignored, please let me know. This isn’t just for playtesters; anyone on staff.

‘Quick and easy’ – I’ve had a team working on updating the virtual starters for a while. This project evolved to also building demo decks for new players and they were ready for completion. When it came time to talk about how they would be revealed to the public, there were two cards that would have to be added to the game beforehand. I felt that this was an opportunity to get a set out quickly. The idea was get these two new cards made and another seven of reprints that could require low resources in terms of creative and production. The two new cards would have to be tested, but one of them was Shelley from Will of the Collective, a pretty straightforward card. I posted on the staff forum that we would be taking some time to get them out. These were to get new players and while we don’t typically interrupt testing cycles, this was a great reason to do so. Specifically, I posted that this would be quick and easy.

To say that those were a poor choice of words is an understatement. Playtesters felt that the second of the two new cards was a very bad idea, and adding it to the playtesters load would be an undue burden on testing. Design listened to the playtester concerns and made adjustments. Other things came up. Design adjusted. Still more concerns came up. At this point, the card was just cut and the team working on the demo decks has started to build and test new decks.

There are people who are owed an apology for this. I am sorry that we took time out of design for this. It won’t happen again. Design and testing were interrupted but are now back on track.

War Games proposal - Andrey came to me with an idea for decks that are meant to battle each other and are optimized for that purpose. He was provided a forum to work on and hand selected team. They started work on this project and then stopped. I tried contacting him resume working, but to no avail.

Communication – It’s been a long time since I’ve updated the Set Update thread on this board. I apologize for that.

Ross