Enough Talk! Podcast Episode 2 – Formats
I made a terrible error in this podcast – James Lippen’s stage name is TIGERBLOOD, not TIGERFORCE. I apologize. You can check out his music here.
I made a terrible error in this podcast – James Lippen’s stage name is TIGERBLOOD, not TIGERFORCE. I apologize. You can check out his music here.
Listened to this in my car on the way to work. Best morning show ever!
How’s the length? We were thinking 45 minutes, but this one was a bit over an hour. Is that too long?
My commute is about an hour so it was perfect timing (except for the random 4G service signal interruptions). Honestly though I think 30 minutes should be the target length. Are you planning to do 1 per week more or less?
Anyway you can enable the rss feed and downloads for your soundcloud stream?
Yep. It’s an approval op-in process, so as soon as Soundcloud clears us, I’ll let you know and add the link to the social media bar on the top of the page.
I was always wondering why we never did a 1 in, 1 out method? When you introduce a new set, the oldest set leaves. That would give every set equal life.
This has come up before, and I don’t remember specifically the company line, I do remember that the idea was met with general disfavor. It has do with the design set up, and how arcs and themes are planned out. A one-in one-out system creates some really tough design constraints. There is also an issue of how long exactly a set gets to stay in rotation for. To do a one-in one-out approach would require a titanic overhaul in how design currently operates. Not something impossible, but highly unlikely given l5r’s small stature.
I really wish they had a much stronger Winter Court on par with the Kotei Season. It is frustrating when players get the mindset that “there are no real tournaments in the area until March, why should I spend my time playtesting when all the cards will be different by then.”
Agreed, but a lot if the onus is on the playerbase, too. If we’re not coming out for Winter Court events as it is, why amp them up?
Unlike most years this year I have only 1 Fall Tournament I can possibly make and only after I complained that having it schedule over Thanksgiving was a bad idea. They moved it to the weekend before which is great. I live near Baltimore and we usually have about 3 events to look forward to but this year Barto (DC), Rob/Tony (Philly), and Lapp (AC) got screwed over by AEG pretty hardcore. So much in fact the Tanukifest (a 3 day event of L5R, booze, fun and friends) is now a Doomtown event.
In what can only be described as rich irony, we had a committed car load of players (5) in Michigan looking forward to the event being on the 29th, moving it up a week was a deal breaker for us. We wanted to play with our TNO and having Friday already off for work made the travel burden much lighter. An example that highlights the challenges of running an event. Cannot please them all. In my view doing it two days after thanksgiving was great. How much time do people need to sleep off their turkey hangovers?
“False Positives”. Brilliant, and Spot-On.
What do you think of Strict vs Arc, Mike? Do you like having more decks/options or do you prefer to hone in on one format?
I feel a major underlying factor in the different formats is that L5R is a faction driven, story based game, but without any safeguards designed in. When I got into the game, I was told about all this rich story, and what it meant to be part of the various clans. You are starting the game and the easiest forums to find are all clan specific. The game funnels you into identifying as a single clan. If the game provided a method to be clan loyal while playing outside your actual faction players wouldn’t be as discontent when they are on the bottom tier. I can’t speak for others, but I know when the factions that I am interested in playing are performing poorly I start looking to the next reset in the hopes of performing better then. And to me that is what Strict is/was a chance to continue playing the game without feeling futile playing your chosen clan.
If tournaments had you pick a Clan loyalty and split your points between the Clan you are playing and the clan your are supporting if would break the mentality of playing your clan and playing the game. They could even set it up in such a way as to still promote clan diversity. If 1/3 of your points made it to your Clan, 2/3 if your clan was in an alliance with the clan you are playing, and 100% if your loyalty was also the deck you were playing players would continue to feel engaged even if their clan is performing poorly.
Multiple formats to me seem like lazy design, where they have given up on balance across the clan and are just counting on their players to migrate wherever they feel is most balanced.
I 100% agree re: tournaments. Putting different clan’s story ramifications at the whim of design and playtest has been a mess for a long time.
The problem is that TOs will oppose any changes that increase their workload, because they are already selfless übermenchen, sacrificing their times, money and bodies for the good of we peons and HOW DARE YOU COMPLAIN?
I’ve offered a couple of time to make a new Tournament Program and other programs for AEG and they said “no thanks.” It wouldn’t be to difficult for people to register their stuff (decklists, loyalties, name, etc.) And have it imported into the tournament program by the TO Automatically. Plus that data, along with pairings and round by round results could be pushed to a data repository where we could compute performance metrics such as how well clan x does against clan y.
Yeah, I definitely hold AEG accountable for not getting their own TO software situation sorted out. It’s a huge hurdle to implementing any tournament results more complicated than who won. Though I think many TOs would still oppose the data entry even if the software was the hottest shit since flappy bird.
That all being said, I can’t really blame them for turning down random fan help. Making a program and setting it up is one thing, but the rollout, bug patching, TO tech support, bug fixes and updates would amount to a full time job. If you’re really serious you should make the software and pitch yourself for this job. Hope you will accept payment in foily magic beans!
That sad thing is http://challonge.com/ would be a far superior software tool for tourney management. Online, free and allows everyone to keep a record as to what is going on
I think Ben Higgins’ Toshigoku event tested it out for L5R, and as he is now a member of the newly announced Events Team, it’s possible that this can be changed.
Guess who gave Ben the idea <—-This guy 🙂