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Calmdown

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  • Birthday 02/04/1985

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  1. With respect, that's a bit of a rosy and/or blinkered view. Having a couple of juniors posting on the forums a little and passing the odd, year-late ruling, does not equal 'great community interaction'. What it does do, is wonders for PR - because as you can see, a lot of people are satisfied by said interactions, even when the actual effect on the game is incredibly minimal.
  2. You miss the point - it's not about my changes or anybody else's changes, and that list was not made with the expectation that it would *actually happen*. The point is that something needs to happen, and whatever that something is, shouldn't affect players that play for fun or casually because those players have no issues with model abilities regardless of what they are. If they do have opinion on a model's stats and its balancing, then they aren't the fun/casual players they're claiming to be. Can't have it both ways!
  3. I actually think that this attitude is pretty central to the discussion, tbh. The game is not great at a tournament level or at a level where people play competitively (this doesnt just include tournaments; plenty of people play games competitively but never go to a tournament. Every player who posts on a forum asking for tactical advice for example, is taking the game at least somewhat seriously). The problems exist at a fun level, but are less evident (and/or people care less about them). The thing is... because at a fun level they're less evident or relevant, Wyrd could make changes to the game to make the serious players happy (fixing model and rules balance) without having any negative impact on the fun players. So I don't really understand why there is so much resistance to change, when the changes have, at worst, a neutral effect but massively improve the game for others.
  4. I can see where you'd be confused I'd actually already made the decision to quit, but I was signed up to a tournament that I didn't want to miss. Most of the guys there already knew I was planning to quit, too. The reason for the balance post was because it was something I'd wanted to do for a very long time and, as tournaments tend to do, the weekend of gaming gave me a little bit of fire to do it. Although, as I said to Nix/Bill on Skype afterwards, you guys did a great job in that thread of reminding me of everything that I dislike about the game and the community in short order Anyway, the decision to quit never changed. I just wanted to get that spreadsheet out of my system, as much for my own satisfaction as anything. I wasn't even sure I was going to post it, but I figured I might as well since I'd written it
  5. My LGS in Liverpool stocked the shelves with Malifaux just before I moved here 3 months ago, when I was bigging up the game on Facebook and a few of their locals had already found it. This burst of 10 or so players turned into 4 over the course of a couple of months and only one of them turned up to a tournament I ran locally. When I asked why, they told me it was because one guy had picked up Collodi and as they'd played more and more games it had become apparent that their other crews (Sonnia, Perdita, Seamus, Rasputina and Ramos I know were 5 main masters) couldn't win against him. Of the 4 players who remained three of them were playing Collodi, Kirai, and Pandora. They've all now since stopped playing mostly too because of lack of opponents. They decided to play Dystopian Wars instead. People quitting your game to play Dystopian Wars is a pretty massive indictment
  6. Since I posted my Rezzer collection up for sale, I've had a number of people message me and ask me why I'm 'quitting'. I've also had a number of discussions with those people that aren't in the UK that I regularly speak to over Skype/PM/etc about why I'm quitting, and about why other solid Malifauxers such as Magicpockets and Spiku are 'quitting' too so I thought it'd be interesting to wax a little on the topic. First, though, I want to clear something up and get it straight: I love this game. I love the mechanics. I love the flavour. I love the low total cost. I love only having to carry around a few models to play. I met my girlfriend, soulmate, and soon to be mother of my child, at a Malifaux tournament. I owe Malifaux a lot and I've had a great time playing it, and met a lot of awesome people doing so (all the way up to my last tournament, the UK team GT, where I was lucky enough to meet Mike Marshall, Conrad Gonsalves, and John Mickleburgh). That said, there are obviously things that make me want to stop playing. I want to be clear again though; if playing Malifaux was as easy as logging on to my PC at home and having a game, and playing tournaments could be done in my house, I'd like nothing more than to keep doing it. But that's not the case. Tournaments cost money. They take time, in planning and travel. The total cost of ownership of a casual player playing at a gaming club is pretty low; the cost to a tournament player is comparatively pretty high in both money and time (and I run a startup company, so time is at a premium). I think these things could be overcome, also, if the game were better. Now, I dont want to turn this into an argument over which elements of the game are good or bad and how to fix them - we have plenty of threads for that already. The overriding problem is that Wyrd are a company with an identity crisis. They dont know whether their game is meant to be casual or serious. The game is badly written for competition, but they really want to push into the competitive arena and arent willing to make the changes to do so for fear of breaking the immersion and fun factor. The fluff is amazing, but is ruined to a large extent by thematic crews being unplayable on the tabletop. Even the most fun oriented player in the world won't have an enjoyable playing experience running Rasputina, an Ice Golem , Ice Gamin and a Wendigo. It's this last point that I find to be the greatest shame in Malifaux and with this community. Whenever there is talk of balance from an 'elitist' player, the community reacts by shouting that player down, as if making bad models playable would somehow impact the casual and fun scene. Although people say it often, I find it very hard to believe there is a single person in the world who would not rather be playing with a fair chance of winning rather than being forced to lose the theme of his list to not get savagely beaten by his friends. It's really saddening to never see some of the cooler, thematic models in the game on the table. I use Rasputina often as an example of this because she was the first 'awesome looking box set' purchase I ever made, right after I bought Perdita for my original crew, and my Ice Golem and Gamins have sat on a shelf ever since and Rasputina's been forced to run around with constructs and mercenaries rather than her icy friends. I also think another great shame is the lack of Wyrd engaging in reasonable time frames with the needs of the game. As an example, we can take the issue of Stitched and Does not Die. This issue has existed for a very long time. It would have been an easy fix long ago, that would have saved many a ruined play experience, to fix this; but instead we waited an age. There is absolutely no excuse for this - for a start, it shouldn't slip through playtesting in the first place (though anyone in the know knows that Malifaux was not particularly thoroughly playtested and in many cases, models were released with zero playtesting purely for fluff reasons), but moreover, it shouldn't be allowed to continue to ruin the game. Again, things like this are easily fixable. Claiming that 'we had to extensively test this fix before making it' doesn't really wash either; it may do with people who auto-thank any post by a Wyrd employee, but come on guys, you know that you could have made that change - and many others - without the extended wait. Malifaux is in dire need of an overhaul. The sheer number of rules holes, loopholes, negative play experience inducing abilities (sup Drain Souls) and other such nonsense is quite staggering. Rumours of Book 1.5 were that it would be a rules update and an update to the stats of the models in Book 1 to bring them in line with Book 2/3 levels, so the actual release was a massive disappointment. Now we know we're getting Book 4 at Gencon, but after the failure of Book 3 to make a real impact, where is the hope for this - and then when do we have to hope for 2nd edition to come out? And do we have to sacrifice lambs and goats in the hope it'll actually improve the game? That's what it all boils down to for a lot of people, I think; the faith and goodwill have gone. For some, it may not have gone, but it's certainly starting to wane. Wyrd have had a lot of time (and a lot of our money) to make things right. When serving any customer, you have a limited pool of goodwill that slowly empties when you make mistakes. It can be refilled or topped up with awesome things, and Wyrd's pool is frequently topped up by their game having such amazing flavour and fluff. Unfortunately when you start taking the game a *little* more seriously - lets say, serious enough to spend some time on forums - you start to see through the good and into the not so good, and your goodwill pool springs a leak. When you start playing at a competitive level and realise that they have no interest in you, the goodwill pool spill makes BP look innocent. So that's why I'm quitting Malifaux, and that's why I think a lot of people are quitting or taking breaks. The game is inherently flawed, the fun is wearing off and the trust and goodwill are all used up. Were I a student again, or had more free time, I'd undoubtedly continue to play but frankly, I feel like I've had the wool pulled over my eyes for a long time and given Wyrd enough of my blind faith. I'm still going to keep some models, because a lot of my friends play this game, but mostly because they're a hassle to sell. After all, the community is tiny - and it's not growing at any decent rate - but nothing is wrong, all is rosy, and I'm just a troll, right? Lots of Love CD
  7. Not had any offers of interest yet, so collection is still available.
  8. People start talking about threads being locked even if there's nothing wrong, and it often becomes a self fulfilling prophecy (or at least diverts the topic). Best to ignore them.
  9. A very succinct summary of his entire MO
  10. Basically its not because 'oh, something big happened' that makes the Red Joker an issue. It's the sheer magnitude of the event that's an issue. It doesn't matter that the chances are low, because in a competitive or tight game, the Red Joker can and often will be a game ender. For example taking out very large models in one swing that would have ordinarily never died. I'll give you the ultimate reall ife example (which, btw, happened long after I'd been arguing that jokers need fixing but cemented it for me!) Magicpockets and I are playing the final of the UK masters. It's my Dreamer (precuddle) vs Hamelin and the strategy is Claim Jump. Now, against Pockets, I know I have basically no chance of winning this unless I play time very intelligently and then drop Chompy on the Claim marker for a terror bomb, and I don't play for time. So, my only option is therefore to kill Hamelin (this wouldn't be the only option against many Hamelin players, but Pockets doesn't make mistakes with Hamelin so I know this is my one option). I set up the board, and go for the jugular. I start by taking out his Stolen and then drop Chompy on Hamelin. Both of us have a full SS pool so it's going to be very hard, and I know I could lose, but I try it anyway. On one of my attacks, after I've already done some damage, I flip well, he cheats and stones a low number, so I cheat up and stone a high number then cheat in a Severe with a Flay trigger. I'm about to hit him for 8. We both know that if I hit him for a number this big, he's dead. So he stones damage prevention. He flips a Red Joker. My gambit was well set up, I played the turn really well in a quite difficult situation, and I pulled it off - except that a random flip of a card prevented 8 damage. That basically ended the game right there and then. That, for me, is a prime example of why the Red Joker as it stands is too powerful. The ability to completely change a game on the flip of one card, in a way that is completely and totally out of the hands of the player, is not a good mechanic. Luck is fine, every game we play is based on luck, but that level of luck isn't really desirable.
  11. I think stopping was definitely the best choice right now. Too much headspace being spent on thinking about thinks that will never happen. MTG hoooo
  12. Perdita was my next 'project' choice to play and show how good she was - Jo was going to paint me one in animal print cos she has one in a box But :effort:
  13. Yep. This change basically stops her Transpositioning through walls, which is hellishly broken. She still retains the ability to charge, strike, etc. That in itself is amazing but casting Transposition too was a bit ott. Also Df 9 is stil ridiculous, but again, I was aiming to not 'completely cuddle' and rather 'tone down' the crazy stuff.
  14. I dont understand how people can be against something that is designed to make the game better for everyone. Believe me, its not the top end competitive players that suffer from stupid tricks and unbalanced rules. Its the guys who want to play the game with the masters they enjoy but still have a chance of winning that suffer. Just because a competitive player writes something it's essentially written off as being something that will only benefit competitive players? This community is hilariously blinkered.
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