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Règlement / Softening lightnings in MR!? A gentlemen's proposal...
« le: 13 juillet 2010, à 10:01:57 »
If you don't want to read all the txt, only read the solution and final paragraph. 
Ok, this "problem" doesn't need an introduction after last year's MR final I suppose...
I was tooling around with a way to make sure this type of scenario (where lightning decides an important match or several ones) will never occur again at a Championnat.
Game-breaking?
The reason I find lightning more game-breaking than for example a feather on CI2 or playing NBT (versus Non-NBT), is that lightning never misses its effect and is not beneficial for the user itself; the only thing it does is cripple the opponent, physically blocking him from competing normally for approximately a full lap. Add to that that it cannot possibly be blocked and takes 0 skill to use, et voilà! there you have an item that completely breaks the game.
With gamebreaking it is generally meant (in communities of competitive games, such as SMK) that the ratio between skill and luck to decide the outcome of a match is too highly disturbed. Ideally of course, in a competition to the decide a World Champion in a skill-based game, such as SMK, you want the factor skill to at least have some impact on the outcome of a match. And of course you want to have a randomness factor as well to keep things spicey (items such as stars, red shells, etc.) When lightning is involved in a race however, the equilibrium is almost completely shifted to the luck component. I’m willing to bet lightning has a match winner predictive value of about 90% if it is picked up before final lap. Thankfully the item is rare, so the harshness of it can be eradicated over the course of a series of races. That is not enough for me though, as it can STILL almost completely decide the outcome of one critical deciding match. Also, if the item was more common (say 1 in 10), there would be a rule against it’s use for sure. This fact alone signififes that there IS a problem with this item (which is only covered up by it’s rarity).
Add to this that for some strange reason the item can occur in bursts, and in my opinion, we have a real problem with the MR mode. Having 1 lightning over the course of a full 20 races of MR is normal. Getting more than 1 lightning in such a series is quite rare, but if it happens, it seems like a 3rd, 4th and even 5th one will occur more easily than the normal ratios can explain. I’ve observed this in quite a few MR sessions (I almost always play through all 20 tracks if I’m playing casual MR with people like Geo, Sami, etc.), where suddenly lightning becomes a trend and the normal odds appear to be disturbed. Of course I don’t have any statistical evidence to back this up (I’m not THAT geeky
), but it’s definitely something I’ve noticed over the course of time.
Solution?
The goal of the solution would of course be to prevent lightnings from having their unfair effects, but in such a way that the person who receives lightning is not harmed by it either. If you would simply make a rule that states you are not allowed to use lightning, the receiver will be punished for not being able to pick up another item for example. I’ve thought of an elegant solution to fix this problem however.
The rules would be as follows:
-From the moment you USE lightning, you can no longer WIN the race…winning as expected, will nullify the outcome of this race and means it has to be played again to determine who gets the point.
-Picking up lightning is not punished of course. That circumvents any problems there could exist by stealing the item with a ghost and stuff, as it’s using it that counts. This means you can make a tactical decision to go for a nullification if you’re almost certain to lose otherwise. It also means you will try to win without using it first (so you can collect the actual point) and have a back-up solution if that fails, because for example you couldn’t use any other items anymore.
It’s clear to see that this system doesn’t really punish the lightning receiver, as he has the freedom to do with it what he wishes and has a back-up plan to nullify the match, if his attempt at winning normally fails. Also if he uses the lightning and loses anyway, then the point obviously goes to the guy that won the race. It’s clear as day that if you don’t win with lightning, you would have almost certainly lost through all other methods as well (true in 99% + cases I’d say).
An additional rule is that when both players use lightning, the match will be viewed as normal again (meaning nullification is no longer possible for that race), obviously.
Conservative
The problem I have here, is that the SMK community is extremely conservative, as the past has shown in more than a few instances. I’m almost certain that this kind of rule proposal will almost exclusively have opponents (we will see…). The only reason I usually hear is that it’s part of the game and that we therefore have to accept it. I don’t think that’s a convincing argument at all (for example, through the same logic you could argue that sickness if a part of life and you should therefore refuse to take medicine to take life as it is intended). However, I respect everyone’s opinions and if the majority simply WANTS nothing to change, then that’s something I just have to accept. I’m not even gonna add a poll as I have a feeling I know what the outcome will be already. 
Gentlemen’s agreement
When talking to Pierre about this issue yesterday, he hinted me to introduce this concept through the system of gentlemen’s agreement. Seeing that this rule-system should not and can not possibly be forced, I really feel a gentlemen’s agreement is the best way to go about it. If both players agree to play with the lightning nullification system, then they should be able to.
So this CDM, before all my MR matches, I will ask my opponent if he wants to play with the lightning nullification system. Refuse the proposal or agree with it as you please, I won’t think any different about it.
Your thoughts guys?
(Perhaps this should be in the reglement topic, I wasn't sure, as I'm not suggesting a rule change, I'm suggesting a gentlemen's agreement system)
Ok, this "problem" doesn't need an introduction after last year's MR final I suppose...
I was tooling around with a way to make sure this type of scenario (where lightning decides an important match or several ones) will never occur again at a Championnat.
Game-breaking?
The reason I find lightning more game-breaking than for example a feather on CI2 or playing NBT (versus Non-NBT), is that lightning never misses its effect and is not beneficial for the user itself; the only thing it does is cripple the opponent, physically blocking him from competing normally for approximately a full lap. Add to that that it cannot possibly be blocked and takes 0 skill to use, et voilà! there you have an item that completely breaks the game.
With gamebreaking it is generally meant (in communities of competitive games, such as SMK) that the ratio between skill and luck to decide the outcome of a match is too highly disturbed. Ideally of course, in a competition to the decide a World Champion in a skill-based game, such as SMK, you want the factor skill to at least have some impact on the outcome of a match. And of course you want to have a randomness factor as well to keep things spicey (items such as stars, red shells, etc.) When lightning is involved in a race however, the equilibrium is almost completely shifted to the luck component. I’m willing to bet lightning has a match winner predictive value of about 90% if it is picked up before final lap. Thankfully the item is rare, so the harshness of it can be eradicated over the course of a series of races. That is not enough for me though, as it can STILL almost completely decide the outcome of one critical deciding match. Also, if the item was more common (say 1 in 10), there would be a rule against it’s use for sure. This fact alone signififes that there IS a problem with this item (which is only covered up by it’s rarity).Add to this that for some strange reason the item can occur in bursts, and in my opinion, we have a real problem with the MR mode. Having 1 lightning over the course of a full 20 races of MR is normal. Getting more than 1 lightning in such a series is quite rare, but if it happens, it seems like a 3rd, 4th and even 5th one will occur more easily than the normal ratios can explain. I’ve observed this in quite a few MR sessions (I almost always play through all 20 tracks if I’m playing casual MR with people like Geo, Sami, etc.), where suddenly lightning becomes a trend and the normal odds appear to be disturbed. Of course I don’t have any statistical evidence to back this up (I’m not THAT geeky
), but it’s definitely something I’ve noticed over the course of time.Solution?
The goal of the solution would of course be to prevent lightnings from having their unfair effects, but in such a way that the person who receives lightning is not harmed by it either. If you would simply make a rule that states you are not allowed to use lightning, the receiver will be punished for not being able to pick up another item for example. I’ve thought of an elegant solution to fix this problem however.
The rules would be as follows:
-From the moment you USE lightning, you can no longer WIN the race…winning as expected, will nullify the outcome of this race and means it has to be played again to determine who gets the point.
-Picking up lightning is not punished of course. That circumvents any problems there could exist by stealing the item with a ghost and stuff, as it’s using it that counts. This means you can make a tactical decision to go for a nullification if you’re almost certain to lose otherwise. It also means you will try to win without using it first (so you can collect the actual point) and have a back-up solution if that fails, because for example you couldn’t use any other items anymore.
It’s clear to see that this system doesn’t really punish the lightning receiver, as he has the freedom to do with it what he wishes and has a back-up plan to nullify the match, if his attempt at winning normally fails. Also if he uses the lightning and loses anyway, then the point obviously goes to the guy that won the race. It’s clear as day that if you don’t win with lightning, you would have almost certainly lost through all other methods as well (true in 99% + cases I’d say).
An additional rule is that when both players use lightning, the match will be viewed as normal again (meaning nullification is no longer possible for that race), obviously.
Conservative
The problem I have here, is that the SMK community is extremely conservative, as the past has shown in more than a few instances. I’m almost certain that this kind of rule proposal will almost exclusively have opponents (we will see…
). The only reason I usually hear is that it’s part of the game and that we therefore have to accept it. I don’t think that’s a convincing argument at all (for example, through the same logic you could argue that sickness if a part of life and you should therefore refuse to take medicine to take life as it is intended). However, I respect everyone’s opinions and if the majority simply WANTS nothing to change, then that’s something I just have to accept. I’m not even gonna add a poll as I have a feeling I know what the outcome will be already. Gentlemen’s agreement
When talking to Pierre about this issue yesterday, he hinted me to introduce this concept through the system of gentlemen’s agreement. Seeing that this rule-system should not and can not possibly be forced, I really feel a gentlemen’s agreement is the best way to go about it. If both players agree to play with the lightning nullification system, then they should be able to.
So this CDM, before all my MR matches, I will ask my opponent if he wants to play with the lightning nullification system. Refuse the proposal or agree with it as you please, I won’t think any different about it.
Your thoughts guys?
(Perhaps this should be in the reglement topic, I wasn't sure, as I'm not suggesting a rule change, I'm suggesting a gentlemen's agreement system)
