LESHIPPY wrote:
I don't know who posted, but maybe the game doesn't consume their lives like it does with some of us. I feel that many people on these boards as well as the WOTC board fail to realize this.
I would also think it would be very interesting to see if you did the same poll with Boba BH what the results would be.
When the post they ignored has been posted multiple times in the very thread the guy is posting in, then I think it's not an unfair expectation to ask that they are at least familiar with the concept.
As far as "voting" goes, I don't really think Dean's intention was to take a vote and make his decision based on the outcome of the public vote. If he were so doing, I suspect he would have formed a "commitee" that was forced to look into it in depth before voting. Blind internet polls are merely there for informational reasons and raising awareness.
Voting allows anyone to participate and have a voice, even if it's an ignorant voice. Actually making a decision to ban a piece, however, requires a much more intimate knowledge of the issues at hand.
I am not going to try and guess at a number of people who are so informed, but let's say it's something like 10% of the posters on these boards.
As should be clear from these threads, and those like it in the past (think initiative change and prior to that, the map list change) and there were many people who consistently said, "Leave it alone" etc. Many people said things like, "I think Mustafar is fine" even after Gencon 07, based on their experiences locally. There are plenty of people who still don't use the new init rule, or going back even farther, Gambit.
In the end, you are never going to convince everyone that a change needs to occur, but you still want to be able to say that you gave it your best effort. This thread is such an effort. I share Dean's expression of exasperation at people who post in a thread without reading even that thread (or at least skimming it). I don't have a problem with the "I don't know if this has been asked before and I don't want to read 10+ pages" type stuff. But the guys who come on with an over the top opinion, call everyone who opposes them idiots, extremists, whiners, etc and then fail to even understand how the rules work.
I fully recognize that the majority of players are not familiar with top level play, and will never be. But I also find it egotistical that those players think it's perfectly acceptable then, to tell me I am wrong about an opinion on the effect of a given piece in top level DCI play, when they don't even play it. And certainly, the majority of casual players are not like that obviously.
Top level play is where this issue primarily exists. I would argue that it exists elsewhere as well, but it's easier to mask. And I don't care to quality those who can speak on the issue (so don't take that from my post). What I have tried to do, is to educate people on the problems this piece has, will have, and will create for the competitive game. I fully well understood from day 1 that many people would not see it.
So to summarize, this "vote" is an educational process and a discussion. I suspect Dean was curious to see where the community was at the point he made this thread more than anything else. I know he wasn't intending it to be the "answer" on whether or not we try to ban this mini.
My ultimate hope of this process, is that we convince enough people that the majority are not upset about it when/if it happens. I know I can't expect everyone to agree with me on it, but I do feel like I have made a pretty solid effort to convince as many as I can.