Echo wrote:
your personal views on a particular piece or strategy or whatever is not necessarily representative of the truth of the game, or everyone else's views. What you hate might be something somebody else likes, and what you love might be something somebody else hates.
I heard so much moaning about GOWK/Mace that I was sure most people hated them. It appears I was wrong. Many more people are vocal anti-mouse-walls than are anti-GOWK/Mace. I still think to me it feels like an incompetent Neanderthal could win sometimes with Mace/Gowk and a few lucky roles. But obviously very GOOD players can capitalize on those pieces and do VERY VERY WELL. And not only that - but it appears that it's not just something that is annoying but too good to overlook playing in the right circumstance (like mouse walls), but it's FUN for people. This completely baffles me, as it just feels like running to the middle and flipping a bunch of coins hoping for heads. I have played in (in play testing), and played against it (in playtesting, winning and losing, and in competition only ever winning), and never once has it been fun for me. How anyone could ever consider playing that combo or against it FUN is beyond me. That being said - I have to admit that I am in the minority. People can try and explain to me until they are blue in the face, but I just don't get it. That's not the minis I know and love. That's not the intense skill battle of outwitting your opponent through squad building and gameplay to me. The majority apparently disagrees.
Audri - for what it's worth most people are with you on mouse walls being an NPE from what I can see. Most everyone dislikes it and thinks it doesn't make sense (even those that use it). I disagree with Daniel that it is just a vocal minority. It IS a majority.
BUT - And this is important: Even if many people dislike it, apparently erratas are disliked even more. This is something I have learned very well over the past few weeks. People want to forget the fact that GOWK was ever errata'd in the first place (thus the change back). Everyone seems angry that it was even brought up again ("this argument
is 4 years old, get over it"), completely ignoring the fact that when it was changed back, it would be closely watched and discussed after we see what it does. I've gotten a lot of hate for bringing up a topic that was on the slate to be talked about no matter what, simply because it might involve reverting to a former floor rule. And that's clearly was less of a big deal than an errata.
There is a lot of inherent pride in the SWM world about the fact that (GOWK aside) there's virtually never been a card banned or a nerf errata. And if we're not going to fix OTHER people's mistakes (WotC's), then we certainly aren't going to fix our own (v-set), or even admit that there are any.
That's how it works in SWM. That is the majority line of thinking. No erratas, make a new figure with a counter ability. Sure that figure won't see the light of day for over a year, and by then the Meta will have changed, but eventually that issue won't be a big problem anymore.
My big pet peeve in SWM is a dramatic increase in abilities where luck can make a GIANT swing. I was a big lancer player, and lancers got hated on pretty major. Fine with me, I was kinda over playing them. This year I won a regional with Imps again, and for good measure I won the first regionals ever with Sith and Vong. I like playing stuff I like, sure - but I LOVE coming up with fun new stuff that does well too. Finding that combo that works is so satisfying. A Sith squad I built made it to the GenCon top 8 for the first time ever (unfortunately it wasn't piloted by me), and that was satisfying.
The game I know and love is one where if you build the right squad, and play it well, you will win 90% of the time. Is that changing? We will see. I think it is heading that way.
My only recourse is to try and stay vigilant as a part of the playtest committee, and not let the ridiculous silliness like new v-set NR Mara, V-set Mace, and others happen again.
I will say that I am REALLY excited about v-set 5. It is shaping up to be the best set yet. I have been some small part of all the v-set sets (playtesting, design suggestions, creator of new abilities, etc), but I feel like this set is sending us in a wonderful direction, without fanboy and/or luck garbage.
There will always be NPEs, but it's my hope that we minimize them. I really feel that the team we have now is vigilant not to let another "covert ops training" slip through the cracks.