Subject: Ethical Play First
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 18:05:50 -0400
From: Bennie Smith <bensmith@series2000.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Hello, Frank!  After all this talk and arguing about
cheating, et. al. I just thought
I'd weigh in with my two cents...

I just talked with a friend of mine today about cheating,
and he really gets torn up about it.  He's a real honest 
guy who has a real problem with people
cheating; he sees it in black and white terms, not shades of
gray.  He was asking me what I thought about Nate's 
article and I told him that I had to
admit to making some ethically hazy decisions similar to
what Nate pointed out early in my Magic career, especially 
when I first started getting into competitive Magic.  Back 
then I viewed it as "getting a lucky break" when my opponant 
put a creature in the graveyard from an Earthquake when it 
had protection from red.  I have since decided
that's just plain wrong.

There is a vast difference between not pointing out a playing 
mistake, and not pointing out an illegal play.  If your opponant
forgets to pay his upkeep on his Waterspout Djinn, that's not 
your fault. Bye bye Djinn.  However, if your opponant discards 
a big fat creature to the graveyard with Necropotence out, and 
you know you can Corpse Dance that critter to kill him, it *is* 
cheating to not point out that, under Necro discarded cards are 
removed from the game.
Period.  End of story.

But pointing fingers and dragging names and reputations through
the mud are not the way to go.  They are not good for the game,
and diminish the sport.  This is supposed to be a fun game, and
there is no better feeling than winning a tournament playing your
best and honestly defeating all-comers.  Everyone needs to look
at themselves and decide on two things:

    1)  I will not purposefully cheat and take great lengths to
        avoid accidentally cheating.  If I discover I accidentally
        cheated, I will own up to it immediately.
    2)  I will not allow my opponant to cheat, purposefully
        of accidentally.

Define cheating as this-- purposefully or accidentally doing

something that you are not allowed to do by the rules of
the game.  Period.  It really is that simple.  It's drawing
5 cards off an Impulse.  It's forgetting to adjust your life

total for the Scalding Tongs.  It's not removing a creature
from your graveyard from the game to pay for your
Barrow Ghoul.

The first step is to bring yourself in line with this. Accept
that you may lose big money or cards by playing Magic
ethically.  Remember, though, that if you can only win
that $5,000 by cheating, well it isn't yours to begin with.
You've lost.  It happens.  Learn from it, grow from it,
and come back to win it honestly.  Cheating to win money
is effectively stealing from the person that should have
won it.  You may be willing to live with the title of
"cheater," but how about "theif" on top of it?

The next is to bring your opponant in line with this.  Don't

let him rob you of what an honest victory will bring.  Back
him up and make him go through each step:  ask him to
count the cards drawn from Impulse, please keep them
separate from his hand.  Let me see the backs of the cards
you're putting on the bottom of your deck, make sure it's
three.  Don't be rude or suspicious; just make it plain that

you don't want anyone to cheat, accidentally or otherwise.
Sure, the game will move a little slower, but you will know
that you or your opponant will have earned that victory
honestly.  The better man won.  And shouldn't that be
the way the game should go?

On a side note, it seems that the DCI could do something
more about cheating issues.  For instance, how hard would
it be to assume that, in a given tournament, if you are
caught cheating, give you the benefit of the doubt and
assume it's "accidental."  Okay, so you're given a warning.
But also, the incident is written up and kept in a database.

If you consistantly get caught having too many cards in your

hand, tournament after tournament, there is now some hard
proof that you're a chronic cheater.  The DCI can now
act decisively.  It seems much of the problems with cheating

is how hard it is to accurately determine pre-meditative
cheating and accidental cheating.  A record of "accidental"
cheating could go a long way towards building a case
against someone.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on the issue.

Bennie Smith