Subject: Cheating Influx Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 18:45:05 PDT From: "D Cajerretta" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com As one knows, Magic is an easy game to "cheat" at. Inadvertently or not, tapping mana incorrectly, casting spells before tapping mana, etc...can be called "cheating." Now, this is not to say it could be a clean honest game, but Wizards of the Coast is making efforts to reduce cheating...by making other "simpler" games. This obviously does not aid the cause of the Magic society for 300 pages of errata have become necessary and even a single card can carry a lot of weight in terms of rules. So, it does not surprise me that Mike Long is being called a cheater for at every Pro Tour, I could point out dozens of cheaters who really do draw the extra card, etc. There is no solution to this problem though, not to diminish the hopes of all those who WANT answers, that is why games like Heracles and Xena are being made. The reason is that the simpler the game the more difficult to cheat at: i.e., in checkers if a piece is on a wrong square it is easy to catch. Card games are hard to monitor though, esp. Magic with cards being moved constantly like games at casinos. I am not suggesting we need video cameras and black orbs, but I am merely showing that we cannot solve this problem. "Banning" someone isn't going to stop cheating since if you get away with it just once, you'll be rewarded with thousands of dollars. After all, you have to be joking if you're really at Nationals because Magic is a "fun" game. Frankly, I see why Hacker would cheat or why Long did, it's profitable and greed is very important. Now that Magic "great(sorry, famous is a better word)" players are being spat on for being cheaters what about all the failures who've tried cheating and lost anyway. They are in grand abundance, but they fail so no one cares. There are multitudes of cheaters since Magic is not a game entirely played by clean, honest citizens for if it were than at every PT event someone would not report they were missing a binder or bookbag. Magic is a cheaters' paradise. Good players do it like Mike Long. Mediocre players do it like Herbie Lukes. And bad players do it. Lots of them. Magic, to people, is no longer about luck or skill, its about cheating or not. I know dozens of people who play Magic as brilliant players, but refused to go to tournaments since they are under the impression that people cheat. The bad PR Magic is getting is sorry and perhaps we are trying to exert our frustration for being good players and losing to cheaters by ridiculing cheaters, but this is not the way. There is no clear solution to offer since I'm sure team Magic will not reduce (it will enhance) cheating. Simply, Magic WAS NEVER MEANT to be played as a game of this type of magnitude. It was supposed to be a game between friends like Uno or Hearts. In reality though, all the problems that plague Magic can be blamed on ANYONE, but the cheating is not going to stop. Judges are just players trying to get a better understanding of the game; they do not feel they have authority because they themselves are players as well. WotC isn't going to completely alter Magic to prevent cheating if possible and their first priority is money too so as long as people are buying Magic who cares if some guy cheats. Players who catch other people cheating either do nothing or do an excessive something. Persay, if a 30-year old Magic player cheated on a 10 year old nothing's going to happen. But if teenagers cheat against other teenagers fights ensue or to that degree. Thereby, no solution yet again to Magic's problems. Magic was once a fun game to play, but anything involving money negates the fun. Why spend hours playtesting a new deck when you can just copy a deck of the Dojo and cheat to perfection all the way to the Nationals? Any deck involving the touching of cards has a chance to be manipulated and cheated with, and that makes ALL Magic decks, no? Well, now that everyone condones Mike Long for cheating, Hacker for threatening to do it, and DCI for being a(n) organization, let me point out that Magic is played by people from age 5(maybe less) to age 60(maybe more). It is designed for pretty much all ages and when played with certain cards is quite simple (although Portal was a good attempt it makes the game more difficult to learn when going from Portal to Magic). It was designed by Richard Garfield to play with friends. It was not intended to have a cash bonus at the end or to be blown into the proportionality it is today. As a result, WE ARE ALL AT FAULT FOR MAGIC BECOMING SUCH A POOR GAME TODAY. From the people who created the Vesuvan Doppelganger to those who really suck at cheating by returning three dead Erhnam Djinns to their hand after a Jokulhaups, we are all to blame. Look, the same people who come up with fascinating card abilities like buyback can't keep players from cheating. I don't want to come across as some ridiculing bastard, but we all made this happen. Once, a long time ago, say 6 months ago, I refused to play standard because of cheating. Tuning myself to become a great sealed deck player, I began to play only Limited. At Stronghold prerelease, a guy was selling Stronghold cards sort of on the side before the tourney. Now I understand how sealed and registered decks are done so if 2 people get together and they switch decks then if you had say semi-preconstructed your deck by buying Stronghold cards or trading with a friend, then both of you would increase your odds of winning. So then, Magic is too easy to cheat due to the crappyness of the deck switching in Sealed. Even though I was a finalist at the Sealed without cheating, I found Sealed to be a poor environment. At Rgnls, I found an even worse format since, of course, EVERY JUDGE MAKES A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO DO DECK CHECKS. Also, I do note that judges are players too so any ruling against their friends must be unacceptable, right?. Well, so I went to the Exodus prerelease to retest the Limited circa and I find people cheating in Booster Draft since no judge is present(later spotted at the local fast food with his wife). I also find people cheating here in the main tourney since there was no switch of decks. So basically, that Tempest starter could be preconstructed and brought to Sunday's tourney, although I did like the fat guy next to me who "miraculously(yeah, right)" opened up a Tempest starter with a Cursed Scroll and a Shivan(he meant Rathi Dragon, I hope). Magic is too easy to cheat at and as we can see Mike Long is a only a mediocre cheater since he can get away with it till the finals and then get caught. If we all pitched in and cheated then the game would suck. If we just do nothing then it still sucks. There is no solution until Wizards "tries" to do anything. So then, fellow Magic players, how do you prevent cheating? Play with friends, the way the game was meant to be played. Oh, but that greed thing...well then, it's your call. D. Cajerretta ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com