Subject: Re: The Dojo Effect
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 11:27:28 -0500
From: byrne81@mr-potatohead.com
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

        I am writing this in response to Kendall Redburn's articl
"The Dojo Effect." He stated that, at least on the local scene, "the
choice is simple, build your own deck and lose, or copy a deck and
practice it to death so you might win . . . The harsh local
tournament lesson is copy or lose." I would have to disagree. It is
my belief that the Dojo has not only not hurt Magic, but it has, in
fact, helped it. Redburn stated that the Dojo is "killing
deck-building," but that is not what the Dojo is all about. As Frank
Kusumot so eloquently puts it on the main page: "Seek not to follow
in the footsteps of the men of old. Seek what they have sought." In
this paper I will comment on his views compared to mine by taking
abbreviated quotations from the article and then adding my comments.
        About the Dojo's effects on the national level he says, in
part: "While it is true that inexperienced players don't win national
events with decks copied from the Dojo, it is also true that
inexperienced players don't win national events.  The Dojo don't
enter into it . . .   Most of the top players should . . . [be]
capable of designing the same decks as other top players." So far, I
pretty much agree with him. At the national level, players don't need
the Dojo -- as much. Redburn views the Dojo as stomping grounds for
beginners, but Pro Tour players often go there as a metagaming
resource.
        Now, he gets to what he calls "Dojo groupies." Again I have
taken the liberty to edit his comments. "Teenagers download a deck
from the Dojo, build the deck, and then practice in groups with each
other.  They drill with the deck, critiquing, arguing and explaining
the deck amongst themselves, until they know how every single card in
the deck is to be played. I have
watched as one teenager drilled a younger acolyte in the play of a
Pox
deck. "Never cast a funeral charm on the opponent, you idiot!" . .
[T]he other groupies berated the young player for making a silly
mistake.  These kids don't build decks, nor do they learn the
subtleties of resource management, timing, bluff and risk taking.
They simply drill the deck until they can play it blind. And then
they take it to the local tournament." It is at this point that I
differ mostly from Redburn. I am not saying that this doesn't happen,
but he places too much importance to this happening. In this scenario
the group does NO metagaming, and none can be done, if this is how
they play. They may understand how the deck works in their minds.
Then the second they get to a tournament, they face new ideas that
they haven't thought of, new decks. They lose, and rightfully so.
They understand HOW the deck works, but miss the most important
aspects of deck design, the "WHY" and the "WHAT IF." That is what
defines a Pro Tour quality player.
        Redburn then goes to tell of the local scene, again abridged
by me. "This is where the Dojo simply does the most harm.  Consider
deck-building skill as a Chi Squared Curve . . .  [M]ost people are
grouped in the lower portion of the curve. There are very few really
bad deck builders, as they improve quickly.  There are a huge number
of mediocre deck builders, and as you get better, the number of
people at that skill level continues to drop.   So in any local
scene, most of the deck builders there should be medium to good skill
level. . . [Y]ou will at any local tournament meet up with 80% of the
decks being Dojo decks.  These decks represent the skill level of
less than 5% of the population of the world." To some extent I agree
with him. Again, the importance he places on this aspect is more than
I do. I believe that the Dojo speeds up the rate at which one's
apparent deck building skills increase. Redburn believes that this
replaces deck building skills, and for some it does. As I said
before, these people get nowhere, so they don't need to be worried
about.
        Redburn fails to notice that in every other sport, resources
like the Dojo exist. For chess, one can find many books, web pages,
and other resources. For sports like baseball and football, one needs
not to look hard to find books describing techniques for improving
one's game. People don't complain that these "stifle" a person's
ability to play a game effectively, or to think for themselves.
        Redburn missed one of the most valid points about the Dojo in
his article. It seems to me that with all of this information for
everyone to see, new ideas are going to come quicker, not slower. I
think that without the Dojo, ideas like Sligh and Prosperous Bloom
would not have been perfected nearly so quickly. In the changing T2
environment, any hold up could have stopped the idea from getting
farther than the minds of its originators.
        So, you see that the Dojo isn't a place to "copy or die," it
is a place where the magic community share ideas, a place for
learning and sharing. It only becomes a way to win without thinking
for those that want it to be. If enough gamers want it that way, they
have no right to call themselves gamers.

          w/love
            pat

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