Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Sleuth Talk

Nov-14-2006 21:04

There's been a lot of arguing recently on these message boards. Both sides of the recent argument had good things to say, but it was disguised by the many, many bad things everyone else had to say. A simple question was hijacked and a simple issue was blown way out of proportion with devastating results.

I'm not a big socializer. I don't often post on these boards. I don't PM or chat much with anyone outside of my agency. So I don't really know any of the people who participated in these debates. I am not going to judge or blame anyone for anything. I am just going to tell you my opinion as someone who didn't notice the debate until it was over.

Whether I agree or disagree with either side, the truth is what happened over the past few days should not have happened. This game is fun for me because of the game itself. Some players don't care about experience points and high scores. Some players do care. You know what? Both sides are right.

It does not truly bother me that one person uses his available resources to take an advantage over others. That actually seems very American to me (I don't know if he is American or not, but I am, so I can't complain about his actions). While it may not have been the fairest way of gaining experience, it did not bother me, because it did not affect me.

What did bother me was that people seemed personally offended and affected and outraged by this. It did not affect anyone else's gameplay at all. If you don't like that it happens, then don't put any faith into the high scores. Other than that, it does not affect you.

The debate started out fine, but then it became nothing more than "you people are cheaters" "it's all this person's fault" "I don't agree with this person's opinion, which means they're wrong". These were cheap, personal attacks that had no place in this venue. It belonged in a dark alley with a pair of brass knuckles bought from the detective shop.

Nov-16-2006 22:04

Thank you for clarifying, and I now understand where you are coming from. To be honest, I never noticed problems like this before, but I don't normally check the boards that often.

Nov-16-2006 22:28

Thanks for posting such a fair-minded and complete summary of the debate, Odietrying.

I will post a new thread in the Game Announcements section covering some upcoming rule changes, and a more clearly stated position on what we consider to be fair strategies.

Nov-16-2006 23:44

Thanks Ben - I really think that out of all this, the most clearly urgent thing is clarification of what people should consider 'rules' here, irrespective of what is possible with any given game engine, so that should help immensely.