Monocle of Clarity

Be aware that Google's Usenet archive now goes back to 1995. See http://groups.google.com Of course, the first thing I did on learning this was to search for Monocle of Clarity. I'm not reading all 2100 posts and would urge in this context that folk be discouraged from posting trade lists to the newsgroup as they pollute an archive of this sort. Still the first few hits confirm my suspicion that there is no good reason for this card to be banned as it was fixed a long time ago. E.g. -------------------------------------------------------------- From: Thomas R Wylie (aa...@cats.ucsc.edu) Subject: Re: Convocation rules: Save the Monocle! Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad Date: 1995/10/12 Mark Amidon <fe...@hearth.ultranet.com> wrote: >As Duelist #7 hasn't come out yet, I'll ask all and sundry: has the Monocle >been fixed in V:tES? That is, have questions about future intentions been >given a time limit to your next untap? > >This is a simple fix for an otherwise wonderful card. With this fix, compound >questions are out, erosion of opponents' degrees of freedom is out, but a >tricky and useful card is still in. Monocle of Clarity was dropped in VTES, actually, for being a problem child. I believe the rulings that make Monocle of Clarity into an almost reasonable card came down after the in/out list for VTES was set in stone. Tom Wylie rec.games.trading-cards.* Network Representative for aa...@cats.ucsc.edu Wizards of the Coast, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I also see that LSJ started his career as a compiler of house rules - a collector of unofficial fixes to the game. It's amusing that he's now pulled up the ladder to become a blinkered defender of the status quo. Andrew

In message <04A72F2119D4AE34.F14F3FBF...@lp.airnews.net>, Andrew S. Davidson <a...@csi.com> writes >I also see that LSJ started his career as a compiler of house rules - >a collector of unofficial fixes to the game. It's amusing that he's >now pulled up the ladder to become a blinkered defender of the status >quo. Have you considered what his job might be? And have you justified your use of "blinkered"? Methinks the answer to both is "No". -- James Coupe PGP Key: 0x5D623D5D EBD690ECD7A1F What's the meaning when you speak with so much feeling? B457CA213D7E6 Is it over when you're sober? Is it junk? 68C3695D623D5D

"Andrew S. Davidson" wrote: > I also see that LSJ started his career as a compiler of house rules - > a collector of unofficial fixes to the game. It's amusing that he's > now pulled up the ladder to become a blinkered defender of the status > quo. Heh. And it seems like only a hundred and thirty days ago that some other Andrew S. Davidson was posting to this newsgroup bemoaning the amount of errata and card text changes already present. BTW, I "started my career" as part of a six-member, self-appointed, informal group of question answerers on this group (operating when the official WotC netrep was absent) and then "pulled up" to be an unofficial archiver of official rulings and errata. I later branched out into compiling house rules as a solution to a proposal made by others on this newsgroup. -- LSJ (vte...@white-wolf.com) V:TES Net.Rep for White Wolf, Inc. Links to revised rulebook, rulings, errata, and tournament rules: http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/

>Heh. And it seems like only a hundred and thirty days ago that some other >Andrew S. Davidson was posting to this newsgroup bemoaning the amount of >errata and card text changes already present. > >BTW, I "started my career" as part of a six-member, self-appointed, informal >group of question answerers on this group (operating when the official WotC >netrep was absent) and then "pulled up" to be an unofficial archiver of >official rulings and errata. I later branched out into compiling house rules >as a solution to a proposal made by others on this newsgroup. So then at what point and how did you become the official netrep for WotC? And what happened to those other five guys? In addition, if you don't mind me asking, do you have another job? Is netrep'ing your primary job or is it more like a "hobby?" I really hope I don't come across as sounding rude or anything, I've just always been curious about it. =) Halcyan 2

halc...@aol.com (Halcyan 2) wrote: snip >So then at what point and how did you become the official netrep for WotC? And >what happened to those other five guys? >In addition, if you don't mind me asking, do you have another job? Is >netrep'ing your primary job or is it more like a "hobby?" I really hope I don't >come across as sounding rude or anything, I've just always been curious about >it. And, due to the nature of the thread, you must answer truthfully ;-) Halcyan's got the Monocle on you, apparently... Regards, R. David Zopf guenh...@mindspring.com Atom Weaver

> So then at what point and how did you become the official netrep for WotC? Late 1997, early 1998 if I remember correctly. June of 1998 was the first big official sendup. Do a google search to see some more. >And what happened to those other five guys? They dropped out over time, as most do with any game or newsgroup. > In addition, if you don't mind me asking, do you have another job? Yes, he does. Look for one of his personal opinion posts, and follow the links. > Is netrep'ing your primary job or is it more like a "hobby?" Hobby. > I really hope I don't come across as sounding rude or anything, I've just always been > curious about it. Here is Scott's response from January 1997: For what it's worth, here's my own answer to the subject line: L. Scott is a gamer from the old school who thought MtG was the biggest scam in the world for separating people and their money. Until some !$*@ at a convention gave him a pack. :-) He got into the game around the time that The Dark came out. He got out of the game after Fallen Empires. But, in that time, he also picked up Jyhad when it first came out. He and his brother got into a big fight over the timing of some action modifier/reaction card (either Conditioning after a block declined, or Deflection after same), and stopped playing for over a month. (this third-person stuff is pretty obnoxious, eh?) An unspoken reconciliation later (I think I was on the wrong side of that particular argument), and we started playing again. When Tom Wylie has his first sabbatical away from the newsgroup, there were six of us on the group who took to discussing game theory (Directability of (D) bleeds, use of Master-Out-of-Turn, etc.) - to no resolution, as usual (anyone following the CL debate should be able to relate to this). I began to keep track of the various arguments and rulings for personal reference at that time. I later began collecting the various alternatives ((D)-bleed as defined in the rulebook as opposed to the Rules Team's over-stretched grasp) in a house-rules list, open for contribution. An idea derived from Curt Adams' suggestion that the big In Tom's second vacation from the group, I took to using my resources to answer questions in his absence. And started publishing the summary of errata on a periodic basis. It was during this period that I gave myself the "Rulemonger" title/handle. I found Rourke McNamara's "Not-So-Quick-Reference" (version 0.2) on the web, and took it and expanded it to the Rules Outline to help answer some of the more basic questions. So, basically, there you go. I'm a overly-critical control freak with too much time on his hands. -- L. Scott Johnson (sjoh...@math.sc.edu) | Neurotic: http://www.math.sc.edu/cgi-bin/sjohnson/home | Self-taut person. Graphics Specialist and V:tES Rulemonger. |

> > So then at what point and how did you become the official netrep for WotC? > > Late 1997, early 1998 if I remember correctly. > June of 1998 was the first big official sendup. Do a google search to see > some more. > 23rd of Feb, 1997 by my reckoning. Yikes. I was at uni the first time around when that message was posted. When did I get old? :) matt. -- Posted from deborah.bcuc.ac.uk [192.149.238.11] via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

>===== Original Message From halc...@aol.com (Halcyan 2) ===== >>BTW, I "started my career" as part of a six-member, self-appointed, informal >>group of question answerers on this group (operating when the official WotC >>netrep was absent) and then "pulled up" to be an unofficial archiver of >>official rulings and errata. I later branched out into compiling house rules >>as a solution to a proposal made by others on this newsgroup. > >So then at what point and how did you become the official netrep for WotC? The initial net.rep, Tom Wylie, eventually became too busy with net.repping MtG to devote much time to net.repping V:TES. So one of WotC's R&D people, Shawn F. Carnes, took over. But it turned out that his R&D duties took up too much of his time, so after a few months (6, 7?), he dropped out of sight as well. I had continued answering questions (and challenging official rulings with which I disagreed) throughout Shawn's tour of duty and apparently made a good impression. He put my name in the hat for net.rep to replace him, but using an "outside" guy poses a few more problems than using WotC staff (even though, IIRC, Tom Wylie started out as an "oustider" in much the same fashion), and WotC sent Jon Wilkie in fresh from telephone support customer servive (even though Jon had played less than half a dozen games of V:TES at the time, apparently). Jon lasted about a month, and collected a lot of grief from the newsgroup (including me) for the level of support he was able to provide. That little fiasco must've convinced WotC that it would be worth it to go through whatever extra effort an "outside" guy caused, and I became the net.rep in Feb. 1997. About a year later (April or May 1998), WotC promoted me to rules authority. > And >what happened to those other five guys? Players come and go. The other five dropped off the newsgroup (without any fanfare) even before Jon Wilkie came on the scene. Alan Kwan is still active on the rec.games.board newsgroup. The rest I haven't read in quite some time. >In addition, if you don't mind me asking, do you have another job? Is >netrep'ing your primary job or is it more like a "hobby?" I really hope I don't >come across as sounding rude or anything, I've just always been curious about >it. My primary occupation is computer programmer. I work full-time at the Department of Mathematics at the University of South Carolina. My V:TES work has moved up from "hobby" to "second job". If you're still curious, check out the interview Errol T conducted back in 1997. Just search google for "group:*.jyhad insubject:Interveiw author:Errol author:T" (note: interview is misspelled in that subject line) -- LSJ (vte...@white-wolf.com) V:TES Net.Rep for White Wolf, Inc. Links to revised rulebook, rulings, errata, and tournament rules: http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Get your FREE web-based e-mail and newsgroup access at: http://MailAndNews.com

On Tue, 1 May 2001 08:22:55 -0400, LSJ wrote: >>what happened to those other five guys? > >Players come and go. This is all quite interesting. On the subject of "where are they now?", what's happened to John Whelan? I see he posted lots of stuff about the Monocle way back when (most of which I agree with) and he was quite prolific up to the end of last year. And now he has vanished. Andrew

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has anyone noticed the plethora of math guys who play vtes. LSJ, and James Hamblin come to my mind first.....course i am also a math grad, but i don't post much........Nat