I am a long term Hearthstone player. I also happen to have a background in philosophy. This is why I am fascinated when both of these interests intersect in a meaningful way. I would be very interested to see how people respond to the following questions.
1) Is it ethically defensible to rope Secret Paladins?
2) Do you rope Secret Paladins?
3) Does your motivation for doing so matter? In other words, is there a difference between roping a Secret Paladin because you are angry and roping a Secret Paladin because you are trying to impose a cost (time) on those who choose to play a deck that many believe imposes a cost (frustration, loss of enjoyment) on the rest of the Hearthstone community?
(Edit for clarification) I think that this constant cycle we get into where the deck that people least enjoy playing against also happens to be the most played deck is a problem. I think it is a version of the tragedy of the commons (The tragedy of the commons is a term...to denote a situation where individuals acting independently and rationally according to each other's self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole by depleting some common resource. Wikipedia). If your goal is to win as much as possible, it is obviously a perfectly rational decision to play the strongest deck. However, when there are large numbers of people collectively making that rational decision the result is a less diverse meta which leads to less enjoyment for many players. I base this on the amount of comments I have seen complaining about Secret Pally (or Undertaker Hunter etc). I will concede in advance that a diverse meta is not necessarily a good thing--if the meta were to become too fluid, deck building would be difficult because it would be hard to know what to target. I will also concede that in real life, roping is not likely to change behavior because it is not a common response. I am more interested in the principles involved. If roping is bad because it negatively effect others enjoyment of the game, can the same be said about choosing to play the 'strongest deck' with the explicit goal of gaining an advantage relative to others?
I thank you in advance for your responses.
(Given the responses so far, I think I should clarify that I am not advocating for roping anyone. That being said, it does happen and I think that how people justify it is an interesting question because of the very limited means for interacting with opponents. One of the less savory means of interaction is the friend request followed by a torrent of expletives. I wouldn't suggest doing that either. But I am similarly interested in the motivations of people who engage in that behavior. There is also emote spamming, but that is easily avoided)
1) Is it ethically defensible to rope Secret Paladins?
No.
2) Do you rope Secret Paladins?
No.
3) Does your motivation for doing so matter?
No.
In other words, is there a difference between roping a Secret Paladin because you are angry and roping a Secret Paladin because you are trying to impose a cost (time) on those who choose to play a deck that many believe imposes a cost (frustration, loss of enjoyment) on the rest of the Hearthstone community?
2. No, though they'd deserve it, but when I'm angry and lucky enough to meet one while I'm playing freeze mage, I usually freeze their board, then use both Ice Blocks/Ice Barriers, stall as much as possible, then Malygos + spellstorm, but that's just me
Just don't be a douche and play the game or don't play at all. If you can't stand people playing certain decks then you shouldn't play Hearthstone or any card game for that matter. The fact that a deck is easy to play doesn't mean that you should get mad about it.
You hardly need a background in philosophy to figure out that treating people like scumbags is a bad thing.
This is simply the result of dominant strategy, and it's called that for a reason. You can hardly fault people for playing what they concieve to be the strongest deck when the game rewards them for it. That's still not reason enough to be a douche though.
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I've been playing secret pally. I've faced very few people that rope every turn. Those that do don't bother me, because I'm either grading papers or watching tv so it doesn't bother me. I play secret pally because I don't have much time to play. Easiest way to level.
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There are 3 kinds of people in the world. Those that can count and those that can't.
This is just a thinly veiled attempt using nice words to justify being a douchebag. The pretentiousness is over 9000. Like someone else said you will waste more of your time that the time of some random person you have vilified on the internet based solely on their deck choice in a video game. I'd recommend finding a bubble to live in where people's deck choices can't hurt you.
If they BM me in the slightest way I'll bm them back better. I don't condone bm'ing except if you play the most mindless,annoying deck in the history of hearthstone AND bm on top of that? Oh, it's on! I'm already mostly playing decks that have good mu's against secret pally to get some more golden heroes so beating them plus some bm is fine by me. If they're particularly obnoxious and I know they're going to win I'll just take my dog outside without conceding or grab a beverage. If I'm going to win I'll rope and then unleash an oil combo or as much overkill as possible. Sometimes I'll trade things I don't need for lethal so he thinks he has a chance. If playing freeze mage I've even put up a block delaying the inevitable a whole turn, good times!
Dont to worry though people, you really have to deserve it for me to be a dick to you so it probably won't happen to you. Right?
It's never in any way ethical to consider someone a worse human being because of their deck choice, what the fuck is this post.
I never meant to (and don't think that I did) imply that Secret Pally players were bad players. That being said, I think that this constant cycle we get into where the deck that people least enjoy playing against also happens to be the most played deck is a problem. I think it is a version of the tragedy of the commons (The tragedy of the commons is a term, probably coined by William Forster Lloyd and later used by Garrett Hardin, to denote a situation where individuals acting independently and rationally according to each other's self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole by depleting some common resource. Wikipedia). If your goal is to win as much as possible, it is obviously a perfectly rational decision to play the strongest deck. However, when there are large numbers of people collectively making that rational decision the result is a less diverse meta which leads to less enjoyment for many players. I base this on the amount of comments I have seen complaining about Secret Pally (or Undertaker Hunter etc). My original questions were meant to figure out whether people were trying to disincentive a rational, but also somewhat harmful decision.
I am a long term Hearthstone player. I also happen to have a background in philosophy. This is why I am fascinated when both of these interests intersect in a meaningful way. I would be very interested to see how people respond to the following questions.
1) Is it ethically defensible to rope Secret Paladins?
2) Do you rope Secret Paladins?
3) Does your motivation for doing so matter? In other words, is there a difference between roping a Secret Paladin because you are angry and roping a Secret Paladin because you are trying to impose a cost (time) on those who choose to play a deck that many believe imposes a cost (frustration, loss of enjoyment) on the rest of the Hearthstone community?
(Edit for clarification) I think that this constant cycle we get into where the deck that people least enjoy playing against also happens to be the most played deck is a problem. I think it is a version of the tragedy of the commons (The tragedy of the commons is a term...to denote a situation where individuals acting independently and rationally according to each other's self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole by depleting some common resource. Wikipedia). If your goal is to win as much as possible, it is obviously a perfectly rational decision to play the strongest deck. However, when there are large numbers of people collectively making that rational decision the result is a less diverse meta which leads to less enjoyment for many players. I base this on the amount of comments I have seen complaining about Secret Pally (or Undertaker Hunter etc). I will concede in advance that a diverse meta is not necessarily a good thing--if the meta were to become too fluid, deck building would be difficult because it would be hard to know what to target. I will also concede that in real life, roping is not likely to change behavior because it is not a common response. I am more interested in the principles involved. If roping is bad because it negatively effect others enjoyment of the game, can the same be said about choosing to play the 'strongest deck' with the explicit goal of gaining an advantage relative to others?
I thank you in advance for your responses.
(Given the responses so far, I think I should clarify that I am not advocating for roping anyone. That being said, it does happen and I think that how people justify it is an interesting question because of the very limited means for interacting with opponents. One of the less savory means of interaction is the friend request followed by a torrent of expletives. I wouldn't suggest doing that either. But I am similarly interested in the motivations of people who engage in that behavior. There is also emote spamming, but that is easily avoided)
No.
No.
No.
No, both are petty. Don't be a baby.
1. No
2. No, though they'd deserve it, but when I'm angry and lucky enough to meet one while I'm playing freeze mage, I usually freeze their board, then use both Ice Blocks/Ice Barriers, stall as much as possible, then Malygos + spellstorm, but that's just me
3. -
mfw his Yogg steals my win
U can do whatever u want, but anyone who ropes on purpouse is an asshole in my book :P
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Just don't be a douche and play the game or don't play at all. If you can't stand people playing certain decks then you shouldn't play Hearthstone or any card game for that matter. The fact that a deck is easy to play doesn't mean that you should get mad about it.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
roping being discussed as a strategy?
...
...
I can't even
I try to play as quickly as i can to get it over with. Like any well adjusted adult would do.
No. No. And no.
You hardly need a background in philosophy to figure out that treating people like scumbags is a bad thing.
This is simply the result of dominant strategy, and it's called that for a reason. You can hardly fault people for playing what they concieve to be the strongest deck when the game rewards them for it. That's still not reason enough to be a douche though.
CDC #34, #3.07, #3.08 and Mini Competition #1 Finalist ---
Click on the images below to check out my different custom card threads!
I've been playing secret pally. I've faced very few people that rope every turn. Those that do don't bother me, because I'm either grading papers or watching tv so it doesn't bother me. I play secret pally because I don't have much time to play. Easiest way to level.
There are 3 kinds of people in the world. Those that can count and those that can't.
This is just a thinly veiled attempt using nice words to justify being a douchebag. The pretentiousness is over 9000. Like someone else said you will waste more of your time that the time of some random person you have vilified on the internet based solely on their deck choice in a video game. I'd recommend finding a bubble to live in where people's deck choices can't hurt you.
People who main SP are dicks. People who rope for the sake of roping are even bigger dicks.
Hope this answers your question.
I rope people only when I am being roped it works most of the time and they start playing normallly.. Don't see why waste time for nothing..
If they BM me in the slightest way I'll bm them back better. I don't condone bm'ing except if you play the most mindless,annoying deck in the history of hearthstone AND bm on top of that? Oh, it's on! I'm already mostly playing decks that have good mu's against secret pally to get some more golden heroes so beating them plus some bm is fine by me. If they're particularly obnoxious and I know they're going to win I'll just take my dog outside without conceding or grab a beverage. If I'm going to win I'll rope and then unleash an oil combo or as much overkill as possible. Sometimes I'll trade things I don't need for lethal so he thinks he has a chance. If playing freeze mage I've even put up a block delaying the inevitable a whole turn, good times!
Dont to worry though people, you really have to deserve it for me to be a dick to you so it probably won't happen to you. Right?
I rope heavy control players.
They want long games, got to help them.
I'd rather ask myself whether or not its ethically defensible to not BM them in any kind of way, be it roping, slow-BM-ing or emote spamming.
Dab