Scrap Game Gurus

[bamsedog]

So another Arena season begins with the usual mostly pointless changes to an arbitrary bunch of games as chosen by an elite few, the Gurus. It's hardly democratic and there are always complaints.

Solution is to scrap the Guru system and throw the polls open to anyone with an ELO of 100+ in the game under discussion.
Then if the decision doesn't go your way, you at least know it's had a fair hearing.

[Blacktango]

I don't know about the game you are talking about, but even if you are not a guru, you can start a topic in the part dedicated to this game in the forum to discuss about what seems to be the best option for the next season.

This discussion will be open to all players, not only the gurus, and maybe the gurus will be able to see more opinions, especially from more "casual" players of this game.

[bamsedog]

I was thinking of cribbage specifically which has gone from a best of three match to a single game. This is a change which I didn't know was on the cards until the option to vote came up.
I wouldn't have started a general discussion because I thought everything would remain the same.

[ChiefPointThief]

So another Arena season begins with the usual mostly pointless changes to an arbitrary bunch of games as chosen by an elite few, the Gurus. It's hardly democratic and there are always complaints.

Solution is to scrap the Guru system and throw the polls open to anyone with an ELO of 100+ in the game under discussion.
Then if the decision doesn't go your way, you at least know it's had a fair hearing.

Bad idea. People would then create countless accounts and therefore have extra votes. It only takes 1-3 wins to reach over 100 elo. If you raised the elo requirement it may incentivize ppl to cheat

[ChiefPointThief]

I don't know about the game you are talking about, but even if you are not a guru, you can start a topic in the part dedicated to this game in the forum to discuss about what seems to be the best option for the next season.

This discussion will be open to all players, not only the gurus, and maybe the gurus will be able to see more opinions, especially from more "casual" players of this game.

The common guru doesn’t care about the opinion of casual players.

[Blacktango]

The common guru doesn’t care about the opinion of casual players.

Well, IMO, thinking all casuals are noobs is no better than thinking all gurus are contemptuous.

[Kayvon]

Have you considered becoming a game guru? It takes a lot of criticism, but it's not a bad system.

It's basically saying that those who play the game the most should have the most say in how arena is configured.

I'm a guru for several games. For others, I just wait and see how the arena config goes. When it's not what I'd prefer, I just don't play arena on those games for a while. Not really a big deal.

[Tulivuori]

Players playing quicker formats get the guru status faster. And they choose the format they prefer. Hence, quicker formats (usually low player count) are used in the arena.

[Blacktango]

Players playing quicker formats get the guru status faster. And they choose the format they prefer. Hence, quicker formats (usually low player count) are used in the arena.

This theory seems pretty solid. I wish we had some statistics on this.
IMO, the number of the games + the time spent playing should be taken into account.

The FAQ confirms that it is the number of games that matters (+ karma), but also says that other conditions may apply.

[HedgieWedgie]

Where can you see what you're a guru for? I just got the following message in my finished games queue:

Thank you for having been a guru for Roll for the Galaxy.
Now is the time for other Gurus to take over. You can become a Guru again by playing a lot!
1 h 30 m ago"

I had NO IDEA I had been selected as a guru. Maybe we get the same arena setup because no one knows they can actually vote.