by djarvik » Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:59
Fair-play defined differently by pretty much everyone. Every single player here has his own definitions of what is fair and what is not. Sometimes these definition match, sometimes they don't. The reality is that we are are both, fair and unfair at the same time. C4il hates lobs, I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with them, in fact, I welcome them. So in his eyes I am unfair. Ary serves while holding the RB/R1 button, that to me is unfair, but not to him and a few others. Some think flat control shots are unfair, some don't. Some think that serving even once slice wide is unfair, some think serving slow is unfair, some think drop shots are unfair.
All this gets mixed up and blame is being thrown around left and right. At the end of the day, if we consider all of the above unfair - then we all are unfair and should be banned from the site, correct?
That is why we exists (the management). We try to make sense out of all this and structure it the best way we can. Implying that management is passive, to me, is considered as an insult. Why? Because we spend countless hours of our day, sometimes night, to solve problem between players, create tournament, maintain draws, moderate forums and so on. Without stop or break most times. I am still talking to Supermussy and by doing so I uncovered something that I would not have by ignoring his complaints.
The statement like "ITST is turning out to a place for cheesers" is as old as ITST itself. Yet, we are THE only standing community for avid tennis gaming fans. Ever asked yourself why? See the reasons in first paragraph.
We simply cannot accommodate each and every forum complaint. We cannot warn/suspend/ban players on demand, simply because "you" or anyone else considers what they do unfair. Even if you find another person, just like you, who thinks that a particular part/play is unfair, that is not to say that in another area of the game you and your supporter both disagree.
Fair-play to me constitutes of arranging your matches as soon as possible with a great consideration for opponents time, being there to play your match on time, maybe wishing a good luck to your opponent, following the rules established by management, finishing the match despite not being able to deal with opponent tactics (morally or game-wise), congratulating your opponent and thanking him if he congratulates you.
Any game-play disagreements should not be considered part of the fair-unfair stigma. They should be brought up on the forum, in a constructive manner, feedback should be given and the opportunity to discuss without accusations why a certain tactic should be not allowed. There should be a clear way of controlling and disallowing the tactic as well. And most importantly, if the tactic is not morphed into a rule - accept it, deal with it, find way to counter it and move on.
From management side, we are always looking to establish a pleasant fair environment in ITST. This requires time, effort, analyzation process and so on. This is not something we decide on spontaneously. We play the game ourselves and we have plenty of hosts who play the game. I can promise you one thing, we will keep trying and making this place as pleasant to play in as possible.
Level 13 Edberg and counting...