Governance Proposal for 4 main event OverPower Tournaments, etc.

[clericblackdave]

This message is primarily intended for players who attend / have attended any of the 4 major event tournaments currently being played in North America.  If you haven't been to one, we'd love to see you come out, and I certainly hope this proposal would attendance and involvement even more attractive.

That said . . .

Good Afternoon to of my overpower Brothers and Sisters (or at least those I could get emails for)

I'm emailing you after another glorious OP Cup event in Columbus.  Thank you Phil and Doug for hosting and organizing.  Myself and I think all in attendance had an incredible time (except for the fact that I went 6-1 and then promptly LOST to Ed in the first round of the playoff =P  )

But this email isn't about that.  It's about the State of the Game and something a number of us have been talking about – what we would like to see happen going forward. We've been talking about the idea of a governing body for the community, the purpose of which would be to have a consistent process for addressing rules issues and to discuss any additions we would like to see down the road, such as new cards. 


The State of the Game of OverPower

I'll try to be brief.  I've been playing with you all for ~3 years.  It's been great to see the group grow, to see players improve and to see the community become tighter.  It's a golden era.

That said, attendance was down at Buffalo and Columbus.  I worried that if we get complacent this might become a trend.  It's easier to keep players and attract new players being proactive than I think it is to win players who "leave", back.  I can't say why attendance was exactly down, obviously. 

I can say that while I want to be playing this game with you all for another decade plus, is that going to happen if the game stays the exact same?  I don't know.  I think a lot of us want to see the game and our community continue to grow, but to do that we need a process that we all agree on and that ultimately we're all happy and excited about.


Current Governance Structure

Currently our process of making decisions is like the Articles of Confederation. We have maybe 3-6 groups in North America playing, with 4 Major events held in Toronto, Penn State, Buffalo, and Columbus.

Each tournament has its own manager who largely has their own fiefdom / territory.  They make their tournament rules, etc.  They select their venues.  They loosely cooperate with each other and facilitate debates about rules / errata, etc.  Rules changes are ad-hoc. And we owe a debt to them, to the Keffer's, to Jack and Sean, to Phil and Doug, to Larry.  And they are the leaders that have made this work.

It's worked well so far. We don't want to take any of that away. We'd like to add to that a structure to help the game continue to thrive and grow.

Proposal for a New Governance Structure

Look at the recent DOW rulings. The Activator Dump is a great addition to the rules. However, the process for testing then incorporating it wasn't as structured as it could be – and because of that lack of process, I'm sure it left some people feeling irritated or resistant at first.  Having a detailed governance structure will make positive rules changes like the activator dump easier to play test and incorporate, and will ensure everyone is involved along the way. 

In Summary, I think we need is a more unified governance structure that discusses, vets, and tests new rules / cards / policies for the game.  Here is my basic proposal:


New Governance Structure

This can all be debated or tweaked, but this is my pitch:
1.   Main Events Tournaments, the tournament rules (match length, playoff format, final rulings, etc.) Venue choice, time, accommodations, etc.  All remain the responsibility and right of historic (or future) tournament runners. Nothing changes there.
2.   A "commissioner" of OverPower, elected yearly, is the coordinator for the game and any changes. Basically like the "commissioner" of a fantasy football league they will be the person emailing everyone and talking to everyone about things we're all thinking of changing, and who will generally help lead the effort to keep the game thriving - She/he is also an important tiebreak for the rules committee.  (I would love to serve as the first commissioner, but think a lot of people would be great at it)
3.   A rules committee is created to discuss new rules, new cards, etc.  This rules committee consists of the Commissioner and the 4 main event managers (or their designee).  In person meetings will be held the Thursday evening or Friday Morning before Friday night tournaments regarding the testing of rules or new cars at the NEXT tournament's Friday event.  Someone tech-savvy like Jack can also arrange for these to be available via conference or video call.  These meetings are open for anyone to attend and give input. A vote for trying new rules will be a majority rule vote of the 5 committee members. 
4.   Friday Night events are now the laboratory for trying new rules before any use in the Main Event.  We would like to replace the themed Friday night events with rules testing events instead. I believe we should move away from arbitrary Friday events (6-rank, only women, pack opening events were fun, but we can use our time Fridays to test rules and cards and better the game, all while having fun)
5.   After a new rule, new set of cards, etc. is tested at a Friday event; it takes 4 of 5 rules committee members to vote in favor of bringing the rule to the entire community for a vote for rules /cards to be ratified for use in main events.  A 3 of 5 vote of the committee can be enough to have the rule tested again at another Friday event. 
6.   Final rule ratification takes a successful 2/3 vote of all responding community members.  Before the vote(s) we should probably have a structured, time-limited debate on the rule with each rules committee member having 5 minutes to speak on the rules, before opening up to general comments.  We can determine how the vote is taken, but it should be in some way blind (i.e. NOT by hands and not verbal).  We make sure people not present can call in and listen if they desire, and then vote.
7.   Repealing of any rules or cards, new or existing, will be done by this same process / vote.

Keeping the game fresh and fair

There's my BASIC pitch.  If people like this idea, and we'd like to try it, I would like to create a 1 page Overpower Constitution or Mission Statement that we could all look at, discuss and vote on.
I've also heard that may be other proposals and idea for governance, and I look forward to seeing what they are.
Overall, I know we've all talked about a number of really fun and exciting changes we'd all like to see ranging from new cards to make certain characters more playable, or rules to make existing unplayable cards work better or in the way they were intended. Once there is a governance structure, then we as a community can start talking about changes and additions to the game we'd like to see, and pick one that we can start working on first. I know I have a number of Ideas I'm excited about proposing as I'm sure everyone else does as well!  
I am excited about how a governance structure might help to improve and grow the game.  And I am ready for whatever role I might play in that.

Let's all talk amongst one another about this, and perhaps bring something to fruition in Toronto, or if not then, perhaps by K2.
In the meantime, I also intend to post this letter to the Palatinus Forum, Facebook groups, and anywhere else to reach players.  Please feel free to forward this to anyone not on this email, with my apologies I didn't have their email.
Respectfully,
-David McMillan a.k.a BlackDave

[AO user]

* "like Button" pressed!....  this has been brewing for a while...