New Idea Guru

[OldTrees]

What role should the Idea Guru play in the Idea Factory, the Card Idea and Art section, and the rest of the forum respectively?

[Essence]

Well, there are clearly more than enough actual ideas to go around. I think the Idea Guru's job should essentially consist of

1) Making sure that noobs understand what can't be done and why.
2) Organizing some activities that encourage people to create new ideas under interesting restrictions.
and
3) Encouraging people who seem interested to join the CIA and the IF.

Is that enough to warrant the position's existence?

[Higurashi]

Since this is a full staff position, it makes sense the Idea Guru should be the moderator of the Idea Factory board. The CI&A board is a board where they should be active and provide support for card creators that are requesting it, and in the forum as a whole be available for helping people with balance and idea questions.

All of this requires common sense, activity, rationality and knowledge regarding balance and thematics in the game.

All staff members should always promote activity, as a side note.

[Tiko]

And as another sidenote, you've put down some pretty high standards in the position. To be honest, I can hardly think of anyone on the Forums to even come close to your capabilities and your quality of work.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Well, there are clearly more than enough actual ideas to go around. I think the Idea Guru's job should essentially consist of

1) Making sure that noobs understand what can't be done and why.
2) Organizing some activities that encourage people to create new ideas under interesting restrictions.
and
3) Encouraging people who seem interested to join the CIA and the IF.

Is that enough to warrant the position's existence?

1 and 2 would suffice for a staff position, IMHO.

And as another sidenote, you've put down some pretty high standards in the position. To be honest, I can hardly think of anyone on the Forums to even come close to your capabilities and your quality of work.

^This. Even if we were to hire a new Idea Guru, the new one would likely rely on precedents you have already set. As Higs also stated, someone who takes over this position needs to know a lot about balance and be level-headed. That means the position is more favored towards a veteran that has been the CI&A for a long time. (I'm not quite sure how PvP experience affects this, but it would beneficial as well to have a good knowledge of the meta.)

A 'baseline' question : If we were to hire a new Guru, would said Guru maintain the same level of quality answers on the 'Ask The Idea Guru' thread?

[OldTrees]

This would also be a good place for people interested in the position to let me/us know.

[OldTrees]

I have announced I plan to step down sometime soon. I expected to find people that wanted the position. Surprisingly no one has nominated themselves. Please PM me if you are interested in the position.

[moomoose]

honestly at this point i lack the drive/passion/enthusiasm/etc to even consider attempting to fill your shoes.  its especially hard to promote card design when the person who you would be designing them for has been absent for months upon months.  the only people who i feel would be suitable to nominate to replace you would be either z or fox, but z seems to have his own burden and fox hasnt been around for years.

[furballdn]

Didn't get to post in this thread yet, so I'll say what I think the responsibilities of an Idea guru.

Wisdom
Able to compare and contrast benefits and cons of each card, as well as how much they should cost. Most of the analyses.

Role
An idea guru needs to decide what a good role is. A super active idea guru would voice their opinion on every card idea, but that will most often be time consuming. A less active idea guru will view every card idea, but only post opinions on the ones that catches his or her eye. An even more passive approach would be to only specifically look at cards that viewers ask. Either of these can work, it just depends on who and how it is done.

Time
A idea guru should be available at least once a day for answering questions and commenting.

Knowledge
Having a knowledge of what card ideas have been done before, how successful they are, and whether or not they are good. Able to compare previous submissions with new ideas for comparison and analyses.

Objectivity
An idea guru should not let his or her bias affect his or her judgement. No special treatment (positive or negative) should be given. All ideas and members are to be treated with the same respect.

Leadership
An idea guru should be able to sail and direct card ideas into uncharted waters, like the eternal spell idea and anti-cc for life. An idea guru should be able to help stimulate creativity among card designers.

Experience
Theory always bows to empirical evidence. The idea guru should have some experience with the game, knowing how much creatures are out on the field usually, how much quanta players usually have left over, and an idea about the metagame for balancing.

Popularity
Not a super important trait, but as all card voting is done by the community, it helps to have an idea guru that is well respected and trusted by all members.



That said OT, do you have any particular ideas for who you think would best be your successor? Has the idea that instead of an idea guru, a council of idea gurus been suggested?

[OldTrees]

Didn't get to post in this thread yet, so I'll say what I think the responsibilities of an Idea guru.

-good snip-

That said OT, do you have any particular ideas for who you think would best be your successor? Has the idea that instead of an idea guru, a council of idea gurus been suggested?

Yes I have ideas about who would be the best successor. However there are three categories of characteristics that I think are important for the 2nd Idea Guru:

• Willing. Not many people want to follow after the 1st and have their achievements viewed in the shadow of the prior achievements.
• Available. Some potential candidates are not available.
• Able.

A council of Idea Gurus has not been suggested. It is a good idea to suggest but I do not think it would be wise to implement.
1) The Idea Guru does little work but needs to have high quality. I found myself with too little to do hence the Ask the Idea Guru and Card of the Month expansions.
2) I see the Idea Guru as a sentient library on card design. I see Idea Factory members as skilled card designers that desire to help the CIA. In many ways the Idea Factory members already do what I would expect a council would do.


Who do you think should judge the candidates for Idea Guru? I have been asking them questions and am asking the Admins who(m) they think should judge the answers to the questions. However I want to know your thoughts.

[Tiko]

Another thing I would like to add: either there'll be one Guru or several people filling the spot simultaneously as a "council", I think it would be much more profitable as a whole if neither of them would be chosen from one of the 'card manufacturers' out there. The reasons, I believe, are self-explanatory. Though it'd make the pick(s) much more complicated.

I dare to say if you decide to step back, the position of the Idea Guru is inevitably deemed to decline.

[OldTrees]

Another thing I would like to add: either there'll be one Guru or several people filling the spot simultaneously as a "council", I think it would be much more profitable as a whole if neither of them would be chosen from one of the 'card manufacturers' out there. The reasons, I believe, are self-explanatory. Though it'd make the pick(s) much more complicated.

I dare to say if you decide to step back, the position of the Idea Guru is inevitably deemed to decline.

I do not see the the self explanatory reasons. Care to enlighten me?