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Another Tough Chouette Ruling

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Friday, 23 October 2009, at 3:25 p.m.

In Response To: Another Tough Chouette Ruling (Phil Simborg)

Phil Simborg wrote:

Sorry, but I fail to see where I am inconsistent.

Suppose the rule had explicitly said that a fast roll does not count even if the previous move was forced and there is no contact? Even then, the players could easily have behaved exactly the way they did under the current rule, complete with expletives. Would the ruling be any less "tough" under the new, expanded rule? I doubt it. Wouldn't you have said the same thing in this hypothetical situation that you actually said—that according to the rules the roll didn't count but good luck finding another chouette? Changing the rule will not prevent tough situations from arising in the future; you speak as if you think they would, but you act in a way that demonstrates they won't.

I said this before, and I'll say it again. Your dream chouette is not one which has every single contingency written out explicitly in the rules the way you want them. Your dream chouette is one that is populated with people who behave the way you want them to behave. In particular, your dream chouette is one populated by people who follow the rules strictly, just like you do and want everyone else to.

But unless you bar people who aren't Simborgian rule-follower types, or unless you enforce rules in such a draconian manner that anyone who is not a strict rule-follower will choose to leave, you have to live with them. Go ahead and make the rules more explicit if it makes you happy, but don't fool yourself into thinking that that will solve all your problems. The U.S. legal system probably has more laws covering obscure contingencies and cases than any other legal system, but that has hardly solved all its legal problems. No matter how explicit you make your rules, somebody is going to find a way to create a tough situation.

(It occurs to me that we could even test this hypothesis. Over the course of several years, one could closely track the ruleset that Phil uses, and count the number of "tough rulings" he posts to bgonline. My prediction is that the ruleset will get more complicated and explicit over the years, but that the rate of posting of "tough rulings" will remain constant.)

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