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The Kaijudo Code
2.0
Pokemon came to America they kept an important piece of knowledge in mind - know your audience. The majority of Pokemon players during its hay day were younger players who were likely to have had little experience with playing games, especially with total strangers as opponents. The cartoon worked well at introducing these young Pokemon masters into the world of competitive play thanks to the lessons learned by Ash and his friends. Ash was always eager to take on any challenge – he never let defeat stifle his competitive spirit. Despite this he was not overly competitive – when the match was over, win or lose, he was a great sport who often went out of his way to point out at least one good thing about his opponent. Enter the next collectible card game to be dominated by the youth – Yugi-Oh. *Now, I’m likely going to take a few hits for this – even from my stepson. Some of you may see this as Yugi-Oh bashing, however I believe this is actually the objective view of gamer who possesses more than two decades worth of experience. As Yugi-Oh entered the scene the marketing developers seem to have one thing on their mind – promote the coolness factor. The marketing strategy of Yugi-Oh has communicated to me nothing less than, “We don’t give a darn about the players or the play environment we create so long as we get our money!” I view the Yugi-Oh player environment as a whole to be cesspool of cheating, ripping and disrespect. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any decent individuals who play Yugi-Oh. The Yugi-Oh playing community has been ultimately set out to sea without direction, though. Duel Masters jumped on this problem before the game was even released with the creation of the “Kaijudo Code.” This code is not just a cool Japanese word to walk around showing off on a hat – the Kaijudo Code is everything Duel Masters need to create the best possible community of players. If our players can actually promote this code of conduct not only in action, but also in thought then I can ensure you that Duel Masters will be longer lived for it. How exactly does the Kaijudo Code work in real life, though? The code is, after all, only a set of five cute little phrases and they don’t necessarily bother to explain themselves. Fully understanding this code is the true purpose of this article. Read it, learn it, and practice it – BE IT. I make no excuses. Gamers talk a lot and there’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes we’ll reminisce about a key match that we just barely pulled out. Other times we may find ourselves chatting it up about playing ridiculous what ifs - such that ‘awesome’ deck that is able to play one of each of the Invincible spells in a single turn. That’s not what this portion of the code is referring to. I know you’ve met them. These are the players who, every time you beat them feel the need to show how they could have beaten you – or worse yet how you should not have beaten them. I’ve met more than my fair share of these players in nearly any and every type of game I have ever played – from tennis to video games to Magic: The Gathering and even Duel Masters. If you are one of those players who have this problem then here is my suggestion for you: when you lose against your opponent force yourself NOT to say how you could/should have won. Instead replace that comment with a compliment to your opponent. Perhaps a simple, “good game” or “nice deck,” for example. I have no enemies. Never in the rulebook do you see the term enemy – instead you only see the word opponent. And it’s true – they shouldn’t be your enemy. If they are, then you are taking the game much to seriously. Even if you are playing in a major tournament and a big prize is on the line there is no reason to turn your opponent into an enemy. As this code says – you should be learning from your opponent even while you attempt to defeat them. If you are prompt at tournaments you should be seated with your opponent before match time even starts. If you have never met your opponent take this time to introduce yourself and make a little bit of friendly small talk. “How long you play?” “Do you play any other games?” These are good questions you can ask in order to establish rapport with your opponent, yet they won’t take up a lot of time to answer. After the tournament director informs you that it is time to begin, wish your opponent luck. Sure, you may not want your opponent to win, however you should establish before the first card is even drawn that there would be no hard feelings about the match – not matter who wins. I need no deceitful
tricks. This one gets right down to the nitty-gritty. Any win in which you have to cheat to gain is not a win at all. Winning is not meant to be easy and if you win by cheating you may get good at cheating, however you will never gain any real skill for the game itself. Basically, you have to be a loser to cheat and if you cheat you will never get better and so a loser you will remain. Here’s a little bit of additional incentive not to cheat – just in case that isn’t enough. While the Duel Masters tournament ratings are advertised as being part of “D-Max” don’t be mistaken. “D-Max” is still DCI. To play in any sanctioned DCI tournament for any game you must be a DCI member in good standing. DCI doesn’t mess around. Below is a link to the DCI suspension list. These are players who tried to cheat. Some of them are suspended from DCI tournaments for as many as five years and one guy from Italy got himself suspended for life! http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dci/suspended I think not of quitting.
Generally this isn’t much of a problem except right at the end of a game where to looks like you are about to be beat. My advice – play it out. I have yet to have this happen often in Duel Masters yet, however in plenty of other games I have played I’ve been in this sort of situation. With a little bit of persistence and work I’ve been able to pull out games that everyone around me said was hopeless. I’ve also met players who refuse to play anyone they believe they don’t stand a chance against. Now, this doesn’t happen in tournaments – more so in casual play. Your casual play should be preparation for the next tournament, though. If you avoid any player just because they will beat you every time, then you are missing the point of practice. Sure, it feels good to win, however would you prefer to win that tournament or just win a few casual games? I know not of defeat. Look – this doesn’t mean that you will never lose a match. The only way you can be truly be defeated is if you gain nothing from a match. If you win that’s great, but if you lose there must be a reason why you lost. Think, reflect and examine – if you can come up with something that you learned from that match then you have yet to be defeated. Next time you face the same opponent again they will have to be much more careful as your game has improved since the last time you met. Trust me, winning is great, but you never learn as much from a win as you do from a loss. And that is the “Kaijudo Code” – heck that’s also a code for life. If more people lived by such a set of morals this would be a better world. Uh oh – I better watch out or I might break out into song here… So, if you actually give a darn about Duel Masters I advise you to take this stuff to heart. The more solid of a player community we can create, the better the game will be and the longer it will last. Trust me I’ve been around the block with more than a few games. Let’s put Duel Masters on top! Regards, JMatthew Markulin33@msn.com
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