DeathJester

• Pojo Home Page
  
• Message Board
  
• Contact Staff
  

DeathJester's Dojo
A “How-to” Guide to gaining valuable information like the pros
by Bryan Camareno a.k.a. DeathJester
September 5, 2006 

 Welcome back to DeathJester’s Dojo! This week I’ll be discussing Networking. No; not the technical kind of networking with Network Topographies, Cabling, Routers, etc. I’ve given a lot of advice on many different areas to develop in order for you to succeed as a player. This particular piece of advice will spark tremendous changes to the way you look at the game, test-play, and compete in tournaments.

Why should you have a network?

Simply put, having a network of players, writers, deck-testers, etc that are “in-the-know” with the TCG community is essential to success. Any player that wins consistently has a network of acquaintances/friends/contacts that he/she goes to for information on game trends, deck advice, play style optimization, etc.

Getting into contact with a prominent TCG player opens up a slew of people for you to make friends with or exchange information with. Let’s use the duelists in my home state, Florida, as an example:

A good friend of mine, John Jensen (2-time SJC Winner), is a fantastic player. He is a member of Team NeXus. That means he has another 10 or so people he talks to or gets information from at any given time about anything. The majority of these individuals are prominent TCG players/judges as well. Each of them probably knows about 5-7 other equally good TCG players from other teams of people like Legion of Doom (Tampa) or Team Villains (Fort Lauderdale). The players from these teams probably know other prominent players OUTSIDE of Florida. You see where I’m getting at here?

Just knowing 1 player could open the windows of opportunity for you to get in contact with 50 others within a short amount of time.

There’s nothing deceptive about getting involved with people and establishing a network of your own. To most it just “happens”, but for you (the aspiring TCG player) you don’t want to wait for it to “happen”. The only thing you have to do to get information from any prominent players is: JUST ASK. 90% of the time, they’ll tell you what they know and then some.

NOTE: If you want to get in contact with me and know more about my network of players/judges/writers. Feel free to drop me an e-mail at: deathjester86@gmail.com.

How to utilize a network

The players that utilize their networks frequently and effectively are the ones that perform better, perform more consistently, and are more knowledgeable than the majority. It’s one thing just knowing a bunch of people. Any given person who has the internet knows about 90 or so people and only talk to 5 of them at any given time. That’s simple. The proper use of a network comes from knowing exactly what kind of information you are looking for. Again, how do we get this information? Just ask. There’s a lot of power in just asking.

Let’s say I asked John Jensen to come up with a decklist for the next SJC and pass it around to the people he knows. It’ll be like a group project. Bingo! You’ve just started something that could possibly filter through 50 or players by the time the event comes around. Each of those 50 people will talk to their network of friends and by the time that decklist gets back to you, it’s been critiqued, viewed, tested and probably posted on hundreds of blogs and stored on thousands of computers. Thus, you end up with a good deck that you can tweak to your liking before the big event.

Now, I do realize this is a bit exaggerated. I’m sure you guys get the point here. A lot of you may want to keep a deck a secret before an event. Which is fine and all, I just happen to like the outside view of things. I feel that the more people outside of my “box” that look at the deck and test it, the better off I’ll be when I actually take it through my test-playing sessions.

How to organize a network

You are one person. You have to find a way to organize this process to suit your needs. This can be done in a variety of ways.

·        Forums/Message Boards – Forums are a great way to organize information distributed by your network. This can only happen if this forum is tightly monitored and relatively free of spamming. A system of disqualification helps to keep unwanted guests out. Forums Admin controls are really good about restricting access. I do have a word of caution though: You better live up to what you promise. I’ve seen a lot of forums go dead because they don’t keep up with the ‘exclusivity’ they offer, including two of my own forums (Email me at deathjester86@gmail.com if you want to know more about this).

·        Network of Blog Websites – A network of blog websites is another great way to organize information and share it among a number of people. They’re dirt cheap (if not free) and easy to make. This concept of social networking is much like myspace.com except without that whole “myspace.com” stigma you know? Blogs are great stuff. The possibilities are endless.

·        Mailing Lists – My absolute favorite. I use this one personally with my own group and it’s an awesome way to relay information across different states/countries. It’s effective for organizing deck-testing, planning trips, setting up meetings, etc. Even better you can read it at your own convenience. Mailing lists are valuable sources of information (I will be starting a public one soon). You can organize the information like a newsletter. You could even do this via postage mail, but it’ll cost you a bit more.

·        Teleconferencing – This is a good one. Corporations do this ALL the time. Teleconferencing is a like a chat room except by phone. An excellent way to exchange ideas and talk freely amongst the other members of the conference without the cluttering of IM and chat windows. If you have Microsoft NetMeeting you can hold a teleconference and share your computer’s desktop with a few others. Very cool. If you don’t have it, don’t worry about it.

·        IMs and Chat Rooms – This is a preferred method by most teenagers these days. I personally dislike IMs and Chats. There are some advantages that I can tell you about from personal experience: They are the fastest way to exchange ideas and communicate with other people. Chat Rooms done via AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc are awesome for getting a group together to talk about whatever. With Chat Rooms, it’s VERY difficult to keep track of what everyone is saying, especially if you get more than 10 people in there. Call me lazy, but I hate scrolling up and down trying to catch what a certain person was trying to say. After you finish scrolling through the Chat window, you missed 10 or so messages in the process. I don’t like it. If it works for you, then use it.

Drawing Conclusions…

Networking is THE best way to foster the exchanging of information to achieve larger goals. Engaging in joint venture projects is a superb way to bolster lasting friendships and pursue greater goals for yourself or your team. Networking is a way to “think outside-the-box”. You NEED this to create innovative, yet effective decks. Oftentimes knowing “the right people” can get you pretty far at whatever subject you spend the most time with. Go out there and try to create your own networks of players/judges/writers.

Until next time everyone, remember to play hard, stay focused, and most importantly…have fun!

NOTE: I’ve gotten quite a few submissions for my ‘Mail Bag’, but I need more questions to answer for future articles. Also, when you submit a question please provide your First Name, Last Name, and UDE number. If you don’t want to provide the info then I will ignore your e-mail. This is your chance to get your specific questions answered by me on Pojo.com. Please, no obnoxious e-mails, you WILL be ignored.