Quote:

It’s not the same logic.  The logic that we should make all games RV says that since we can’t prevent people from unfairly tracking pieces, we will make it unnecessary and of no advantage for them to do so.  The logic I was using says that since we can’t prevent people from unfairly tracking pieces, we should not try to safeguard against certain forms of doing this when there are clearly other ways to do so which are impossible to prevent.  
 
When players enter into a game that is not RV, they are already trusting that the other player will not be using memory aids, or they don’t care even if he is.  Since this is the case, wouldn’t these players also naturally assume their opponent is not on the phone with a spectator who is helping him remember the pieces, or likewise not care even if he is?  If non-RV players accept the possibility of first type of unfairness, which I’m sure is much more common, then it’s reasonable that they would accept the second.  The cost seems minimal at most, but the benefit will be a much enhanced experience for the live game watching spectator.
 

I mean employing additional devices to help remember seen and moved pieces, that would not be permitted during an in-person Stratego game, such as note-taking, moving pieces on a separate game board or, as quoted above, “the guy marking his computer screen”.

In a perfect world this would be a great idea, however, we do not live in a perfect world. (Just think of all the potential abuse)
 
 
 
As for the mandatory PV(cv), some players tend to spend a lot of time making a good setup which they most likely will be wanting to use again, this will become impossible as everybody can see it.
 
Another disadvantage is that certain players will just watch your game to make negative comments about it, I'm sure this would happen to a lot of certain players(no names needed I think).
 
If you want to compare poker w/ stratego, you should also realize that poker has a lot of "boring moments", a stratego-move takes like 2 seconds, so there is always some action.
 

right on patsy. good analogy. then everyone can watch on and laugh as my marsh mows down your lines like fresh cut grass

If you allow the watcher to see what the players see, they can not only help remember for one of the players, they can also track the pieces themselves and work back to the original setup.  If you're really a nerd with a lot of time on your hands.... I'm just sayin'....  
 
That being said, personally I'm not for forcing anything on or off.  This would be my proposal:
 
If a game is publicly viewable, there would be sub options:
 
1) Secure - this is basically as it is today.
2) Player View - this would let watchers see whatever the players see when a piece is revealed publicly, would use aids & RV if those are enabled, not if not.
3) Enhanced View - this is basically player view, but with RV & GA always turned on for watchers whether players have them or not
4) Complete View - the watchers would see essentially as if the game had the Complete Visibility option on, and would get GA (RV becomes meaningless in a CV situation).  The players would see whatever the game options are.
 
I'd suggest the default would probably be either #2 or #3.
 
If a game is permission viewable, the above option would also be set, and anyone allowed to watch would get whatever it was set to.  (As a side question, do we want permission viewable to be implemented?  Is it worth it?  Would people use this?)
 
If a game is not viewable, obviously no watches period.
 
How's that sound?  Would it make people happy to have those choices and keep noobs around the site?  I think the answer is probably yes.

Pats did you get your hands on some dope?
 
Let these dipsh1ts acquire skill the right way, by playing often and against everybody. Too many of these queers look for shortcuts and utilize underhanded methods to get better results and pump up their rankings. The problem with so many of these cowards is that they won't play one another. This one only wants to play that one and that one doesn't like to play this sort but watches his Krach score like a laboring woman counting the time between her contractions. He won't play a scrub with a bad record because it might drop his Krach rating and he would not want that to happen. Boo Hoo.....
 
I say force these effeminates to play like men and challenge one another. For a game that "hasn't any effect on our real lives" some of these nerds sure pick and choose who they play and hide like frightened mice when real skill is in the house.  
 
Some of the higher ranked players should stop stroking their rankings and play whomever joins their games, like I do. That is how you give the new players a chance to learn.
 
If you want to give some of them some lessons that might do them some good, give the beaver toothed nerds some publicly viewable videos on how to successfully interact with women.

March Madness will be incredible this year if these options are in place.  May be as much fun to watch as play.  This should definitely increase interest in the game and the site.  All of the players who posted and helped collaborate on this deserve kudos.

Make CV for spectators, delayed (after the game) and only for special tournaments.
 
Abuse and traps are avoided.
 
CV always, can be detrimental in the medium term.
 
I think the progress of a player must be based on work in time.

I really like the extended viewing options chip. great ideas.
 
Seems like no one besides pats would be willing to play CV. Too bad people are sooooo scared of being cheated at a game. To me the idea of having people get the pleasure of watching me chase someone’s general around with a serg and scout far outweighs the possibility of two dorks sharing information. Here’s a hypothetical idea: if you’re not willing to play CV or even PV, you shouldn’t be allowed to watch any other games. Obviously there would be no way to implement this, but in perfect world that would be the case.
 
Regarding permission viewable – Yes chip I think this really needs to be fixed so it actually works. I'm sure these untrusting folks would be more willing to put on a spectator sport if they had control over who gets to watch. There just needs to be a good way to allow/deny permission without it interrupting the game too much so the purists dont lose their supreme concentration. Any ideas?  

Quote from iliketheesauce on Sep 20^th, 2010, 6:59am:

 
Thanks.  I'm excited to start working on it.
 
Quote from iliketheesauce on Sep 20^th, 2010, 6:59am:

 
Yes I agree, and how to do the watch request without annoying the players is really the issue - I have never come up with a good solution for that.  Plus would both players have to agree who to let in, or just the game owner?  There would clearly need to be a limit to requests to watch from any potential watcher per game to prevent intentional request-deny-request-deny-request-deny annoyances... maybe 2.  
 
Would love to hear any ideas on this.