One of my favorite quotes from Bruce Lee is, "Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." To me this is about not getting trapped in patterns of thought. Being fluid of mind, constantly seeking out holes, filling spaces, will revel to you the true nature of the game and the meta-game. This knowledge, as all knowledge, is really self-knowledge. This leads to clarity of vision, clarity of thought letting you pierce the fog of war.

The ability to see beyond the moment is what lets the best players/deck-designers predict trends as well as avoid static thinking, seeing cards and recognizing their potential, seeing the synergy in cards whose release spans months. There will always be calls about certain factions and cards and strategies being over or under powered. Look at what is, get a sense for what will be, and plan accordingly. Learn to improvise, adapt, and overcome. The decks are important but the player... the player is what wins games. Be water my friends.

This is the signal of my last week as a participant of this board. I've accepted a position on FFG's design team in the LCG department. For the seven years I've been playing this game and the six years that I've been posting on the forums (in all of its iterations) I've had a blast. I wish you well in life, and much success with this game. I hope to meet you on the field of battle of an LCG one day.

Damon "dormouse" Stone

P.S. I'll still lurk and you can always hit me up via PM here.

I don't see how this means you can't still be one of the guys.

Your just more... "official" than you were before.

Also, given the chance, I may kill you for your job.

If you've noticed none of the FFG Staff post here generally except in an official capacity.

That was beautiful, man. I was moved.

I'll miss your posts Dormouse.

We often were in stark disagreement, but no matter what - i always found your thought process engaging and informative. You certainly made me think about things in a different perspective on many occassions over the years.

You will be a true asset to FFG and their LCG department will benefit for your presence.

Just wanted to congratulate you one more time! You are living the dream...or my dream anyways.

It will be weird not seeing your posts on here any longer, I felt like you had so much insight to offer for players like me who (still) don't quite grasp the depth of this game. "It's just the tip of the iceberg." Please know that you will always have a home on the Ironman's Bay Area Meta forums and a place to stay if/when you get to visit CA.

Husemann said:

bloodycelt said:

you may not understand, but being in that situation myself, i wish i had stayed out of casual posting on the boards. it is just a good idea.

::edit:: congrats dormouse! good luck (not that you will need it).

As someone who works on Intellectual Property myself (webportals... ex. portal.nursingcas.org)... it can be hard to make sure a comment is not being based on a bias from non public information, (granted in my case breaking such an NDA would throw me in Jail). And since it is known that you work for FFG, you represent them, hence posting on the forums, after working 10 hours and getting crunked (OK thats my life... )... not a good idea.

(Oh and if you check that site out... that was a team effort, most of the front-end work was done by a co-worker who is a wizard when it comes to Javascript and CSS).

Congrats on the new job. I am sure the game will be in good hands with you on board, and off.

JerusalemJones said:

Either way it's win, win!

Good luck Dormouse!

I certainly am hopeful that you and Nate can continue to keep the game going in the right direction.

Congrats on the new gig.

I've been involved in some game design before and it's a lot of fun but can also be very frustrating. Hardwork too, but worth it.

Unfortunately, to this point, my game design stuff has been sort of a "for the love" thing.

As for posting on public forums as a rep of the company:

It's tough to do. The problem you have is there are always going to be those who will have bad things to say about a game. Since it's your work and you probably take it pretty seriously, it is sometimes hard to keep from saying something you'll regret. Not only that but sometimes you have the problem of your personal opinion being made out to be the companies opinion, which can sometimes cause problems. Many times it's easier to stay out of the minefields that we call internet forums.

I had another job as a ratings editor for a high school wrestling magazine and it was a pretty tough job there as well since the editors were sort of expected to take part in forums. You'd get angry coaches,parents and even wrestlers insulting you an your work. It was tough to not blow a gasket and rip them a new one. I managed to do OK with that, so it can be done. No only that, but the AGoT folks are generally pretty cool people. Or at least the ones I've met in person.

It was good playing some AGoT with you last night Dormouse.

You seem to be a bright guy who knows AGoT so I think the game will be in good hands.