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Author Topic: How to be good at Dominion  (Read 13364 times)

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Holunder9

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #25 on: March 26, 2018, 04:45:44 pm »
0

Stopped reading there.

Stopped reading there.
Your loss if you confuse work with play. Not that I understand how one could unless one has no job, family or other duties in one's life that are in contrast to a hobby like boardgaming.
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singletee

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #26 on: March 26, 2018, 05:07:47 pm »
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I don't think there is any person who plays Dominion only to be good at it, without also finding it fun. There are millions of things you can choose to become good at. Why not become good at something that you actually enjoy?

You don't enjoy the process of becoming good at something itself? Sure, Dominion is fun. But if your primary goal is to get good at Dominion, your primary goal can't be having fun. Not even once have I looked at a board and asked myself the question "what strategy should I do here in order to have the most fun I can possibly have?".

I have looked at a board and prioritized winning over learning though, thousands of times actually, and that hasn't been great.


I would say my primary goal when playing Dominion is having fun. Getting better is secondary. Luckily for me, the strategies which are most fun and those which cause me to learn the most mainly coincide. Namely, whichever thing is the biggest, wackiest, Developiest engine possible. Though there are exceptions, such as Hermit/MS which I am still bad at despite it being straightforward and likely to be useful.

Seprix

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #27 on: March 26, 2018, 09:45:26 pm »
+1

This is a surefire f.ds cycle starter. A short "article" that has no business being in this section. All true statements though. I would have much rather seen this in a longer article.

Always keep in mind that winning is more important than having fun, and learning is more important than winning (unless it’s an important tournament match, in which case winning takes precedence).

This is of course ignoring the fact that winning is fun, but that's semantics. People complain about this statement, but they must have forgotten they are reading an "article" about How To Get Good At Dominion. Yeah, fun takes a back seat. Getting good takes work.

Quote
If you have an ambitious goal that you want to reach, such as being good at Dominion, you can’t expect to get there by fooling around forever, and you certainly can’t expect to get there by doing the things you already know how to do forever. If you want to get there, you need to be prepared to work hard, and you need to be prepared to fail.

People complain that they suck with Procession, and then they don't play with it.

Quote
In other words, whenever you’re just playing Dominion on the ladder or even unranked games, don’t pick the most fun strategy or the strategy that gives you the best odds of winning, pick the strategy that makes you feel the most uncomfortable. If you can’t do that, you might have to face the harsh reality that you won’t have great hopes of getting good at Dominion.

This might be the only thing I disagree with, and that is only because of the phrase "best odds of winning." Are we talking about best overall odds of winning from a pragmatic perfect play standpoint, or best odds according to each player and his skills? If it is the second, then this is a true statement, although it would make sense to clarify a bit.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2018, 09:48:03 pm by Seprix »
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trivialknot

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #28 on: March 26, 2018, 10:20:44 pm »
+3

Always keep in mind that winning is more important than having fun, and learning is more important than winning (unless it’s an important tournament match, in which case winning takes precedence).
This is of course ignoring the fact that winning is fun, but that's semantics. People complain about this statement, but they must have forgotten they are reading an "article" about How To Get Good At Dominion. Yeah, fun takes a back seat. Getting good takes work.
I mean, if I read an article titled "How to chop an onion", I would not expect the article to adopt the point of view that chopping onions is more important than having fun.  Sure, I'm reading the article because I want to chop an onion, but the rest doesn't follow.
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Seprix

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #29 on: March 26, 2018, 11:48:03 pm »
0

I mean, if I read an article titled "How to chop an onion", I would not expect the article to adopt the point of view that chopping onions is more important than having fun.  Sure, I'm reading the article because I want to chop an onion, but the rest doesn't follow.

Yes it does. You might find throwing the onion around fun. You might find chopping the onion fun. But what you find fun is irrelevant, when it comes to chopping an onion. It just becomes less obvious when you look at a game instead.
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trivialknot

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #30 on: March 27, 2018, 12:11:42 am »
+5

I came up with an absurd example thinking, "there's no way Seprix would agree to something so absurd", but here we are, I've learned something new.  And I'm happy with this, because learning is more important than winning, at least when it comes to arguments about chopping onions.
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Seprix

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #31 on: March 27, 2018, 12:28:11 am »
+1

I came up with an absurd example thinking, "there's no way Seprix would agree to something so absurd", but here we are, I've learned something new.  And I'm happy with this, because learning is more important than winning, at least when it comes to arguments about chopping onions.

I don't understand what you mean. If you want to get good at anything, how much fun is being had isn't important in the slightest. Now, why would someone want to get good at something that isn't fun? Man who knows. It's obviously better if you're having fun, but isn't the end-all to getting good at something. What Awaclus was spearheading was, "hey this Procession stuff is scary and isn't fun" or "I don't like playing anything except Money" and well, you can't listen to that voice if the goal really is getting good. Maybe you're not interested in getting good at Dominion. Okay, this advice isn't for you.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2018, 12:29:30 am by Seprix »
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trivialknot

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #32 on: March 27, 2018, 12:40:13 am »
+1

I don't understand what you mean.
What I meant is I'm dropping the argument, because it feels a bit silly to get into it, and I just don't care.  You can continue the argument with someone else who cares more.
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Awaclus

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #33 on: March 27, 2018, 04:19:25 am »
0

Of course, the strategy blog seems to like publishing very short articles that make only a few points, so it's not surprising that people (including me) try to write articles in that style.

I don't care what the strategy blog seems to like publishing, I write whatever I want to write. Which is the shortest possible thing that delivers the intended message with the right amount of emphasis. I don't think they have published anything by me regardless of its length, which is fine because I think the audience for the blog is more casual than the forums anyway.

This is a surefire f.ds cycle starter. A short "article" that has no business being in this section. All true statements though. I would have much rather seen this in a longer article.

Why would I make a longer article when I can say the same thing in a way that saves the reader a lot more time?

This might be the only thing I disagree with, and that is only because of the phrase "best odds of winning." Are we talking about best overall odds of winning from a pragmatic perfect play standpoint, or best odds according to each player and his skills? If it is the second, then this is a true statement, although it would make sense to clarify a bit.

It's the second thing.
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DG

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #34 on: March 27, 2018, 09:08:44 am »
0

It would be easier to take this article seriously if it wasn't similar to many of your less serious posts.
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Awaclus

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #35 on: March 27, 2018, 09:49:31 am »
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It would be easier to take this article seriously if it wasn't similar to many of your less serious posts.

Such as?
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Donald X.

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #36 on: March 27, 2018, 03:57:09 pm »
+6

Why would I make a longer article when I can say the same thing in a way that saves the reader a lot more time?
In fact, those of you who frequent the front page may have noticed that most recent articles have been very short. I think Adam is the one behind that; specifically wanting to just say the most relevant things and be done. I don't think a short article best handles all topics, but certainly there are only a few important points for some of these cards. It would be nice to have a few longer articles too and then poll people about what they prefer.
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faust

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #37 on: March 30, 2018, 02:02:48 am »
0

This is a surefire f.ds cycle starter. A short "article" that has no business being in this section. All true statements though. I would have much rather seen this in a longer article.

Why would I make a longer article when I can say the same thing in a way that saves the reader a lot more time?
In the end it's the reader's decision. Some reader might think they don't want to spend a lot of time reading when the main point can be delivered in a shorter form. That is why an article should contain a summary of its most important statements at the beginning. Other readers might want to go into detail. That is why you then expand and explain why these statements are correct. That's just how an article works from a journalistic point of view.
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Awaclus

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #38 on: March 30, 2018, 02:37:13 am »
0

This is a surefire f.ds cycle starter. A short "article" that has no business being in this section. All true statements though. I would have much rather seen this in a longer article.

Why would I make a longer article when I can say the same thing in a way that saves the reader a lot more time?
In the end it's the reader's decision. Some reader might think they don't want to spend a lot of time reading when the main point can be delivered in a shorter form. That is why an article should contain a summary of its most important statements at the beginning. Other readers might want to go into detail. That is why you then expand and explain why these statements are correct. That's just how an article works from a journalistic point of view.

Not the main point, the entire point. There's literally nothing more I want to say than what's already in the article.
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buckets

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #39 on: November 17, 2018, 11:45:22 am »
0

Always keep in mind that winning is more important than having fun, and learning is more important than winning (unless it’s an important tournament match, in which case winning takes precedence). If you have an ambitious goal that you want to reach, such as being good at Dominion, you can’t expect to get there by fooling around forever, and you certainly can’t expect to get there by doing the things you already know how to do forever. If you want to get there, you need to be prepared to work hard, and you need to be prepared to fail.

In other words, whenever you’re just playing Dominion on the ladder or even unranked games, don’t pick the most fun strategy or the strategy that gives you the best odds of winning, pick the strategy that makes you feel the most uncomfortable. If you can’t do that, you might have to face the harsh reality that you won’t have great hopes of getting good at Dominion.

good life advice right here imo
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Splee

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Re: How to be good at Dominion
« Reply #40 on: December 16, 2018, 10:46:50 pm »
0

Two other articles might be relevant:

1/ "Playing to Win" by David Sirlin, which is about how to think about winning when that's what you really care about

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/

2/ MaRo's article on the Timmy / Johnny / Spike player profiles, because it's the "Spike" type that really cares about winning

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/timmy-johnny-and-spike-2013-12-03

These links are pretty mainstream, people might have read them both already. But people who want to win need to read (1), and people who want to tell other people how to play games should probably read (2).
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