On Marshaling: A Reply

(I am going to do something very rare here and post a completely OOC article here on my IC space. It is in response to the View article located here. I opted to post it here rather than as a FB comment simply because I find long posts easier to read on a blog vs the comment section. If you wish to reply via the comments section on FB, please feel free to do so.) While I agree with the overall message, this works both ways. Yes, I did see incidents this weekend of people arguing with marshals, making comments about calls, and generally complaining about the marshals in disrespectful ways. Marshals also need to be respectful to the players. There were many times this weekend where I saw a marshal make a call, that could have been correct for all I know, but was voiced in a disrespectful way. I saw a marshal call out critical combat information to an opposing team. I saw a marshal kick someone to get their attention. I saw people asking for rules to be clarified talked down to by a marshal. (I also saw many folks, both marshals and players alike, regard each other respectfully and solve a variety of issues, but that isn't what we are addressing here.)

Being a combat marshal at an event like this is not easy. When you agree to be a marshal, you are essentially entering into a contract that says you must uphold the rules in an unbiased, unemotional, and knowledgeable way. Meanwhile, you will be criticized, yelled at, and generally disliked for the time being. That's part of the job. Does it have to be? In some ways yes. Can marshals be better at understanding and accepting this? Yes. Can we as players be more understanding and patient? Also yes. I could not be a marshal at an event like this. I don't have the thick skin, or the emotional detachment to be completely unbiased and I completely respect and am appreciative of the people who volunteer to take on such a truly awful task. But in volunteering to take it on, you need to realize that people are going to be angry sometimes. You are going to make mistakes. Other people are going to make mistakes. You are going to be disagreed with. And all of this is going to happen while we are dehydrated, sore, and tired.

An event like QoH is hard to organize. Many of the issues at hand this weekend could have been avoided had all of the marshals/staff been on the same page about rules. When rules are explained, players try their best to follow those rules, and then the rules change or are called differently over time it can get very frustrating to those players. Frustrations often lead to griping and unproductive ways of dealing with the problem. Folks on both sides get more frustrated overtime and come up with even less productive ways of dealing with the issues until it gets so out of hand that it seems that there is no productive way of problem solving anymore. The marshals/staff are responsible for the control of the event, and this includes setting the tone for how we deal with issues such as these. Does that put more of the blame on the marshals? Yes. That's what being in charge is, more responsibility and ultimately more of the blame when things don't go perfectly.

To say 'you can't argue with a marshal' is akin to your mother saying 'don't backtalk me'. There are respectful ways of disagreeing with a marshal's call, reporting a marshal's bias, and clarifying rules divergences. The marshals/staff need to make these avenues available and respect the players rights to use them. The players, in turn, need to use them.

'Just have fun' is a problematic term, because fun is different for everyone. You can't tell people that winning isn't important at a competition. Yes, people trying super hard to win can make it unfun for others. But people not trying hard to win can have the same effect. If you want people to stop being competitive, don't make something a competition. Take away the points and awards and lets just stab each other for the fun of stabbing.

None of us are professional sportsball players and/or officials. Let's face it, we're all a bunch of nerds just trying our best to make our game the best it can be. We all have the same goal here, to fix the problems in regards to the marshaling at major combat events/tournaments. In order to do that, we need to recognize that there are issues to be fixed on both sides of the fence. So let's recognize them and work towards a fair, fun, and more respectful experience for everyone.