>From Eric Hilleman's Post: Kevin also writes: "Is it absolutely necessary to eliminate anything that may have come up at another tournament this year?" If anyone really thinks we in fact do this--wow. I did not mean to insinuate that you look over every tournament and expunge whatever has come up. That would be asinine, and I do not think that y'all are asinine; I greatly resect your collective efforts to put on great tournaments and create something of a centralized body to further the game. What I did mean is that, in favor of questions on computer games, you seem to have done away with questions on widely known academic subjects. I mean, I'm all for difficult questions, especially at a tournament like this, but that doesn't mean no works anyone may have read or studied should come up. Or that Das Faustbuch makes a good toss-up. I don't have the questions in front of me, so forgive me if I fail to remember perfectly. Hopefully the idea is clear at this point. >From Guy's Post: Most people who think like this prefer ACF. They are annoyed that everyone has pretty much equal-access to the so-called "tooth-brushing" question, and that in fact, people who are more in the real world, and not secluded behind closed-doors with lists of elements and plot-synopses, are actually MORE likely to do well on such questions. Well, the idea that Lord British is somehow a constituent of the Real World is a bit odd to me, but I'll accept that. There is, however, a group of players who, not planning on playing long enough to hear every possible and become quite a mediocre competitor, do look things up and write questions on them. And some of us even learn in class, which, though not the real world, holds more weight for me than what I may or may not gather from watching The View. Now, I have nothing against trash, fluff, or tooth-brushing questions. Except I think that history and current events are both stupid. At any rate, when I want to compete on such questions, I play bar trivia, on-line games, or, as last year, go to TrashMasters, get my ass kicked, and enjoy myself. When I go to a 40+ collegiate team tournament, with a qualification process, teams from both coasts and other countries, and who knows how expensive a fee, I would prefer to play on what could be characterized as an academic tournament. Does this mean I want to abridge others' rights to play trash? Of course not. Do I mean that players should be limited to a certain number of years, or that everyone should work as hard as the Georgia Tech players of old did? No. There is plenty of room for everyone to play, learn, enjoy, and fraternize. Which is another thing I really like about NAQT. I just wish I didn't have to embarass myself by getting a Dr. Laura question against a team from England, as happenned last year. Final question: Is it my place to tell NAQT how to run their program? Maybe, maybe not. But it's good to know they listen and respond. Final gripe: I can't believe no one else expressed dislike for the ten letter word crap. Kevin Crawford
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