We have already had a major change in the game like this once. It was when we got character cards.
The card doesn't tell you what click you will get running shot on, but you know you will get it.
The card doesn't tell you what click is a STOP click but you know you will get it.

The cards were a change that many, including myself, didn't care for. But the game survived, and I still have as much fun playing as anyone.

I don't like this change and I guess I won't care for it when the next ordeal is transparent dials or whatever, but I will still be playing.

So chill. It's too late to do anything about it except what VLAD suggests. Learn the New Rule for the new cards.

Not that I necessarily like the dials on the cards, but one of the most common arguements on here comes across rather odd:

"I'm mad that new figures have an advantage old figures don't; I insist that if new figures have something the old figures MUST have it too.

For people who have played the game long enough we have seen a lot of changes, many that I didn't really like myself. But, I understood that most changes only applied to the sets it came out in and forward. Click numbers, new colors to powers, Oreo dials, etc. this is one of those changes. Also note some of the changes did benefit older characters, like updates to RCE and CCE, but not this one.

I believe that it will help new players to know the dials. It leads to the same game play except that the new player can make informed decisions. Knowing that a dial goes from ranged combat to close combat with a push could really help someone out.

But I really want to address the last part of this quote. Why are the dials hidden to begin with? I don't believe that they are.

In the literal sense, all you can see is the open click. But lets apply Occam's Razor from a design point of view. Only one set of numbers is active during the game. Having all of the numbers present would cause confusion. So creating a base that only shows the active combat values is a necessity to the game. The rest of the values have never been hidden from the player. Full dial information is a large part in spoiler season and team building. I have never met a person that played the game without looking at their dials before hand.

Where dials ever hidden in game? No.

In a rule sense, yes, it is illegal to pick up a dial and click ahead to see details. But I believe the spirit of the rule was to prevent a certain style of cheating. This rule was in place before click numbers. Picking up a click and giving it extra life could have been a problem. That or setting the click back down in a different position after "checking" to see what click it was on.

But nothing ever stopped the player from learning the dial information. Not being able to reference a clix is much different than keeping the information hidden.

It's a hell of a sundial.

But what happens to it with regard to daylight saving time?

Does it spring forward and fall back?

you're asking if his "dial" springs forward and falls back.

kinda personal, no?

It wobbles.

Nah man. I'm an open boo-...er, a card with the dial visible on the back.

Occams Razor is a theorum to choose the hypothesis with the least amount of assumptions.

If you really want to apply occams razor here are some of the assumptions WK is making:

• Players dont enjoy the surprise of not knowing what is next on the dial (I personally enjoy the surprise)
• New Players are both aware that their opponents have memorized the dial and that they care.
• Knowing the dial is necessary to have fun playing the game or to be competitive. (I have competed successfully at the highest level of play having remembered only one spot on 1 dial that I wanted to land on).
• New Players need to be competitive to keep playing the game.

On the other hand we have these facts:

• Memorization and using your memory is part of the game with or without dial memorization.
• All else the same, the player who invests the most effort into preparation, planning, and practicing has a competitive edge.
• You still have to remember to use all your optional powers.
• In its current non-translucent state, you cant see through the solid plastic to see the whole dial.
• Boosters are sometimes short cards, which WK makes little effort to remedy.

WK is cherry picking and choosing to draw the line of player effort in a particular place: dial memorization. Occams razor has nothing to do with it, regardless of the number of times they have watched Contact.

That being said the benefit of the dial on only the back of the card is that those willing to adhere to or depart from the WK guidelines can more easily do so in which ever manner makes their game more enjoyable.

Wizkid's very imperfect printing process made that a very welcome change for me anyways, because the power colours can be very inconsistant from set to set and not at all unambiguous.

My post was using Occam's Razor to highlight the presentation of game elements in the dial, and then trying to debunk the myth that the game is trying to hide... well... anything from the player. Your post didnt let me know if you disagreed with that. Didn't really address my stance at all.

On your attempt to use Occam's Razor.

1. Not really an assumption wizkids can make. It is more of an assumption that the game wants to hide things from the player / that there is something to be surprised about.

(Personally I dislike surprises, and did my best to eliminate them from my experience. But that has more to do with the price of potatoes than it does with this game.)

2. It is safe to assume that the longer a player plays, the more familiar they are with the game and its figures. And based on the interviews from the 2015 world tournament where potential players told them why they choose not to play the game, this example is not an assumption. It is a fact.

3-4 kinda go together.
Not an assumption that can be made by this decision. This only enabling players to make informed decisions and lowers the player effort to try the game. The more people that play equals the more people that stay. Not an assumption at all.

There are many types of players out there, and a large portion of them NEED to win to have fun. MTG calls them Spike. So in a sense, yes, it is safe to assume that some new players NEED to be competitive and win to play.

The dark red paragraph. I dont understand where you are going with this. I never used Occam's Razor to describe player effort. I think you tried to, and then proved that it was foolish to do so, but somehow blamed WK for doing so...? Looks real close to a strawman argument, but the indefinite article and the lack of clarity stops me from being certain.

Here is a reference from the patent for the HeroClix dial...

https://www.google.com/patents/US200...eBB54Q6AEIUDAH
Claim #2:

The game piece of claim 1, wherein the self-contained record-keeping device includes a mechanism to limit viewing of the information.

Occams razor cant be used to prove or disprove anything, it only evaluates the relative methodologies of coming to a conclusion not the conclusion itself.

I still believe the alleged sample is too small and restricted to lead to anything other than assumptions about the potential player base. The flaw isnt necessarily the conclusion they came to but rather the assumption that sampling the observations of a few new players with little knowledge of the game can tell WK how to fix the game.

I've said this before when this was announced, and I'll say it again.

This has nothing to do with New Players and memorization, despite what anyone says including WK.

It is about team building. Which I believe WK did say was a part of the motivation.

Where do you go when you want to build a team?

I don't know about you, but I come here. That's what drew me to HCRealms. I wanted to be able to see dials laid out. Not during the game, but to build a team.

I think WK is trying to get rid of the need for 3rd party support. If the dials are on the cards, then you won't have to come here as often.

That's why WK didn't seem to blink to put the dials on the back of the cards when people complained.

This is all a part of a progression that has been happening. There used to be a day when I would come here for "official" rulings. But now we have the WIN (or whatever it was called before the WIN).

Having the dials on the cards isn't going to let me easily find a flying character with Sidestep and TK on the first click.

And there was a time when WK would post official rulings here...not "official" rulings. That stopped when the WES (now WIN) went up, so I'm not quite sure I see your point with that. I suppose that it supports the point of showing WK trying to bring stuff in-house.

I just don't really see how dials on cards does anything to bring the Units in-house.

Thanks for bringing the validation to my original argument using the razor. I stated that the design was to keep limit the vision to only the usable information. This proves it. Nothing in the methodology suggests that surprises were an intended part of the game. I see the open dial as a type of highlighting, allowing me to see what is relevant at the time.

But to assume that the dial intentionally hides information for purposes other than simplifying the game, is just an assumption. That is something I wanted to point out by questioning the purpose of the hidden dial rule. What exactly is the purpose again? To prevent cheating, or to hide information?

I can agree that the evidence WK used was anecdotal, but it is not like the potential player base is a mystery. Gamer profiles have been created and are being used in business practices.

And I dont think it is about fixing a game. The game is not broken, it just lacks appeal. WK wants to make changes to add appeal to the game.

the graphic design of these new cards ... does not appeal to me.

whether or not the dials are on them (which I don't like, and I've only played for about 3 years, so not top tier at all, just don't like it) ...

it's not good graphic design. It's cluttered and clunky.