Right off the bat. I'll apologize to Ryan. Sorry, man, I got caught up in the moment and brought up some "hidden" information. Not professional, I know.
What have I contributed to the community? I haven't posted a deck idea in more than a year and I haven't wrote an article since last nationals. In the most obvious signs of contribution, I cannot be found. I'm not going to defend myself. I'm not going to make it sound like I am some superior person or patriarch to this game (no pun intended). I'm going to call it like it is.
What I will say is that I give back to the game in my own ways. I post tips in people's threads when they are talking about decks. I just recently judged for the first time at a pre-release, and it was some of the most fun I've ever had. I try to keep the single card discussion forum working and clean of spam on a daily basis. For the past 2 sets (not counting DP), I've written 4 card articles for the official website. I'm always there to give my opinion on something, and to call it how I see it. I've even come up with some good ideas in the past that could better this forum and the game. To say that I contribute nothing to this game would be false. I don't write articles and I don't post deck ideas, but those are just 2 ways to give back to the game. And those other ways deserve just as much recognition as posting deck ideas and articles.
Forget about SD's. Forget about deck lists. All I'd like to see is for the best players in the game to help out the whole. To help give people advice when they post deck ideas. To be there for players when they contact them for help. They don't have to write articles or post deck ideas. It'd be nice if they did though, but they don't. It'd be nice if they gave back in some way.
Jimmy, Ryan, Martin, Chuck, and a few other people have at least given back in some way in the past. Why can't more of the more skilled players give back like they did. Just having their presence in conversations really help out a lot. They can turn a thread leading down the wrong way into a thread headed in the right direction by just a simple person correcting the crowd and explaining why a certain action just won't fly in the competitive scene.
Is it too much to ask to give back? We all started out as nothings in this game. Someone helped us and gave to us to make us better. But the new players of today don't have those mentors like we did. All the best players are locked up within their own forums and rarely even post on this forum. Most don't give advice or help any of deck threads, and usually only show up to belittle someone.
People say, "well, that person can just contact a elite player and they most likely will help them." But what if they don't know who the elite players are? Should they have to contact the player? In all reality, a new player will lose focus and might quit if they aren't guided on the right direction from the start. That is why a lot of people join because they have a friend in the game. They have someone to ask questions and get help from, from the very beginning. But for those who don't have friends, who do they ask for help from? The best players in the game are no where to be seen.
I'll state it again. The "elite" players have the most to give back to the game. They are the ones that think about the game all the time, that put their heads together and come up with the ideas that break the game. They could help endless amounts of people if they gave back in some way. They don't have to give their lists away, or tell the community about secret decks before they show up; but give back in some way. Whether it's posting some encouragement to sad ideas, or getting a discussion back on the right track. They could turn this game upside over night if they all worked together to do it.
Does that mean that only they should give back? No. But I think you'd find that they can give back in much more potent ways than most anyone else. We can try to give back, but it might not help many people. Look at the difference between the person who made a SD posting an article about it and a person who just picked up the deck after it's unveiling and posting an article about it. The person who actually helped make the SD knows so much more about it and can give advice to people so much better on the topic. They can educate others about the idea so much better, and the community gains a lot more from it.
I'm not going to point fingers. That isn't fair either. But I would like to see some of the better players give back to the game more often. Does it have to be anything big? Nah.
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