V1.0; Last Edit: 30th July 2025;
Introduction
Welcome back to Rules Processing. This time I have something a little different for you. Today, we’re going to discuss my new Discord server, and the accompanying test.
The goal of this new Rules Processing server is to create a place for people to become better prepared and informed of the rules (both Comp and Floor), with a specific focus on making people better judges, regardless of whether you want to be prepared to start judging official FFTCG events, or have already started judging official FFTCG events. Continuous improvement is a cornerstone of judging, and so my aim is to create a place that can benefit you no matter your judge experience level.
Now, with that said, let me be clear that this is the ultimate goal of the server. It is not something that realistically can just happen on day 1, it’s something that takes time, it’s something that requires getting people in, gathering feedback, and creating and evolving something with people. It would be rather stupid and/or arrogant of me to sit here and tell you I could make something like that happen immediately, or that I can do it alone. Nah. We’re starting slow, and we’ll adjust and figure some things out as we go. However, don’t think that I’m starting from zero either. Oh no, I have already discussed and gathered feedback from some trusted people regarding some of this, and I’ve taken that, along with my own knowledge and experience, to create a foundation to build off, and you can be assured that I will continue to collaborate on this with others I trust and those that prove themselves to help make things even better – on top of taking general feedback from as many people where possible.
Before we dive into the finer details, there are a couple of things I need to note. Firstly, this server is not a “judge program.” I am taking elements you would see from a judge program and utilising them for the server, yes, because I believe that approach will help create a better place for building better judges. You might even say “well if you’re building better judges, isn’t that a judge program?” No. I’d argue you can’t have a judge program unless it’s officially recognised in some way. And, spoilers, there is no official judge program (I’ll talk more about that later). Being in this server doesn’t give you a badge of officiality or authority in any recognised official way. Don’t expect Square Enix to recruit judges directly from it or anything. So, you’re not going to become an official FFTCG judge by being in the server, and outside of official events, no one is truly an official FFTCG judge at the moment, and if it’s not official, well then you’re just impersonating, like wearing the skinsuit of an official judge and the currently dead official program, which is at best weird, at worst horrific. The server is simply focused on helping people improve in regards to judging and the rules, not on giving people fake badges, so, please don’t come expecting or pretending otherwise.
Secondly, as part of emulating a judge server-like environment, it is not a public server. It is not a place for people to just come ask rules questions (you can do that in the Global Discord server instead). In order to get in, like you’d find as a bar for any actual official judge server, you’re going to need to pass a test.
So, if all of this sounds like the kind of thing you’d be interested in, keep reading to learn more. If it doesn’t, well, make your own choices on how to proceed, but I’d at least recommend reading about/checking out my new document a bit further down.
Provisional Test
The Provisional Test acts as both the bar to gain entry to the Rules Processing server, and to achieve the first Processor tier – the Provisional Processor. As such, before we get more into the server details, it makes sense to first focus on the test.
The current version of the test (at the time of writing) I am treating as a “beta” launch. Prior to this public launch of the test, I had an “alpha” launch for a couple select groups of trusted people. This first trial of the test helped me to gather some early feedback from the people who took it, as well as to review the data on which questions people were getting right and wrong. After taking stock of everything, I decided that I’d make some smaller changes to the test and have the initial public launch act as a way to gather a larger pool of data and feedback. I will then take this and create a new version of the test that will act as the official “1.0” launch.
The beta test will run from now until the 5th of September. After this, responses to the test will be paused as I update and change the test accordingly. I’m not putting a specific date on the actual official “1.0” launch because that entirely depends on to what degree I feel I need to adjust the test.
In terms of this beta version of the test, there are 21 questions, and you need to get 16 questions correct to pass.
The alpha version of the test featured 20 questions, and I am currently planning to stick to 20 questions for the 1.0 version and all subsequent versions. So, why does the beta version have 21 questions you might wonder. And even if you don’t wonder, it doesn’t matter, because I’m going to tell you. The reason is that I replaced the 20th question in the test for the beta version, after deciding the original question 20 in the alpha version wasn’t really doing what I wanted and was just too convoluted. I’m much happier with the question 20 I’ve ended up with now. However, I decided that, rather than just removing the original question 20 and never letting it see the light of day, why not give people a chance to see it and try it, without any real penalty? If you get it wrong, it doesn’t matter, there are still 20 other questions as standard for you to try and get right. If you get it right? Well, honestly, I’d be surprised if most people who can get it right didn’t otherwise pass the test, but hey, maybe you got 15 out of the first 20 and this puts you over the top. Unlikely, but something something ain’t I just the nicest person to give more opportunity to pass? Yes. Nicest Person Yoh 2025.
Now, one thing I believe that came out of the alpha test is that the “difficulty” level of the test might be tuned a little bit higher than I’d like. I could talk about how I believe it’s actually tuned in line with similar judge program tests and that it’s actually FFTCG’s terrible rules distribution that has caused the general level of knowledge to be lower, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll tell you that I expect a very high percentage of failure for this beta test. Which is another reason it’s not the true launch. However, I believe there is value in getting a larger number of people to take the test, because it will create much clearer patterns on where those issues are. Make no mistake though, my aim with the 1.0 version is not to simply “dumb” the test down and make it some trivial formality. My aim is to try to find a sweet spot that still sets a specific bar of rules knowledge/effort for FFTCG specifically.
As far as failing the test goes, I should probably note that this isn’t an infinite retries test. You get one try at the beta test. If you took part in the alpha test and failed, you’ll find you can now try again with the beta test. Once the beta test period ends, anyone who fails will be able to attempt the 1.0 test, and from then on you can try to pass the test once per month. These reset attempts will coincide with any updates to the test, so if submissions for the test are closed, just know it’s because I’m working on any changes and/or resetting people.
Before we move on from the test, I think it’s important I address something that I knew going into when I was making the test, and thus unsurprising was part of why people in the alpha test got certain questions wrong, and will likely remain true going into the beta test, and beyond. That is, FFTCG’s rules are a scattered mess, and the places people can go to improve their rules knowledge to get to a point where they can pass the test are extremely limited. It wasn’t really surprising to me to see people failing straightforward questions during the alpha test because the easily available information on them (as in, the official rulebook) is either wrong or misleading (not to mention things that aren’t even covered in the rulebook at all). This is something I’ve complained about ad nauseam, and will continue to for as long as this all remains true.
When creating the test, I had two options. Accept this fact, and make a test that is very limited in scope, that any and all questions can be answered by reading the rulebook or FAQ. Or, focus on a more complete scope of the rules, knowing not everyone is going to be able to access the Twitter rules. I opted for the latter, let me explain why.
For me, to fundamentally limit the test, is to fundamentally take away a part of the entire point: improving people’s knowledge of the rules. When people take a judge test in a card game, it’s generally designed to ensure you meet a specific bar of knowledge. If you meet that bar great, you get to be a judge, and you get to join the official judge server for that game (if they have one). These official judge servers exist, not to be public, but to be places for judges to thrive and help foster a good environment for discussing the rules and improving everyone’s rules knowledge (at least ideally in concept). As I said, my server is not a “judge” server, but it does borrow parts because these are proven and effective. I’m not creating a public server because it’s not just some place for people to come ask rules questions (if you want to just go ask rules questions, well, I already told you where to go, and if you’ve forgotten, read on as I’ll mention it again later).
If you don’t pass, then you’ll know your knowledge still needs to improve and can focus on furthering your knowledge, especially as, whether you pass or fail, I’ll tell you the areas you got wrong (not the specific questions) so you know what you need to focus on!
With that in mind, it does still leave the issue of accessing information and getting to the “bar” of knowledge required, right? Because in other games, generally their rules documents (and FAQ) cover all you need to know. In FFTCG, the rulebook can mislead you. The FAQ can mislead you. Hell, even Twitter can mislead you if you happen to find an old ruling that actually has been corrected/changed. Or maybe you find the corrected/changed ruling but actually that ruling was Domi Reversi’d and the old ruling is the right ruling. I could go on. The point is, it’s a fucking minefield.
So, I guess the real question is, how can I account for this issue? Because, my aim isn’t just to create some echo chamber server filled with a few people. Well, in some ways, this is where the beta test trial period comes in, because it will help me tune the test to a certain degree. As I mentioned, the goal is not to make the test “easier,” as much as it is to look at the question areas, wording, answers, etc. and create something that better hits the right points. But, it’s not just about tuning the test. No, that’s not how I think people are going to “get there” in terms of passing. You see, for me, getting into the server is my version of saying “you are at least at the minimum level of knowledge I think a judge should have.” As such, to me, I want to enable people prior to joining the server, so that if people truly want to improve their knowledge, that people can do that on their way to joining the server. Like you would if you wanted to become a judge in any card game really. So, if the official resources aren’t doing it, that’s where I’m going to put my focus on the community resources. These will be the difference makers, and this is the first part in the process I’ve undertaken with the server, the “pre-server” aspect. With this, I’m focusing on raising awareness of existing community resources from myself and others, as well as focusing on creating new resources that can help benefit the goal of raising awareness and knowledge, and ideally the server will help in furthering this goal, raising the bar of knowledge of those within it further, so that more people can help benefit and improve public resources so more people are able to pass the test and join the server.
As part of my pre-server focus, I’ve created a brand new rules-centric document, something that provides both information on rules, and points to resources to help improve knowledge, and I’ll go over that in some more detail further in this article.
Let me now also just take the time to highlight some other good community resources to help improve your rules knowledge:
- Materia Hunter. Materia Hunter has a rules area, including information on the phases, and a searchable version of the official FAQ. There will also be more rules resources to come down the line.
- The Global Discord. Did I mention it’s the best (not counting HJ’s Twitter) place to ask rules questions? Because it is. It’s a great place to raise your rules knowledge. So, if you’re not there, come along, and get asking questions!
- Judge Jared. Jared puts out a Rules Round-Up most Fridays, as well as other videos focusing on specific topics from time-to-time. So, you’ll have a good amount of variety to the knowledge you can gain from them.
- Rules Processing. Some idiot that releases one article every ten years. Since HJ changes the rules every month, they are mostly outdated. But some of them are still alright. I guess. 6/10.
Before we move on, let me just add that you’ll find basically all the information regarding the test is within the test itself. Just in case anyone for some reason jumps in without reading this article, I figured I’d better make sure I cover my bases. Within this information is also a list of all areas covered in the test (as you can imagine, as the test changes, so will the list). Not only does that make plain the “bar” of knowledge, but it also should help in terms of using resources to seek the knowledge you need. Just don’t go asking for answers to the actual questions in the test. If I find out you’ve done that, your test submission will be void and you’ll be barred from taking the test for a length of time (and if you’re in the server by this point, well, you’ll no longer be : ] ). Plus, as I mentioned, I’ll also DM you a list of areas you got wrong, regardless of if you pass or fail the test, you’ll know the areas you need to focus on improving going forward. So, even if you don’t think you’re good enough to pass right now, why not take the test so you can better understand the areas you need to focus on (related to the current test anyway)?
Tiers & Additional Testing
The server will have three “Processor” tiers:
- Provisional
- Basic
- Advanced
The Provisional test required to get into the test naturally grants you the Provisional Processor tier along with access to the server. As part of taking the view of “building” judge knowledge, I opted to exclude “Floor Rules” knowledge from the requirements for this first tier. For me, Floor Rules knowledge is something you build as part of actually judging, and in my experience, being able to understand, say, the mechanics of how auto-abilities works is not the same as learning to regurgitate the default penalty for a given scenario. Besides this, FFTCG has by far the most lacking Floor Rules document I’ve ever seen. It is effectively a pamphlet compared to most other card games. And as such, you will often see me refer to it as the Floor Rules Pamphlet. At this point it’s not even a joke, it’s just an accurate description I use to set expectations.
On top of this, having experienced judges you can learn from at events you’re judging at can be fairly few and far between in this game. So, opportunities to improve this area can be overall fairly thin, and as such, it’s something I’d rather put a larger focus on improving after people get into the server.
Of course, for the second and third tiers, the Basic and Advanced, respectively, there will be Floor Rules questions. These tiers are also not something people can immediately test for. For the Basic test, you’ll need to have been in the server for at least a month. For the Advanced test, you’ll need to wait at least 3 months after passing the Basic test. While I’m not fully ready to talk about the details of these tests yet, I am aiming to launch the Basic test in late September or early October, with the Advanced test near the end of the year. Essentially, they’ll be ready roughly around the earliest time people taking the beta test could take them anyway. I will also mention that these tests will be administered via Discord voice chat, with a timeslot booked based on discussion between the testee and test administrator (which will almost certainly be me for at least the first little while), and this will include “interview” aspects.
Additional Roles
Besides the Processor tier roles (and my Rules Processing role if you want to be technical), there are two additional roles in the Discord, and I figure it’s worth just briefly going over them.
Firstly, is the mod role, the Assistant Processor. Naturally, like any server, there is a need to maintain order and make sure people are following the rules of the server. At present, there is only one mod (the hockey jersey wearing, Rules Round-Uper himself, Jared), but as the server (hopefully) grows I will appoint more. Please don’t come asking me to become a mod though, unless I know and trust you well.
The other role is the Trusted Processor. This is a temporary role, given to those I trust (hence the name) to provide solid rules answers, both in the realm of Comp and Floor rules. At present, these are also the only people that can answer questions in the Floor Rules forum area of the server. While there are of course rules around all rules answers given in the Discord, to ensure good quality, as I mentioned earlier, Floor Rules knowledge will be an important focus, and I want to ensure at least to begin with that those who I trust are leading the charge on answering.
I expect this role to eventually be retired if we get to a point where we have enough Advanced Processors to do so.
Please also note that no one gets into the server at present without passing the test (you might think I’m the exception to that rule, but I’ll have you know I had to make sure the test worked correctly, so I’ve passed it multiple times, actually. So take that, funny person). As such, I have not and will not be bringing people in to fill these roles, rather these roles will only be filled based on eligible people getting into the Discord by passing the test, and in the case of the Assistant Processor, accepting the role.
Code of Conduct
As part of ensuring the server creates the correct environment for fostering better judges, there of course has to be a focus on how people act within the server. To achieve this, the server enforces a specific code of conduct. I won’t bother listing it all here, but to give a brief insight into it, it includes the normal sort of server rules you’d see on Discord (like don’t be a racist, etc.), combined with a set of guidelines for how people should approach asking and answering questions, and otherwise discussing the rules. This should go a long way to create a “judge server”-like feel (without it actually being a judge server), which should help with getting people adjusted to a judging mindset and approach. For those who are familiar with my approach to curating how people answer rules questions in the Global FFTCG Discord server, you can expect this same approach applied more broadly as the cornerstone of the code of conduct and how I expect people to act (there is of course a general chat though, where you can be more loose and have more casual non-rules conversations).
Town Halls/Workshops
As I started formulating the plan for the server, one of the things that kept popping into my head was having some form of “get together” where I – and eventually others I trust – can go over various topics (mostly around aspects of judging) and give a sort of workshop. I also considered the idea of a more open “town hall” where people can ask more general questions. I initially considered using the Stage feature of Discord for this with a view to record them and make them publicly available/referencable later. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised that perhaps a more “open” approach would be better. While I can always explore in-server town halls later, I certainly think avoiding gatekeeping the workshops at all is better. As such, I’ve decided that any workshops I do will be streamed on YouTube. I’ve opted for YouTube because it means the VoD is saved forever, and saves me any hassle there.
And you won’t have long to wait for the first workshop, it’ll take place on the 5th September, and it’ll be centered around the beta version of the test. I’ll go over the test questions and topics, providing more information on the knowledge required to pass (do not expect me to explicitly tell you any answers though, except for maybe question 21). I will likely also talk about my approach to creating the test, go over some relevant stats and maybe I’ll talk about the 1.0 version of the test too. Be warned though, unlike these articles where I can do rewrites to remove a lot of the insane ramblings and tangents (I said a lot, not all – and I want you to know I had an early draft of this that included a great running joke about zombies that went nowhere and I’m still not sure if it was better with or without it…), as well as tone down any venom about the state of the rules, in livestream form I’ll be unscripted, and untethered. Unhinged even. I’ll provide a link/more information about the workshop livestream nearer the time, should you wish to come along and watch, maybe even ask a question or two, because I will answer questions throughout as well, I forgot to mention that until now. Whatever. Moving on!
Document
As I alluded to earlier, I have created a new document. The FFTCG Rules Compendium. I’ve been wanting to make something like this for a while, but it was clear to me when figuring out how to handle rules material in the server (and Global), that simply having channels and having mountains of links or images would not be feasible. Even worse if I made it some open channel people could throw things in willy-nilly with no order and potentially freely start having conversations. What a terrible idea that would be.
Instead, this document acts as a more streamlined approach. It collects together various Comp Rules and Floor Rules material (and you can find information on what I mean when I keep using those terms in the document too, how neat), both official and unofficial, as well as taking various tweets that you should know that impact/change the official documentation. Anyway, it’s very much in the early stages (although there is still plenty there to start with), so expect it to grow as time goes on, and you can contact me on Discord should you have any (reasonable) suggestions for what you want to see added to it.
Future View
When it comes to the server, as I mentioned, my approach is to take it slow. Not only does this help me not take on more than I can manage, it also allows me to take time to see how the server goes at this stage. If in a few months time there aren’t very many people in it, I may need to ask myself if it’s the test, a lack of interest, or both, then figure things out. If instead there’s a decent amount of people, and plenty still working on getting in, then I can look at the interactions, the engagement, the feedback, and adapt from there. As such, it’s hard for me to sit here and say too much about the future of the server. But I can definitely say that there is a need for more when it comes to FFTCG judging. While I’d love that to be an official program (done right) – more on that in two seconds – in the meantime, it’s unfortunately down to the community. This is why my aim with this is to be collaborative. While I’m in the driver seat right now, and the collaborative elements have been more in the form of input, my hope is to eventually have something less like I’m going solo in an F1 car, occasionally taking a pit stop to get others to change the tires in 1.77 seconds, and more like I’m one of many piloting a Megazord, like in Power Rangers. Actually, how does that even work? Do they each control a limb? Some seasons have A LOT of Rangers, so does someone just get like an ear? Or is there still only one “main” set of controls and the others are like when someone gives their sibling a disconnected controller to pretend they are playing along? Maybe they all control it. One of the powers they gain. Psychically linked, perfectly synced Megazord driving. Anyway, you get the point. If you don’t, watch this. You see, first they had the Megazord and the Dragonzord. Then that wasn’t enough, so they made the Mega Dragonzord. Then that wasn’t enough, so they went a step even further and formed the Dino Ultrazord. That could be the future, the server could be an Ultrazord. Do you wanna form an Ultrazord with me 👉👈?
Official Judge Program
There isn’t an official judge program. End of section.
Bazzooka I fooled you. Instead of talking about something that doesn’t exist, I figured I’d spend some time talking about what I’d like to see from an official judge program, as well as discuss the issues that existed with the previous official program to some degree.
You may be unsurprised to find that part of the model of the judge program I’d like to see is very much in the realm of how I’ve designed my server. Starting with a proper entry test. Unlike the previous official judge program, let’s actually update the test regularly as well, yeah? For those that don’t know, the original official judge program test was mostly Opus 1 questions with a sprinkle of Opus 2, and throughout its existence was updated a total of zero times.
The test also needs to be more accessible in a consistent way. While I believe North America would provide the test at official events, in Europe it was basically knowing someone who was able to put a word in for you, then you’d be emailed the test. At least that was my experience. We’ll not get into the six month or so way I had to find out my results, not that I had any doubt I passed…
I think an initial test via Google Forms is perfectly fine. Especially now that most events outside of the continental events are store run and have no Square Enix staff presence, trying to provide them at events wouldn’t really make sense, at least to begin with.
I’m also a big believer in having different judge levels. While you can certainly do more than 3, I think 3 is a good starting point to build from. You have an entry/provisional level, sometimes referred to as “level 0”, then a first level that’s sort of indicative of those who are qualified to do floor judging well, and then a second level which is where you have those qualified and trusted to be defacto head judges sit. Beyond that, once the program exists for a while and has a decent chunk of qualified people, you can potentially bring in an additional level to recognise people who are sort of the more experienced judge experts within a region. Of course, each of these levels has their own requirements to be able to gain them, usually a certain amount of events judged, and additional testing with interview elements.
One thing I believe is a must beyond some other things is an expiry date on judge certification. This is something I think was a huge miss with the previous program. It’s something I will likely explore with my server eventually, if it gets to a good place, but we’ll get there when we get there. But for an official program? Absolutely needed. I mean, do you really want someone to stop playing the game, and then come back after years and still be a “qualified” judge even if they could barely remember anything? Here’s the thing, I’ve literally seen that happen, and it’s stupid.
Once upon a time when I mentioned this concept on Facebook, while most people supported the idea of expiry, I did get pushback from at least one person, who believed that the “time” people put into helping judge locals and events should count for something, and it wouldn’t be fair to just remove certification when people can be working hard to support the game and their community(s). Well, uh, cool and all but I don’t personally think that’s a valid argument. The work you put into judging is what helps build that experience and trust to be qualified to start moving up levels, but it shouldn’t guarantee you a spot just because. Any judge worth their salt should be capable of proving themselves by passing tests/interviews, and should have no problem doing so every couple of years. Frankly, I’d be suspicious of anyone who takes issue with meeting this bar because part of judging should be continuous improvement, and testing yourself should be part of that. I certainly integrate regularly testing myself in various ways as part of my process for keeping my knowledge sharp, and so should you.
Of course an official program needs a Discord server. Now, fun fact, the former official program’s server is actually still live (and everyone is still there, marked as a judge…). So, I guess they already have a server ready to go. I just hope they either remove the role from everyone, or better yet, kick everyone out, should they decide to kickstart a new official program. As to if they will, well, that depends who you talk to. My hope is the Square Enix person(s) that wants to make a new one wins out. And hey, if you are that person(s), or maybe someone else with the power to make it happen, but maybe you want a little help and guidance, well, I happen to know someone whose DMs are open and knows a thing or two about a judge thing or two. It’s me. The person is me. I will help, please contact me, come on, you know you want to. Let’s make it happen.
The last thing I’d like to talk about regarding an official program, is judge compensation. Now, despite not having an official program, there is of course still compensation for those who judge official events. Although, at higher level continental events, it does vary a bit between regions. For example, in NA for Nats, you can get paid or have your hotel covered for 3 nights, whereas in Europe for Euros, you get boxes per day. Personally, I’d rather have my hotel covered, not gonna lie. At Local Qualifiers and Materia Cup, judge compensation is included as part of the material the store gets, although I must admit to being a bit surprised to learn that the Materia Cup material only provides judge support for two judges, at least in Europe (not sure if it’s the same everywhere). I can assure you the four judges we have for the Glasgow Materia Cup on September 6th and 7th are going to have fun trying to split that. Or I am because I’m probably going to have to figure it out. Also that wasn’t meant to be a plug but it became one anyway.
I could sit here and go through how existing compensation compares to other games and whether I think it’s fair or not, but instead I’d like to talk about something else: items specifically for judges. More than anything else, I’d like to see some stuff that’s actually made for judges. I’m talking about judge playmats, judge promos, judge crystal cards, judge freeze tokens. Whatever it is, just slap the word judge on it and we’re good to go! Okay maybe not.
I do think playmats and promos are reasonable though, and when it comes to promos, I of course just mean existing cards made into judge promos, not new cards. Although using alternative artwork for judge promos would be amazing, I doubt it’ll ever happen. We’re dwelling far into the copium here. What I do think is more feasible is exclusive playmat art. Realistically if you’re getting judge-branded mats made, you’re getting a new printrun of mats to do that, so why use the same art? Get something new. In fact, I think I’ll throw out some ideas. You could have, say, the Type-0 Cadet character Queen on it, or all the Cadets together on the mat (including Queen), or maybe not all the Cadets but a group photo of some of them (including Queen). Or, I guess… we can settle for an Ace mat. I mean this game loves to print Ace, so why should I be surprised if that’s the exclusive judge playmat.
What’s more, this is something that Square Enix can make happen regardless of an official program. So, come on, make it happen.
Recap Rundown
I’ve covered more or less everything I need to regarding the server now, and as I end out the article, I figure I’d just go back over a a quick summary of the relevant thing. So, to recap:
- I made a server. Woo.
- The server is an evolving process, has already gotten input from some trusted people, and will continue to take feedback and adjust to try and make the best place possible for improving rules knowledge and building better judges.
- You need to pass this test to get in. The current version is the “beta” test phase. It will close 5th September and the 1.0 version will launch as soon as possible after.
- I made a document to try and keep a central place for various rules material and relevant information.
- I highly recommend joining the Global FFTCG Discord server if you want the best community-run place for asking questions (I’d argue it’s only second to asking HobbyJapan directly on Twitter).
- I will be hosting a livestream “workshop” on September 5th to go over the current version of the test and all the topic areas, providing insight and information, and will be taking questions throughout. You can expect more workshops in the future.
- There isn’t an official judge program (and the server isn’t one), but there should be (and my DMs are open if they want any help making it happen!).
Thanks for reading! See you next time.
Resources
- FFTCG Rules Compendium
- Global Discord Server
- Rules Processing Articles
- Rules Processing Material Folder
- Rules Processing Provisional Test
To report any errors, or provide feedback,, please contact YohCeezaX on Discord.
“Urggghhh. Raaawwrr. Brraaaains.”
– Zombies, Coming For You (This Joke Made More Sense in Earlier Drafts)
El. Psy. Kongroo
– Yoh Zoey Ceeza
Hidden Zone
Huh? What’s this? How are you viewing my Hidden Zone. That’s private, you know. Fine. Welcome to Hidden Zone, my new after-article section where I cover various shit irrelevant to the article at hand. While not every article going forward will have one of these, today’s Hidden Zone covers something that was nearly a part of the article as a sort of double feature: the future of Rules Processing.
Ooooh how exciting. I guess. You see, it’s been a while since my last article, and as such, I’ve had a lot of time to think. I’ve written a lot of notes and ideas down. I’ve gone back and forth on what I want to do with these articles. Do I want to mix it up, do other mediums, etc. So, I figured I’d spent some time talking about the decisions I’ve made and the changes I’ll be bringing in. I mean, if you’re this far into the article, you’ve already seen some of them in action. Most obviously, the fact you’re reading a new post-article section. But anyway, let’s get into it.
The Numbers Mason, What Do They Mean?!
Right from the title of this article there’s a pretty immediate change: no more numbering. Yes, I’ve gone the way of the Opus series and removed numbering from my articles. And in this case you’re not going to find a number at the bottom of the article like you would an FFTCG card! This is a decision that was fairly easy to make, and something I decided on not too long after my last article. Numbering my articles really is an artifact of my pre-FFTCG articles (how many of you knew Rules Processing existed prior to FFTCG?) and the longer I’ve gone on doing articles the more it’s felt utterly pointless, because it really is. Does it matter that an article on priority is the fifth or 400th article? Not really. So, yeah, numbers, gone.
Rules Cornerned
I have previously maintained two article naming schemes. Rules Processing for the generally “meatier” articles covering parts of the rules like the stack, and Rules Corner for smaller articles, answering questions or focusing on a single card. Fun fact, I actually had a third title for another type of article focus at one point. I no longer remember what that name was but I had decided on it and then sometime later yeeted it, once I decided I didn’t want to split my article naming up further. Now, I’ve decided I don’t want to split them up at all. Rules Corner is dead. Long live Rules Corner. Going forward everything I do will be done under the Rules Processing banner. Although, I will likely explicitly add “judging” or something identifying to articles focusing on topics related to judging. Just so those are clearly labeled, as they could get mixed up with other miscellaneous topics I might cover in the future. In case you’re wondering, I don’t count this as a “judging” article, this is more a miscellaneous article.
Streamlining The Article
When it comes to the articles themselves, I’ve had all sorts of thoughts about them. At one point, I actually considered completely removing any random jibber jabber and making them purely about delivering facts. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised it would just make for some pretty dry reading. I’m sure not everyone loves all my random banter, but I think it’s better than just stripping especially my personality out of the articles. Maybe some people will disagree but fuck you, I’m writing them, I’mma be present in the words of them too!
With that said, one thing I have grown to dislike as time has gone on is some of my more “timed” patter and unrelated banter. As in, stuff that lives in a specific period of time, and is effectively very unrelated to the actual article. Most of that tended to happen in the intros or outros, and ultimately I do feel those take away from the article. If you’re going back to an article, do you really need to read about my journey to getting my judge test results? I mean, it’s a fun trip, but it’s not really useful for re-reading. Which, of course, is why I decided to create this “Hidden Zone” section. It allows me to talk about things after the article is “done”, and it’s easily skipped if you need to come back to re-read or reference etc. So, if there is some rambling I want to do, maybe to talk about an event I just judged, or whatever takes my fancy, well, it’s not taking away from the article. Fear not, there will always be random patter and tangents in my articles, such as the fantastic Power Rangers stuff in this article, but what I don’t want is stuff that dates it, or takes up paragraphs of the article. Maybe I’ll eventually do a heel turn on the Power Rangers-type banter, but for now it tickles me, so it stays.
One other thing I’ve done to help with streamlining is add a table of contents. When I did my pre-FFTCG articles I always included a table of contents. However, I opted not to bother for my FFTCG content because it always sat at the top of the article, and if you’re having to scroll back up constantly to use it, surely it’s just as easy to scroll the article anyway? As time has gone on though, I’ve realised that even just being static at the top, they do add value if you are revisiting and/or just want to skip to a specific part. But what really interested me was exploring having a table of contents that floated to the side as you read the article. Which is what I’ve now done. It’s not perfect, due to some restrictions on what I can do on WordPress, but it’s functional (and I’ve had others test to make sure of it). On mobile or smaller screens, it will default to just being at the top, but on most monitor screens it should stay at the side, making it easy to jump around.
If I’m going to do a table of contents, well, it makes sense to also focus on a couple other aspects: the article structure and headings. In the past I’ve just sort of done what felt right for an article when it comes to the structure, and the headings were sometimes just complete nonsense. Certainly in my first article I went off the deep-end with nonsense heading. However, I’ve now created a structure that can be applied to all my articles. While not every part of the structure fits every article – for example, I cut the “Q&A” part from this article because I didn’t really feel it was needed – most articles will be able to utilise it fully, especially those focused on rules topics. And of course, this new structure will follow a set pattern with titles. Combined this should hopefully make for a consistent experience, and make using the table of contents to navigate straightforward. (You might be thinking the headings for the Hidden Zone stuff reads like nonsense after I said I wouldn’t do that, but that’s because I will only include “Hidden Zone” in the table of contents, not any of the other headings, so I can have a bit of fun here and not clog up the headings list in the table of contents, since this stuff is all just off-topic anyway.
The last thing I’ve done is add a version and last edit date. The version numbering will only be changed if something significant is changed in the article, for example adding or massively changing a section or graphic, etc. The last edit date will change for both big and small changes, although not for changes related to spelling or grammar, moreso for if I need to correct a sentence because I wrote something incorrect, or HobbyJapan changed a ruling, etc. Overall, this should hopefully mean it’s very easy to tell if things have changed when visiting an article at a later date.
What Is Dead May Never Die
Now, with all the talk of changes and new things, we must turn our attention to the past. As in, my previous articles. Here’s the thing, I no longer like a large portion of my articles. As someone with a brain wired to hate change, I sure do love looking at my old stuff and wanting to make changes and do it differently. I guess I can say that my brain is perfectly wired to be a judge because it loves continuous improvement! And whether I like it or not, it sure wants to go back and re-do a lot of articles. Another aspect that doesn’t help is that in some cases rules have changed or had further information added, making some of my articles outdated or wrong. You could say some of my old articles are like the Comprehensive Rules document in that way. Helpful, but only to a point, and you gotta be careful to double check some things.
Up to a certain point, I did try to maintain older articles to ensure the information in them was correct, but eventually I just added disclaimers where needed to outline that the rules changed, as in some cases it would require extensive rewrites/changes. The biggest offender when it comes to this is my Attack Phase article. Hobby Japan decided to remove going back to Attack Prep after each attack, so now not only was the article wrong, but so was the accompanying Attack Phase Chart. And as time has gone on, I’ve grown to also absolutely despise that chart. Besides the incorrect bit, I also feel like it could have been split into more serviceable parts, as it’s a bit messy with so much information, and additionally, I just think I could do it better with another crack at it. Not that I’m the best at graphics, but I have some ideas that I think will make it better visually and in terms of communicating the information.
So, naturally, when I’m having to rewrite chunks of an article and do new graphics, it makes more sense to eventually do a new article on this topic. As time has gone on, I’ve felt this more and more for some of my articles. Which is why I’m loath to link to a lot of them, because I want to go again, approach them differently, etc. But, not all of them. For example, the articles on individual cards, or articles covering a bunch of rules questions, these I don’t feel make sense to make new versions of. As such, there will be some difference with how I approach different older articles. What will be consistent however is that I will be going back and changing them all to be Rules Processing articles, removing the numbering, updating the headings, and adding the table of contents. Effectively, I plan to make all my articles, old and new, uniform.
For the articles I plan to re-do with new versions, I will be adding a new label to the title to clarify the old version is now archived (even if a new version doesn’t exist yet). Which should ideally communicate it may contain outdated information and will not be actively updated.
For those articles I don’t plan to re-do, such as my Lightning (19-138S) article, my plan will be to review them and try to add a few things where I feel it’s required. For example, I may add some additional clarifications around Lightning, including some new Q&A stuff. I may also consider adding a graphic, based on a new graphic template I’m playing around with.
With that said, my older articles are less of a priority than my future ones, so these changes will not be implemented quickly. I mean geez it has been nearly two years since I released an article, I figure I should probably release a couple more articles before I start spending time on older ones very few people will look at!
Speaking of new articles, I guess I’ll let you know that I expect to release two further articles in August. Now, that’s a hell of a promise for someone that hasn’t released an article in a long time, but don’t worry, I do not intend to keep up that pace. I’m looking at a cadence of an article a month after that, with additional articles as I feel is needed (and I take the time to write them!). Although that’s my ideal, it’s not a promise. Consistency is important. And I’m going to be consistent in telling you you’ll get what you get when you get it.
The first real article I’ll be releasing will be focused on the new Lightning (26-098L). I’ve already made a new graphic and written a chunk of the article, and realistically if it wasn’t for the fact I’d committed myself to getting this server & test article (and everything related to it) over the line first, you’d have already seen the Lightning article by now.
The other article is an article I’ve been writing in my head for probably about a decade now. It will be an article around a judging topic and I’m very excited to finally get this article over the line and out there (hopefully). I actually wrote about 80% of this article about 3 years ago and just never finished it (fun fact, I probably have about 4-5 articles in this state over the years). At the time, I was writing this article to go up somewhere else, somewhere fairly official, for Weiss Schwarz, and I believe I wrote most of it while travelling back from an event, having witnessed a lot of – well, let’s just say the article was written with a fiery passion and it wasn’t for good reasons. However, the official stuff never worked out, and I never finished the article. So, now that I’m finally back writing articles, I’m going to commit myself to getting it done. Although, I do feel like it’s the sort of topic I’ve got so much to say on that it could end up like fucking Winds of Winter, and even when I do get it out, I’ll probably want to rewrite or add to constantly. How fun.
Anyway, pretty sure this is the 300th time I’ve said I’m doing stuff in an article, so at this point, I’ll just say it’s just as likely I will disappear for another 2 years. I guess time will tell. How exciting.
Oh shit look out it’s a zombie horde.
Okay bye.
