[Potatoman]

Everyone is willing to tolerate the abuse of game mechanic quirks to some degree (the extent of which, I think, depends mostly on whether you are the absuer or are being abused), but an "anything goes" approach is unsatisfactory to me for a couple of reasons, which I will try to explain.

1. Not everything does go. By asserting that everything is permissible you sidestep having to make difficult and arbitrary judgements on what is or is not fair, but those judgements still take place. There are levels to which nobody (I hope) would stoop in order to win a dominions game... Running a political style smear campaign to besmirch another player's name or framing them for cheating, for example. Recognizing no rules does not mean that they do not exist- it just opens up a huge potential for misunderstanding when two people disagree on the informal rules while playing. Formal rules are better because they leave far less room for ugly personal disputes and misunderstandings in-game.

2. Exploiting game mechanics is only worthwhile if the gain is significant. If the gain is significant, and if the environment is competitive, then you cannot compete without exploiting the game mechanics. As more and more exploits are discovered, they become more central to the game and your experience playing the game will change. Some exploits are easy and take only moments. I consider these benign. Unfortunately some, as Kissblade boasts, can take hours of micromanagement each turn to perfect. Personally, I'd rather play Dominions than try to work out the optimal feng shui for my archer decoys for two hours every turn, but sometimes that's the reality of it. And it's another reason why I think any hypothetical fairness rules shouldn't be "anything goes". Some exploits are an education in tedium to do well.

3. Exploiting game mechanics reduce strategy. When exploiting the mechanics becomes as important as the other aspects of skill in a game, the other aspects become proportionately less important. You may have chosen foolish scales or made a couple of strategic blunders, but if you've got the perfect archer decoy formations then the extra volleys your un-targeted main archer group might just let you win anyway. And if so, then congratulations! Your micromanagement and extra time investment in exploiting the game mechanics just let you overcome superior strategy! This is, in many ways, the worst problem with game loopholes- playing becomes as much about exploits as anything else, and suddenly you're not playing the same game anymore.

These are just my rambling thoughts on this issue, which I cannot help but take very seriously. A slew of similar exploits split and drove a major part of the fan-base away from one of my other favorite games, Kohan:Ahriman's Gift, in the not-too-distant past. I'd hate to see Dominions travel that same dark road and share that game's same grim fate.