Battlegame Postmortem | Credits | FAQ | Light Weapons | Rules Lawyers | Rulebook Purpose

Credits are designed to encourage players to play Amtgard.  As such they are an award, or more accurately a REWARD.  Standard carrot and stick positive re-enforcement.  The more you play the more you get.  In essence, all awards, titles, and credits can be viewed in this light.
 
That is not to say that everyone does things to get the reward, but if the possibility of a reward encourages player to play more ... this is a GOOD thing.  Many people strive to get a knights belt.  Others want to be recognized as a Master Healer.  And others just want to be able to cast defend.
 
If credits are a means to encourage player to play, I submit that the current credit system discourages playing more than once a week.  I know when I first joined Amtgard, I was interested in gaining credits because I want to be a sixth level assassin and as such played more often.  Anything that can draw a "newbie" into playing more and subsequently leaving his or her newbie status behind is a GOOD thing.
 
Anything that can bolster attendance is also a good thing.  Telling a player that playing on Sunday after playing on Saturday is "worth less," is tantamount to saying, "We don't really want you to play more than once a week" ... and THAT is a bad thing.
 
NOTE: In the environment I started under I managed to get two credits a week by playing both Saturday and Sunday.  (The details of which aren't important as they can't happen under the current guidelines).  When this was subsequently amended, I stopped making a concerted effort to play both days.
 
Many complain that if "full" credits are awarded players would advance too quickly, with the fast advancement resulting in an insufficient grasp of the class to play correctly at the higher levels.  The last I checked there are TWO qualifications to play a given level of a class ... only one of which is to have sufficient credits; the other is to be tested and found capable.  This is a good thing, as I know of many old timers who lack what I would consider basic knowledge of their 6th level class even though they obviously have the credits (and I'm talk about simple warriors).
 
Now, when was the last time that was enforced?  Normally, it's not necessary to force someone to play at a lower level than they have credits for.  Many signs of obvious and limited ignorance can be fixed on the spot with a gentle reminder.  Most credit jumpers (those who assign special event credits to classes they don't play much to skip the powerless lower levels) make an attempt to work their way through the levels at least one week at a time.  During level testing, Guildmasters frequently catch the truly unqualified in advance and the player abides by their decision.  On the rare occasion that doesn't happen. It quickly becomes obvious on the field and the class guildmaster should take care of it.  Those who have never seen it actually happen, talk to Sponge about his attempts (plural) to play high level spell casters at Midnight Sun many years ago.
 
It seems to me that the problem most Amtgardians object to in regards to more credits isn't with the quantity but with the allocation.  If you think it should take a year for someone to be ready for 6th level in a class, then you should limit where the credits are allocated, not how many can be earned.
 

Battlegame Postmortem | Credits | FAQ | Light Weapons | Rules Lawyers | Rulebook Purpose