Is an AK (assault rifle) necessary or not in principle? (poll)

Took a break from my ban, time to earn a new one :). So, why the Arbitration Committee (AC) is not needed. Let's first try to understand what it's needed for:

1) To help judges make decisions.

Actually, this is a disservice, primarily to those very judges. If a judge has no support, they weigh their words and decisions much more carefully. If they get into a bind, they engage their brain much more actively to find a way out.

Responsibility greatly contributes to the quality of work and overall personal development. If a judge constantly has "audience help" in mind, and has the opportunity to pass the buck if needed, this does not contribute to either the quality of their work or their authority.

2) To review complex cases like cheating.

Let's not dwell on the sad stuff... in the time I've been present in Heroes communities, cheating issues have been reviewed more than once, with various outcomes. But it has never led to such toxic disputes and schisms within the group.

The AC, however, in essentially its first serious case of cheating (if we don't consider fly-by-night newcomers), fell flat on its face. As has been noted repeatedly above, even awarding the Win (W) without much deliberation would have been a more adequate decision than the tearful mess that actually happened.

3) To serve as a kind of benchmark for players, a supreme authority.

God forbid such benchmarks. Quite the opposite, it's an example of what not to be, neither in Heroes nor in life. There's a group of... hmm... comrades (the correct term wouldn't pass censorship), each of whom either doesn't know what to do or knows but is afraid to take responsibility.

This is not a case where collective intelligence is better than individual intelligence. A herd of sheep, no matter how large it grows, will not become a pride of lions. One conscientious, authoritative person who understands the game, the structure of relationships within the group, and knows how to convey their thoughts to the group is quite enough to review contentious episodes.

The situation with the supreme authority is even sadder. This entire hysterical flash mob in support of the AC demonstrates that even its supporters feel its weakness, understanding that if they don't support it now, the structure might start to fall apart.

And its opponents, represented mainly by skilled and authoritative Heroes players, openly humiliate it, and underpin this with quite an extensive body of evidence.

What authority can be spoken of here? In politics, after such screw-ups, people usually resign on their own, without waiting to be asked.

4) To monitor compliance with various norms, regulations, etc.

If you look at people who have achieved recognition in organizational activities in Heroes, you'll notice that they all couldn't care less about the regulations. That is, changing the rules during a tournament or even a specific game was normal for them. Because what's the point of a rule if it has lost its relevance to the situation?

Horn, for instance, had it written in plain text in his tournament rules: "the judge has the right to change the rules during the tournament both in general and as applied to specific games." And he regularly used that right.

Starik (Old Man) acted similarly, for example. He had a good post somewhere, unfortunately I can't find it, with roughly the following content: "the rules are formulated in my head in a concise form, they are based on common sense and fairness; when analyzing a specific situation, I simply apply them to that situation and get the right answer."

And for a final treat, I'll quote my own post from the AC forum:

Various kinds of committees are needed in a large, diverse group - to bring everyone to a common denominator. That is, if we had like 2000 players, with about 500 of them active, then yes, an AC would be necessary.

But when there aren't that many people, most know each other, and rumors spread instantly, resolving important issues by any method other than the 'Cossack circle' method risks being disputed or sabotaged. And the composition of the Cossack circle is a delicate thing - it's extremely difficult to influence, even though it itself changes quite a bit under the influence of various factors.

So the current composition of the AC in this Cossack circle holds mainly in the second or third row. Mostly Pit tries to justify things, less often Dirty, and even that isn't always convincing. The rest generally sit mostly in silence.

Hence the difficulties in implementing any significant decisions. The people don't feel a firm hand, they don't see the AC's confidence in its own rightness. That group of screeching monkeys who are flash mobbing on HeroesWorld in favor of the AC are doing it mainly out of dislike for Alex, not for any other reasons.