Editing Round 9/History (section)

=== Vigilance ===

A constant struggle in the game was the failure to balance the infinite duck accumulation achievable by Scouting (see {{Heading|Scouting}} and {{Heading|Updates to Scouting}}). When the rule was proposed, there was really no risk involved in sending a duck scouting and, after 17 January, the performer was guaranteed to receive a duck after a successful retrieval. Wotton was not the first to exploit this but there is no doubt that he was the most prolific. When actions were introduced to combat players with too many ducks, they had too many restrictions (see {{Heading|Stealing from the Rich}}), which Wotton was able to circumvent (see {{Heading|Cannibalism to Prevent Thievery}}). Legislation to get at the root cause, the cheap and risk-free scouting mechanic itself, didn't come until early March when the richest player had a staggering twelve ducks (see {{Heading|Targeting the Rich Again}}). Wotton was able to pay Klink off when she proposed to cut back on restrictions on when players could steal ducks from the rich (see {{Heading|The Untold Saga of Eggotinne (11 Mar 2021 - 20 Mar 2021)}}).

And yet, the fault is not purely in the legislation itself. Had people been watching the game at some of these critical moments, the course of the round could have shifted dramatically. When Wotton attacked his own ducks to reduce his quacks enough that he wouldn't be in first place so that he couldn't be targeted as DUCK DUKE (see {{Heading|Cannibalism to Prevent Thievery}}), moonroof then Trungle had the most quacks. Wotton slowly crept his way back into second place. If either of them had noticed, they could have orchestrated a similar trick of racking up Quack Attacks on their ducks, forcing Wotton into a position where he could be attacked.

Furthermore, if just one other person had had the idea to write a proposal in the same vein as Eggotinne (see {{Heading|The Untold Saga of Eggotinne (11 Mar 2021 - 20 Mar 2021)}}), or if someone had noticed Eggotinne's deletion, Wotton would have had a much harder time paying people off to turn the other way.

The paths to fixing this overarching issue are clear in hindsight. For my part, I just lost interest in the round and I only showed up once in a while to do my semiweekly obligations. If I paid as much attention in the moment as I have paid to Round 9 while writing this essay, I probably would have done something about it. I just had to pay a little more attention.