RP: there are a ton of good rules already, though, I think the 3 rule submission thing should be relaxed at this point as it has served its purpose.

Speedhacking is more fun than coming up with rules, that's why.

Not everyone is like you. In fact, some people are quite different from yourself. Perhaps it's even you who is different from the majority.

To me it seems that many rules were submitted only for the purpose of fulfilling the three rule requirement, without actually giving any thought to the rule itself. Because of that, there are rules like "your game must have cats and u have to kill them".

If you don't feel like submitting stupid rules like that (although I'm sure you could think of something a little more creative than that), you could be a cheater and submit three dummy rules, join, delete them and hope Matthew doesn't notice.

Your entry must make use of a user input device.
Your entry must make use of an audio output device.
Your entry must make use of a visual output device.

There you go!
3 technical requirements. They haven't even been used yet.

Thanks. Now there is a remote chance I'll enter the competition after all

I didn't know there was a three-rule rule. Matthew, if you're going to impose new, controversial rules like that one, don't call it SpeedHack. It's not true to the competition, and I'm taking the same stance as Miran here. (I don't know whether I'll take part anyway, what with work ...)

Yup. Nothing good ever turned out from compulsory voting, and compulsory creativity is probably even worse .

I rated all the rules I could and uploaded 7 of my own before I even knew that was a requirement, so I guess it's not much of a detriment to me... But I can understand people who want to be creative about their games, not abstract rules.

In fairness to ML the 3 rule idea was mine.

It was? Hmmm... Maybe it was a bad idea then.

There's always people looking to complain, so let them. They will complain if Arron comes up with the rules. They will complain if someone else comes up with the rules. They will complain if they come up with the rules. They just get happiness from complaining. Whatever floats their boat.

I only laugh at that. If Arron cared a lot about the Rule-O-Matic, he'd check up on the site now and then or have replied to my attempts in trying to contact him. People thought Arron's rules were "controversial," so if anything, I'm only following the tradition.

Go jump in a creek if you don't like it. Seriously. Start your own SpeedHack that is more real than this one. I'm not looking to have my butt kissed over this. I'm looking to make the SpeedHack a better competition for the majority of people who seriously want to take part in it.

And for the record, I had (and still have) every intention of lifting the "requirement" (in quotes because you could just add three bogus rules, join, and delete them) the week the competition begins for the late comers. I seriously doubt, though, that someone who is unable to come up with three rules in three weeks will be able to come up with a creative solution and program it within in three days.

So keep the griping up; it humors me.

That's what I meant earlier too.

And quite frankly there are a lot of good rules that have been added. Some of those may not have been added if the person could have just signed up without doing anything. If some stupid rules get added, it doesn't matter! They will be voted so poorly that they won't be picked by the Rule-O-Matic.

Find something legitimate to complain about. The end result of getting people to enter their own rules has been positive.