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Perhaps someone should release a NHL94 honor code.

Matt - you got me thinkin...

Let's put something together here. I'm not saying to ban certain scoring tactics, but some basic NHL94 online courtesy guidelines. This isnt the official guide book, but here are a few of my suggestions:

Wait until a stoppage in play to edit your lines or pause the game - Don't ruin the flow of the game. Please wait until a whistle blows to change your line. You might not realize it but your opponent may be starting his "move" before he's even crossing the blue line.

Extended Pauses or Breaks - A game of NHL94 is pretty darn quick. If your phone rings, either multi-task (talk and play) or return the call later. Again don't ruin the flow (especially in league play). Call the person back, chances are your 2 minutes from finishing anyways.

Instant Replays - Most of us have been playing the game for 10+ years. We've seen it all. We've done it all. We don't need to see it over and over. Please refrain from replaying every day occurances. We don't need to see that your goalie scored on himself, or that pass hit the back of your skates. I'm sorry but I just dont care to relive that.

Don't pull your goalie unneccesarily - Some people pull their goalie when theyre down some goals. Sometimes early in the game. I simply don't get it. Is this a surrender? By pulling the goalie you just ruined the fun factor for yourself and your opponent. Man Up and put that goalie back in there. Or politely IM your opponent that you've had enough.

Say "GG" after every game - I'm sure this isnt going to fly with everyone, but think about it. We are damn lucky to be playing this ancient game with some good people. Every game is a good game. Certainly beats playing the CPU. So even when your online opponent goose egg'd ya 0-12 say "Good Game."

Any other ideas?

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The GG or some form of sportsmanship after a game I think shows a lot of class, especially when coming after a loss. Of course everyone will get pissed if they lose in OT by a crease cutting goal, but it's just a game!

I'm onboard with the rest of backhand's pointers.

On top of those, I'm wondering how people feel about checking after the whistle... is it stat boosting, or headhunting? If you're up 6-0, are you going to start checking the opponent after a whistle? It feels unwholesome to me if it's against someone you don't know that well.

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I was extremely skeptical before reading, but I surprised myself by being mostly in agreement...

Wait until a stoppage in play to edit your lines or pause the game - Don't ruin the flow of the game. Please wait until a whistle blows to change your line. You might not realize it but your opponent may be starting his "move" before he's even crossing the blue line.

I 100% agree when it comes to changing your line - there is absolutely no reason not to wait for a whistle. If you do need to briefly pause the game when there is no natural stoppage, you MUST wait until you control the puck. Ruining the flow of one of your opponent's possessions is a gigantic no-no; if you need to quickly answer the door or something, you're almost guaranteed to have the puck within the next 60 seconds - so please wait.

Extended Pauses or Breaks - A game of NHL94 is pretty darn quick. If your phone rings, either multi-task (talk and play) or return the call later. Again don't ruin the flow (especially in league play). Call the person back, chances are your 2 minutes from finishing anyways.

A thousand times yes. A brief pause at a natural point is acceptable (see above), say to *answer* the phone, but it's disrespectful to keep people waiting as you go about your business. I know that real life happens - if something comes up mid-game that you absolutely must address, let your opponent know you have to bail, apologize, and drop from the game.

Instant Replays - Most of us have been playing the game for 10+ years. We've seen it all. We've done it all. We don't need to see it over and over. Please refrain from replaying every day occurances. We don't need to see that your goalie scored on himself, or that pass hit the back of your skates. I'm sorry but I just dont care to relive that.

I think the occasional use of Instant Replay is okay if you are genuinely perplexed. If I am sitting there saying "WTF just happened? How in hell did that go in? Did he just skate *through* my defender?" I don't have any qualms about a quick Instant Replay to try to figure it out. But I keep it short, just once or twice to see what happened, and I *definitely* don't do it unless there is a natural stoppage in play (like after a goal). I use Instant Replay fewer than once in 20 games.

The only exception to that would be if something truly, amazingly unusual happens... Like your opponent's goalie has just made a save, and out of nowhere your own goalie barrels down from the top of the screen, crashes into his counterpart laying him out like a normal skater, steals the puck and passes to one of your forwards for a shot on goal. (This happened to me once). I missed the open net, but you know what? I'm going to instant replay that a few times. I might even ask you to wait so I can get my video camera and record the screen.

Don't pull your goalie unneccesarily - Some people pull their goalie when theyre down some goals. Sometimes early in the game. I simply don't get it. Is this a surrender? By pulling the goalie you just ruined the fun factor for yourself and your opponent. Man Up and put that goalie back in there. Or politely IM your opponent that you've had enough.

Wow, I've never had someone do this to me. I have no problems with someone pulling his goalie down a goal late in the 3rd period - in fact, I'm surprised that more people don't do this. It was pretty automatic when I played on the console "back in the day". But pulling your goalie early in the game or when you're down 4 goals or something is just silly and I agree, uncalled for.

Say "GG" after every game - I'm sure this isnt going to fly with everyone, but think about it. We are damn lucky to be playing this ancient game with some good people. Every game is a good game. Certainly beats playing the CPU. So even when your online opponent goose egg'd ya 0-12 say "Good Game."

The only reason I care about this is it lets me know that people are paying attention to their IM again so I know a conversation can happen (about a rematch, or that someone has to go, or whatever). But I don't personally care if it's "gg" or something else, just as long as I get a cue.

I might only have a couple to add:

Go easy on IM'ing mid-game, especially for trash talk - Receiving IM's during a GENS game often screws up my connection - introduces lag, makes desyncs more likely, etc. That's why I usually go to "invisible" when I'm playing online. If you're mad about something that happened, I understand, but let's deal with it after the final horn - "That was total !@#$%^&*" during play just makes it more likely that our game is going to suck.

Give people a chance to set their lines - Sometimes people who don't juggle their lines themselves are in such a hurry to get started they hit start as quickly as possible to get to the action. Allow the other person to set his lines please. If after a few moments it looks like neither person plans to set lines, someone just go to the Edit Lines menu and select out of it, to signal to the other person that he can start the game.

If you want play "different" rules, talk about it ahead of time - I don't *always* have to play with offisdes off, but if you want to play with them on (or with any other deviation from Evan's 5min/NoLineChanges/PenaltiesOn/OffsidesOff/ManualGoalie defaults) it's a lot quicker if we figure that out in IM rather than struggle with it in the NHL94 menu.

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Give people a chance to set their lines - Sometimes people who don't juggle their lines themselves are in such a hurry to get started they hit start as quickly as possible to get to the action. Allow the other person to set his lines please. If after a few moments it looks like neither person plans to set lines, someone just go to the Edit Lines menu and select out of it, to signal to the other person that he can start the game.

perhaps to add to your comments....

For SNES..If im not making a line change..I'll simply type'GL' to let him know im ready.

I've made the mistake a couple times of hitting start before the other guy gets his line changes and I've asked if he wants me to re-start the game if I'm hosting. If he doesnt care then we keep going. It's fair enough to request a restart otherwise you might get stuck with Goulet for three solid minutes....

but then again...maybe you didnt want to change Goulet.

which would then open another thread for another discussion altogether.

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Pausing for the sake of an artificial whistle is just stupid. Whenever I'm forced to send an IM or answer the phone or something, the least I can do is try to ice the puck, and failing that, make a save and freeze the puck with my goalie. Have a faceoff in my zone is a small price to pay for only marginally interrupting the pace of the game.

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Don't pull your goalie unneccesarily - Some people pull their goalie when theyre down some goals. Sometimes early in the game. I simply don't get it. Is this a surrender? By pulling the goalie you just ruined the fun factor for yourself and your opponent. Man Up and put that goalie back in there. Or politely IM your opponent that you've had enough.

I pull the goalie and I don't regret it. There's no way back at like 5-0 for players like me. No need to keep getting humiliated, right?

I would only support this if a mercy rule was in place for any league games. I've been pushing for a mercy rule for a long time, and I think this is as good a time as ever to propose it for total mismatches.

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I pull the goalie and I don't regret it. There's no way back at like 5-0 for players like me. No need to keep getting humiliated, right?

I would only support this if a mercy rule was in place for any league games. I've been pushing for a mercy rule for a long time, and I think this is as good a time as ever to propose it for total mismatches.

I think a mercy rule to be put in place is a reasonable request..they have one in the ball hockey league i play in....once a team gets up by 7 goals the game is called.

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well i guess i can only speak for myself....I don't care if someone beats me by ten goals..however when im up by a lot I pretty much stop trying to score more cause I don't enjoy hammering an oponent

.

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In response to BHF's initial thread, I agree with pretty much everything he said. In fact, I think I am partially responsible for him mentioning the pulling your goalie early. In all honesty, that is the one time I've ever done that against an opponent but then again I can't remember the last time I was down by 10 goals. There was also only about 2-3 min left in the 3rd and I was trying to make a point that no goalie was going to produce more results than actually keeping my lobotomized steaming pile of mush in there.

However, I would like to add to this list.

Extend the courtesy of not skipping over the hot/cold lists - I know most people don't really consider it as an important factor but there are some out there like myself who will use this to determine if they're going to rearrange a line or change positioning around, especially if you have a backup who has about the same ability.

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Extend the courtesy of not skipping over the hot/cold lists - I know most people don't really consider it as an important factor but there are some out there like myself who will use this to determine if they're going to rearrange a line or change positioning around, especially if you have a backup who has about the same ability.

Great point! I always want to see it to determine my lines and somebody always skips it. Since I'm Vancouver, I try to decide whether to keep Courtnall on, or to switch him with Linden. It would take way faster to just watch the hot/cold lists rather than having me go to the Edit Lines and check their overalls.

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Extend the courtesy of not skipping over the hot/cold lists - I know most people don't really consider it as an important factor but there are some out there like myself who will use this to determine if they're going to rearrange a line or change positioning around, especially if you have a backup who has about the same ability.

I also second this addition. A lot of people in the draft league skip this info which I consider to be extremely relevant to the game about to be played.

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The guys I have played NHL 94 against are very polite thankfully. They dont care that I am rubbish they see it as fun and a pleasent memory.

I went on the warcraft server and they were so many pompous noobs on there, it p'ed me right off, at least the guys on the NHL94 forum I have played against are polite, dont take so many breaks, they are friendly not hostile and dont care I cant play that good.

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Good stuff all around.

One thing missing from the online experience is the ribbing and post game antics after a match. This doesn't translate well in online play so I keep away from this type of conduct.

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The GG or some form of sportsmanship after a game I think shows a lot of class, especially when coming after a loss. Of course everyone will get pissed if they lose in OT by a crease cutting goal, but it's just a game!

Is the creasecutter generally frowned upon within NHL '94 circles? It is somewhat of a glitch goal, which is why I ask. I don't wanna score 5 creasecutters on an opponent and find out that he's angry at the end of the game.

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Is the creasecutter generally frowned upon within NHL '94 circles? It is somewhat of a glitch goal, which is why I ask. I don't wanna score 5 creasecutters on an opponent and find out that he's angry at the end of the game.

for the most part everyone agrees that its a cheap way to score, but at the same time also understands that its part of the game.

its a defendable shot, so the team on defense just needs to recognize and adjust accordingly

if you score using it once or twice in a game, its ok,

but if its your main method of scoring, then you might aggitate some people, if youre scoring 10 times on it

in my opinion, a goal is a goal and i will use it if its there (especially if im getting blanked in the 3rd, just to get one on the board), but i wont use it as a primary method of attack

(i would rather slap one by the goalie, deke him out, or have an awesome one timer)

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While we are on the topic...how do people feel about repeatedly using the "shoot" button on defense in an attempt to get back at three times the speed of sound?

Goodness me, I can't imagine that's a controversy. I don't even think of it as the "shoot" button, I think of it as the "get back on defense and maybe lay a few people out along the way" button.

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While we are on the topic...how do people feel about repeatedly using the "shoot" button on defense in an attempt to get back at three times the speed of sound?

It's definately just part of the game. Especially in a non-line changes game. Imagine playing against the likes of Roenick or Mogilny with a coach that has mad deking skills... It would be blow-out city.

Other times defensive AI just isn't that smart. Being able to "speed burst" your way back kind of compensates for the sometimes chaotic AI.

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