SimonTheBeetle:VEM is, in fact, the core of this game. I just hope it's always being applied to everyone fairly and equally.
I'd not heard about VEM until Sunday when I was bemoaning suddenly being unable to play and being beaten by Tour Pros defying the laws of physics (stopping a basic ball on CTTH Bandon's 8th a foot from the hole with a starter LW on a Tournament 12 green).
My game was as good - if not better - than it ever was until Sunday when either my consistency failed me (and according to my eyes and brain it hadn't) or VEM kicked in specifically in the coin rooms, when I started losing to a mixture of insanely impossible shots by 'worse' players or because the shots I've always played - using my brain and maths skills - started to fall apart.
I had a reputation for being a cynical believer that WGT was fixed and I had that belief knocked out of me because it - WGT - clearly works on the principal that to become good at anything you need to practice a lot first; become familiar with your courses, your equipment and when you upgrade said equipment apply the same rule. It is a computer game not RL, therefore you cannot apply RL logic to it.
However, the concept of VEM - whether you believe it or not - has absolutely robbed me of my love of this game. Just the possibility that it exists has skewered my belief - made me think that every time a Tour Pro sinks a 60 foot putt or stops a basic ball on a penny with a crap club that it's because the game has allowed it rather than through skill (and I tried to do that and failed so many times with starter clubs).
Someone said to me, 'perhaps you were just beaten by a good tour pro - there are many who just play coin rooms' and I see that, I understand that a lot of players just play the coin room side of the game, see it as an advantage and utilise the clubs available to them to that advantage. But when I used to have a 99 out of 100 putting average under 10 feet and that suddenly withers away to 60% while watching my opponents hole 'impossible' putts from ridiculous distances to tie or win a hole, I now no longer write it off as a fluke or a great putt; I think I've been VEM'd. I think WGT know that I've been playing a long time and spending money so I'm going to accept the bad days as just bad days or weeks. I'm unlikely to quit or not play any more. Therefore it must be me, after all... But if you have new players, people who have been here under a certain amount of time and *might* be on the cusp of spending money, then perhaps giving them a VEM boost might be the best thing - financially and economically - WGT can do?
Is it or does it get applied equally and fairly? Does WGT know full well that someone like me will come and complain and a horde of WGT fans will come on and reply with derisory or sarcastic/facetious comments that dismiss my points or make light of them with facile excuses, pointing the finger at me rather than, heaven forbid WGT?
I guess we'll never know for sure.