I like competitive players, I really do. They bring a fresh look to the game when it gets stale. I can always rely on the competitive players to come up with a new spin on a List. However..
I read a blog post related to 40k, basically classifying players as three types:
Competitive
Scrubs
Losers
It's not new, based on an even older article written by a dude who played *ahem* Arcade Games competitively.
I'm sorry, this isn't a sport, it's not Chess... it's not even poker. Does it take skill to play Craps, not really, it takes some knowledge, but that doesn't make you the TOP Craps player... I don't think I've seen a Craps Tournament on TV.
Question, "What's better than winning the Silver at the Special Olympics?"
I think a majority of competitive 40k players would say "GOLD!" without hesitation...
Many who understand that this is a random, fun game, that's been reiterated adnauseam by GW.. Fun, Narrative, Cinematic.. would answer the question correctly, "Not being retarded".
I like tournaments, competing is cool, but don't try to sell me that their should be rankings, or that this game takes some monumental amount of skill to be good. Sorry, it doesn't.. it takes a bit of knowledge, and willingness to understand the rules... not to suck! I never saw a "great player" win a game consistently rolling bad.
What is interesting is that 6th is pushing away from the competitive gaming. Look at the rules, their pushing on the narrative game and all the fluff info they push into the book. GW has started to make solid moves away from competitive gaming, Ard Boys Gone, GTs (other than indies) Gone, Throne of Skulls is a hobby tournament, the list keeps going on....
ReplyDeleteThe true scale is something more like this IMO:
WAAC's: Win at all Costs (to sum it up, the cheese lists, rules lawyers, people looking for loop holes, min/maxers, death stars)
competitive: They build a well organized lists, balanced, not as much min/max, no real need for death stars, they rely on being a good player than the lists.
average joe: this is the guy that does not care if he wins or takes a loss, he wants to throw dice and push toy soldiers around.
fluffies: those that like to build an army and paints to the fluff of GW, they don't care about winning or loosing. Most often the strongest of the hobbiests in the game.
casual guy: army is usually unpainted, they don't care, they want to roll dice, hang with friends, not really focused on the hobby, just there...
I would disagree with the competetive/WAAC description. Competetive players will make min/max take advantage of everything they can lists.
ReplyDeleteThe BIG difference I see between the two... WAAC players will cheat, competetive players won't.