""Casualˇ¦ vs. ˇĄCompetitiveˇ¦ ˇV The False Dichotomy " Topic

…Needs To Die

"You know how this goes. There are ˇĄcasualˇ¦ players and there are ˇĄcompetitiveˇ¦ players. There are players who try their utmost to win, for whom anything goes and there are no rules except the ones written down; there are players who donˇ¦t care whether they win or lose and are just out to put whatever toys they feel like down on the table and have fun.

My old friend and comrade Ranz wrote a screed back in the Mark I days, which I feel outlines the situation perfectly:

„ŕI owe it to my opponent to try to win. If we are not both trying to win, then why play? There are plenty of other FUN things to do. Why play a game? Why have the game governed by rules? Why have rules about victory points and conditions? Why not just get drunk? Why not just play ˇ§Sorryˇ¨ and roll dice and run around a board while drinking beer and eating pretzels?

I would hazard a guess that the overwhelming majority of wargames ˇV the ones that arenˇ¦t about pushing your toys around as you accurately recreate the Battle of Knob Creek Bridge in 15mm scale and not rolling a single die or making a single tactical choice of your own ˇV are games with a winner and a loser. One player or team wins and the other players or teams involved do not win. Thatˇ¦s competition. Whether they like it or not, the most laid-back and super-chill of ˇĄcasualˇ¦ wargamers are still playing a competitive game. They are competing. They are engaged in competition. They are competitive…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Do not paste high ASCII into text boxes! Or, perhaps Bill should scrub input from text boxes?

In a recent tournament, I had some guy who got his panties in a bundle because I did not move straight.

In fairness, I was trying to move straight over textured terrain and not deliberately seeking an advantage. So anyway, I was, like, 3mm off of straight and he's complaining.

I finally said, "I really don't care where they go, move them where you think they belong." So my unit ended up 3mm to the right of where I put it.

Thankfully, he had less stick up his ass after that; but, we were both trying to win except one person was casual and one was competitive.

Dear Mr. Elmo

The "causal factor" Is "tournament."

Just the other day we had a playtest of a new game I cam coming out with at "The Weekend" Convention in June. The game is a miniaturization of the old Greg Costykian Game of "Bug-Eyed Monsters from Outer Space they want our women!" It's more than a miniaturization though, and actually a complete redesign with only the general idea behind it. It's a game completely for laughs but one guy was constantly trying to straight-jacket the game into a classic war game.

For example if you're the Alien "Pndscm" (pronounced "pondscum") and "Fred Johnson" is firing on you with his hunting rifle because you're carrying off his Very Hot Wife Vera, you can do so by answering one question of trivia like "What is an Interociter?" or who plays "Marsha" in "Voyage to the Prehistoric planet." The guy who was in control of Fred Johnson seriously was asking questions like "Well what type of hunting rifle is it? What's the range, rate of fire? Was the target weaving or dashing from cover to cover? He was desperately trying to find a war game inside the game trying to get out. There was none. Of course how Pondscum was going to dash from cover to cover while carrying the fainted Vera Johnson (135 pounds of gorgeous American womanhood) was something we never explored.

He was completely nonplussed and astounded, when to take on an Alien fighting machine, Jim Delbert and Sherm Fredericks climbed into the old Tiger Tank on the village green ( a war trophy Senator Torvaldt got for the town) and started it up. We gave the gamers who tried this a few very difficult rolls to do and they made it and we did it. (P.S. The Tirger Tank won). The guy was arguing how silly and absurd it was and how it could NEVER happen and it was completely silly.

One of the guys said "you haven't seen many 1950's "B" science fiction movies have you? Once you have a plot about aliens with bug eyes and tentacles going "lust crazed" over Earth females in pedal pushers and poodle skirts" a working tiger tank on a village green is child's play.

Sorry, it IS a real dichotomy. Some people will always be sticklers for details while others of us are conjuring up visions of Vera Johnson in 6" Dorsey pumps.

Haven't we been here before?

Phil