Now, before you TL:DR and just flame this post, I am not saying that competitive play cannot be fun or that it should not be encouraged - some of my favorite games are ones where I duked it out against another equally skilled opponent with a tweeked out list. Lose or win those games are incredible fun and can teach you something ... now, my other favorite games are ones where we brought quirky lists, using as much of our painted models as possible or with a crazy theme.
I am a hobbyist and a competitive player and anyone who says those two don't mix hasn't been in the hobby long: The best hobbyists in our area are also the best players. But what about those guys who just want to catch a game every Game Night and just have fun? I think it can be pretty disheartening to play the same handful of people because the old timers are all too busy beating on each other in ways you don't want to be a part of.
I also have to admit that after 18 months of tuning my Nids to be as competitive as possible, I lost the idea of having fun and relieving stress through our hobby (in fact, I would be frustrated even in victory - only seeing my shortcomings) and there are other players who are having a similar experience, as SeerK also mentioned.
My answer is to turn things around for a while and get back to my roots. I whipped out an army made of my painted Chaos models and have had three very fun games since and my painting and modelling inspiration has gone through the roof. So the new trend at the FLGS is to have fun, try new units, explore your codex (we are all committing to this new idea and some of us are looking at second armies too) - this way everyone can catch a fun game with us old timers and we can help foster the next generation of players (and I am sure they will teach us more than we have learned in a long time too! And yes we will let people take back moves and make that disembark they forgot, lol! We are bringing back the old, common sense, fun games!)
We are also looking for ideas like painting and conversion contests, bringing back bitz night, starting a campaign league and all the other great ways to enjoy the hobby that most of us grew up on.
Why am I sharing this with our Internet audience? Well, because I think we are not alone and I bet there are other people experiencing this in their local scene. If so, maybe taking a little break to get back to the core of this game - the Golden Rule - have fun! Comments and feedback are welcome as always.
Well Said sir.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally on board and the idea is spreading with everyone claiming to be the 'founder' of the idea to bring it back to fun. The game I played with you was awesome and yesterday I played Matt's orks and though I got trounced on, I was totally fine with it because I didn't have the expectation to win. The loss of this expectation and ambition let me really enjoy the game despite the outcome.
ReplyDeleteI was watching Yo Gaba Gaba with my daughter and this episode was on and they sung about playing games and how sometimes you win and sometimes you lose but no matter what you should have fun. I think...no, I know that gets lost and has gotten lost at our shop to a large number of people.
The Judge brought up a decent point too. Though I don't really agree fully, he blames the coming of tournaments to the downfall of fun. I countered this by saying a lot of our shop doesn't show up to the tournaments so that can't fully be the problem. At most, I feel like the atmosphere can put people into a 'I need to hone my tournament list' but I still don't buy into it. It doesn't make sense to me that people would want to hone a list, but then not actually go to the tournament.
Either way, I'm making an effort to play stuff I don't normally, run lists that have bad points spending on stuff that would if it worked bring out a cheer moment in the game. I think if people look at their codex and try to make something that makes sense in the fluff they'll find they have a much softer list.
This will be the summer of fun lists and has reinvigorated me when it comes to the guard.
Just for CVinton
ReplyDeleteSinging "Some times you win, Sometimes you lose, its ok either way!" Oh ya baby saw it LIVE! lol
Last pickup game I played the guy laughed at my bikes in a Space Wolf List =)
I want to be Plex for Halloween but Allison refuses to be DJ Lance.
ReplyDeleteI ran Al'Rahem into an ork warboss just in the hope that I could insta-death him. I couldn't roll a 6 to save my life though and Al died a sad death.
Thats the kind of stuff that makes 40k fun and fresh though. Playing against razor spam constantly is a drag. Keep it fresh!
After I wrote my article I actually started going thru my models and putting stuff together that was languashing on my table. I also made an army list, that look surprisingly good from all the models I have not completely finished and in my bits box. I need to try it.
ReplyDeleteI also found 2 items of hallowed antiquity that may sweeten the deal to get some orks off of OST.
Hallowed antiquity? You have peeked my interest, seer, what could this possibly be?
ReplyDeleteOne is a model and the other a thing you can't get on Ebay......maybe I have not looked hard.
ReplyDeleteOk I looked you cannot get it on ebay. Consider it a gift one heretic to another
ReplyDeleteDammit! If you whip out a forge world abbadon by chance, I will lay an entire Orkut army before you!
ReplyDeleteo I wish sir I would have given you one of those by now, especially since you got all my chaos marines already lol
ReplyDeleteSeerk if u had been holding out on a forge world abbadon all this time the amount of times old school has brought up that model I would laugh so hard. That would just be cold lol
ReplyDeleteI really like this post! 40k is a lot better when you play it for fun.
ReplyDeleteOne piece of advice: if you want to do a fun campaign, take the word "league" out of it.