Editorial: That Guy – Evil Twin Edition
So, in my last article I talked about “that guy.” Today I wanted to go a little more into the idea of what “that guy,” is like. In this post I will be covering the negative evil twin version of “that guy.” which is not to be confused with his noble and generally good willed counterpart also known as good twin “that guy.”
Some of the traits of “that guy,” include, but are not limited to: a bad attitude, over competitiveness, general smelly-ness/bad-hygiene-isity, cheating, over forgetfulness, laziness, depression and being the “know it all man.”. Let’s go over some of these fine points and find out how to avoid them…
Forgetfulness
First, the one I personally fall into ALL the time! Over forgetfulness… For example, when one time I tried to go back to the shooting phase to run my squishy librarian to a squad so he didn’t get missile launcher-ed to death (which he did). Though I wasn’t trying to cheat it wasn’t a cool thing to do to my opponent and could easily be seen as cheating… Ways that I could avoid doing this are simply just playing more and having my guys die cause of me forgetting. Another time when I first played Sanguinor I allocated shots to him, again not cheating directly, but it could have made a difference, long story short… Slow down and pay attention, especially in “friendly games.”
Bad Attitude
We all fall into this every so often… Long story short if you are having a mantrum or just having a pissy night altogether, go home or stop playing and just shoot the bull! Nobody likes a douche! One night a good friend of mine was playing a game and got mad at a bunch of us for making noise in our FLGS… Granted he is hard of hearing in one ear, but if you know that you have certain limitations then play on a less busy night or if you can’t schedule that then pick a corner of the place to play in where you can reasonably expect what you need… Don’t be playing the middle of the store on the busiest day and get irritated at everyone for being loud. Sometimes the best thing to do is put down the dice and pick up a brush. Nothing is as zen as painting (at least for me).
Over-competitiveness
If your playing a friendly “pick up,” game don’t ask to go back to the movement phase after shooting and when they say “ok” you move onto the objective to win. Also, let your opponent go back and do something if he forgets once or twice… It is perfectly fine to be competitive in friendly games, but don’t be so into winning that you are mad when you lose… This is another thing that I really have to work on… Actually, nah, winning is cool, I’ll work on that in my next life… maybe.
Self-defeat/ depression
I can’t say how many times I have played people and after I have one good turn they just give up inside. They might be there physically but they have already assigned themselves to the losing side. I have one friend in particular who will feel like giving up in the third turn and ends up winning on a regular basis. Everybody feels helpless when it is your opponents’ turn; just make an agreement with yourself that you will finish every game. If anything it is a learning experience in tactics/ strategy (which one was in-game???). Then go over the game and see where “things went wrong.” For example, on the side of how to do it right, one of my buddies was getting his trash handed to him with his Tau by a very dominating Chaos Marines list. He finished the game and was thoroughly routed in about an hour. Because he knew that it was the dice (it really was the dice) he just kept playing and didn’t complain much at all. It was fun fir everyone to watch and see how bad the dice could get. Both players had a good time and still had enough time and will to play a second game.
Being the “Know-it-all-man”
Many times in gaming groups we all like to get together and talk about things like our latest list idea, newest painting WIP or any other thing that we gamers get excited about. Inevitably though somebody always thinks it is their job to be the “Know it all,” it may always be the same person or it may change from time to time but the principle remains the same. When you are being shown whatever new and shiny thing one of your buddies has it is ok to hold punches and sometimes compliment his lame list idea or his sloppy paint job, sometimes furthering the hobby means giving compliments where they may not belong… If it is 90% junk and 10% a good idea then be like a parent and reward the positive 10%. This is to be ignored if the person actually is asking for your unadulterated opinion. If that is the case then open the floodgates. Long story short don’t be the person that people fear to show new stuff to (aka: a douche-waffle). And lastly, if you are asked and they don’t listen to your sage and all knowing advice, then let it go.
-Duke
