Editorial: The Mob Speaks! I Listen.

6 Minute Read

Sep 28 2010

Hello again boys and girls, Unicorns and children of all ages, Brent here again; which means it’s Tuesday! What will he think of next, you ask? Nada – today, you’re doing the talking.

You see, you guys took the time to read the article and draft a comment, so today let’s pay it back… or pay it forward – whatever the cool kids are calling it – and put the spotlight on you, the reader.

After all, you don’t spend the time writing those comments for no reason, right?

What do you call the wargamer with two black eyes? Nothing, you’ve tried telling him twice already.

Well, you talked and I listened… or rather, you wrote and I read… to the comments regarding last week’s article.

What’s the Point?

Gather around, my chickies; Uncle Brent wants to lay some truth on you. ~~The truth hurts…~~ Scratch that, start over. The truth is the comment’s section is where all the good stuff is; today, I’m just going to acknowledge that.

Yea, I went there.

Someone had to admit it. Look, for the most part, you already know the perspective each author will bring to a topic. Goatboy will bust a can of WAAC-juice out in the form of a baby-seal-clubbing brute list; Spacecurves is that rarity who writes honest to goodness tactics (because haven’t we learned tactics are all about the maneuver?); Fritz will advocate a Turn 5 objective blitz which has somehow been named after him; and Jawaballs…

…no, he doesn’t just delete comments he doesn’t agree with! Who said that? Don’t make me drop a banhammer on you, dude.

Actually, I’m not sure I can do that. Big Red may not hate me but he doesn’t trust me. The power would probably go to my head.

You know our perspective. Believe me, we’re reading yours. The comments section is where the best thoughts are thunk… is that even a word? Never mind – we’re moving on.

Is the Gamer Stereotype Accurate?

Red Widow: “Does that mean every gamer is an anti-social ‘super-nerd?’ Of course not. However, visit your LGS and people watch for a few. Even the ‘coolest’ game store has a relatively diverse crowd who buys product: the ‘not-so-well-adjusted,’ the hygienically challenged, and even the self proclaimed King-of-the-Nerds. Every gamer I have ever talked to claims to be the exception to the rule, but we are not. As someone else stated, we spend hours upon hours buying, building, painting and playing with toy soldiers, playing our RPGs or boardgames…how cool are we really?

Speak for yourself. Me and my hair are awesome. That aside, great comment.

Apollyen: “Stereotypes exist because they are true, at least in some part. In addition to that statement…who cares?”

We’re conditioned to care… but point taken.

Iandaredh: “The stereotype is not accurate and is not meant to be. It is a simplification for people who does not belong to given group. If you are not involved in some activity, it is easier to pick the most weird looking (and behaving) guy and say that all peaople who are involved in such activity look (and behave) like this. Usually such people exist but are a minority even in the group.”

Yes and no. While I agree for the most part, as Apollyen pointed out, stereotypes are always at least partly accurate, otherwise they wouldn’t be stereotypes!

Kaf_Fiend: “Geeks are Nerds who gave up some technical knowledge in favour of social skills. In an engineering business, geeks are the translators between nerds & management.”

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Get Tabletop, RPG & Pop Culture news delivered directly to your inbox.

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Ha! This is my personal favorite; good ol’ Kaf has now created the Gamer Hierarchy! We know Nerds are at the bottom and Geeks above that, tucked safely in the middle… so who is at the top of the heap?

Why, the Stealth Geek, of course!

Stealth Geek (adj)(noun): Person with a deep, almost religious obsession, with activities such as but not limited to: WarHammer 401K (Nerd Retirement); Star Wars in all its glorious forms (except Haden Christenson – forget him); Star Trek, original or Next Generation (the rest is just sad); Battlestar Galactica (both are great); and other, similar activities, but to qualify have 1) dated and/or married women/men/Unicorns (magazines don’t count, card gamer!) and 2) maintain a good personal hygiene.

See Also: Physical Altercation: conducted without sobbing or fear pee.

Rabid Ferret: “I cannot bring myself to mention hygiene to people in public. Sooo if you happen to fit the 14-20ish demo and you do not A) Shower every morning and B) Use deodorant you DO smell and girls ARE noticing it.”

Amen. Thankfully, girls are easily satisfied. Bathing will just about do it, gentlemen.

Strategy and Tactics

Strategy is what you do to prepare for a game, tactics are those things you do when you’re playing.

Thor: “Strategy can be taken a step further. I agree strategy is what you do to prepare for a game but it’s also your general game plan on the table. My strategy may be that I need to secure the center of the table and then tactics are how I go about it.”

Hywelphillips: “I’d say strategy does extend to the table (edited)… But actually, the two are not clearly divided, as tactics aren’t much help without a strategy to guide you, and a strategy isn’t much use unless you can dream up tactics to implement it.”

Nosmo75: “Evil Homer’s definition sums up my opinion on the matter (edited)… I think one of the reasons people can get these words confused is because people may be making a tactical/strategic mistake, and that mistake is letting individual tactics that have panned out well in the past govern your overall strategy. This can lead to an over-reliance on said tactics and, if your regular opponents are sharp enough, those tactics will eventually be neutralised with little effort.”

This is why gimmicks and over-balanced armies tend to fail after a time; it has less to do with Codex creep and more to do with people learning to beat it.

Magustheseer: “Strategy is macro while tactics are micro (heavily edited)… Strategy is about how the army performs.., while tactics are about the individual / unit.”

Omntec: “Generally it is more important to understand the context of the discussion, and the word choice alone won’t clear that up.”

Well said. Sometimes it simply about know what the heck the other dude is talking about! Still, that works fine at the local store, but not so well online. You’d be amazed how many people this article is reaching. It’s why I thought the discussion was important to begin with!

Closing

“One of these things is not like the other…”

While I passed over a good many suitable comments, including a scale by Zane and an interesting conversation between Zingbaby and Mustakrakish, it’s time to put this baby to bed. We’re hitting Wall-of-Text territory, and you know I hate putting Real Genius to sleep.

This post was about letting you fine folks speak for yourself, but if I have a larger point it’s this: don’t ignore the comments.

All the good stuff to ~~steal~~ read is right there!

You’ll notice I didn’t cover terrain, which was a huge chunk of the article. That topic deserves a post of its own. So, like always… Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and Gropings?

Don't Miss:

Author: Brent

Editorials Wargames