Wednesday 22 February 2012

Gaming: is winning all that great?

Well, I've been wondering something ever since Sunday (well actually for a while longer but Sunday brought it to a head)

Is winning all it's cracked up to be?

When it comes to war games, I've never been a winner. Right from day one I've always lost my games.

I can't say why, maybe it's to do with my preplan game and not picking the right units to take in the first place, maybe it's because of my mid game tactics (or lack there of) or maybe it's just that i don't think things through.

Because of this, rather than get upset I learnt to make losing into a game:

Take Malifaux for instance. Very regularly I can play a game and get 0 VPs, this was especially true in the first few games I played.

Because of this I made my own personal ruling of competing not against the opponent, but against myself.

Not literally you understand, but I would play a game and see what % VPs I would earn. If I earned more % than I did before than that was progression and a personal win.

Currently I aim for about 75% out of the potential VPs.

So now this leads onto the other side of the coin: Winning all the time.

It stands to reason that if I am constantly losing, there must be others who constantly win.

What do these players do? How do they define a game as well played or not?

No one likes to obliterate the opponent while they bend over and squeal like a piggy (well, some do, but that's a different matter). To them is a good game where the opponent puts up more of a fight before being beaten?

If the answer to that is YES, than it means you can only enjoy the thrill of winning, if losing is a looming possibility.

Taking this idea and running with it, I see only one possibility. To always win and to know from the first move that you WILL win, it's no fun.

So by proxy, always being a winner, never tasting defeat and vowing to avoid those mistakes again, and never having to go over your own actions and trying to fine tune your game...

If winning is all about fun, does that not mean an "always winner" is actually a looser when it comes to fun?

Yes, i think that thought will keep me warm at night after loosing my next game :p

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

2 comments:

  1. Top post, but I dunno that it's necessarily true, more likely they set themselves their own little challenges like you. So can I table this guy without losing a single model, what if I effectively play without using this one particular ability. I'll try and use every single option on the stat card and still take all their models off.

    But for me I fall in that happy medium I have a win ratio of around 50% and enjoy all my games!

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    1. Hi Dave, I'm sure your right, and truth be told the post was part satyr, but as with a lot of my posts, just trying to ask a few questions, hopefully get people thinking, if not about other people, then themselves.

      I'm glad you enjoyed the post though :)

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