An interesting shift

Good Wednesday everyone!

Today I'm here to discuss an interesting shift I have noticed within the Malifaux community.

- Disclaimer
While I may not have made the move to v2, I still keep in contact with a lot of people who did, and almost all the blogs and podcasts I used to/still do read and listen have made the move.

Anyway, I'm not going to name drop anyone as depending on how you take this post it might be seen as an attack, and I don't want to attack people, especially when it comes to writing blogs and recording podcasts.

So one of the reasons I jumped into the Malifaux Twitter community - for the record there is (or was) a massive difference between those on twitter and those on the message boards. Anyway, one of the reasons was the attitude. There was hardly any competitive nature, quite the opposite, I would regular read and hear from a plethora of sources about how they were 'competing' for the wooden spoon.

No, instead the discussion was almost never about tactics, but instead about the models themselves, their emotional experiences, their upcoming plans and everything else tied into the game but almost never about tactics.

Sure there were the occasional discussion of tactics things like "how does Player X make use of Molly effectively", but they were the exception never the rule.

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Now we're in a whole new world. I could list you countless numbers of blogs that almost exclusively deal with either tactics or game theory, and every single -Malifaux- podcast now focuses on tactics and how to use models well, talking about the models themselves rather than the players behind the models.

Is this a coincidence? Perhaps, but I'm not sure.

V1/1.5 of Malifaux was (apparently) not optimised well for tournaments, where as v2 is (apparently) extremely optimised for that.

Does the focus of the game on bringing out the competition and tournament scene almost lead people down that path? If reading the v2 rules had sparked some joy in me and I had jumped into the game, would I now be discussing how to best play Dreamer in wave 2?

Maybe, but remember, I'm not a competitive player, I never have been and I never will. The few tournaments I've ever been to, I've never focused on playing games, it's been all about meeting people and getting to meet the gamers, not the game.

But I can go on about this all day "What if X" or "Why Y" and I'm not going to play that game.

But it's a shame, my podcast listening I used to need roughly 2 hands to count on, now I don't even need 1 whole hand.

Same with blogs.

Is the content on these products bad? In most cases, no. They are well written posts and good recordings.

If someone was to come to me and ask about advice on playing certain masters, or about how to improve your game then I know exactly where to send them.

The problem I have; I don't have an interest in reading or listening to it myself.

It's a shame, and one I am not happy about as it means I am by choice distancing myself more and more from people who not long ago I called friends and peers, but it's a choice that I have made none the less.

And on that sombre note; stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley