User Blog:
To Be A Winner

To Be A Winner

Ever seen this guy before? He’s the guy that’s there every week to play the game that you love, and he’s the “easy win” – the guy that seems to have that unique deck or army, that strange way of playing, and that inability to make a majority of “correct” plays.

Many people mock him. He tries each week, but he never succeeds. Many people don’t want to be him, striving to be better, quitting if they can’t. Many people gravitate to him to take advantage of him in trades – after all, the way he values figures and cards is often seriously out of whack to “serious” play.

If you’re one of the many, stop for a moment and think about what would happen if this guy stopped playing after one too many games lost, one too many insults hurled, one too many trades gone wrong. Your community of players would lose a reliable player that comes back week after week no matter the obstacles and ridicule that he endures.

And let’s face it, in order for a community to grow and thrive, we need reliable players, new players, and even “bad” players to continue to come out to events. In my mind, a “good” player should not only be good at the game he plays, but he should be passionate about the game – he should support it by encouraging others to play. While it’s not necessary to have sportsmanship to win an event, in the long run, encouraging others to play means that there will continue to be more of the events that you love – because, let’s face it, if you’re on top of a heap of a player base of one, you’re pretty much both the winner and the loser, right?

And maybe you’re thinking: “Hey, I’m not that guy. I don’t mock people, and I don’t laugh at my opponents when they make play mistakes.” But you’ve probably seen it happen. Do you laugh with that guy? Do you stand by and say nothing? Because if you do – you’re not helping. Why not say: “Hey man, that guy’s new. Explain what he’s doing wrong.” – or maybe: “C’mon, I make mistakes too, and even if you don’t, play nice!” If we all do this, we’ll have a gaming community that we can be proud of.