How Competitive is too Competitive?

Here is a great artical from Tin Man on competitive gaming. 

This is the first of a two part article on the game of 40k and the competitive nature of the game. I will be discussing being competitive as well as my opinion of what a Win at all costs (WAAC) gamer is compared to a Power Gamer and if they are one in the same. I hope you enjoy the article.

I have been reading a lot of blogs and internet sites about the game of 40k and how there are numerous people who feel the game of 40k is too competitive. In my humble opinion, I feel that there are a number of different views on being competitive. I would like to discuss some of my thoughts on them in this post.

First off, I would like to discuss the definition of being “competitive” and the description of what it means to me:

The definition of competitive is thus: Liking competition or inclined to compete.

I personally like to compete. I have participated in athletics pretty much my whole life in some capacity or another. In high school, I started playing football and I fell in love with the game. I was totally consumed with it. It became an obsession. I just loved everything about it. I learned that it was very important to prepare for the beginning of the season as well as prepare each week for that weeks opponent. I would go to practice, break down and study film, work out, rinse and repeat for the next week. It became habit to do these things.

I was fortunate enough to earn an athletic scholarship to play football in college. Football then became a job. The team would have meetings, workouts, film, scouting reports, etc… This would go on all year long, not just during the season. It was great!!! I enjoyed preparing and studying my opponent and knowing their strengths and weaknesses. If the team we were playing that week had a weakness, then my coaches would try to exploit that weakness to the best of their ability. If our opponent was good stopping the run on defense, but struggled at pass defense, then we would spread the field and air it out. If our opponent was good at pass defense, but struggled against the run, then we would run the ball down their throats. It is the nature of the beast….take and use what your opponent is weakest at and exploit it.

So needless to say, I am pretty competitive person. I just like to compete. It doesn’t matter if it is a sport, card game, checkers, fishing tournament, whatever. I just like to compete. It is just my nature. In any competition there is going to be a winner and a loser. I hate ties. If I am going to put in the time to compete in something, I either want to win or lose. I just want to have some finality to the competition. .

This brings me to the game of 40k. I love playing this game. I love building and painting my models and preparing for my weekly game. I put a lot of time into building my list for the week and I am always looking for a way to optimize my army/list. I guess I have it ingrained in me to treat any competition like I did when I played football. I look for the best and most efficient way to play my opponent. This is the same for friendly games or tournaments that I may participate in. I treat them all the same.

I am fortunate enough to have a great group of friends to play against. This makes for a great time to just hang out with the guys and relax. I like nothing more than just hanging out with the guys and getting a great game in. The neat thing is I think my whole group of friends has become better at the game of 40k from playing each other. We all play different armies. We learn each others habits and nuances. We are always trying to compete at a higher level. It is a healthy level of competitiveness and it shows our own weaknesses that we need to work on to improve our game. The games always end in a hand shake and then we hang out and discuss the game and what each of us could have done differently or improve on in the game.

Tin Man