Behave Yourself: On Bad Gaming Habits and Proper Play Etiquette

[metamet]

Behave Yourself: On Bad Gaming Habits and Proper Play Etiquette

Well, he hit just about all of my pet peeves. Anyone got any others?

[Esper3k]

-Not really a pet peeve per se, but I kind of think it's weird & awkward when you try and make small talk with an opponent before a game (where are you from, etc.) and they just stare at you blankly like a Stuffy Doll.

-When people talk to their friends / texting on their phone during matches and you have to somehow be the asshole that tells them to stop doing that. (Yes, I know you should probably call a judge)

-Talking to your friends about how badly your opponent played / how you can't believe you lost to X... when your opponent is still in front of you!

[coraz86]

A draft got canceled last night because half the people who showed up didn't think they could make their money back on what they could open. Not because they don't like to draft or anything else rational; because they couldn't make their money back.

This particular group of people does this a lot. I wonder how any of them is going to handle, say, car ownership.

[Aggro_zombies]

A draft got canceled last night because half the people who showed up didn't think they could make their money back on what they could open. Not because they don't like to draft or anything else rational; because they couldn't make their money back.

This particular group of people does this a lot. I wonder how any of them is going to handle, say, car ownership.

I could understand not wanting to open packs for value, but does the experience of drafting and playing have literally no worth to them? Is that just supposed to be a free bonus on top of the cost of packs? I don't understand.

EDIT: The one thing that drives me nuts is when people take calls - yes, calls! - in the middle of a match. "No, sorry babe, I'm playing Magic right now...yeah, I'll be home in a couple hours...love you too babe..." while I'm sitting there waiting for them to finish their turns. I mean, I don't want to be a jackass and interrupt them, but come the fuck on.

Also, if you're going to have your phone on the table, please set it to silent before the round starts. Having your phone start ringing or vibrating in the middle of a match is super distracting not just for your opponent, but for everyone else at the same table who can hear/feel it going off.

Also, the headphones thing seems like it could be an easy way to cheat, especially if you've got your headphones plugged into a smartphone. Hi, yes, I'll take the call from my friend standing a short distance behind you and pretend to rock out while they read off the contents of your hand.

[TorpidNinja]

The GG thing seems to be a matter of tone rather than a necessary slight. When playing at LGSs I've seen people perfectly amicably say GG and move on.

Also, the Chandra story needs a little more detail.

[dsck]

I personally get my deck more randomized when I do pile shuffle and regular shuffle rather than just regular shuffle. Especially after a long game.

"Flipping Your Opponent’s Deck Around"

Lol. It takes like 1 second to fix it yourself and your opponent might be thinking something completely different than how he should place your deck perfectly on the table.

"Showing Your Opponent How You Sideboarded" + "still had all deez"

If people get offended by this I suggest you grow some balls. And if you got completely trashed despite your opponent siding wrong you have something to think about...

[Julian23]

The best part about this article: "I STILL HAD ALL DEEZ !!"
Seriously, I can't get this song outta my head.

[Aggro_zombies]

"Showing Your Opponent How You Sideboarded" + "still had all deez"

If people get offended by this I suggest you grow some balls. And if you got completely trashed despite your opponent siding wrong you have something to think about...

Still-had-all-deezing your opponent is pretty much always unnecessary, unless they specifically ask to see your hand after the game/match. Virtually everyone I've run into who SHAD'ed me was doing so to be a jerk and/or to rub it in. It doesn't really bother me to know that I was dead in several ways, but the sentiment is what matters here and is part of the larger antisocial tendencies that make the competitive MTG pretty miserable.

Put another way, it's the winner's version of telling your opponent they were totally dead next turn after you lost. It doesn't matter what cards you had in hand, what was on top of your library, or what sick plays you could have made: the game came to a conclusion independent of those.

[Koby]

I personally get my deck more randomized when I do pile shuffle and regular shuffle rather than just regular shuffle. Especially after a long game.

"Flipping Your Opponent’s Deck Around"

Lol. It takes like 1 second to fix it yourself and your opponent might be thinking something completely different than how he should place your deck perfectly on the table.

On the first note, pile "shuffling" doesn't sufficiently randomize your deck when done alone by DCI and MTR standards. You shouldn't start with a pile shuffle as all it does is re-order deck in a knowable pattern.

On the second note, the author is referring to shuffle on half of the deck in opposite orientation of the second half. I often refer to it as "cubing" the deck: Imagine the cards facing: ^vv^^v^v^vv^^^vv which can ruin some sleeves if shuffled like this.

[dsck]

On the first note, pile "shuffling" doesn't sufficiently randomize your deck when done alone by DCI and MTR standards. You shouldn't start with a pile shuffle as all it does is re-order deck in a knowable pattern.

I havent ever seen anyone who ONLY pile shuffles and doesnt do regular shuffle.

On the second note, the author is referring to shuffle on half of the deck in opposite orientation of the second half. I often refer to it as "cubing" the deck: Imagine the cards facing: ^vv^^v^v^vv^^^vv which can ruin some sleeves if shuffled like this.

Well that explains it, it felt silly to be upset over something small as placing deck correctly.

[TsumiBand]

Yeah, agree with a lot of the sentiment expressed in this article. Shitty attitudes in Magic are a major reason why I just quit showing up for a lot of Standard stuff. The people around me just seemed to be sponging off each other's giant butthole attitudes and descending further and further into madness with each passing year.

I don't know that I can get behind the idea of always scooping when you don't think there's an answer, or for that matter I wonder if the "don't play Turbofog" sentiment isn't partially tongue-in-cheek. I'm definitely in the "fuck you, kill me" camp; that's not to say I never scoop, but I don't believe in picking up my cards to a soft lock either. Still, I see what you did there.

All in all, hubris is the worst possible thing you can bring to a gaming situation, especially when you have the chance to play against someone who is a complete stranger. People can defend these actions as "jedi mind tricks" all they want, but they are really just assholes being assholes who likes to exert their assholes over people and be bigger trolls IRL than they are on the Internets. Shame shame shame.

[jrw1985]

Player against High Tide last week. After dinking around for 10 minutes he finally Wishes for a Brainfreeze. Dude hasn't been keeping track of his storm so when he Freezes me I just ask, "How much?" He says, "They usually scoop." So he went through the game and counted up that he had cast 15 spells, and I'm left with 3 cards in my library. He had tons of mana though so he Blue Sunned me to death immediately. The point is, if you're playing a Storm deck keep track of your fucking Storm. Don't just assume that your opponent is fucking obligated to scoop whenever you're too lazy to keep track of that shit. That shit's rude as hell. "I took a 10 minute turn! Why aren't you conceding?"

[Julian23]

People can defend these actions as "jedi mind tricks" all they want, but they are really just assholes being assholes who likes to exert their assholes over people and be bigger trolls IRL than they are on the Internets. Shame shame shame.

There's a difference between "My opponent is an asshole" and "I played sloopy and made a mistake and now I'm blaming my opponent who's pinning me on it". Jedi Mind tricks only work on people that handle a given situation with too much confidence / too sloopy.

[Jenni]

It always irks me when players say things like "you just got lucky!" or "I would have won if I..." (followed by an excuse like getting mana screwed or drawing poorly, etc). Just accept the loss with some grace, please.

[Lord Seth]

I don't see what's so bad about calling out to your friends where they're playing. It'll make the line shorter...

[Michael Keller]

I've been playing since Bill Clinton's first term, and honestly I have never had an issue with any of my opponents in all that time - up until this very day. If I beat an opponent and it irritates them, I just sympathize with them because: a) you cannot change peoples' demeanor in the span of a game of Magic, b) you're in a lose-lose situation to begin with as your opponent is just naturally pissed off all the time or just always wants to win - kind of souring your win, and c) you have to accept the fact people are different and fueling the fire is just going to make matters worse.

I just get really loose and happy when I play, and I think it is inviting for an opponent to try and loosen up a bit too. I can feel out an opponent the second they approach me, and to be honest it's really not that big of a deal to me. I just let my play do the talking.

Sometimes excessive "chit-chat" can be irritating.

[Esper3k]

I don't see what's so bad about calling out to your friends where they're playing. It'll make the line shorter...

When you get some guy that goes up to the list, blocks everyone's view, turns around (hitting people with his backpack) repeatedly between shouting to his friends and squinting at the pairings... that's when it really gets obnoxious.

[Awaclus]

On pile shuffling:

It doesn't randomize your deck. Nothing randomizes your deck, because randomness doesn't exist. Rather than randomize your deck, you should just change the order of the cards and make sure that no player knows the order of the cards or any patterns or clumps among them. Pile shuffling doesn't make sure that no player knows the order of the cards, but it does change the order of the cards pretty dramatically. Alone, it isn't enough, but when combined with other kinds of shuffle techniques, it improves the result. Besides, it should take under 20 seconds from anyone who's used to doing it, it isn't a huge waste of time (for example, in the YouTube video "Tomoharu Saito shuffles", he does it in about 15 seconds, and my personal record is 16.4 seconds).

[Koby]

On pile shuffling:

It doesn't randomize your deck. Nothing randomizes your deck, because randomness doesn't exist. Rather than randomize your deck, you should just change the order of the cards and make sure that no player knows the order of the cards or any patterns or clumps among them. Pile shuffling doesn't make sure that no player knows the order of the cards, but it does change the order of the cards pretty dramatically. Alone, it isn't enough, but when combined with other kinds of shuffle techniques, it improves the result. Besides, it should take under 20 seconds from anyone who's used to doing it, it isn't a huge waste of time (for example, in the YouTube video "Tomoharu Saito shuffles", he does it in about 15 seconds, and my personal record is 16.4 seconds).

He does it in 15 seconds, reveals a card during the piling, then presents his deck with no additional randomization.

Any judge watching a player do this should immediately grab the deck and hand out a warning for insufficient randomization.

[rxavage]

Is Saito the player mentioned in Flores's article that was linked in Op's?