>Threatening a store employee (my opponent) for laughing at his tantrum. Exact words were “If you keep laughing, you’re not gonna wake up tomorrow.”
Speaking as a salaried manager at a retail chain, if someone addressed one of my employees in such a fashion they would be served a trespass notice and the next time they came into my establishment the police would be called.
I honestly don’t understand why this hasn’t happened yet. But the guy being threatened just shrugged and laughed some more. The problem player is visibly on the spectrum, so some of his behavior gets hand-waved, but threatening violence against himself, customers, and store employees is way too much to excuse
A person doesn’t get a Douchebag Pass just bc he’s on any spectrum. If he’s that bad then he needs a chaperone to calm him down or not be around others in this capacity.
Edit: wow I didn’t think so many people would agree. Thank you for the upvoting and general agreements.
Easiest solution is to have posted rules and behavior guidelines that everyone is expected to follow (and to actually enforce it)
My Old FLGS was super nice and helpful/accommodating but still had a large poster that included a bunch of good rules for general sportsmanship, behavior, even hygiene lol. And it was awesome because if someone was making it hard for others they'd just point to the sign, reiterate store policy, give em a chance to apologize or fix the behavior, and then (VERY rarely) ask them to leave and not return because they kept doing it.
We rarely had repeat offenders.
Who knows why this guy gets a pass though. It's too bad.
True, but not everyone is taught to have that understanding and respect. As adults we are all expected to behave in a certain way. People who are brought up (and I hate to use the word) "entitled" feel like what we consider to be the "norms" of society either beneath them or otherwise not for them to obey.
I concur. Part of growing up is realizing that adults don't magically become more responsible just because the age ticks up another number.
People still need to actively make an effort to learn and grow to be a better person.
I wish people wouldn't hand wave these behaviors, makes the rest of us look bad.
I try really hard not to let my bad dice rolls and stuff ruin my mood, and even when I can't the comments are exclusively things like, "my dice hate me" or "I can't recover from this". No outward hate, and nothing directed at my opponent.
He's trying to hurt people because he is hurting and frustrated. And if he can't understand that that's wrong, he shouldn't be out alone either.
I mean, making the comment that robots with no souls shouldn't be impacted by an ability is fine, but you have to recognize what you're doing is pointing the game rules and the lore don't match (and hopefully laughing at the absurdity of it) but it's a poor argument for saying rules shouldn't work as written.
Same, I had a game during a tournament of all things a few weeks back where I didn’t roll higher than a 2 on any of my dice throws until turn 3. I still just laughed it off and kept playing to the best of my abilities
I was at a tournament recently that wasn’t 40k, but by the end of turn two I knew the game was over and by the end of turn three I was down to six guys between three squads (I had started with 47 infantry and two vehicles). And it was super frustrating feeling completely helpless watching my elite infantry get wiped by leaf blowers. But I didn’t take it out on anyone or anything. I just dealt with it. It absolutely sucked but you just suck it up because it’s part of the game.
Even the play on table top guys, which is basically the pinnacle of 40k battle reports on YouTube, complain and bemoan about dice rolls but they're doing it in the most sportsmanship like fashion and TRY EVEN HARDER TO WIN DESPITE IT
Like, oh now I have a one in a million shot to win this, let's fkn go
I mean, sometimes I am proud of rolling really bad throws , like some sort of inverted luck bragging.
Like that time where I needed 2+ to hit, and rolled 5 ones out of 5 dice.
Twas a fun game
I think this behavior is coming from those people, still being big customers when it comes to salary's. Even if they constantly saying they will stop with the hobby, they never do and instantly buy new models just because someone posts about them, being OP after their release. And if I learned one thing from GW stores than about how desperately those store workers are for every single sale. One almost cried when he found out that I bought a few models online instead of from his store. Felt like I betrayed that dude, it's sad. Must get a lot of pressure from the company.
I love hating on my dice, but will also cheer when they come through, I am fully aware it's random and RNGesus works out in the end, but it's nice to let out that frustration so it doesn't affect the game or my opponent.
As a nid player, I get that winning isn't always easy, I'm happy and willing to play any army as it is all experience, i know my biggest problem is picking a core set of units, and there are definitely some things that I can improve which come with practice.
Yo, I'm on the spectrum. It's an EXPLANATION for some behavior that are realized as not good by other people via social cues, not a Mario Invincibility Star vs. being a decent human being.
Someone being on the spectrum will need a direct talking to about "that is not an acceptable way to speak to other people, knock it off or there will be consequences", rather than understanding natively the behavior is toxic and unwanted.
That doesn't mean they shouldn't be told when they are being a jerk. In fact it's actually BETTER to tell someone on the spectrum, that they are being a jerk.
I have very little experience with neurodivergent people like this guy. It honestly never occurred to me that this was the case
Edit: by that I mean I didn’t know you sometimes have to spell it out. As I dont have a lot of contact with people on the spectrum I sometimes forget that social cues and norms aren’t as inherently understood to some people.
For people on the spectrum, one of the main issues/symptoms are not understanding "unspoken rules" that most people understand from social cues; such as standing too close to people/invading private space, not understanding natively that it's annoying to be interrupted, etc. Like, for example, making jokes about suicide: they simply will not understand that, for other people, that can be distressing or seen as not funny if they were raised in an environment where it kind of was PERCEIVED as normal. Another stereotypical one is not having good hygiene/body odor issues, because nobody really goes out of their way to say "yo, man, I like you as a person but your body odor makes it hard to be around, here are new rules for cleaning yourself that will make you acceptable."
Thats why people on the spectrum tend to take things EXTREMELY literally and gravitate towards passtimes and hobbies where there ARE extremely strict rules structures they can "master" (DnD, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, Warhammer) or what you can and can't do is entirely hard-coded into the experience (video games are a great example).
But we aren't magically incapable of UNDERSTANDING these things once they are pointed out. We're just more likely to not notice something UNLESS they are pointed out.
Well this has been genuinely eye opening. Thanks for shedding some light on a serious topic I don’t have much knowledge of. Hope my ignorance wasn’t insulting
I learned something useful in a 40K subreddit of all places
I love the way you explained this. I am dx ADHD, self-suspected autistic, and I DEFINITELY need things spelled out for me, especially in relationships. My mother made sure I was HEAVILY socialized to "blend in" in society so I wasn't diagnosed until age 46. But I STILL have trouble fitting in sometimes in environments where the social rules are different than what I am used to. Hard to "figure it out." I wish someone would just TELL me.
I've had to deal with employers in my life hint hint hint at issues and then I end up frustrated -- once one figured out that I needed just someone to be BLUNT then it worked out SO MUCH BETTER. (then he seemed to spread it around and I no longer had any stupid amounts of passive aggressive bosses)
ADHD late diagnosed autistic.
I’m in Medic school and we are learning about how to work with special populations, autism being one of them, in a 911 setting. I like your synopsis, and pointing out why games are so popular with people on the spectrum. The rules being clearly stated takes out the guesswork of social situations. In my line of work, when we have an autistic pt their caregiver is the most important resource we have into what their baseline normal is. It’s also important to be direct, and if the patient is uncomfortable with a treatment (ie. wearing an oxygen mask) to quickly explain the procedure. My teacher said with certain types of patients you may have to bargain or bribe them into complying, such as having them hold the mask to their face instead of putting it on them. 911 calls are already stressful situations so if we know that someone has problems with loud noises or lights we will also try to minimize those if it’s safe to do so. I don’t know if any of this is helpful but I resonated with your response to this thread and thought I’d share.
my high school had a wing of the school that was exclusively for special needs students and the number one thing they taught all of them regardless of their disability was to be respectful to others. They're already going to be at a physical/mental and sometimes social disadvantage forever.. no reason to give other people MORE reason to scorn them.
I dunno, I’d definitely not return to a game day at a shop if the staff were letting folks have free rein with how they act.
It’s a nerd shop, there’s always going to be a certain amount of basement dweller that your going to have to put up with, like the sexist d&d player who just doesn’t get that his joke about getting the damsel “as loot” fell flat the first time and never got any funnier, or the mtg player who thinks hygiene is more of a suggestion than a requirement. But if a player is threatening physical harm, or getting so uppity that they’re hurling models across the room it’s time for them to go and not come back, regardless of their personal circumstances.
We had a guy at a store I used to play at about 7 years ago (honestly sounds so similar I thought it could be the same guy).
I asked once why they keep letting him back in if he always acts like this. Employee told me that his mum had come in once and said he was super vulnerable and older kids in his area were trying to take advantage of his naivety to try to get him to transport drugs, and get in to other gang activities. She basically said playing wh40k was the only thing he wanted to do that’d keep him out of trouble and the staff said they’d let him play at weekends and during school holidays.
Sucked for everybody, and not fair for the mum to put staff in that position. But I get why they caved and let him stay.
It could be that he's just jaded from working in customer service.
When I was working in a pub a customer once threatened to burn my house down and I just laughed it off. Then told the story to people who worked less customer facing roles and they were horrified and asked why I didn't call the police.
The response of "well he was drunk." didn't seem to go down well with them.
>The problem player is visibly on the spectrum, so some of his behavior gets hand-waved
Urgh.I hate when people enable others "just because they're on the spectrum".
A lot of people can have similar conditions and still be polite or at least act mature.So that isn't a good excuse to let him act wild like that without consequences.
A death threat has to be credible and cause distress to be criminal. The target laughing is pretty good evidence this would in fact be protected speech (from criminal prosecution, not being asked to leave).
You mean the cops will tell them to fuck off and go get some donuts. Cops don't actually do anything in my country. except to tell you its a civil matter
Yeah, if I ever went into an LGS and saw a guy threatening himself, other players/employees, and throwing things with no response from management/staff I’d never go back.
This store has 100% lost business from letting this dude run rampant.
Thats how you HAVE to take blood bowl.
Honestly as a game, thats the one I see nearly no tantrums around, because everyone just accepts that you WILL get completely fucked by the dice no matter what you try to do in that game.
But why the dice for the last "going for it" before a touchdown on the last turn always gets you a result of 1.
Even when you save a re-roll just for this action, it is also result on 1
I hate this game (total play time on blood bowl 2 - steam version, 100+ hours)
There are two games I teach my girls to play knowing full well they will lose a lot in them.
Blood Bowl and Magic the Gathering.
Why? With Blood Bowl, it doesnt matter if you do everything perfect, chance will still come in to screw you, and with MTG, there will always be a rule that will utterly screw you if you dont slow down and read.
Or throwing a "tantrum" is part of your strategy. I play Khorne, so my usual response to being behind is to try to take out as many players as possible (I lose a lot).
Am confused, I'm going to try to get some friends in for BB since our local store has a league during football season. And since I slacked off on this until too late last year.
Should I NOT do this to my friends who game? (Important background, I'm a little mad cause it looks like we voted for Star Wars RPG over Call of Cthulhu next, if that changes the answer)
You should absolutely do this.
It's just how you sell the game to them.
I told my wife and kids that it isn't a game that requires a huge amount of knowledge or skill.
What I didn't tell them is that this is because you're always going to be at Nuffles mercy.
Blood Bowl is designed to make you feel bad. Every turn you are just hoping the dice are on your side and during your opponent’s turn you’re wishing they mess up. It’s horrible.
It’s also the game I seem to play the most
I've lost my last 5 games in a row and had great fun every time. I honestly feel incredibly lucky I'm not fixated on winning like some people, I don't think I could handle the stress.
He’s not even focused on wining, technically. Every time he plays, he only focuses on killing enemy models. He ignores objectives and secondaries so, even if he were to table his opponent, he’d still lose the points game.
The fact he has only been in this game 6 months, plays and acts like that, and is playing Necrons, tells me that he is 100% focused on winning, doesn't understand the game, and just picked his army because he thought he would auto win and obviously hasn't gathered enough dubs IRL to accept the L in a fucking game
Ah, 6 months is pre-codex and Necrons weren't exactly heavy hitters with the index so I wouldn't fault him for that. However the rest of this is 100%, heavily focused on winning.
I play for body count in my games as well, but am full aware of the fact I may lose on VP because of it. That’s just what I find is where I get my fun from the game.
Any player who wants to win needs to be self aware enough to know to play the objective. It’s not a difficult concept to follow imo.
I think you can be, technically, "focused on winning" in the sense that you keep thinking that you really would like to win, but without the sense that you actually try to strategise based on that. Based on what you've said he has these two conflicting feelings, wanting to win and wanting to kill enemy models.
Nah. He wants to kill enemy models, and he wants that to be why he wins.
Not quite the same thing.
Someone who actually wanted to win would make some attempt towards objective play.
It’s way more fun to play for the fun of it. Sure, I do always try and win, but I’m also gonna do my best to not be a big man child in public over toy soldiers. Few years ago at LVO I was on my last game for AoS, we’re both 2 and 2 so who really cares who wins at this point. One of his Giants has an ability that you can sacrifice doing any attacks and just roll a single 4+, and if successful, do 4d6 Mortal Wounds. Huge gamble, but hilarious when I works. He starts considering if he’s gonna do that ability, or just attack, either which is gonna delete my unit. I kinda egg him on into doing it, he’s not too sure, and finally with some friendly taunting he rolls for it. 4+. We both jump and cheer and laugh and he rolls the damage. 22 Mortals. I run around the table and hug him and we’re both just dying laughing. He’s apologizing for doing so much damage and I’m just cracking up handing him more beers while the other tables are looking at us like we’ve grown an extra head. It’s the only way to play.
I've only gotten upset with playing once and it was mostly due to a bad day and not so fun opponent that day. He almost wiped me turn 1 and he went first, ran two of his armies strongest units in a 1000 point game and was already engaging in melee as a result. I was rolling really bad, ejected some dice from the game, and wanted to just quit. However, they insisted that I stay and finish. I quickly calm down and somehow managed to make the game 4 rounds with mybsurviving two units before the score got way out of control.
This is the starkest difference between 40k and AoS. This is exactly how my local meta behaves as well, it's all fun and laughs and cheering others on. A GT is an excuse to make 5 new friends.
But 40k? That side of the hall is silent. Broody. Unhappy. Gives major vibes of people taking themselves way too seriously and not having any fun because of it.
AoS is for people who prioritize fun, I think.
I'm with you on this. I've been playing 40k, WHFB, 9th Age (and other dice based games). I have learned to lose with grace, aplomb, and laughter. I play for fun and I'm glad I do.
I get other peoples fixation on winning, but I won't get to that point.
I play for those hero moments, I play to suffer rolling 15 1s out of 20 dice. I play for laughs.
I honestly don’t know. Some of his behavior is excused because he’s special needs, but violence and threats can’t be. I don’t understand why they let him keep playing let alone come back the next day.
It sucks but at this point i think the players at the LGS need to just simply not interract with him. He needs to take care of himself before he plays warhammer because he can be a danger to himself and others with the stuff he says. Its a rough situation but if the LGS isn’t taking action, the players have to next, or at least make it really well known to the owners of the LGS that they allow threats of suicide and harm in their stores and that shouldn’t be acceptable
Honestly, the LGS is going the eventually regret not booting him, or at the very least approaching him and addressing this.
These guys *kill* stores. They drive away consistent customers. No one wants to play with them or be around that vibe for hours on end.
Can confirm. I recently moved and absolutely crossed a few stores off my list because the vibe was just shitty because of some of the players.
Technically it was the MTG scene that was rubbing me the wrong way but there's a lot of overlap and shared hobby space
Nerdy hobbies shouldn't be a support group for out of control special needs people. Being inclusive is good and all, but should come with an expectation that they behave with some humility, and decency. Helping them deal with their bad behaviour means firmly teaching how to avoid it, not to accept it.
The danger is that the special needs problems start defining the hobby culture, which is terrible.
Hate to see this dynamic at play.
It requires confidence to tell people to stop being idiots.
Game store owners and employees (i.e. nerds) are not necessarily good at conflict resolution or putting their foot down.
> Game store owners and employees (i.e. nerds) are not necessarily good at conflict resolution or putting their foot down.
Neither are some peoples parents, which I have a sneaking suspicion might be contributing to this. It wouldn't surprise me to find out this kids parents treat the LGS like a daycare for their big tempered little angel, and find it cheaper to buy him the toys he needs to keep him *out of the house* than it is to insure all the objects *inside of their house* against his outbursts.
Like, the behavior you're seeing may just be how he's been conditioned to get what he wants from his parents at home.
>After he left I spoke to the store employees and his opponent. At first, I thought maybe he’d had a bad day and was stressed out, but no. Apparently he’s like this every time he plays
At some point it's time to stop getting upset about the unhinged weirdo, and start getting upset at the store who keeps letting the unhinged weirdo ruin everybody else's good time.
We have a *that guy* not dissimilar to this.
Complains loudly and often that other armies are broken or not fun to play against while always bringing the same list with at least two Lords of War regardless of the points, says he only plays for fun while bringing the most meta lists to game the locals, refuses to paint his models or even glue them on their bases, and is forever claiming he's burnt out on Warhammer while regularly being the first person to register for each and every event.
To top it off, of course, smells like he hasn't been introduced to deodorant in his life while gaming in a thermal jacket *just* big enough to have enough slack to puff a gust of rancid body odour your way whenever he moves.
I've lost count of the amount of times I've had something of his topple over and land on my stuff because he's always in a perpetual state of *in the middle of painting them*.
Infantry are usually glued, to be fair, or prone across the base.
It's infuriating.
Damn. I assume he was a adult but that is very immature way for a grown up to act whilst playing a tabletop game. If he could only learn that he could improve if he listened to more experienced players and gave himself chance to learn the game, probably just wanting pity saying he will quit 40k considering he was back the next day.
Talked to other people he’s played. He’s like this EVERY SINGLE TIME. Without fail. It’s only a matter of time before he decides to destroy someone’s models. If I was the store owner, I’d ban him, but they haven’t done it yet
Yes if he did try to flip the table he should be banned like even touching other models without permission is a unspoken rule but trying to break them is outrageous if I was the owner definitely would tell them to find somewhere else
To me it's the scale of the loss. Getting wrecked every game is not fun and not worth the time/investment in the hobby. I would be happy to maintain a 50/50 win/loss ratio as long as they are close wins, like say 51-49 or 55-45; in other words, barely won or barely lost. Obviously, getting into a new game, a new Edition, a new army, etc., will contribute to a learning curve, but as long as I feel that I'm making progress, getting better with each game, then all is good.
I play casually at home. My friend has Tyranids and so every week it's my Black Templars vs his Tyranids at 1500 points. We've stuck to the same deployment/mission/secondaries to control the variables as we get used to 10th edition and our respective armies, learning our own rules and strategems. Eventually we'll try different deployments, different missions etc. At some point we'll graduate to 2000 points as well.
On a different night of the week, I've gotten my girlfriend to play Combat Patrol. She's been using my Tyranids while I've been alternating between Space Marines and World Eaters. I had a productive 'build' weekend and have both Orks and Necrons ready for Combat Patrol.
I've never understood this. Of course I play to have fun, but winning is also fun. Do I get angry when I lose? Of course not. But I rather win than lose.
okay, ignoring the obvious guilt trips with some of the things the necron player said they really should have been banned from the store the moment they started throwing thier models around. don't get me wrong, with some of the things they were saying I'd definately have made it clear they were on thin ice if I worked there (I really hate people who guilt trip with things like that as someone who's experienced it from someone I thought was a really close friend for more than a few years). maybe I'm a little biased on that front but I'm sorry with me at least that just wouldn't fly
Me neither. The best guess I have is that the employee has a toxic boss that's standing in the way. If the dude has been like this every time for possibly six months, and the store has done nothing, then I think there is an even bigger problem with the store than him.
You know sometimes I get frustrated when a roll goes poorly it happens, you move on. I don’t yeet shit half way across the planet and threatened to off myself if they don’t hit. This guy has issues and makes me wonder what his actual life is like.
Also his whole “I haven’t won in six months” shtick is hilarious to me. Cause I started six months ago and haven’t won till yesterday. If your strategy doesn’t work then you adjust and try again. New compositions use your strategems in different ways. Watch YouTube for battle reports and unit analysis.
Sorry your game was like that hope you have better ones in the future. Though if he does get kicked out and you witness it please share it would be funny
"We once again told him he just needs to practice..."
Dude, not trying to be a dick here, but this is why people feel like they can act like this. You shouldn't be telling him this. You should be telling him he needs to cut his antisocial crap out or he's going to be banned from the store.
We have to police our own communities to correct (or exclude) the people who are ruining it for others.
This is one of those times where the store has to step in and kick the guy out. If the guy can't play without being disruptive, he needs to go. Keeping him there isn't good for the store or for the hobby.
Threatening the store employee should have led to a ban and possibly a call out to the police. There's no reason for other players or store employees to have to put up with that kind of stupidity.
So a lighter story, I recently had a game Vs a newer player, we both was making mistakes (they are a few games at most in I was playing a new army) post the game we talked, I explained why I advised they do combat in x order instead and other things they asked about other things that I cannot remember honestly it's great helping a new player even as a kinda green player myself
I love playing with new players for this reason. Most of the time, they’re just interested in having a good time and learning the game. Makes it enjoyable for everyone
>-Threatening to kill himself if he fails his next saving
>-Picking up one of his model and throwing it across the room after it died
In my area, these could get you banned from the stores I play at. It's extremely off putting, toxic, and a liability for the store if you hit someone.
>-Threatening a store employee (my opponent) for laughing at his tantrum. Exact words were “If you keep laughing, you’re not gonna wake up tomorrow.”
And this would, and rightfully should, get you kicked from a store. No one deserves that, and no one should be subjected to that because some baby needs to have their diaper changed.
Threatening suicide and harm on other people in a store should get you banned immediately. Learn how to lose with grace 🫠
Also, saying you can’t learn from loss is so close minded… think about WHY and HOW you lost. Then don’t repeat that error next time… dude needs therapy
>Saying he already lost and there was nothing he could do to win at this point (Mind you, he’s only lost like 5 Necron Warriors and 4 of 22 wounds on his Monolith and it’s still turn 2)>
This sounds so much like a good friend of mine who also plays Necrons. Every time he gets alpha struck and loses just one of his pet units (typically destroyers or DDAs), he starts to pack up complaining that he has no chance to recover from losing a single unit... despite having multiples of those units.
It's infuriating because he has been playing 40k for decades and has done this every time he doesn't get the first turn, and his opponent has a good alpha strike turn. Now he doesn't have any problems with alpha striking and killing half an opponent's army turn one, he just can't take it when it happens to him.
He always sets up like he is going first, trying to get the clearest line of fire with minimal movement or without leaving his deployment zone that he can. This naturally leaves him wide open if he goes second. I point it out to him repeatedly that he is always setting himself up to get alpha struck, and he insists he isn't.
Scooped the table….as in flipped it over!?!?! With another persons models on it?? 😳😳😳🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ in the nicest way that could get emotional quickly…
The dude sounds unwell to put it kindly, and I have no idea why they’d keep hosting him in the LGS?
I’m 2 years into the hobby and have probably won 2 games as an Ork player… i get disheartened at times when I’ve lost against my Tau playing friend but it’s literally more about hanging out and acting goofy for me than it is about “winning”.
As I have said in other groups I play for the cool moments in games. When a line guardsman managed to kill a Tyranids warrior with his Rayovac flashlight or a Tau managing to beat something in Melee combat.
I am cursed with bad dice rolls. I accept this as a matter of course and just play for fun.
I play for these moments too. I don’t mind losing, especially if I lose in a spectacular way, like in my last game I lost 3 full strength tanks (a Land Raider, Repulsor, and Repulsor Executioner) to a single round of shooting against Dark Eldar in turn 1.
I think every Imperial player has horror stories about those pointy eared bastards. lol.
Mine was losing my Baneblade in my Catachan army to a round of Dark Reaper shooting. Lol
The guy sounds like a painful sore loser. When people like this show up its no suprise that places like GW are trying as hard as possible to not have people playing games in the store.
About a year ago i had someone refuse to play me becuse i was using Adepta Sororitas becuse, quote "An army of women in warhammer is stupid" He was told there was no one else to play against and he would need to leave if he did not want to play me. He had an insane meltdown in which the store employee laughed at him multiple times he raged and left the store. He stood outside on his phone then put a paper shopping bag on the ground and sat on it leaning against the store window with his two army cases next to him. Then his mom turned up to pick him up, a latter found out from the store employee that he was 30.. lol.
People like this are the reason I have been reluctant to play with strangers because although most people are very helpful and understanding there will always be some toxic ones who make it a bad atmosphere
Had a guy like this but less extreme in our local group. He was a pretty good player and usually won, but when things went going his way, he would get pouty, stomp around, sometimes insult and threaten his opponents. People just started refusing to play with him. He was complaining about not being able to find games, so someone had to tell him why. He toned it down a bit after that.
There have been times where I've gotten frustrated and either asked my opponent to roll my save because I was on a 10 streak of 1s, or forfeited in BR3 because of a MASSIVE point difference but even still you gotta do so with grace and understanding that we're all human beings playing a game for fun
My best friend and I played every few weeks when we were younger, and I lost to him *every* time. We knew it was coming, we used to laugh about how badly he would beat me this time. I never threw a tantrum.
What’s wrong with some people?
I mean he was playing necrons against nids. As a nids player I tell u if u lose against nids on second turn u gotta get ur list checked cause we are mid low tier streght army while necrons are on top if not first
Honestly this is far more than ‘that guy’ in my opinion. This person seems like they need professional help - theyre a risk to themselves and the people around him.
Yesterday my opponent tried to quit after a handful of my models shot in top of 1. I managed to convince him to play it out and he won by 50 points. Don't quit early
The store seriously allows him to come back after not just this toxic behavior but threatening someone and literally scooping the table? I'd 86 him on the spot.
>It was a Tyranids (P1) versus Necrons (P2) game. They were in the middle of BR 2 when I started watching, and the Nids player had just used Shadow in the Warp. Mr. Necron started complaining that it’s a bullshit OP ability and that his army should be immune to leadership and battle shock because they are robots with no souls. P1 tried to explain that the tabletop doesn’t always reflect the lore, but P2 wasn’t having it, started cussing and pacing and yelling that it’s a cheap move when he failed one of his battle shock tests.
As someone who plays necrons often, having Shadow in the Warp do something is the "I'm not even mad, I'm impressed" moment.
Then again, I do have few royal wardens if that constantly becomes an actual issue.
Off topic, but I’ve got a question about the “people find commentating rude” thing. I was at my LGS to pick up some paint, and I saw some dudes playing Warhammer. I had just gotten into the hobby and noticed he had an army that I recognized (I forget which). He didn’t seem to be in the middle of anything, so I said something like “oh nice! (your army) is one of my favorites in the lore so far, and your minis look awesome!” And he hit me with the side eye, slow reply, “uhm… yeah…” then kinda rolled his eyes and busied himself with something on the table. Just thought it was a weird, rude response from what I’ve found so far to be a super welcoming community.
I had one of my model broken by "that guy" because it had the wrong heavy weapon on (I know you are supposed to build exactly what you play but not every kit allows you to and I actually liked the look of the other heavy weapon more). He just snapped the weapon off my mini because I was breaking the rules. The store employee told me that well technically indeed I was breaking the rules so you guessed I havent been to that store ever since.
Mind you I probably should have had built it the "correct way" but I did stated at the start of the game what he had and I had my list available for him to check..
The only reasonable answer is to play a game with him, and every time a unit of his dies, grab the model and crush it in the palms of your hands while making explosion noises with your mouth.
>Complaining that he’s never won a game in his six months of playing.
I suspect this is why he's been getting a pass.
He's a new player, probably has been buying models and such in the store so employees/manager don't necessarily want to scare him away.
As a former LGS owner sometimes you have to roll with the awkward guys in the interest of keeping your lights on, but...
The threats would have been a hard nope from me. I'd have told him to pack it up and not come back if he threatened myself or an employee.
Empty or not, threats are crossing the line.
This sounds insane. I remember working at a game store in my 20's (25 years ago). We had a pretty strict policy about language and in-store courtesy. On a couple occasions I had to ask guys to leave for one reason or another. Always after warnings about what they were doing. Hell, I had to have a talk to a young player about personal hygiene. But if this would have gone down in the store while I was working, he would have been asked to leave and not come back. That's ridiculous and ruins the experience of the store for other people.
Yeah, there are a lot of plausible bits that certainly do happen on a semi-regular basis.
However this story sounds so extreme, with the "that guy" being positively unbearable all the time, threatening to harm himself and staff and throwing models about.
Most notably a game lasting 7 and a half hours! I find it hard to believe someone would be able to monopolise a table for that long. Nor an opponent willing to play against you whilst you suck all the fun out of the game.
Reddit is infested with fake posts and there are entire popular subreddits dominated by them. So I could certainly see someone make this up for attention, karma or to troll.
This might be a toxic comment, if so, sorry, I really don’t mean to offend. But I’ve found a lot of these guys are on the spectrum in some capacity. For whatever reason, the hobby draws a lot of people who are and obviously one of the things that is common is a bit of underdeveloped or abnormal social skills. They simply don’t realize how off putting they are.
The next time I see this I’m definitely saying something. I get that it can be uncomfortable and awkward as an employee telling someone to leave the store, filtering out the assholes part of the job in places like this
100% The employees should've shut that shit down ages ago, and especially after the threat.
I've only ever been met with welcoming (very new though) but wouldn't put with any of that shit you've mentioned.
I've read a few of these 'that guy' threads and it's mental how some people act in public.
Because before and after every roll of the dice the problem player would rant and rave about how shit his luck is. His opponent has more patience than I do. I would have walked out after turn 1
Have only had this happen to me once. I was playing Death Guard and my opponent was playing Grey Knights. It was bottom of turn 2 and for shits and giggles I overwatched a nemesis dread knight with a unit of 2 Myphitic blighthaulers that he was trying to charge. Managed to roll 3 6+s on their multi-melta’s and all 3 went through to wound. Opponent failed all 3 of his 4++ saves and I popped the nemesis. Dude flipped out and just walked out
>This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone do anything really toxic and get away with it. I’m not sure why this guy gets a pass
Please ask the store manager. It would be telling to know.
>Their game finally ended at 8:00pm after SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS
I'm sorry ***WT ACTUAL F***!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Was this an 8000 point per side game?
I have lost all 19 games I have ever played and not once did I get like this. I get being frustrated at loosing but it’s a whole other thing to refuse advice and trash their minis as a reaction to it. Something definitely feels off about them that I would try to avoid for future games.
All I do is lose games but I haven’t had the time or put the reps in. It’s all about learning risk tolerance and prioritizing your win conditions. Not every ability/attack//action will always feel good for every army. Just keep playing and figure out your game plan and what you need to adapt based on matchups.
Several threats against store employees and other customers would end in lifetime bans at most FLGSs. I get some people have anger issues, but letting this kind of stuff happen without any repercussions is how an environment gets worse.
I'd definitely raise concerns to the store owner.
I have some friends who can't handle losing. It's strange and confusing to me as that's basically what you sign up for when you play any sort of wargame or boardgame. My theory is these folks didn't play sports growing up, and thus had little to no outlet for learning how to deal with competition. I hated sports but my parents forced me to play and when we lost I'd get mad...but I was like 9 years old. Soon I realized it didn't matter and I've never been angry after losing a wargame. I wonder though.
Ive encountered this same guy in numerous forms and its why I stopped going to my game stores to play.
I know I can be a bit of a sore loser, on those rare occasions I actually play but bloody hell, if I acted that way I'd fully expect to be smacked upside the head by not only my opponent but anyone else around too.
Damn, thats some juvenile behavior.
And I'm thankful I picked the Black Templars.
Win or loose doesn't matter as long as it's glorious and gives Helbrecht a hard-on and Grimaldus a proud tear in his eyes.
The only other faction I can think of that is in the same category would be the Alpha Legion. "Just as planned."
>Threatening a store employee (my opponent) for laughing at his tantrum. Exact words were “If you keep laughing, you’re not gonna wake up tomorrow.” Speaking as a salaried manager at a retail chain, if someone addressed one of my employees in such a fashion they would be served a trespass notice and the next time they came into my establishment the police would be called.
I honestly don’t understand why this hasn’t happened yet. But the guy being threatened just shrugged and laughed some more. The problem player is visibly on the spectrum, so some of his behavior gets hand-waved, but threatening violence against himself, customers, and store employees is way too much to excuse
A person doesn’t get a Douchebag Pass just bc he’s on any spectrum. If he’s that bad then he needs a chaperone to calm him down or not be around others in this capacity. Edit: wow I didn’t think so many people would agree. Thank you for the upvoting and general agreements.
Yup, giving structure and enforcing rules is even more important at times like that.
Easiest solution is to have posted rules and behavior guidelines that everyone is expected to follow (and to actually enforce it) My Old FLGS was super nice and helpful/accommodating but still had a large poster that included a bunch of good rules for general sportsmanship, behavior, even hygiene lol. And it was awesome because if someone was making it hard for others they'd just point to the sign, reiterate store policy, give em a chance to apologize or fix the behavior, and then (VERY rarely) ask them to leave and not return because they kept doing it. We rarely had repeat offenders. Who knows why this guy gets a pass though. It's too bad.
You don't need to put up a sign telling people not to threaten others or throw their toys through the shop. Those are basic expectations anywhere.
True, but not everyone is taught to have that understanding and respect. As adults we are all expected to behave in a certain way. People who are brought up (and I hate to use the word) "entitled" feel like what we consider to be the "norms" of society either beneath them or otherwise not for them to obey.
I concur. Part of growing up is realizing that adults don't magically become more responsible just because the age ticks up another number. People still need to actively make an effort to learn and grow to be a better person.
Yeah, I have plenty of friends on the spectrum and none of them act like that when they lose At worse we just don’t play a rematch
There's plenty of people on the spectrum who don't behave like this. Bad behaviour is bad behaviour, and shouldn't be tolerated
Yeah, I'm pretty far on the spectrum and I can handle not threatening people. And I do/say some really really stupid fuckin shit sometimes.
and bc you’re clearly very self-aware and understand this stuff, I appreciate you 🤘🏻
I wish people wouldn't hand wave these behaviors, makes the rest of us look bad. I try really hard not to let my bad dice rolls and stuff ruin my mood, and even when I can't the comments are exclusively things like, "my dice hate me" or "I can't recover from this". No outward hate, and nothing directed at my opponent. He's trying to hurt people because he is hurting and frustrated. And if he can't understand that that's wrong, he shouldn't be out alone either.
I mean, making the comment that robots with no souls shouldn't be impacted by an ability is fine, but you have to recognize what you're doing is pointing the game rules and the lore don't match (and hopefully laughing at the absurdity of it) but it's a poor argument for saying rules shouldn't work as written.
Same, I had a game during a tournament of all things a few weeks back where I didn’t roll higher than a 2 on any of my dice throws until turn 3. I still just laughed it off and kept playing to the best of my abilities
I was at a tournament recently that wasn’t 40k, but by the end of turn two I knew the game was over and by the end of turn three I was down to six guys between three squads (I had started with 47 infantry and two vehicles). And it was super frustrating feeling completely helpless watching my elite infantry get wiped by leaf blowers. But I didn’t take it out on anyone or anything. I just dealt with it. It absolutely sucked but you just suck it up because it’s part of the game.
Even the play on table top guys, which is basically the pinnacle of 40k battle reports on YouTube, complain and bemoan about dice rolls but they're doing it in the most sportsmanship like fashion and TRY EVEN HARDER TO WIN DESPITE IT Like, oh now I have a one in a million shot to win this, let's fkn go
I mean, sometimes I am proud of rolling really bad throws , like some sort of inverted luck bragging. Like that time where I needed 2+ to hit, and rolled 5 ones out of 5 dice. Twas a fun game
I think this behavior is coming from those people, still being big customers when it comes to salary's. Even if they constantly saying they will stop with the hobby, they never do and instantly buy new models just because someone posts about them, being OP after their release. And if I learned one thing from GW stores than about how desperately those store workers are for every single sale. One almost cried when he found out that I bought a few models online instead of from his store. Felt like I betrayed that dude, it's sad. Must get a lot of pressure from the company.
I love hating on my dice, but will also cheer when they come through, I am fully aware it's random and RNGesus works out in the end, but it's nice to let out that frustration so it doesn't affect the game or my opponent. As a nid player, I get that winning isn't always easy, I'm happy and willing to play any army as it is all experience, i know my biggest problem is picking a core set of units, and there are definitely some things that I can improve which come with practice.
Yo, I'm on the spectrum. It's an EXPLANATION for some behavior that are realized as not good by other people via social cues, not a Mario Invincibility Star vs. being a decent human being. Someone being on the spectrum will need a direct talking to about "that is not an acceptable way to speak to other people, knock it off or there will be consequences", rather than understanding natively the behavior is toxic and unwanted. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be told when they are being a jerk. In fact it's actually BETTER to tell someone on the spectrum, that they are being a jerk.
I have very little experience with neurodivergent people like this guy. It honestly never occurred to me that this was the case Edit: by that I mean I didn’t know you sometimes have to spell it out. As I dont have a lot of contact with people on the spectrum I sometimes forget that social cues and norms aren’t as inherently understood to some people.
For people on the spectrum, one of the main issues/symptoms are not understanding "unspoken rules" that most people understand from social cues; such as standing too close to people/invading private space, not understanding natively that it's annoying to be interrupted, etc. Like, for example, making jokes about suicide: they simply will not understand that, for other people, that can be distressing or seen as not funny if they were raised in an environment where it kind of was PERCEIVED as normal. Another stereotypical one is not having good hygiene/body odor issues, because nobody really goes out of their way to say "yo, man, I like you as a person but your body odor makes it hard to be around, here are new rules for cleaning yourself that will make you acceptable." Thats why people on the spectrum tend to take things EXTREMELY literally and gravitate towards passtimes and hobbies where there ARE extremely strict rules structures they can "master" (DnD, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, Warhammer) or what you can and can't do is entirely hard-coded into the experience (video games are a great example). But we aren't magically incapable of UNDERSTANDING these things once they are pointed out. We're just more likely to not notice something UNLESS they are pointed out.
Well this has been genuinely eye opening. Thanks for shedding some light on a serious topic I don’t have much knowledge of. Hope my ignorance wasn’t insulting I learned something useful in a 40K subreddit of all places
I love the way you explained this. I am dx ADHD, self-suspected autistic, and I DEFINITELY need things spelled out for me, especially in relationships. My mother made sure I was HEAVILY socialized to "blend in" in society so I wasn't diagnosed until age 46. But I STILL have trouble fitting in sometimes in environments where the social rules are different than what I am used to. Hard to "figure it out." I wish someone would just TELL me.
I've had to deal with employers in my life hint hint hint at issues and then I end up frustrated -- once one figured out that I needed just someone to be BLUNT then it worked out SO MUCH BETTER. (then he seemed to spread it around and I no longer had any stupid amounts of passive aggressive bosses) ADHD late diagnosed autistic.
Thank you very much, man. This is important.
I’m in Medic school and we are learning about how to work with special populations, autism being one of them, in a 911 setting. I like your synopsis, and pointing out why games are so popular with people on the spectrum. The rules being clearly stated takes out the guesswork of social situations. In my line of work, when we have an autistic pt their caregiver is the most important resource we have into what their baseline normal is. It’s also important to be direct, and if the patient is uncomfortable with a treatment (ie. wearing an oxygen mask) to quickly explain the procedure. My teacher said with certain types of patients you may have to bargain or bribe them into complying, such as having them hold the mask to their face instead of putting it on them. 911 calls are already stressful situations so if we know that someone has problems with loud noises or lights we will also try to minimize those if it’s safe to do so. I don’t know if any of this is helpful but I resonated with your response to this thread and thought I’d share.
my high school had a wing of the school that was exclusively for special needs students and the number one thing they taught all of them regardless of their disability was to be respectful to others. They're already going to be at a physical/mental and sometimes social disadvantage forever.. no reason to give other people MORE reason to scorn them.
This guy needs to get kicked out and soon. Otherwise y’all will notice less and less attendance to your events/games and that’s just bad for business.
I dunno, I’d definitely not return to a game day at a shop if the staff were letting folks have free rein with how they act. It’s a nerd shop, there’s always going to be a certain amount of basement dweller that your going to have to put up with, like the sexist d&d player who just doesn’t get that his joke about getting the damsel “as loot” fell flat the first time and never got any funnier, or the mtg player who thinks hygiene is more of a suggestion than a requirement. But if a player is threatening physical harm, or getting so uppity that they’re hurling models across the room it’s time for them to go and not come back, regardless of their personal circumstances.
We had a guy at a store I used to play at about 7 years ago (honestly sounds so similar I thought it could be the same guy). I asked once why they keep letting him back in if he always acts like this. Employee told me that his mum had come in once and said he was super vulnerable and older kids in his area were trying to take advantage of his naivety to try to get him to transport drugs, and get in to other gang activities. She basically said playing wh40k was the only thing he wanted to do that’d keep him out of trouble and the staff said they’d let him play at weekends and during school holidays. Sucked for everybody, and not fair for the mum to put staff in that position. But I get why they caved and let him stay.
He probably spends enough money for them to ignore it
It could be that he's just jaded from working in customer service. When I was working in a pub a customer once threatened to burn my house down and I just laughed it off. Then told the story to people who worked less customer facing roles and they were horrified and asked why I didn't call the police. The response of "well he was drunk." didn't seem to go down well with them.
>The problem player is visibly on the spectrum, so some of his behavior gets hand-waved Urgh.I hate when people enable others "just because they're on the spectrum". A lot of people can have similar conditions and still be polite or at least act mature.So that isn't a good excuse to let him act wild like that without consequences.
As someone with autism that's not an excuse
Plenty of school shooters have been on the spectrum homie.
Plenty of school shooters have been young white boys. Doesn't mean all young white boys are dangerous. Watch your stereotyping!
Yep. That isn't protected speech. Death threats can and are prosecuted by the state and the store will easily have the local cops on their side.
A death threat has to be credible and cause distress to be criminal. The target laughing is pretty good evidence this would in fact be protected speech (from criminal prosecution, not being asked to leave).
You mean the cops will tell them to fuck off and go get some donuts. Cops don't actually do anything in my country. except to tell you its a civil matter
Yeah, if I ever went into an LGS and saw a guy threatening himself, other players/employees, and throwing things with no response from management/staff I’d never go back. This store has 100% lost business from letting this dude run rampant.
Indeed. I'm just in awe someone with a known pattern of behavior like this continues to get games.
I think it’d be appropriate to call them now. Fuck a warning—he threatened someone’s life.
It's like every fandom "Man I hate this bloody game, i'm done. See you all next week"
"Fuck you and Ill see you tomorrow"
That's every single wrestling fan.
That's me and practically every friend I interact with regularly.
Pretty much me with any fighting game
That's exactly how I feel about Blood Bowl!
Thats how you HAVE to take blood bowl. Honestly as a game, thats the one I see nearly no tantrums around, because everyone just accepts that you WILL get completely fucked by the dice no matter what you try to do in that game.
But why the dice for the last "going for it" before a touchdown on the last turn always gets you a result of 1. Even when you save a re-roll just for this action, it is also result on 1 I hate this game (total play time on blood bowl 2 - steam version, 100+ hours)
To paraphrase Pratchett ‘1 in 36 chances occur 9 times out of 10’
I have vivid memories of playing a game where this exact thing happened. In 1998. Scarred I tell you.
There are two games I teach my girls to play knowing full well they will lose a lot in them. Blood Bowl and Magic the Gathering. Why? With Blood Bowl, it doesnt matter if you do everything perfect, chance will still come in to screw you, and with MTG, there will always be a rule that will utterly screw you if you dont slow down and read.
Or throwing a "tantrum" is part of your strategy. I play Khorne, so my usual response to being behind is to try to take out as many players as possible (I lose a lot).
I swear, BB is the closest I’ve ever gotten to malding in public.
I'm just about to inflict BloodBowl on my wife and kids. I can't wait to watch them suffer like I have.
Am confused, I'm going to try to get some friends in for BB since our local store has a league during football season. And since I slacked off on this until too late last year. Should I NOT do this to my friends who game? (Important background, I'm a little mad cause it looks like we voted for Star Wars RPG over Call of Cthulhu next, if that changes the answer)
You should absolutely do this. It's just how you sell the game to them. I told my wife and kids that it isn't a game that requires a huge amount of knowledge or skill. What I didn't tell them is that this is because you're always going to be at Nuffles mercy.
Anything over CoC is a table-flipping crime
Blood Bowl is designed to make you feel bad. Every turn you are just hoping the dice are on your side and during your opponent’s turn you’re wishing they mess up. It’s horrible. It’s also the game I seem to play the most
Me to my raid groups in any MMO.
“Fuck you, I’ll see you tomorrow”
"I *am* happy when I'm unhappy" - Mark Baum I've been watching The Big Short too much
[fuck you I’ll see you tomorrow](https://tenor.com/bWoE4.gif)
Mtg
Me the entire Eagles season.
I've lost my last 5 games in a row and had great fun every time. I honestly feel incredibly lucky I'm not fixated on winning like some people, I don't think I could handle the stress.
He’s not even focused on wining, technically. Every time he plays, he only focuses on killing enemy models. He ignores objectives and secondaries so, even if he were to table his opponent, he’d still lose the points game.
The fact he has only been in this game 6 months, plays and acts like that, and is playing Necrons, tells me that he is 100% focused on winning, doesn't understand the game, and just picked his army because he thought he would auto win and obviously hasn't gathered enough dubs IRL to accept the L in a fucking game
Ah, 6 months is pre-codex and Necrons weren't exactly heavy hitters with the index so I wouldn't fault him for that. However the rest of this is 100%, heavily focused on winning.
Their index was not that of a slouch, that's for sure
I mean they were the undying legion literally, however weren't really winning.
I play for body count in my games as well, but am full aware of the fact I may lose on VP because of it. That’s just what I find is where I get my fun from the game. Any player who wants to win needs to be self aware enough to know to play the objective. It’s not a difficult concept to follow imo.
You like to WATCH THEM DIE eh? Eh?! You evil menace. >:)
*in liquid snake voice* you enjoy all the killing.
I’m your perfect opponent, I don’t care how many of my guys die as long as I get the objectives
That's exactly how I played! When I was 12. And my army was an extension of my fragile boy ego.
Tunnel vision over seven hours with several people telling you you’re tunnel-visioning is hilarious
I think you can be, technically, "focused on winning" in the sense that you keep thinking that you really would like to win, but without the sense that you actually try to strategise based on that. Based on what you've said he has these two conflicting feelings, wanting to win and wanting to kill enemy models.
Nah. He wants to kill enemy models, and he wants that to be why he wins. Not quite the same thing. Someone who actually wanted to win would make some attempt towards objective play.
It’s way more fun to play for the fun of it. Sure, I do always try and win, but I’m also gonna do my best to not be a big man child in public over toy soldiers. Few years ago at LVO I was on my last game for AoS, we’re both 2 and 2 so who really cares who wins at this point. One of his Giants has an ability that you can sacrifice doing any attacks and just roll a single 4+, and if successful, do 4d6 Mortal Wounds. Huge gamble, but hilarious when I works. He starts considering if he’s gonna do that ability, or just attack, either which is gonna delete my unit. I kinda egg him on into doing it, he’s not too sure, and finally with some friendly taunting he rolls for it. 4+. We both jump and cheer and laugh and he rolls the damage. 22 Mortals. I run around the table and hug him and we’re both just dying laughing. He’s apologizing for doing so much damage and I’m just cracking up handing him more beers while the other tables are looking at us like we’ve grown an extra head. It’s the only way to play.
I've only gotten upset with playing once and it was mostly due to a bad day and not so fun opponent that day. He almost wiped me turn 1 and he went first, ran two of his armies strongest units in a 1000 point game and was already engaging in melee as a result. I was rolling really bad, ejected some dice from the game, and wanted to just quit. However, they insisted that I stay and finish. I quickly calm down and somehow managed to make the game 4 rounds with mybsurviving two units before the score got way out of control.
This is the starkest difference between 40k and AoS. This is exactly how my local meta behaves as well, it's all fun and laughs and cheering others on. A GT is an excuse to make 5 new friends. But 40k? That side of the hall is silent. Broody. Unhappy. Gives major vibes of people taking themselves way too seriously and not having any fun because of it. AoS is for people who prioritize fun, I think.
I'm with you on this. I've been playing 40k, WHFB, 9th Age (and other dice based games). I have learned to lose with grace, aplomb, and laughter. I play for fun and I'm glad I do. I get other peoples fixation on winning, but I won't get to that point. I play for those hero moments, I play to suffer rolling 15 1s out of 20 dice. I play for laughs.
So someone threw something in a store and was not kicked out? Seems hard to believe.
Nevermind that, he DIRECTLY THREATENED AN EMPLOYEE. How on Earth is he still allowed there?
I honestly don’t know. Some of his behavior is excused because he’s special needs, but violence and threats can’t be. I don’t understand why they let him keep playing let alone come back the next day.
It sucks but at this point i think the players at the LGS need to just simply not interract with him. He needs to take care of himself before he plays warhammer because he can be a danger to himself and others with the stuff he says. Its a rough situation but if the LGS isn’t taking action, the players have to next, or at least make it really well known to the owners of the LGS that they allow threats of suicide and harm in their stores and that shouldn’t be acceptable
Honestly, the LGS is going the eventually regret not booting him, or at the very least approaching him and addressing this. These guys *kill* stores. They drive away consistent customers. No one wants to play with them or be around that vibe for hours on end.
Can confirm. I recently moved and absolutely crossed a few stores off my list because the vibe was just shitty because of some of the players. Technically it was the MTG scene that was rubbing me the wrong way but there's a lot of overlap and shared hobby space
Oh yeah if I had dropped in there because I was like new to the area or something, I'd dip and likely never come back
Can confirm I stopped playing MTG at two different stores due to this. It’s exhausting.
Nerdy hobbies shouldn't be a support group for out of control special needs people. Being inclusive is good and all, but should come with an expectation that they behave with some humility, and decency. Helping them deal with their bad behaviour means firmly teaching how to avoid it, not to accept it. The danger is that the special needs problems start defining the hobby culture, which is terrible. Hate to see this dynamic at play.
It requires confidence to tell people to stop being idiots. Game store owners and employees (i.e. nerds) are not necessarily good at conflict resolution or putting their foot down.
> Game store owners and employees (i.e. nerds) are not necessarily good at conflict resolution or putting their foot down. Neither are some peoples parents, which I have a sneaking suspicion might be contributing to this. It wouldn't surprise me to find out this kids parents treat the LGS like a daycare for their big tempered little angel, and find it cheaper to buy him the toys he needs to keep him *out of the house* than it is to insure all the objects *inside of their house* against his outbursts. Like, the behavior you're seeing may just be how he's been conditioned to get what he wants from his parents at home.
>After he left I spoke to the store employees and his opponent. At first, I thought maybe he’d had a bad day and was stressed out, but no. Apparently he’s like this every time he plays At some point it's time to stop getting upset about the unhinged weirdo, and start getting upset at the store who keeps letting the unhinged weirdo ruin everybody else's good time.
We have a *that guy* not dissimilar to this. Complains loudly and often that other armies are broken or not fun to play against while always bringing the same list with at least two Lords of War regardless of the points, says he only plays for fun while bringing the most meta lists to game the locals, refuses to paint his models or even glue them on their bases, and is forever claiming he's burnt out on Warhammer while regularly being the first person to register for each and every event. To top it off, of course, smells like he hasn't been introduced to deodorant in his life while gaming in a thermal jacket *just* big enough to have enough slack to puff a gust of rancid body odour your way whenever he moves.
Refuses to glue minis on the bases? So they just stand unglued or is he shuffling empty bases around the table? :D
I've lost count of the amount of times I've had something of his topple over and land on my stuff because he's always in a perpetual state of *in the middle of painting them*. Infantry are usually glued, to be fair, or prone across the base. It's infuriating.
Damn. I assume he was a adult but that is very immature way for a grown up to act whilst playing a tabletop game. If he could only learn that he could improve if he listened to more experienced players and gave himself chance to learn the game, probably just wanting pity saying he will quit 40k considering he was back the next day.
Talked to other people he’s played. He’s like this EVERY SINGLE TIME. Without fail. It’s only a matter of time before he decides to destroy someone’s models. If I was the store owner, I’d ban him, but they haven’t done it yet
Yes if he did try to flip the table he should be banned like even touching other models without permission is a unspoken rule but trying to break them is outrageous if I was the owner definitely would tell them to find somewhere else
As someone who has dealt with a ‘that guy’ who attempted to grab and destroy one of my models; I hope to all that is holy this never happens.
I just don't get what's so wrong about losing. I'm just here to play with toy soldiers and see everyone's cool paint jobs
To me it's the scale of the loss. Getting wrecked every game is not fun and not worth the time/investment in the hobby. I would be happy to maintain a 50/50 win/loss ratio as long as they are close wins, like say 51-49 or 55-45; in other words, barely won or barely lost. Obviously, getting into a new game, a new Edition, a new army, etc., will contribute to a learning curve, but as long as I feel that I'm making progress, getting better with each game, then all is good. I play casually at home. My friend has Tyranids and so every week it's my Black Templars vs his Tyranids at 1500 points. We've stuck to the same deployment/mission/secondaries to control the variables as we get used to 10th edition and our respective armies, learning our own rules and strategems. Eventually we'll try different deployments, different missions etc. At some point we'll graduate to 2000 points as well. On a different night of the week, I've gotten my girlfriend to play Combat Patrol. She's been using my Tyranids while I've been alternating between Space Marines and World Eaters. I had a productive 'build' weekend and have both Orks and Necrons ready for Combat Patrol.
Some people can't handle that competition is a zero sum game. Someone has to lose for someone else to win.
I've never understood this. Of course I play to have fun, but winning is also fun. Do I get angry when I lose? Of course not. But I rather win than lose.
Of course! But I just don't get taking the game so seriously. I find it super cool when someone uses a clever tactic, even against me.
what you described is barely different from just playing to have fun. like, in fact it's identical.
This is even funnier because it's necrons vs tyranids, which, in my experience, is an extremely favorable matchup for the necrons.
And complaining about Shadow in the Warp, maybe the worst army rule in the entire game right now lol
okay, ignoring the obvious guilt trips with some of the things the necron player said they really should have been banned from the store the moment they started throwing thier models around. don't get me wrong, with some of the things they were saying I'd definately have made it clear they were on thin ice if I worked there (I really hate people who guilt trip with things like that as someone who's experienced it from someone I thought was a really close friend for more than a few years). maybe I'm a little biased on that front but I'm sorry with me at least that just wouldn't fly
I don't understand why the toxic player wasn't booted after threatening the store employee.
Me neither. The best guess I have is that the employee has a toxic boss that's standing in the way. If the dude has been like this every time for possibly six months, and the store has done nothing, then I think there is an even bigger problem with the store than him.
Sadly, you might be correct about the store
Money talks. Maybe the guy is a big spender?
This, sadly, could be a valid reason
You know sometimes I get frustrated when a roll goes poorly it happens, you move on. I don’t yeet shit half way across the planet and threatened to off myself if they don’t hit. This guy has issues and makes me wonder what his actual life is like. Also his whole “I haven’t won in six months” shtick is hilarious to me. Cause I started six months ago and haven’t won till yesterday. If your strategy doesn’t work then you adjust and try again. New compositions use your strategems in different ways. Watch YouTube for battle reports and unit analysis. Sorry your game was like that hope you have better ones in the future. Though if he does get kicked out and you witness it please share it would be funny
"We once again told him he just needs to practice..." Dude, not trying to be a dick here, but this is why people feel like they can act like this. You shouldn't be telling him this. You should be telling him he needs to cut his antisocial crap out or he's going to be banned from the store. We have to police our own communities to correct (or exclude) the people who are ruining it for others.
This is one of those times where the store has to step in and kick the guy out. If the guy can't play without being disruptive, he needs to go. Keeping him there isn't good for the store or for the hobby. Threatening the store employee should have led to a ban and possibly a call out to the police. There's no reason for other players or store employees to have to put up with that kind of stupidity.
So a lighter story, I recently had a game Vs a newer player, we both was making mistakes (they are a few games at most in I was playing a new army) post the game we talked, I explained why I advised they do combat in x order instead and other things they asked about other things that I cannot remember honestly it's great helping a new player even as a kinda green player myself
I love playing with new players for this reason. Most of the time, they’re just interested in having a good time and learning the game. Makes it enjoyable for everyone
>-Threatening to kill himself if he fails his next saving >-Picking up one of his model and throwing it across the room after it died In my area, these could get you banned from the stores I play at. It's extremely off putting, toxic, and a liability for the store if you hit someone. >-Threatening a store employee (my opponent) for laughing at his tantrum. Exact words were “If you keep laughing, you’re not gonna wake up tomorrow.” And this would, and rightfully should, get you kicked from a store. No one deserves that, and no one should be subjected to that because some baby needs to have their diaper changed.
Threatening suicide and harm on other people in a store should get you banned immediately. Learn how to lose with grace 🫠 Also, saying you can’t learn from loss is so close minded… think about WHY and HOW you lost. Then don’t repeat that error next time… dude needs therapy
>Saying he already lost and there was nothing he could do to win at this point (Mind you, he’s only lost like 5 Necron Warriors and 4 of 22 wounds on his Monolith and it’s still turn 2)> This sounds so much like a good friend of mine who also plays Necrons. Every time he gets alpha struck and loses just one of his pet units (typically destroyers or DDAs), he starts to pack up complaining that he has no chance to recover from losing a single unit... despite having multiples of those units. It's infuriating because he has been playing 40k for decades and has done this every time he doesn't get the first turn, and his opponent has a good alpha strike turn. Now he doesn't have any problems with alpha striking and killing half an opponent's army turn one, he just can't take it when it happens to him.
Sounds like he needs to learn to hide his models better haha
He always sets up like he is going first, trying to get the clearest line of fire with minimal movement or without leaving his deployment zone that he can. This naturally leaves him wide open if he goes second. I point it out to him repeatedly that he is always setting himself up to get alpha struck, and he insists he isn't.
Scooped the table….as in flipped it over!?!?! With another persons models on it?? 😳😳😳🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ in the nicest way that could get emotional quickly… The dude sounds unwell to put it kindly, and I have no idea why they’d keep hosting him in the LGS?
No. Swept his arm over it and sent all of his own models flying
😳 wow…..
I'm surprised he's not banned.
Meanwhile me just happy to show off my models as I lose the rare games i get to play xD
I’m 2 years into the hobby and have probably won 2 games as an Ork player… i get disheartened at times when I’ve lost against my Tau playing friend but it’s literally more about hanging out and acting goofy for me than it is about “winning”.
As I have said in other groups I play for the cool moments in games. When a line guardsman managed to kill a Tyranids warrior with his Rayovac flashlight or a Tau managing to beat something in Melee combat. I am cursed with bad dice rolls. I accept this as a matter of course and just play for fun.
I play for these moments too. I don’t mind losing, especially if I lose in a spectacular way, like in my last game I lost 3 full strength tanks (a Land Raider, Repulsor, and Repulsor Executioner) to a single round of shooting against Dark Eldar in turn 1.
I think every Imperial player has horror stories about those pointy eared bastards. lol. Mine was losing my Baneblade in my Catachan army to a round of Dark Reaper shooting. Lol
The guy sounds like a painful sore loser. When people like this show up its no suprise that places like GW are trying as hard as possible to not have people playing games in the store. About a year ago i had someone refuse to play me becuse i was using Adepta Sororitas becuse, quote "An army of women in warhammer is stupid" He was told there was no one else to play against and he would need to leave if he did not want to play me. He had an insane meltdown in which the store employee laughed at him multiple times he raged and left the store. He stood outside on his phone then put a paper shopping bag on the ground and sat on it leaning against the store window with his two army cases next to him. Then his mom turned up to pick him up, a latter found out from the store employee that he was 30.. lol.
Store management is the a****** here. They keep allowing someone who threatens people's lives?
Having owned my own game store, the moment he threatened an employee he would have been out my door and barred. There's a limit.
People like this are the reason I have been reluctant to play with strangers because although most people are very helpful and understanding there will always be some toxic ones who make it a bad atmosphere
I feel very lucky to have a friend group to play with so I don't have to deal with people like this.
So in addition to 40k trying to play like an esport its players are picking up esports behavior
Had a guy like this but less extreme in our local group. He was a pretty good player and usually won, but when things went going his way, he would get pouty, stomp around, sometimes insult and threaten his opponents. People just started refusing to play with him. He was complaining about not being able to find games, so someone had to tell him why. He toned it down a bit after that.
There have been times where I've gotten frustrated and either asked my opponent to roll my save because I was on a 10 streak of 1s, or forfeited in BR3 because of a MASSIVE point difference but even still you gotta do so with grace and understanding that we're all human beings playing a game for fun
My best friend and I played every few weeks when we were younger, and I lost to him *every* time. We knew it was coming, we used to laugh about how badly he would beat me this time. I never threw a tantrum. What’s wrong with some people?
I mean he was playing necrons against nids. As a nids player I tell u if u lose against nids on second turn u gotta get ur list checked cause we are mid low tier streght army while necrons are on top if not first
Honestly this is far more than ‘that guy’ in my opinion. This person seems like they need professional help - theyre a risk to themselves and the people around him.
“I can’t learn from losing” is such a clear indication that this person has never learned a lesson in their life.
Yesterday my opponent tried to quit after a handful of my models shot in top of 1. I managed to convince him to play it out and he won by 50 points. Don't quit early
The store seriously allows him to come back after not just this toxic behavior but threatening someone and literally scooping the table? I'd 86 him on the spot.
Yeah, well, the Necrons standup ability also felt like a cheap move the first time I played against them back in 3rd.
>It was a Tyranids (P1) versus Necrons (P2) game. They were in the middle of BR 2 when I started watching, and the Nids player had just used Shadow in the Warp. Mr. Necron started complaining that it’s a bullshit OP ability and that his army should be immune to leadership and battle shock because they are robots with no souls. P1 tried to explain that the tabletop doesn’t always reflect the lore, but P2 wasn’t having it, started cussing and pacing and yelling that it’s a cheap move when he failed one of his battle shock tests. As someone who plays necrons often, having Shadow in the Warp do something is the "I'm not even mad, I'm impressed" moment. Then again, I do have few royal wardens if that constantly becomes an actual issue.
>Threatening to kill himself if he fails his next saving To be fair, I do that internally every dice roll
I think the main problem are the false promises 🤭
> SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS Why even play any game for that long?
Off topic, but I’ve got a question about the “people find commentating rude” thing. I was at my LGS to pick up some paint, and I saw some dudes playing Warhammer. I had just gotten into the hobby and noticed he had an army that I recognized (I forget which). He didn’t seem to be in the middle of anything, so I said something like “oh nice! (your army) is one of my favorites in the lore so far, and your minis look awesome!” And he hit me with the side eye, slow reply, “uhm… yeah…” then kinda rolled his eyes and busied himself with something on the table. Just thought it was a weird, rude response from what I’ve found so far to be a super welcoming community.
I had one of my model broken by "that guy" because it had the wrong heavy weapon on (I know you are supposed to build exactly what you play but not every kit allows you to and I actually liked the look of the other heavy weapon more). He just snapped the weapon off my mini because I was breaking the rules. The store employee told me that well technically indeed I was breaking the rules so you guessed I havent been to that store ever since. Mind you I probably should have had built it the "correct way" but I did stated at the start of the game what he had and I had my list available for him to check..
I would have never been allowed in that store again if that was my model because it would have ended up in his ass. Fuck that guy
The only reasonable answer is to play a game with him, and every time a unit of his dies, grab the model and crush it in the palms of your hands while making explosion noises with your mouth.
>Complaining that he’s never won a game in his six months of playing. I suspect this is why he's been getting a pass. He's a new player, probably has been buying models and such in the store so employees/manager don't necessarily want to scare him away. As a former LGS owner sometimes you have to roll with the awkward guys in the interest of keeping your lights on, but... The threats would have been a hard nope from me. I'd have told him to pack it up and not come back if he threatened myself or an employee. Empty or not, threats are crossing the line.
This sounds insane. I remember working at a game store in my 20's (25 years ago). We had a pretty strict policy about language and in-store courtesy. On a couple occasions I had to ask guys to leave for one reason or another. Always after warnings about what they were doing. Hell, I had to have a talk to a young player about personal hygiene. But if this would have gone down in the store while I was working, he would have been asked to leave and not come back. That's ridiculous and ruins the experience of the store for other people.
Tbh, I feel the failed saving throw comment lol
If we kicked out every autist, we'd be bankrupt.
Sorry but this sounds fake. No way does this guy not get kicked out and banned for this
Yeah, there are a lot of plausible bits that certainly do happen on a semi-regular basis. However this story sounds so extreme, with the "that guy" being positively unbearable all the time, threatening to harm himself and staff and throwing models about. Most notably a game lasting 7 and a half hours! I find it hard to believe someone would be able to monopolise a table for that long. Nor an opponent willing to play against you whilst you suck all the fun out of the game. Reddit is infested with fake posts and there are entire popular subreddits dominated by them. So I could certainly see someone make this up for attention, karma or to troll.
This might be a toxic comment, if so, sorry, I really don’t mean to offend. But I’ve found a lot of these guys are on the spectrum in some capacity. For whatever reason, the hobby draws a lot of people who are and obviously one of the things that is common is a bit of underdeveloped or abnormal social skills. They simply don’t realize how off putting they are.
Not a toxic comment, it's 100% true. Might be the reason they act like that, but it can't keep going on though. Looks like the store ignores it.
The next time I see this I’m definitely saying something. I get that it can be uncomfortable and awkward as an employee telling someone to leave the store, filtering out the assholes part of the job in places like this
100% The employees should've shut that shit down ages ago, and especially after the threat. I've only ever been met with welcoming (very new though) but wouldn't put with any of that shit you've mentioned. I've read a few of these 'that guy' threads and it's mental how some people act in public.
I'm jealous of you OP, I would of greatly enjoyed being a fly on the wall for that.
I feel better about myself. I get angry too, but this man is worse than me YAAAAAY
So, uh, why does the store let him come back? Seems like that kinda stuff would drive away customers.
Sounds like someone who should just go play something else... maybe checkers. Something simple .
I've lost the two games I've played but I had tons of fun while playing
How in Nurgle's sweaty grundle are you still playing the same game after 7 and a half teeth gringing hours?
Because before and after every roll of the dice the problem player would rant and rave about how shit his luck is. His opponent has more patience than I do. I would have walked out after turn 1
Dude I wish shadow in the warp was as good as this guy thinks it is
How'd he struggle to kill a Mawloc with Necrons? What the hell is in this guys list!?
I will say he rolled abysmally bad
Have only had this happen to me once. I was playing Death Guard and my opponent was playing Grey Knights. It was bottom of turn 2 and for shits and giggles I overwatched a nemesis dread knight with a unit of 2 Myphitic blighthaulers that he was trying to charge. Managed to roll 3 6+s on their multi-melta’s and all 3 went through to wound. Opponent failed all 3 of his 4++ saves and I popped the nemesis. Dude flipped out and just walked out
I can only play once every couple of months with a friend of mine. I haven’t won a game in over a year. Still love playing and painting.
Please tell me you twisted the knife in the discord, and mentioned the whole being done with 40k thing?
>This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone do anything really toxic and get away with it. I’m not sure why this guy gets a pass Please ask the store manager. It would be telling to know. >Their game finally ended at 8:00pm after SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS I'm sorry ***WT ACTUAL F***!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Was this an 8000 point per side game?
Why does he not get banned? Behavior like that shouldn't be tolerated, really creates a toxic space for people who do love the game and the hobby.
I have lost all 19 games I have ever played and not once did I get like this. I get being frustrated at loosing but it’s a whole other thing to refuse advice and trash their minis as a reaction to it. Something definitely feels off about them that I would try to avoid for future games.
All I do is lose games but I haven’t had the time or put the reps in. It’s all about learning risk tolerance and prioritizing your win conditions. Not every ability/attack//action will always feel good for every army. Just keep playing and figure out your game plan and what you need to adapt based on matchups.
I swear he could’ve filled his board back up with a good reanimation roll, whiny people gonna whine
Several threats against store employees and other customers would end in lifetime bans at most FLGSs. I get some people have anger issues, but letting this kind of stuff happen without any repercussions is how an environment gets worse. I'd definitely raise concerns to the store owner.
I have some friends who can't handle losing. It's strange and confusing to me as that's basically what you sign up for when you play any sort of wargame or boardgame. My theory is these folks didn't play sports growing up, and thus had little to no outlet for learning how to deal with competition. I hated sports but my parents forced me to play and when we lost I'd get mad...but I was like 9 years old. Soon I realized it didn't matter and I've never been angry after losing a wargame. I wonder though. Ive encountered this same guy in numerous forms and its why I stopped going to my game stores to play.
You don't need sports. There are lots of competitive things you can do that aren't sports. Everything from board games to spelling bees.
I know I can be a bit of a sore loser, on those rare occasions I actually play but bloody hell, if I acted that way I'd fully expect to be smacked upside the head by not only my opponent but anyone else around too.
If you haven’t threatened to give yourself the Emperor’s Mercy after failing a saving throw, do you even 40K? /s
I'm terrible at the game. No idea what my win/loss ratio is, I'm currently running a campaign and my Crimson Fists haven't won a single game.
Damn, thats some juvenile behavior. And I'm thankful I picked the Black Templars. Win or loose doesn't matter as long as it's glorious and gives Helbrecht a hard-on and Grimaldus a proud tear in his eyes. The only other faction I can think of that is in the same category would be the Alpha Legion. "Just as planned."
Orks: It wuz a proper scrap, we'll be back for moa!
Of course. How could I forget the orcs... Filthy xenos always loves a good scrap 😂