Introduction:
Sometimes we can find behaviors of players that bother us playing a table top game. I am the first to recognize that I am not short of some bad habit when playing a game. But certain behaviors of players can become so annoying that instead of enjoying the game, which is the goal, they get you not to have fun. Even you can prefer not to play with a player because of his bad habits.
During the Review The Monster Color that my friend Cristian and me made, which is a game in which you have to express emotions, we realized that when expressing what makes us angry came out many of these bad habits of players. That’s why we then made a list and discussed the behaviors of other players that bother us.
I also explain examples of these bad habits of players (You can see a video about the discussion on my youtube channel):
Use of the Mobil:
It is very common to find a player using the mobile during a game. But this becomes really annoying when that interferes with the game. Cristian explains that it bothers him enough that a player is using the whatsapp during games with long tunrs like Schyte, and not only because it distracts the player that is pending from the mobile, but because in games with long between-turns the player is aware of the mobile instead of thinking about his next move. Of course, when his turn comes he has to think and that slows down the game even more.
In my case it is even worse, since certain players are watching Tinder, a dating application. When we play Terraforming Mars, not only the player is dedicating his between-turn to flirting, but a special sound is heared and the player comments that the some girl made him a “match” , so all other players want to know more … the fact is that everyone is distracting for this.
To speak about Politics:
But there is still one worse thing to talk about during the game. The fact is I wish the best for my friends, so if they get a date with a girl it makes my happy. But talking about politics is another thing. Because there is nothing that takes you further away from the game when one or several players start a discussion about politics. This is a typical debate where you could talk and talk for hours and never move forward.
Christian says that they lost a game of Tiny Epic Zombies just because they ran out of time when two players started talking about politics without being able to concentrate on the game.
To know the rules wrong:
While we already talked about manuals with wrong rules, it is still worse when theres is no problem with the manual, but rather the player knows the rules wrong. In my case it bothers me not only that a player invents the rules, but also ensures and defends that the rules are as he says.
During a league of Blood Bowl Team Manager, I had to check point by point to prove to the player the correct rules, because he did not want to accept that he knew the rules wrong.
To have airs and graces:
And speaking about players who claim to dominate the rules, there are some players who openly presume to be the best in a game and have airs and graces.
Cristian had to give a bath of humility to certain presumptuous players who they said were the Kings of Westeros of the Game of Thrones board game.
To Make mistakes continuously:
On the other hand ther are the players who, quite the opposite of being masters of a game, it turns out that they do not stop making mistakes continuously. Okay, you can make a mistake once and nothing happens, but personally I find it very annoying when a player does not stop rectifying his actions.
For example, during a game of Samurai Sword, an apparently simple card game; each turn a player corrected the card he was throwing. In the end I had to oppose myself and tell him that the game also consists of scheduling the actions and pay attention.
To not attend to the explanation:
A reason to make mistakes is because you have not attended to the explanation of how to play the game. At this point I recognize that I am one of those who abstract easily and I need to learn on the fly. However, there are games like Mombasa that need a prior explanation. What bothers Cristian most is that, apart from not paying attention, there are players who justify their mistakes saying that you did not explain the game well.
To put the lid backwards:
Finally a bad habit that would be a fixation is someone who bothers you because he put wrong the covers of the game-box. This is the case of Carlos, a colleague of Cristian from the Golden Dice Associaction (El Dado Dorado), who gets angry whenever he sees that the Pompeya‘s box in an inverted way.
List of other bad habits:
Well there are many more habits, some more frequent than others. To enumerate our experiences with them one by one would be very extensive. So for now I just add a list of other bad habits.
- Eat and mess while you play.
- Get up continuously from the table.
- Pull and move the components out of clumsiness.
- Get upset over losing.
- Hang up when you win.
- Play poorly on purpose.
- Leave and favor to another player.
- To accuse of cheating without justification.
- To give false advice.
- To burst when you have made a bad play or you have had bad luck.
- To throw dice or cards when you lose.
- To say that you always win because you are very lucky
….
I say goodbye by now, but not before saying that if you know a bad habit that bother you and it is not here, let me know in the comments and add it to the list.
Thanks for reading and until the next post.
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