BGA culture & etiquette - do you "play nice"?

[KyzaGreen]

I think you play the game that gives you the best chance of winning, whatever that involves. I think "mean" is choosing another player to attack repeatedly without a clear strategic reason behind it

I think there is such a thing as crossing the line into jerkiness, and that relates to not trying to win. If I join a game and spend my time futzing up other people's plans without any intent of winning myself, that's improper. Same thing if I just made random moves. The gaming social contract is, at least try to win as defined by the game's rules.

Agree with you both! In this instance it was a single move at the end of Azul in which I took and disposed of a tile which they wanted, in order to reduce their overall score. If I'd looked closely I might have seen they would win anyway.

I play to win, and I enjoy the game most when opponents are also doing so. There is no mean or nice, there is only the rules.

Within that frame, I try to be ... polite. I avoid spiteful moves that do not advance my win chances. Late in a game that I am well ahead, I may take my foot off the gas.

I like this answer and it aligns with how I play. Although perhaps if I had paused to calculate I might have seen it was an unnecessary maybe spiteful move because I lost anyway. Lol. (Though a very standard/common move, I believe, at the end of a game).

As an aside: I suspect that at least some of the time, the complaining player is not addressing any customary practice, but rather is trying to coerce you into not interfering with them, to aid their own chance to win. Gamesmanship, essentially.

Ah, this may well be true!

Thanks all for your insights, I appreciate it.

[Meeplelowda]

In this instance it was a single move at the end of Azul in which I took and disposed of a tile which they wanted, in order to reduce their overall score.

Even if it didn't ultimately affected the result of the game due to a miscalculation, this is a perfectly legitimate approach to the game regardless of what anyone in the rather lengthy Azul thread on this issue says.

[nik592]

In this instance it was a single move at the end of Azul in which I took and disposed of a tile which they wanted, in order to reduce their overall score.

Even if it didn't ultimately affected the result of the game due to a miscalculation, this is a perfectly legitimate approach to the game regardless of what anyone in the rather lengthy Azul thread on this issue says.

Completely agree. I've had people tell me I shouldn't be worried about my "last move" in the case where one of my opponent's has already won. It doesn't matter. Well, yeah, it does to me. I like to see how well I can do anyway, and some of that involves not just letting my opponent get all the points that might have otherwise gotten. One hate drafting move in a game does not a mean player make (imo), regardless of whether it was necessary for that player to win. Similarly, I don't always have an absolute grasp on who is going to win a game - sometimes I overlook scoring conditions. Conversely, I've had other players tell me a game is over, and then I point out that they still have this option open to them, and they go on to take an unexpected win. You make the best moves at your disposal, and sometimes that's a hate draft.

[tbhp]

I only play competitively these days, and when you are in a competition the goal is to win. Sure, it can feel bad when I have to counter a great plan, but anyone who is serious about competition will understand why I did it.

When a victory is guaranteed, or when things like point difference don't come into play, things can be different. I may sometimes leave specific resources to my opponent because I figure it's what they would like best, either from an aesthetic or a scoring perspective.

I try to be nice when it comes to things unrelated to the game itself, like not kicking people out. But as far as the game itself, I'm always here to maximize my chances of winning.

[Arjuna92]

I only play competitively these days, and when you are in a competition the goal is to win. Sure, it can feel bad when I have to counter a great plan, but anyone who is serious about competition will understand why I did it.

It's not a great plan, if it's so easily countered. If someone's "great" plan is to build the largest Carcassonne city ever ... well ... that's easily interfered with. It's more like great wishful thinking. A truly great plan is one that you can pull off no matter what the other players do. And that's where you really deserve to win.