Board Game Arena

With all of the talk of players saying " GG" as shorthand for "good game", I thought I'd bring up another standard statement here on BGA. Good luck and have fun. It's a standard automated message within BGA too.

I want to be clear first off, I don't mind anyone saying this. The intentions seem positive.
That said, it doesn't really make sense to me to say "good luck and have fun" in a competitive game. The fun fits fine. The good luck part not so much. Having good luck to me mostly means winning the game, but then alas the other losing player/s won't be having so much good luck. Maybe it means every player gets a high score and gets a decent outcome in the game.

Even in a competitive game, I want my opponent to play at his best. I don't want to win simply because he got a bad series of rolls, which isn't fulfilling for either of us. The best case is a tense, close game! It's also the most fun for all players.

For me personally, these two sentiments go hand in hand. I frequently start matches this way and almost always end with gg, regardless of who wins (unless I won by such a margin that it might appear to be discouraging).

Even in high competitive events for games with little or no random elements, people say "good luck" before starting a match. "Luck" is not necessarily related to cards draws or dice rolls, but even for the opponent making mistakes or missing opportunities.

If a friend of mine has a big job interview today, I might say "good luck."

It's no more literal than saying "God bless you" when someone sneezes.

I think it fits along the same lines as "May the best man win". You aren't hoping it isn't you, just like you aren't hoping your opponent has enough good luck to beat you. But I think it's all just a nod to the future being unknown, and seeing your opponent as a peer who also wants to win but doesn't know for sure that he will, just like you.

Also, thanks for this thread. I'm enjoying this overanalysis of an overly literal interpretation of a simple colloquialism. And that's not a jab. It takes one to know one ✌

If I play poker on here I'll sometimes say "Good luck all! (but not too much =p)"

I don't pay too much attention; total strangers posting a copy/paste message that they say identically to everybody all the time, at the beginning or end of the game, it doesn't mean much. It's a gesture but bit empty. Well, it's good manners maybe to say hello to someone, but the rest doesn't really matter.

That gives me an idea, maybe I should start saying hello and welcoming people to my game, but I'd type it each time not just copy/paste or click it, otherwise it has no real value.

Not offended by it, but not feeling pressed to do the same. I'm either going to be human and nice and polite or not bother. That's just me, everybody else can do what they want, no problem, we all play games differently and that's the beauty of gaming.

I always thought it was meant to be ironic. You wish them good luck as a greeting, but of course you don't actually want them to be so lucky that they end up beating you. Just lucky enough that they have a nice game, but still lose, haha.

I find the phrase good spirited and harmless, although it always makes me worried about "jinxing" whenever I say it or it gets said to me...