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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Competitiveness
« on: April 08, 2019, 02:58:54 pm »
General points here, not just about Dominion.
Yeah, I think the desire to compete is hardwired into our brains. So is the appreciation of watching other people play well.
The issue with being "competitive" is not so much with being over-matched with opponents as it is with it getting to the point that it's not fun for them. That goes for any game. If you spend ages maximizing strategy while they are still learning the mechanics, it's boring for them. If you are either over-explaining (playing their hand for them) or letting them hang by keeping all the strategy options to yourself, it's not fun for them.
Ideally you'll get to play games with people who are roughly at your skill level and roughly playing for the same reasons. But that doesn't happen that much of the time. In real life most people will naturally adjust to play games with people much better or worse than themselves. Simple example: our kid used to occasionally play Scrabble with adults, and he was a terrible speller even for his age. But he loved games. So we just didn't ever deduct points for challenging his words, and occasionally everyone would be jumping in looking for a way to play his letters. It's not the same as a tournament game but everyone still had fun. Parents naturally do that when playing sports with children - it's not so much holding back as it is handicapping yourself. The key thing is NOT to be condescending when you are the better player.
The basic test is this: if you are genuinely excited by the other player making a great play, and are okay expressing that to them, it's probably a fun game for both of you, even if there's a big disparity in skill levels. To be fair this is much, much easier to do in real life.
Playing with an asshole is rarely fun even if you're well matched.
Yeah, I think the desire to compete is hardwired into our brains. So is the appreciation of watching other people play well.
The issue with being "competitive" is not so much with being over-matched with opponents as it is with it getting to the point that it's not fun for them. That goes for any game. If you spend ages maximizing strategy while they are still learning the mechanics, it's boring for them. If you are either over-explaining (playing their hand for them) or letting them hang by keeping all the strategy options to yourself, it's not fun for them.
Ideally you'll get to play games with people who are roughly at your skill level and roughly playing for the same reasons. But that doesn't happen that much of the time. In real life most people will naturally adjust to play games with people much better or worse than themselves. Simple example: our kid used to occasionally play Scrabble with adults, and he was a terrible speller even for his age. But he loved games. So we just didn't ever deduct points for challenging his words, and occasionally everyone would be jumping in looking for a way to play his letters. It's not the same as a tournament game but everyone still had fun. Parents naturally do that when playing sports with children - it's not so much holding back as it is handicapping yourself. The key thing is NOT to be condescending when you are the better player.
The basic test is this: if you are genuinely excited by the other player making a great play, and are okay expressing that to them, it's probably a fun game for both of you, even if there's a big disparity in skill levels. To be fair this is much, much easier to do in real life.
Playing with an asshole is rarely fun even if you're well matched.
