This week we're skipping A Winner is You and graduating to its more intelligent cousin, LOLWUT?
Blood of Kittens posted this article today in reference to the DERF-fest over in this Bell of Lost Souls post. In brief, someone on BoLS thinks 40K players are trying to hoodwink their opponents by providing army lists sans detailed army rules. As a counterpoint, Sandwyrm asserts if you're playing in a tournament, you should probably know armywide rules (e.g. - Shadow in the Warp for Tyranids, Descent of Angels for BA, etc) or ask your opponent if you have questions.
Then the BoLS comment section happens. Basically this:
Ask Haight about Cygnar's Mk I to Mk II transition sometime. This is what you get.
Here's his opener:
What though the BoLS article revealed was something I and others have tried to put our finger on. It wasn’t the WAAC player the author thinks exists to confuse new players. Instead it is a certain querulous segment of the 40k Internet population that has hoisted up the banner of all things “competitive” in a vociferous cry to change the tone about how we talk and play 40k. This change in tone is moving the cynosure of what we know about Warhammer 40k the hobby into Warhammer 40k the sport, based I might add on false gods. You can find innumerable debates about this issue in any dime store blog and forum across cyberspace. The Internet community tries to use it as a wedge, between those who consider just playing the game is enough and those that derive the most fun from having good sporting time. Enjoyment either way (in of itself) is valid, (with me more on the competitive side) but the move towards making 40k look more like a sport is fraught with problems that go beyond simple game mechanics.
The prose is a little dense, so here's what I'm getting out:
1. Internetz arguments frequently occur between "Win at all Costs" competitive types and "Fun with no Thought" fluff types. Hyperbole occurs because, hey, its internetz.
2. Blogs like to talk about this (notably, both Blood of Kittens and myself. Lulz.).
3. "WAAC" players are arguing 40K should be more sport-like. I wasn't getting this from Sandwyrm (he was arguing that players who go to 40K tournaments should know some common rules before entering the tournament), but I've heard the sentiment before.
4. Blood of Kittens thinks Sportshammer is a seriose. problem. Article ensues.
Or rather, we travel 2 paragraphs and get a second thesis. Quoting again:
Like the American political version, our punditocracy thinks it is speaking about the true (without proven statistician analysis) motivations and concerns of the general playing public, but since the average player rarely comments our punditocracy is based on some 40k invisible hand maintained on ego fuel and the screams from the echo chamber.
So basically, bloggers are getting it wrong (much like political pundits), but people still listen. Strange you changed topic mid-rant, but OK.. I agree.
But what, there's more lulz!
RIP Lulz, RIP...
Not only are WAAC players like pundits, they're also a type of religion (Ohhh.. so they're right-wing pundits. Gotcha!). Two more paragraphs down, we suddenly get:
The punditocracy is also using an interesting dynamic I will call the Seal Pup Defense (religion without a hyperactive superiority complex to do “God’s Work” isn’t worth following) has recently emerged. Often we hear of the high-minded goal of making all players as good as the unproven morality dictates. It is kinda like gay people being sent to Jesus camps to become straight. The more likely truth is the punditocracy is at its best a first among equals– remember a seal pup with a club is still just a seal pup. As well the punditocracy re-educating methods are more likely just a ruse, because without the seal pups to cull they might actually be exposed for the feckless folks deep down the fear they are. So on the one hand the punditocracy protects itself from reproach while on the other hand it is able to effectively throw off any critique without worthwhile insight.
Ummm... OK? So you think internetz 40K Tough Guys aren't really all that tough. This is new?
We continue on this thread, but stumble back to sanity in the next paragraph:
Following the words of the punditocracy will lead you inexorably to the words competitive 40k player in one shape of form. It is no wonder that the punditocracy had to separate itself from the dreaded word WAAC it could have easily been associated with. So it created the competitive 40k player to shape its emerging religion– all religions must have a name for God’s chosen. That is what makes the words competitive 40k player so special, like a self-generated nickname the punditocracy gave itself an easily recognizable name to define itself. You never hear someone say they are a Fluffy Bunny or Hobbyist with such pride and consideration as the competitive 40k player. Instead the punditocracy divides and conquers on this axiom often drowning out voices that threaten. The punditocracy is for the most part left unchecked, with the refrain from others being, “it is only the Internet and no one listens to it anyway”. It does matter though because every time a new player walks into my local store having thrown hundreds of dollars into what the punditocracy told them was the only way to win my local community has to deal with it. I have to sit there and uneducated them not because I am against competitive players, but because the Internet gave them all the weapons to fight a war, but never trained them how to use them. Not to mention many new players realize too late they were never that player the punditocracy thought they should be.
Yes, internetz pundits are stupid. I learned that the second I read battle college/PP's boards/an article on BoLS about Warmachine (sorry Gentle_Ben and relasine; you have great advice for new players but aren't offering us vets much). Yes, its intellectually sexy to talk about being a winner/tactics because it scratches a nice competitive itch. Yes, most people who do so, particularly in the 40K crowd, talk a big game with zero to back it up (oh hai, Yes the Truth Hurts!).
4Chan: A Truly Inconvenient Truth.
I was honestly gonna leave this head-scratcher of an article alone, as it has some interesting nuggets of truth mixed in with its potpourri of crazy. Then came this gem of a comment:
Ummm... LOLWUT?
No offense taken. I write for the new player, seeing as most of the BoLS regular readers aren't Warmachine-oriented. I'm writing to promote the game and give new players the tools to figure out things for themselves. Veterans will most likely find most (if not all) of what I'm writing on BoLS as too rudimentary for their interests.
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