A question about sportsmanship

[Korts]

Do the injuries have effects beyond the game at hand? If they do, you're being a giant douche. If not, you're a smaller one.

[Korts]

That article offends my sensibilities. If refusing to play without grace makes me a scrub, so be it, but that does not at all mean that I am automatically a loser. I'm still perfectly capable of anticipating my opponents playing "to win" and preparing countermeasures, and as long as I'm competent enough, I won't need to resort to optimal strategy at the expense of aesthetic.

I never bothered to learn snake shots in foosball, for instance, because I think they're too easy to do and too hard to defend--plus they look like shit. I did, however, learn to defend against them, because hey, just because I don't take those shots doesn't mean others won't. And I'm a pretty good foosball player.

[Korts]

I agree with the article that if you are making up your own set of rules that are extraneous to the game and based off of your own sensibilities of how the game "ought to be played" then you are not playing to win, which is what they mean by "scrub." You are not a high level gamer. That's fine if you're not aspiring to be. But, and this is the important part, do not be surprised, or offended when you attempt to play people who are high level gamers and you lose because they are only playing by the constraints of the rules of the game, and you are playing by arbitrary self imposed standards.

Grace is winning. That's really the only way to look at in my book. If you're playing the game for aesthetics outside of that then I think we will spend a long time talking past each other trying to discuss this, because I really can't understand that perspective.

This might be an interesting read for you, though.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/A ... aily/mr11b

Yeah, that's a really helpful article. I'm definitely a Johnny in every game I play. I don't avoid "cheap" tactics because they are cheating in some way, I avoid them because they don't show my full potential or express my playstyle.