Today I am going to share a habit I have started
when it comes to Magic, and try and convince you to give it a try. Every
game/match of magic I play, I make sure I avoid using any iteration of Good
Game/s and now I say something to the effect of, “Thank you for the games, good
luck moving forward.” This came about over the past year when there seemed to
be an explosion of community and sportsmanship related articles, and a backlash
against these articles.
Granted this backlash was fairly tame, and just consisted of a vocal group saying they were sick of hearing about these topics, but there was a fair share of venom flung in the way of authors bringing attention to these topics. I broke my first rule of the internet (Never, under any circumstances read the comments), and wanted to figure out what the underlying message was from people upset about “GG” and the various other issues raised. In this article I am going to mainly address the anti-GG crowd, and hope to get everyone to at least try something different.
Granted this backlash was fairly tame, and just consisted of a vocal group saying they were sick of hearing about these topics, but there was a fair share of venom flung in the way of authors bringing attention to these topics. I broke my first rule of the internet (Never, under any circumstances read the comments), and wanted to figure out what the underlying message was from people upset about “GG” and the various other issues raised. In this article I am going to mainly address the anti-GG crowd, and hope to get everyone to at least try something different.
I have a routine for playing in person and a
slightly modified one for playing online. In person I introduce myself, reach
my hand out for a shake, and tell them it is nice to meet them. After the game,
win or lose, I thank them for the games, and again look for the handshake. I
don’t try and force a handshake or any interaction. I just put myself out there
and I am okay with silence and no handshake. Some people don’t like being
touched or talking with people, and I am okay with that. I just want to let
them know that I am happy to be able to play this game, and it would be pretty
difficult to play without them. This is what I try and convey to everyone I
come in contact with as I play Magic. On Magic online, most of the pre round
routine is cut out, and I just make sure to open a private chat with the person
I am playing, and then thank them in-between rounds.
I like this routine, I think it is more personal,
and is harder to take as sarcasm or condescension than the GG model of
behavior. Since I have switched to this routine, I have had some great
conversations with people online, and have made a few new friends. My best
experiences have been someone saying “I’m a bright light in a sea of *******”,
and one person admitted they were about to tilt on me, but the thank you brightened
their day. My worst experience with it has been I’ve been ignored. I have yet
to have someone say any of the nasty things that I’ve had with “good games.”
I also find it makes me take the losses much better,
I’ve had multiple times where I just feel terrible about the mistakes I’ve made
or being on the wrong side of variance, and thank you for the games helps me
refocus. I like to think this is because it takes me from focusing all about
myself, to realizing the game is social and we need other people. While I may
have lost and that sucks, I did get to play a game I love to play most days. I’m
not saying this will fix any tilting issues you have, but I am saying give it a
try and see if it works.
Until next time, thank you for reading, and may the
variance be with you.
------
D.
@DJKMTG
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