Written By TheChoujinVirus
Note: the following are based on my own opinions, so don’t take offense to these views if you feel they conflict with yours.
Happy Thursday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.
Welcome to 2021. New years and new mumbles to argue about. With Covid-19 still around, ya boy’s been playing games and such. One day, a friend of mine on World of Warcraft brought up a discussion that gets ya boy: Hyper-competitiveness.
Now, what is hyper-competitive? To summarize it and not get into something of a dictionary definition, hyper-competitiveness is more or less when people obsess over getting the top score or anything, all while taking the fun out of things due to that obession.
Before we continue with this, I want to remind people that I’m not chastising anything related to competitions or those striving for it. I’m against the hypercompetitive nature that can kill the fun in general, whether competitive or casual. For those who strive for the best, do not take this article as ya boy attacking you. This is the unfortunate side effect that it may bring out in some people
The first thing that I’ve seen in this problem is hypercompetitiveness is the overuse of “cookie cutters,” and meta builds. Basically, folks who copy either a top winning deck, team loadout, or composition just to get wins, which is annoying as sin. The thing is, these people don’t do this to get to the top but rather use this as a way to get easy wins in a lower tier. Now, ya boy has used cookie cutters to better understand how things work (Pokemon, etc.) So you can know how the deck works and maybe get a feel of it. However, when some folks go out of their way just so they can win in casual based things, it becomes a buzzkill. Nobody wants to deal with that in a non-competitive format and just want to play for fun. Just because you saw some guy at a Yugioh tournament use a top meta deck. You want to use it, that’s fine by you, but that’s going to cost you a ton of respect, and don’t be surprised when you don’t have others to play with you. Some folks like to play with a gimmicked deck that may be fun with people. Not everyone using a cookie-cutter may be doing this for an easy win: some may be trying to get a feel of the deck, and maybe they could like how it feels. It’s a bit confusing, but some folks want to have fun and not copycat the winning decks.
Another example that sometimes happens is when this becomes the “Only way to play a game,” which can agitate those who feel that a casual bout becomes vital. To return back to my old mumbling about Gatekeeping, this can become annoying. Especially when there are multiple ways to beat the game. Now, I’m not saying that an optimal choice is the only choice, but more when THIS way is the ONLY way to play a game. For example, when I was playing World of Warcraft, which began this conversation, I recalled how some people who play Mythic+ Dungeons (which are dungeons with a timer to beat). Those things have been known to make you have a group that requires specific professions, classes, or both. That is if you’re one of those groups trying to break world records. The thing is that most of it is used for lower levels (e.g., Mythic+5) when it’s more useful for those gunning in the 20s. It creates an annoying gatekeep that makes joining harder and forces people to roll that or be forced not to be that way. Shadowlands does have that with covenant choices, but that’s another story for another time.
Though I’ve seen other ways to this, it becomes a bit toxic when people will berate others who don’t play this way. Again, we return to Warcraft and how it’s tough to join groups (or even form groups) if you’re not at a specific parameter or just doing a chill run. Things get really..really dicey and pretty annoying. Especially with random groups. Though this isn’t limited to this as well, as sometimes it extends beyond WoW and in things like Pokemon where some folks will get really competitive when it comes to specific rulesets and metas that they’ll follow with a passion. Not knocking on that, but some folks wouldn’t mind having some plain fun but don’t throw a fit if people don’t play Smogon rulesets or VCGs and just want to have some fun.
So what do ya boy suggest in this situation? All I can do is simply don’t become hyper-competitive when it comes to some casual aspects. It’s okay to chase that challenge if you want and how you do it but don’t berate people if they don’t want to do it that way. Remember that folks are different and have their own ways. Lastly, one big thing folks need to know whether it’s a card game, video game, or just any sports in general…
IT’S JUST A GAME!
If you don’t think about this..then…as I always say…
So with that, that’s ya boy’s issue with this hyper-competitive nature. Folks should be free to play the game they want to (within the rules, of course) but not berating those who seek casual fun or pure competition. Let people have their fun and enjoy things how it is.
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