Yes...it's true, I am a largely non-competitive player; enjoying the fluff, stories, novels as much as collecting, converting/ assembling and painting figs. The GAME of Warhammer 40,000 however is less of a pull for me than the rest.
When I play, I tend to play for the hell of it with friends who are also non-competitive; rolling dice, moving around finely painted toy soldiers and trying to have a battle akin to what I've read in the books while whooping and hollering over crazy impossible die rolling and epic clashes. That's pretty much it.
On the flipside, there are folks who are not of like mind and simply play a complicated form of chess, and really they could use coins or bases or paper standups and it wouldn't make any difference.
Do I hate these guys?
No.
As long as they don't fuck with me, I'm indifferent. Go have fun playing the way you want to amongst others of your kind. No problem, go in peace.
Problem is, and it's far FAR worse online, is the whole competitive-thing. This is better than that, your idea is dumb, that won't work because of X, Y, and Z. Blablablabla BLAH. I guess if you ask for critiques, then getting honest critiques are fine, no worries there. But there are some folks who are aggressive to people online, and they have no idea who they are talking to. It's like they are trying to impress someone, or prove their manliness..rrrRRrRRRRRRR! [thumps on chest]. I'm like...are you trying to impress a chick or something? Making up for too much estrogen/ not enough testosterone? Little dick? I mean...come on guys, why can't folks be civil?
Honestly, for the most part it's not much of an issue here. Heresy Online has a bunch of folks who are pretty laid back and not all about getting up in someone's grille.
But there are a number of OTHER 40k forums that are considerably more caustic.
Maybe it's because I'm older and I've gotten over the need to prove anything to anyone through words on a computer or against people in a game of toy soldiers. Maybe it's because the vast bulk of these posters are really young and still trying to find out who they are in a world where there IS NO outlet for the pent up aggression. I dunno. Maybe it would be better if the whole world smoked a big fat bowl and chilled out before playing 40k or posting online.
What is my pet peeve?
Overly aggressive competitors in games of 40k and in 40k forums.
