Do you play to win?

He seems to be saying that you need to stop enjoying the game as a game and only enjoy it as a competition. I don't agree with that at all. I have always seen vtes as a game to be enjoyed first and foremost and that's never held me back.

To be a really great player, you have to innovate, not just play proven filth. How many of us thought Edward Vignes was a great vampire when we first saw him? He was overlooked and unused for years, and now he's the cornerstone of one of the strongest decks ever. Myrdin isn't saying not to innovate, but you also can't really innovate until you put the tier 1 decks aside and try to build a new tier 1. By only playing proven decks, you are handicapping yourself. By setting arbitrary limits for yourself, you set your creativity free. This is true in art. This is true in vtes.

There are some decent points in there, like the need to update decks as the metagame evolves. I would say if you want to play to win (and why wouldn't you?), you need to develop a taste for victory and find paths to that goal. It won't be the same for every player and it's not always easy to describe. I see players bring tier 1 decks and argue about every card played. That's not enough and is at times counter-productive.

You need to develop a proper skillset as well, such as hand management, reading the table, quick decisions, negotiation, reading players (will your predator wall up now that he's been bleed for 6 or will he try like hell to oust?), even counting and simple math.

I get the winning is everything philosophy, but I don't think it always works in vtes. One of the primary strikes against it is vtes is a multiplayer game. In a duel it doesn't matter if you act like a cock. In vtes doing so may lead to your early dismissal from the table. Also, why in the world would anybody play vtes for any reason other than fun? It's not like anything is at stake!

Of course I play to win as much as I can. Everybody playing to win = fun and balanced game. I don't understand why play to win = acting like a cock. Those are totally different and doesn't correspond in any way. Acting like a cock is only acting like a cock and that could happen in any situation.

EDIT For me the fun goes down the drain instantly when somebody brings Smudge multirush deck or something similar to table. In 1vs1 it is more ok to try bad decks but in multiplayer you just likely ruin the table. Balanced game is fun for me.

vtesocrates wrote:

He seems to be saying that you need to stop enjoying the game as a game and only enjoy it as a competition. I don't agree with that at all. I have always seen vtes as a game to be enjoyed first and foremost and that's never held me back.

To be a really great player, you have to innovate, not just play proven filth. How many of us thought Edward Vignes was a great vampire when we first saw him? He was overlooked and unused for years, and now he's the cornerstone of one of the strongest decks ever. Myrdin isn't saying not to innovate, but you also can't really innovate until you put the tier 1 decks aside and try to build a new tier 1. By only playing proven decks, you are handicapping yourself. By setting arbitrary limits for yourself, you set your creativity free. This is true in art. This is true in vtes.

There are some decent points in there, like the need to update decks as the metagame evolves. I would say if you want to play to win (and why wouldn't you?), you need to develop a taste for victory and find paths to that goal. It won't be the same for every player and it's not always easy to describe. I see players bring tier 1 decks and argue about every card played. That's not enough and is at times counter-productive.

You need to develop a proper skillset as well, such as hand management, reading the table, quick decisions, negotiation, reading players (will your predator wall up now that he's been bleed for 6 or will he try like hell to oust?), even counting and simple math.

I get the winning is everything philosophy, but I don't think it always works in vtes. One of the primary strikes against it is vtes is a multiplayer game. In a duel it doesn't matter if you act like a cock. In vtes doing so may lead to your early dismissal from the table. Also, why in the world would anybody play vtes for any reason other than fun? It's not like anything is at stake!

This article is mainly focused on tournaments, for most people playing to win is not the main focus of a tournament, it's having fun. While this is not wrong per se, you cannot expect to win consistently if you don't have winning as your main focus.

While you can say that being that focused on only winning will diminish your appreciation of the game I would say that is a matter of taste, I personally prefer to explore the game and take great pleasure in deckbuilding and such, but I know that for tournaments if I don't play the best possible way I can, I subtract from the tournament experience for everyone attending.

As for acting like a cock, I stand by my last paragraf. This is a social game, most good players are nice and likeable people, you probably should be a nice and likable person to win the most

Myrdin wrote:

As for acting like a cock, I stand by my last paragraf. This is a social game, most good players are nice and likeable people, you probably should be a nice and likable person to win the most

Acting like a cock should get you a penalty of breaking the play to win rule because acting like a cock makes you just lose games.

Myrdin wrote:

This article is mainly focused on tournaments, for most people playing to win is not the main focus of a tournament, it's having fun.

Why are the two mutually exclusive? Why do you think people don't care about winning? In my experience, there are both kinds of players but generally people are pretty competitive and want to win (while having fun).