.....its a microcosm of life today....or maybe its an excuse for me to write a lot of randomly connected words :-)

What I find enormously interesting about Blood Bowl is the variety of themes that run through the whole concept of this wonderful game, especially over the past few years.

I guess to understand where I am coming from in this blog you have to understand my relationship with Blood Bowl. I started at about 15 playing tabletop with a friend of mine (KrizRicht),then when I left for university and he went to college we stopped playing completely.

I joined FUMBBL in 2006 and played about 1800 games in just under 5 years. At one point I was playing an average of 3 games a day for a year. I also got back into TT thanks to coaches on here like PeteW and Purplegoo, and started to go to odd tournies here and there, which I really enjoyed. I got quite addicted to Blood Bowl and could not stop playing, including playing some mismatches in order to FTG for some races on the old client.

At some point I grew frustrated on FUMBBL and had a break of about 11 months before returning to play again. I had deleted all bar one of my teams before leaving, something I regret a little.

In the past year and a half I have played 174 games (mostly in [L]) on FUMBBL and have had pretty much the same record I had before leaving,and still play in TT tournies occasionally when work and kids permit.

A week ago I went to Southampton and played a tourney holding a modest 2-3-1 record; I spent a week down there on holiday but when I returned on Friday I found I had the bug again. I played 24 games between Fri and Mon evenings, almost all in [R]


NOW WE GET TO THE IMPORTANT BITS :-)

Origins -

Some come to the game via tabletop, some come to the game by stumbling across this lovely site and some will have come via Cyanide. Having played the first two and not the latter I find it interesting just how het up people get about which is best. From my POV it appears all a bit of "My-dad-is-bigger-than-yours". All three mediums have their attractions and we are a huge and diverse species some purists will only play TT because they love the hobby-craft and social interaction. Some will only play on Cyanide because it has an aesthetic appeal to the video-gaming generation we are in. Some will only play FUMBBL because of their time/financial commitments (god bless Christer for his amazing generosity in providing this site for us) There are those amongst us who happily play two or all three of these forms of BB and we are able to adapt to the differences, and appreciate the benefits that medium offers. There are good coaches and bad coaches in all three and to me the best coach is the one that wins on all three and not pontificates from the top of one tree only, having knocked about a few new-comers who have tried to make a crossover.


Lifestyle -

Stop and think about FUMBBL a moment....how many coaches have played on this site...how many nationalities (so many speaking superb English as a second and third language), how many differences in background, ages, beliefs etc I am ashamed to say I have only a basic understanding of some nouns in Italian and French and could not string a sentence together despite being half-Italian and having done French at GCSE to A grade

YEAH YEAH BLAH BLAH you might say, but also spare a thought to how the patterns of life is relative to each and every one of those people. We ALL have a life outside of BB and this affects how we play as much as our ability to learn with experience of playing. Pressures such as moving away from your parents, university, work, lack of money, relationships, kids, physical health and mental health etc. Whats more pertinent though is that we will all move through some if not ALL these trials in different orders and time frames. So suddenly you start to see how a community like FUMBBL starts to work. We see blogs about births, deaths, moving homes and even pet ownership, those that are vocal enough or fluent enough in the Lingua Fran....errr... Anglica to bare their lives to their comrades and the wider community.

Coaches rage-quit the site, or decide they need a break (as I did) some just disappear leaving everyone wondering what happened to them....did they get hit by a car, lose their home, have a bad break-up....who knows

My point on this bit I guess is that we need to respect other people's moods (expressed or not...there is always a reason why people are how they are) I moan some days I don't on others, but I don't stop playing people if they moan. Before if a coach did not type in game I thought he was an arrogant tosser....now I give them the benefit of the doubt...maybe he speaks little English or that his screen does not allow him to use the chat box.


Elitism & Not Understanding Why People Play

Another thing I see both here on FUMBBL and also within the TT world (NAF events for example) is the development of cliques or groups of coaches with an almost dismissive attitude to other coaches, probably akin to footballing galacticos turning up at an amateur league ground to play in the 3rd Rd of the FA Cup and not respecting the occasion for their less illustrious opposition.

OK that's a bit harsh but I wanted to get your attention about this. Its much more subtle than this but there is an assumption that everyone should understand all the rules like its part of breathing, acronyms should be understood by anyone who loves the game, an almost condescending attitude to other coaches achievements. Whats interesting is that without the "cannon fodder" the top coaches cant win anything....not much fun being the King of a pool of one is it!

The problem with this attitude is the remarkable assumption that we are all here (or at a TT tourny) to win!

It's particularly evident in TT where coaches almost dismiss a team or coach by the race or team selection, its powergaming. Chosing a race because you like them or because you have not tried them seems alien. Here on FUMBBL it is blatant min-maxing that epitomises the differences in coach approach.

I know several coaches in both mediums that take outrageous teams and lose most of their games but they love what they are doing. I know coaches where win-at-all-costs is the name of the game, and they get so annoyed about a 4-0-2 record at a TT or losing to a "nobody" online, even when they have a 65% win ratio! I like all these people, I might not agree with their coaching approach (for I sit in the middle ground here) but as people they are usually great.

One thing I suspect though is it distills down to the whole concept of pixel-hugging, which is scorned by the "elite" (because it does not meet there win-at-all-costs approach in skilling up their players like a series of mathematical equations that provide the statistical best chances of winning games), but many coaches love their players and teams. Thinking about it this goes back to the medium-issue again.

Many grew up with beautifully painted figures lovingly saved up for and some even converted. The hobbiest in each of us took pride at what we put on the table. Team development was as much an excuse to buy the next model we desired as it was the optimum way to advance a team and keep the TV low.....see where I am going with this?

Now online we do not have the luxury of the models and so the game has slightly evolved away from the pleasure of this aspect and the creative back story to the team and each player...instead its a speed-game...now-now-now...play as many games as you can...win-win-win....and so the top coaches no longer care about the team and the player per se...its more about the teams ability to win and the players ability to make his team win. There is a slight difference here....but i think it is F U N D E M E N T A L to understanding the psyche of many coaches on here

This all sounds very negative but i am just trying to air some thoughts on one of the small problems within the BB community from the point of a middling coach, who has a cursory knowledge of the rules, wins slightly more than he loses, comes about midway down the pecking order, but does a very good job of bringing up two kids, working 2 professional jobs and maintaining a lifestyle and friendships that he likes. Do not judge a persons intelligence by the amount of effort they invest or waste in the minutiae of BB. I know I have been guilty of it in the past and I try to make sure I don't do so now :-)

I wanted to talk about Form, dice/RNG, racial preferences and a few other things but this is getting difficult to keep in some sort of order (if I have even managed it so far lol)

The final point I want to make is about.....

Addiction

I find I have an addictive personality to things such as BB, Championship Mgr and Civilization being my weaknesses, but I have had other assorted ones too over my life to date, though blessedly nothing involving substances!!!

What makes me interested in this subject is the driving factors. Generally in my own case it is avoidance.....head-in-the-sand approach to the stresses in my own life. Rather than do things I do not want to do I try and make myself happy by playing games to excess, instead of taking the time to clear my plate and then settle down to game with piece of mind.

Now I am not saying that I am always like that but for example this weekend has been a classic case of that. I have a tonne of tasks round the house to do, paperwork to sort etc, but I have not done any and then I am left feeling with greater stress as i need to do them all on a work night instead.

What makes me wonder is how many of you are doing this too...knowingly or unknowingly....and this actually is an issue any gaming community. How much time are participants pouring in to there virtual world, at the cost of relationships, or their own less glamorous daily needs.

All I want to say here is please keep a self-analytical look at your life and gaming habits and make sure you are not heading up a tunnel. Know thy self as the physician said.



So we get to the end and there is no single point I am making.....do you feel cheated that you sat here to read all this only to find there is no big answer or point that can be distilled into a one-line summary?

Well that's "the secret of life, there ain't no secret and you don't get your money back"

So just keep your eyes and ears open....be tolerant....and look inwards with a more critical but nurturing point of view

Thanks for reading folks and keep rolling sixes...and ones...and threes....
:-)