I haven’t used the blog yet, but thought I’d give it a shot and write about my own personal experience at FUMBBL... I stress that it is mine alone based upon my play style and likes.

----
I used to play only R games. The appeal being the fast “time to game” due to the amount of teams that were lfg. But lately, since March of 2007 I started devoting my time to L.

The first active League I joined was the OBBA, shortly followed by the White Isle League. I joined these leagues with no other motivation than for fun… as at that time R was still prevalent in my time share on FUMBBL. It was only after playing in this first league the balance began to tip and I started to play L more by joining more leagues.


So, the reasons I’m playing L more:

1) Is R really that much better for finding games?
In general this depends on your game finding methods… accepting any challenge will make you popular for instance.

I spent 40 minutes the other day lfg… I was only challenged once (save for a second time just as I removed my teams), a Khemri team 155/150 challenged my 170/130 8 man Woodelf Team. I sent out several equal tr/ts challenges and got as many No Thx as I got no reply at all. I then begun challenging higher TS teams… an Orc v Orc with no success and a higher CR Coach’s Orc team v my Undead, also turned down. I removed my teams soon after, slightly frustrated and went into my League chat rooms.

Don’t get me wrong, L can be frustrating too if you have a scheduled opponent who is being difficult to arrange a game with.


2) Community spirit?
There’s some in R. If you’re an established FUMBBL coach then you can probably strike up a great conversation in Main… but if you’re not (and I don’t know what gets you there) then you’ll find it hard going. Chances are, you’ll likely find it difficult to start up any conversation at all or worse yet be flamed by some of the “not so nice” people that frequent it.

L is different. Everyone in one of the L chat rooms has something in common, to make the league work, and for it to be fun. Only once have I seen anyone being flamed in L chat and the staff soon put a halt to the situation.

Despite frequenting the forums of FUMBBL I never really felt part of the community until I joined the Leagues and met some great guys to have fun and have some good banter with, this is also a great help in getting more involved in the FUMBBL community at large.

Another side effect of this is that, chances are, if one of my L Buddies is lfg at the same time as me, and we have reasonable matched team, a game will take place.
In fact, I’ll ask them before anyone else - knowing the game will be fun.


3) Is R more fun?
Nope, definitely not. Although… it’s billed as competitive, so some might say it’s not supposed to be fun, many others would also disagree.

On the main, if someone plays L he’s there predominantly for fun, and it’s in the L structure where I have more chats IG than anywhere else. Perhaps it’s because I play these guys more often, perhaps it’s due to speaking to them in IRC… I’ll not question why but state it purely as fact in my experience.

How many times have I been insulted in L? None.
How many times have I been insulted in R? Lots… but unfortunately this is one statistic that isn’t stored in R. :)

Folk in both divisions still whine about luck, but at least you don’t take the brunt of someone’s frustration with nuffle in L.


4) Fluff?
L by its very nature offers up much more of an opportunity, and reward, for fluffing teams. With such a varied range of themes from 4v4 to Prison based human leagues the amount of fluffing is limitless. That said, there are some great R teams out there that have great fluff also, but this is only individual based rather than group based… for me there’s nothing like being there with your team through its season to season trials and tribulations or seeing one of your players climb to the Top Sorer.

A good example of this is my first season of White Isle, where my Chaos Dwarves were ripped apart by Chaos teams, but now in the my latest season we’re calling the shots (only due to having a much better TS team of course ;) )

5) Reward
Tournaments in R are good in my opinion, even SMACKS which I don’t have time to play given their 2 consecutive game nature… so I won’t bother with any negatives on these other than to say that not everyone can get into them and an early exit can leave you waiting a long time for the next one.

Stable games, quite a new concept, is also another great asset to R in my opinion and attracts some very good coaches as well as fun ones to boot. Winning these, though SCUM seldom does, is also a great opportunity for rejoicing!

One off games are rewarding if you beat a good coach, or - if you’re a team builder, which I’m not, may even be so just for strengthening your team.

L however has varied tournament structures which allows for a competitive edge to a fun environment. Chasing league gold is great; and winning a 32 team tournament is a fantastic achievement in any FUMBBL division. I’ve found great reward in winning several of the OCCS tournaments amongst the dozen or so I’ve been involved in, and now find myself pondering what to spend my cash on in my final game of White Isle…

Replace the niggled Bull and invest in the future?
Hire Hthark and try to finish top?

In R, in one off games, the decision is easy.

6) Conclusion
It’s not that I dislike R – fact is I wouldn’t still be here if I did as it is all I played for a long time, it’s just now I prefer L.

I am in 7 different Leagues and have found my usual 1 game per day is taken up by these and hence have fewer R games. For me, R has become a place to venture when I don’t have an L game. Unfortunately my R Stable/ R tournament participation may suffer in the long run as a result but those alone won’t change my division of play as this is perhaps the most fun I have had playing at FUMBBL since first finding the place.

FUMBBL has several different divisions to try and cater to the tastes of many different people and their likes, but my advice would be that if you haven’t sampled the delicacies of L, then you really should!



That’s my first blog.
My next one might focus more on the bad points of L just to be fair. :)