Hilarious TOS troll

www.boardgamegeek.com/article/20796296#20796296

I cannot get over how dumb this guy is or how pissed off peeps are getting at him.

Had to share.

Dumb? The guy is from Latvia, so Mage Knight is likely setting him back $150 or more delivered. That's a serious chunk of cash for a boardgame, one that I'm not willing to pay either. I think he was just pissed off and vented. I didn't bother to read the six pages that followed.

I've more or less decided that I'm not paying more than $50 for any particular boardgame as a general rule. What I can't get new for that price I can get used a year after it's released. With $100 as a common MSRP (with minis!) nowadays it's becoming an expensive hobby.

He's not wrong.

But he probably hurt some sensitive folks with comments like this; " large number of bored/lonely/awkward people appear".

But he was also quite poetic with some nice lines like these; "They are preying on your sadness." and " they market illusions to you"

So I kind of like him.

JonJacob wrote: But he was also quite poetic with some nice lines like these; "They are preying on your sadness." and " they market illusions to you"

In what is likely his second or third language.

JonJacob wrote: But he probably hurt some sensitive folks with comments like this; " large number of bored/lonely/awkward people appear".

This is the "dumb" I was talking about, Sag. The responses are absolutely some of the best. Better yet, he got so many RED X's on his first post that you can't read it unless you login and have your threshold set reasonably high. They're literally censoring his view that games are too expensive. That's the best part of the troll.

And, quite frankly, it's impossible not to see those "Look at all this shit I bought at Essen!" posts where they have stacks of boxes 20+ high and not think of that as bragging on the part of people whose lifestyle can afford those kinds of expenses. I guess some people are just defensive that they are having to confront how much money they are spending on this shit.

Sag is right, of course, that you don't HAVE to spend that much. But that means you need to be patient and discerning, which are two words that got ripped out of the BGG dictionary long ago.

You know, the guy made some really silly comments but all those Americans (Average income $3,263) being offended that a Latvnian(Average income $1,098) called their hobby "expensive" and saying that "all hobbies are expensive" can go fuck themselves. I particularly like the guy who advices that "pacing is key" after spending 600$ per year as if that were not a huge amount of cash for the person he was talking with.

If Americans had to pay 150$ plus another 60$ on shipping just to play Agricola I can assure you that the thread would have been very different.

It's OK, we get hit for 40K for a BMW.

The Ovtavian moderator intervention always has such a Robocop vibe to it.

Bright red lettering in a large font. I always hear a robotic voice in my head when I read it. "DISPERSE. DISPERSE. CONFLICT IS NOT WELCOME HERE. CLICK THE RED X. DISPERSE. THANK YOU. "

In the great and prosperous kingdom of Poland Mage Knight copies were sold in regular game shops for about 50$ althought now the Mage Knights are no more. I can relate to this being expensive considering the region average income but i really don't think that 150$ shipping price is necessarily true unless we're talking some US-exlusive titles.

Cambyses wrote: And, quite frankly, it's impossible not to see those "Look at all this shit I bought at Essen!" posts where they have stacks of boxes 20+ high and not think of that as bragging on the part of people whose lifestyle can afford those kinds of expenses. I guess some people are just defensive that they are having to confront how much money they are spending on this shit.

Who says they can afford these games ? If they have to offset the bill for those games by sleeping in hostels and eating Ramen for a con, I'd question the affordability.

Cambyses wrote:
Sag is right, of course, that you don't HAVE to spend that much. But that means you need to be patient and discerning, which are two words that got ripped out of the BGG dictionary long ago.

This times a thousand. Its like that old Rodney Dangerfield joke - "Do you look at the menu and say, OK? "

@Vistula Lurker You guys have Portal games. You're fine.

Well, Theseus is about 15$ second-hand so we somehow manage to scrape by I should send my sympathies to the people of Latvia I guess.

Nerds hate when you point out how classist nerd culture is.

That's exactly right. Don't even try to point out that it's predominantely white, male, middle-class. "I saw a girl at a game shop once!"

They also hate it when you point out that this hobby, generally speaking, attracts an awful lot of awkward, maladjusted, socially inept and/or DIRTY individuals.

This guy is great. "They are preying on your sadness"...that shot is like a fucking homing missile into the heart of "geek" culture. People that identify themselves by the "culture" they consume. People that tribe up based on what kinds of TV shows, games, comics or whatever they are "into". Nothing wrong with being into things, nothing wrong with loving games or whatever. But let's face it, a lot of people invested heavily in ANY hobby are often running from sadness, loneliness or a lack of direction in their real-world lives. Not ALL, don't jump all over me for generalizing. Not everybody into games or whatever is socially fucked up, depressed or lonely. But don't lie to yourself. There are MANY people for whom a hobby like gaming is a way to either live a vicarious life or provide some sort of social "adapter" so that they can at least hold a conversation with other people.

So this guy hit pretty close to home for a lot of folks, it looks like, and bringing in the economic angle just sealed the deal.

I don't see how anyone not involved in the industry can justify flying to Germany, spending X number of days there in a convention hall, and spending Y dollars ON TOP of travel expenses to buy fucking board games. I see these "look at what I bought at Essen" posts with the same ire as the bald-ass middle-aged dude that suddenly thinks he's hot shit because he bought a Corvette. It is a way for people to throw money in your face and parade around with their spoils. I'm not impressed. I'm more impressed when I read some penniless F:ATtie post about actually PLAYING games and what they thought about them...whether they flew to Germany to buy them or not.

It all goes back to this hobby becoming more about buying games than playing games. And now we have games that launch as ENTIRE PRODUCT LINES before the game is even _printed_ to appease this mindset. People used to wait for the review, now they wait for the Kickstarter trailer. Because you've got these people that are just aching to spend money on something that gives them some kind of feeling of fulfillment, belonging or superiority. It's really no wonder we're at a stage where $150 buy-in is looking like it's right around the corner. Because you've got "status symbol" games now.

I didn't really follow the whole discussion...can someone tell me if 1) someone used the "well, it's cheaper than golf" argument; 2) someone used the "one game is cheaper than going to the movies" argument and 3) someone cried in public?