Why does my gaming group suck?

[Uncle Nutsy]

I'm sorry, I don't mean for this to be a rant, but i'm in a bit of a down mood and I need to get this off my chest. Hell, I'm even breaking my own rule here; to never make a rant on an internet board (nothing good comes of it, ever).

For the past few years i've been playing with a small group of players. Ten at most, but the only regulars that play number a grand total of three. myself, one regular and one occasional. Most of the players in my group have armies but don't want to play for various reasons. I dunno if they just like to find excuses for not playing, or are afraid of losing... or what. hell I don't know, they used to be pretty regular before but now? can't even twist their arm to play. yeah it's that bad.

also, every idea I pitch seems to be shot down because well.. i guess it's because they don't like unknown or untested ideas. well that's the idea. try the ideas out, test them and they get adjusted. It's gotten to the point where I just don't ask any of them to play anymore and started to look at driving a good three hours to a small store in the city to play a pickup game or two. bleh.

I want to try out FOC-free games, spearhead games, homebrew rules.. anything really to keep the game fresh and exciting. Even going as far as to have move phase done at the same time, shoot phase done at the same time and assault phase done at the same time. nope. can't even have that. always gotta be 1500 points, always follow the FOC, always annihilation with objective games on the side occasionally.

Now I just look at my models and go bleh. can't even get the motivation to even finish them.

[Ulthwé Guardian]

Seems like your group follows a strict viewpoint of the 40K rules.

A gaming group certainly should mix games up with some scenarios, doubles matches, campaigns and tinker with things like game objectives, deployment zones, Forgeworld units & scenarios, battle missions.

Bluring the movement, shooting and assault might just be going to far.

You may have already tried this but mention your worries about the potential games becoming stagnate, but encourage them to come up them solutions and generate a back and forth process of idea creation.

[eosgreen]

sounds like your taking the hobby too seriously and/or they are slowly loosing interest

i generally attempt to compete in EVERYTHING if i can and i only tend to gravitate towards things that have a high skill cap and what i learned a long time ago was, a hobby is more fun when you can laugh and enjoy being around bad players because everything else thats happening is what matters.

basically if you cannot enjoy something for its own sake you need to step back. if you want to make this your real job in some way by all means take the game seriously but remember that not everyone shares your level of interest.

also note that most people are bad at things. when i say most i mean 99 percent. most ppl rate themselves a lot higher then they actually are and the difference between the 99 and the 1 percent is as big as the current distribution of money in america. people dont like to lose, they play hobbys and games so they CAN be good at something and its not fun when they are not as good as they want to be so they just stop doing it. if your familiar with online games and games in general, most video games are getting easier and easier because people just want to feel good about themselves and succeed in the easiest way possible.

now obviously im taking a very specific guess at whats going on but generally speaking i find people have more fun when they feel they are on an even playing field and you used the word "suck".

now did you mean suck as in they are bad at the game or suck as in they dont want to play. prob a question one should ask first

[woodenronin]

I feel you brother. I am in the same boat. We had a small gaming group now it is just down to me again. The worst part is that I have 3 armies at my house that are not even mine. Been here for years. The nids army left here has been sitting so long ,the glue is breaking down and I have a case of bitz.
I have also tried to run a few campaigns a my FLGS ,only to have 2 people finish the whole thing. Their main complaints "the missions book is unbalanced" " the cards in planetary empires were not fair/balanced'' " the blood angels codex is broken'' " the grey knights codex is broken " "chaos sucks needs a new codex" well you get the point.
It is frustrating.

[Uncle Nutsy]

now did you mean suck as in they are bad at the game or suck as in they dont want to play. prob a question one should ask first

suck as in "making excuses to not play". they just don't like losing. Last time we played, I won three games in a row. after that it was all "nope, don't want to play."

[bfmusashi]

I'd try to find out if they're playing without you.

[vharing]

I dont even play warhammer at my local club anymore. Everyone jumped ship to warmachine. Bringing 40K down there meant getting ignored at best and at worst getting told that my game is dumb and that I should be playing their game.

[eosgreen]

suck as in "making excuses to not play". they just don't like losing. Last time we played, I won three games in a row. after that it was all "nope, don't want to play."

i have a similar story with my warhammer crew. my 3 other friends and i used to play warhammer at each others houses as well as other games when we were young like ghost and the graveyard and such.

they wouldnt play basketball with me though. the reason was because i played for our high school and i was really good and they disliked losing/getting beat badly. it was sad but i can understand how its not fun to play against someone you have no chance against.

are you taking the games too seriously? maybe you need to make more fun army lists and just try to enjoy the random factors of the game

[Morgan Darkstar]

I dont even play warhammer at my local club anymore. Everyone jumped ship to warmachine. Bringing 40K down there meant getting ignored at best and at worst getting told that my game is dumb and that I should be playing their game.

Ahh thank you, I needed reminding of why I hate "WARMACHINE!!!" players.

[juliusb]

Sorry, but if you have to post on the internet about the troubles you're having with real-life people it's probably you. Like someone said earlier, maybe you're too intense and they're more relaxed gamers. Neither one is wrong, but it can be annoying if both sides don't acknowledge the differences.

My group has really serious rules-lawyers, very competitive guys, fluff-type players, etc. I'm not very good nor am I strong with the rules but the serious guys know that and they don't get annoyed if I need a rule clarification or when I make really dumb decisions. On the other hand, if they have a powerful list I don't complain.