Mailifang
Well-Known Member
No. You are not playing the same game offline as you are online. And yes, playing under pressure with pride and money on the line, whether you can work under it or not, changes everything.
I'm not saying you can't learn how to play the game at a competitive level online (PerfectLegend does). However, your accomplishments online aren't worth anything. Who cares what your online win/loss ratio is? Who cares what your rank is? Who cares who you beat online? Online casuals mean squat. Go to a tournament where it actually counts, which the DoA community BADLY needs to do if they want this game to live.
You want to know what the DOA high level community needs to do for this game to live. We need more local scenes. We need a "farm system" so to speak. Not many of us in the community are finding or grooming new talent or getting new people to play the game.
Many of us play this game just for self enjoyment by beating people online and alienating most players who do play online. I understand for quite a few us we have a "killer" mentality.Its killed or be killed when it comes to playing this game in general. Because of that mentality many of us don't make a lot of new friends online. Or establish connections with other players that quite a few of us deem inferior. Many of you speak of the camraderie that comes by attending offline tournaments but if players go and get squashed they serve no purpose than they did by being a nobody online.After they lose badly they get an awkward hand shake from the person that beat them and walk away with a bad taste in their mouth. The person who won then goes about his business.
Camaraderie in the FGC has to be earned. And that is what makes it tough for most players who want to get into the offline tournament scene. We got more "killers" than "teachers". I'm talking about good players who have the time and the patience to educate those who want to play the game.
The table top card game community like MTG(Magic the Gathering) have a larger more active community and that's because the majority of the players just want to play.So they have no problems welcoming and teaching new players. Casual play dominates MTG community but those players are competitive because of weekly events like Friday Night Magic or Draft Saturdays. The high level MTG community as well as its pros are not as mean and obnoxious towards their casual community. But that's probably due to the people in the MTG community not having a frat boy type of mentality. And if you do get your ass kicked at MTG events players will take the time to offer advice, tell you what you did wrong, Fix and retool your deck, and hell they may even give you free cards to help you out.
The FGC as a whole needs this type of environment. The DOA community (considering that its probably the more diverse because we do have a sizable female population) needs to do more than just tell players...
"That online doesn't matter! If you want to be recognized by us(The high level community) then you need to show up to offline tournaments"
Because quite frankly this is not working.Most DOA players and fans could give a damn about what the high level community thinks. And we are not helping by continue to alienate people who just want to play the game. Just because many don't want to play at a high competitive level or attend offline major events doesn't mean they won't participate or meet and play others at local offline events. Quite a few in the competitive DOA community has to realize the game is not just meant for you or your style of play. Competitive players are the most vocal players but they are a minority when it comes to those who just play the game. The MTG community gets it. So why is the high level DOA community so discriminatory when it comes to how people play the game? You want the casual and online players to respect you as people first as well as high competitive pro players. And that comes from not shoving how L33T you are by putting down how they play the game and separating yourselves the DOA community as a whole.