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It feels like GW games have long been dominated by the Hobbyist-at-all-costs gamers.

When playing against them, unless you have sunk hundreds of hours into painting/converting your models you always feel like the jerk.

For those of us that either have no talent when it comes to artsy stuff or would just rather focus on the game at hand, we are always made out to be the jerk by the HAAC gamer.

I've actually had people get mad at me because I either own all the different army books or have them memorized. The same goes for when you make a quality and balanced list that includes no fluff. They complain about that as well. (psh vulkan and shrike in the same army? Cheese!)

They also seem to always get on the poor gamers. You know the ones I mean. The ones that can afford one army, paint it ultramarine blue and then use it as space wolves. I have actually watched as HAAC gamers throw a fit and refuse to play said person.

Does anyone else have a bunch of HAAC gamers at their store and how do you deal with them?

I see what you did there.

i say congratulations have a pair of eyebrows,

This cannot end well.

as a HAAC gamer myself, i take offense at your statement. even if you don't have the time or backbone to properly paint your models, there are alternatives that can sway a HAAC to play you anyways. all you must do is show your dedication to the non-game aspects of the game in some fashion. perhaps a reading of imperial missionary poetry.... a tableside interpretive dance in the harlequin tradition.... or simply a sacrifice to chaos of one of your models (either destroyed permanently by flame or mallet at the altar/tabletop or simply given to the HAAC gamer). we're really quite reasonable as you can see. you just have to make the effort.

Starting a flame war kid? You know this will not end well.

It really depends. I'm not a HAAC gamer, but there are a handful guys at my FLGS that are. We've never had any real issues getting along, and we've been gaming together for quite some time.

On the other hand, there were a few more of them at our GW store (while we had one) and some of them were bad, but we never had anybody refuse to play anybody else. If we had an issue with a gamer, we let them know. And if that didn't work, those of us with issues with that person just tried and avoided playing them.

It's all a matter of how it's handled by everyone who's not the HAAC gamer. And it's not just the HAAC gamers, it's all the extremes that can make someone not fun to be around.

All I have to say is this: If you fall into the category of either win at all costs or some other extreme of the game...you have to accept the fact that everyone around you thinks you're an outright douche because of your behavior. If you seriously cannot stand playing someone because of their level of competitiveness, skill in painting or otherwise, I think it would be time to take a step back and really think about what you're doing.

In the short term, you're either frustrating someone to the point where they have an acidic outlook on you or turning someone completely off from the game in general. In the long term, you'll probably cause someone to be completely biased (as is the case of the author from my understanding) or become some radical of their own.

I have had experiences with almost any extreme of players (i.e. Opponents who proxy a Chaos army using Tau Devilfish, Dark Eldar warriors, random bases and Slim Jim cans for Defilers. On the other hand some who only play What you see is what you get to the point where a particular weapons physical profile doesn't fit to their standards) and each and every time I have to take it with a grain of salt. If you cannot man up and say something about it then and there, there's no need to bitch about it later on. If you can't stand playing someone, don't play them. If someone incessantly rags you for some reason, even when you have no prior involvement, walk away if you can't stomach it. Otherwise, make them put up or shut up.

That fact is, grow a damn backbone and do something about it. That's all I have to say.

I have tons of them in my store,but they aren't always bad.
There are people who show off just because they spent most of their life in the hobby,but there are people who's so willing to teach and share,and they don't care if others are good or bad or rich or poor
Generally:
Good gamers: Play fair,good modelling and painting,competitive when needed,care for others and willing to teach
Bad gamers:Cocky,mean,play unfair and everything opposite from a good player

I know what you mean op. I was playing in an Apoc game and this guy debuted his scratch built Warlord titan. It wasn't one of the crappy scratch builds you see all the time made out of tubes and card board, this thing was legit. Looked like a walking cathedral, had stain glass windows and the whole thing was wired to light up. He said he spent 3 months working on the thing plus it was built so it could be broken down to fit in a carry case. So he deploys it in the corner behind a wall of IG armor so it can pummel the table with impunity. Naturally I deep struck a Mawloc onto it the first chance I got and instantly killed it because it had no where to move. So this guy has the audacity to be pissed off and calls me a rules lawyering douche nozzle who is ruining the game and I was like ltp noob.

Wow this is gonna turn into a flame war real quick. I will try to respond without flaming. I consider myself a HAAC gamer. I work evenings so I rarely get to play and as a result I have a well painted and extensive army. I like fluff more than tactics, I couldn't give a rats bum about winning. If you feel bad about playing against my well painted army, then something is wrong with your perceptions about the hobby. To the OP sorry that not everyone can have the cash to throw around and buy every new army, like you seem to and sorry that people wanting to try new things offends you. And yes I do think that people who are over-competitive rules lawyering gamers are douches like someone else said. And I refuse to play them. And by your statement of how you play I wouldn't want to play you.

Being cheesy and changing the rules are only a line apart from each other,and the line is the rules

It's a broad church
woulda thought there is room for a wide spectrum of interests and angles that people can come from and contribute.

pretre wrote:I see what you did there.

Come on do it right Pretre!

Frazzled wrote:

pretre wrote:I see what you did there.

Come on do it right Pretre!

I have failed you. :(

Not only have I ruined 40k/Fantasy, but I also ruined Dakka...

I need to go start a new thread called 'Are HAAC gamers also ruining Dakka and our memes?'

Best thread ever award goes to CptZach. Thank you for spawning the thing that got the four people sitting at their desks around me staring at me like I'm crazy. The worst part was that I had to try to explain why I was laughing so hard....

CptZach wrote:It feels like GW games have long been dominated by the Hobbyist-at-all-costs gamers.

You 3 color coat win-bunnies make me sick. I don't want to face off against your latest codex, flavor of the week, barely assembled and primed army that you've fed through the cheese grater! If you can't bring some crazy mad painting skillz and your A-game background, stay in your Mom's damn basement!

Either j00z got 15 pages of background history for you're imperial guard army, at least 2 of your dark heresy characters as models in the force and at least one character greenstuffed to look like Rutger Hauer in Ladyhawk and the entire force painted in lifelike colours exactly matching the British 95th rifles of the Napoleonic Wars....

Or j00z t3h n00bz!1!

Is it bad that I do have 15 pages of background history for my Imperial Guard?

Kanluwen wrote:Is it bad that I do have 15 pages of background history for my Imperial Guard?

At least 15? 'cause if it's less than 15 exactly, you're not wanted!

At last count, the document on Word was 22 pages.

Haha...this is actually funny.

I usually post on tournament threads about how I like soft scores, so I'm willing to bet that some people might think I'm "HAAC."

Actually, I'm quite the opposite. I can't stand "paint nazis;" people who refuse to play someone because that opponent's army isn't painted to a satisfactory standard.

I hate painting. I only paint the bare minimum needed to participate in tournaments. However, I understand that different people get different things out of playing GW's games. I can appreciate someone's wonderful paint job, but I get really annoyed when they make some sort of judgment about me because I don't enjoy painting. The same goes for the hardcore, no soft-score types. They're just as guilty as the "HAAC" types of trying to dictate to others how I should enjoy my hobby.

I believe there is room in the hobby for all types, and it is ridiculous for one person to try to dictate to all others how the hobby should be enjoyed.

avantgarde wrote:I know what you mean op. I was playing in an Apoc game and this guy debuted his scratch built Warlord titan. It wasn't one of the crappy scratch builds you see all the time made out of tubes and card board, this thing was legit. Looked like a walking cathedral, had stain glass windows and the whole thing was wired to light up. He said he spent 3 months working on the thing plus it was built so it could be broken down to fit in a carry case. So he deploys it in the corner behind a wall of IG armor so it can pummel the table with impunity. Naturally I deep struck a Mawloc onto it the first chance I got and instantly killed it because it had no where to move. So this guy has the audacity to be pissed off and calls me a rules lawyering douche nozzle who is ruining the game and I was like ltp noob.

Funny story, and I absolutely agree with him.)

Personally I call it FAAC (fluff) but HAAC works as well.

Frazzled wrote:

pretre wrote:I see what you did there.

Come on do it right Pretre!

I see your Nixon Frazzled and raise you Riker.

Honestly the OP has a legit point. the HAAC community has dominated a local store near me. As a result hardly anyone goes to the gamestore to play games, but they are always painting. Think about that for a moment, people at the gamestore don't go to play games anymore, just paint and talk. Now there is nothing wrong with hanging out at the local shop, many people do it. But I do find it odd that people go to gamestores without the intention of... PLAYING GAMES!

There are also alot of gamers like myself who feel they enjoy all aspects of the hobby. We have well painted models that are used in strong competitive lists, we have background story for our armies but we also enjoy the game aspect. The HAAC community tends to be "elitist" looking down on young/new players is quite common amongst them.

It's all about respecting your opponent, and not ramming your ideas of "the hobby" down their throat. I try to have a nicely painted army, I enjoy the game more playing other nicely painted armies... but if that's not what you value in the hobby, who am I to rain on your parade? I agreed to "take the field" with you after all. If I'm so shallow and thin-skinned as to be offended by someone who views and values the hobby differently than I do, I should take my minis and creep back down into my mommy's basement where I can play my own little games against my other army painted to my exacting specifications... just the way I like it. If I agree to play a game (or enter a tournament), then I need to grow a pair and hope that perhaps the example I set by my play, demeanor and well painted army may inspire others to do the same. That way I get to play more opponents that view things the way I do.

Common sense... show a little respect, get a little respect in return. And the world keeps spinning.....

Nixon would eat Riker for a between meal snack.

There's plenty of room in the hobby for lots of interests. People need to grasp that. And people need to realize that you're both in the hobby to have fun, and seek out people of similar mind-set (hobbyist, power gamer, or like 80% of gamers - somewhere in the middle).