Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

What are your TFG horror stories basically?

--------

So I've known people like this. I suppose they're considered TFG but this is generally a more extreme level of that. I've maybe been around at least 5 regulars like this in 12 and a half years of tabletop gaming.

One of which is just the biggest sore loser even when he wins. If something annoys him he will complain for offering the least amount of resistance in-game. Not to mention said guy cheats by giving himself an extra 500 to 1000 points in a 40k game. I heard he was losing one game that he threw a fit so bad he just packed up and left mid-game but this time possibly for good (to which I say good riddance). He throws these fits often when he's losing and this is even with his cheating. Not only does he have these issues but he did tease people a bit. Oddly not the worst person to talk to but not the nicest one either and seemingly thin skinned despite being a bit of a jerk.

There's about 3 more that follow the same pattern so i'll label them all here. These are mainly people that are negative or generally mean to me even when I give them next to no attention. They'll just strike up an insult even when I interact with other people and generally aside from a few friends they tend to hate everybody which is fine because I feel like most people hate them in return. In general these people are just jerks and awful to be around.

The last one I've known was an employee for a game store and easily he was the worst employee I've seen at any game store by a long shot (possibly worst of any store). He was awful to customers he didn't like and made the place uncomfortable for those people when they were around. He'd throw insults and once acted like he was gonna throw and possibly break one of my models (all of that done for no reason but to get a rise out of me and laugh at me). At one point when the game store he worked for was closing down in the mall the one good thing I figured was that he'd never work for the next game store and he was the one transfer to the new store. At the announcement from the hobby shop manager it was the most silent audience I heard and I think it was an announcement meant to have clapping (keep in mind the store was packed as a going away party). Eventually years down the road at the new store with him treating people like crap someone supposedly was reduced to tears by this employee and called up GW HQ and they changed management with the previous management supposedly allowing more elitist and clique atmospheres in the game store. Basically if you weren't in the 'in' crowd of hobbyists you were treated worse.

I just want to make a point I don't think I call out awful behavior as much as some. I don't mind offensive jokes, people teasing each other playfully, annoying/gross people (body odor or talking a lot), mild forms of gamer rage, smug gamers, competitive gamers and other small things. I mean I even know a dude that makes 9/11 jokes that I don't mind that bad. Keep it in mind that if I am this light with people then the people I mention must be really bad because they are. I also want to acknowledge I can be a bit of a sore loser but it's something I think I've had to work on and sometimes get better at. Also my models aren't transported well and so are broken a bit and aren't WYSIWYG. That said i'm comfortable showing you my list and various rules, agreeing on things before they are rolled for and asking if it's ok and similar. I just want to say i'm by no means the most perfect and most enjoyable person to play against. However i'm not like these people and if you don't game against me my worst behaviors and manners tend to go away.

I used to hang out at an LGS and did Warmachine mostly. A few folks were fine, especially a couple of the regulars, but there were also just enough folks that were intolerable in various ways: thin-skinned WAAC players, annoying backseat generals, paint-snobs (oddly, more on the "why do you paint your models?" kind of thing; vast majority of people played bare metal/plastic), super poor social skills leading to offensive behavior in a very mixed store in general, etc.

And it wasn't just the Warmachine players. There were plenty of Magic snobs, RPG snobs, 40k, WHFB, Infinity (god those guys never put the terrain away when they were done and just left a mess all over the tables), Malifaux WAACers, etc. So, basically, after pretty much only ever playing with friends who organized to come down same night with me--I stopped doing random pick up games entirely--I decided it was stupid to go since I had a big table I built at the house and a bunch of terrain, so I just have my chosen buddies come over and we don't have to deal with anyone we don't want to.

You want to talk about awful hobbyists, you should go back to when Age of Sigmar first launched and say the game is pretty good and doesn't need points. I'd rather watch a four hour argument about The Last Jedi than deal with that again.

There is always that one person that is; abrasive, excessively inappropriate(sexist, racist, whatever), generally obnoxious, etc...

The only way I would leave a flgs would be if the owner/employees acted in the above manner.

an individual(or many)douchebag has zero influence over what I do/do not do..

My issue is more people that just treat others like crap and not in a teasing manner. Basically they're always negative and just awful to be around even for people they like. I go to a game store for fun and if I could avoid those people I would at any opportunity. I don't get bothered by too many people but there's usually some jerk wherever you go.

In the case of age of sigmar I enjoyed whfb and was pissed when it was killed off. That said people on both sides took it too far and gw sorta set the community up for a split. I'm not mad at aos players or most gw employees. I blame Kirby for what happened and being super out of touch with the players. Old gw wasn't exactly customer friendly or fan site friendly and copyright was huge with them. Anyway aos has developed into it's own thing and people should be able to get into it. Honestly if aos hadn't had to live off the death of fantasy I wouldn't have minded. This is all irrelevant now considering old world is coming back too.

Mine was a dude that was super nice and fine to be around out of the game. However, he wanted to win a little too much so he only shuffled his list around enough to prevent hard-counters making for kinda boring games since they were the same games depending on what he brought. He would take advantage of the group's leniency while being super strict if the same situation worked against him. Push come to shove, he also performed actions that weren't always expressly forbidden by the rules, but felt super gamey that no one else would do. If the game started turning against him he also became more and more irritable (never an out right jerk though) and sucked the fun right out the game.

Occasionally after much ribbing by the rest of the group, he would run casual lists around the strength everyone usually played and get creamed by the rest of the group, so he explained that was why he ran tournament lists. I only beat his tournament list once by actually running the distance and damage numbers in my head (which I am usually loathe to do for fun). I only did that because it was a smaller point game where it wasn't as taxing. Doing that I did catch him moving a little extra since I actually went to the trouble of running the distance numbers in my head to constantly be at least 0.5" out of range. I don't think he was purposely cheating, he just over measured or something got bumped a bit in where typically no one was that precise in ranging anyways except him when it was against him. Ultimately, I found it better just to build a list that would lose as quickly as possible while not looking like I was trying to lose when it was my turn to have to play him in the rotation.

What made it tough was he fine to be around out of the game. So no one wanted ever decline a game with him especially since the group wasn't that big. However, in game he had cutthroat/try-hard attitude and took advantage of the way the group played while not returning that in kind and was a poor fit made worst by the fact that not running an OP list he didn't do very well.

I only encountered that kind of crap when I was a young teenager in the very early 90s - y'know, back in school, and that was only in the really rough establishments.

I miss the lads I played with in slightly later days because we only gave a crap about having each others company and acting like jokers and fools. I'd paint their miniatures, they'd laugh their arses off at my feeble skills and we'd substitute class objects for scenery. If we screwed up a rule the rest would comically object in the most outraged fashion possible - and fall about laughing.

Unless playing in an official tournament for big money - I would find it totally embarrassing if a grown man started having a tantrum about a game "not being fair". There comes a point in life where we have to grow up and develop a sense of humour.

 Sqorgar wrote:
You want to talk about awful hobbyists, you should go back to when Age of Sigmar first launched and say the game is pretty good and doesn't need points. I'd rather watch a four hour argument about The Last Jedi than deal with that again.

Strangely enough, people can enjoy things in a different way from you. Shocking i know.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 Sqorgar wrote:
You want to talk about awful hobbyists, you should go back to when Age of Sigmar first launched and say the game is pretty good and doesn't need points. I'd rather watch a four hour argument about The Last Jedi than deal with that again.

Strangely enough, people can enjoy things in a different way from you. Shocking i know.

Reread what he wrote. Then read what you wrote. Then ...edit what you wrote?

Oh gawd, do we need to go around about THIS again?



I recall terrible games while playing in the LGS that mostly derived from people with poor social skills and/or that viewed the game as some sort of nationally recognized sporting event with huge stakes. At our local FLGS on W40K night, there were no stakes. Goes to show that the lower the stakes, the more petty people can get.

I never play in stores anymore. No need to. Even when I moved, I didn't waste my time with THAT experience again.

Ran into a Boobmarine guy once. You know the type; every model has suddenly sprouted DD breasts, uses alternate models for more titty exposure, and can't help but talking about their twin loves of the game and hentai throughout most of the game. I mean, I know everyone has to have a hobby, but some people really need to develop a second facet to their personality.

Also once ran into a guy with a serious case of dice superstition. Accused every opponent in the tournament of using crooked dice (Those secret, invisible air bubbles you know) except for the TO, which used Casino dice. I actually invested in metal machined dice after that just to avoid any future accusations. Didn't make me leave, but it wasn't a positive experience by a long shot

Usually it's the staff that make me never want to go back. I think I've been in maybe one where they made me feel like they cared about me as a customer.

 ChargerIIC wrote:
Ran into a Boobmarine guy once. You know the type; every model has suddenly sprouted DD breasts, uses alternate models for more titty exposure, and can't help but talking about their twin loves of the game and hentai throughout most of the game. I mean, I know everyone has to have a hobby, but some people really need to develop a second facet to their personality.

Doesn't sound like this guy did anything wrong. More like you are just overly judgmental.

It seems like there are two type of awful hobbyists - those who do things we don't like, and those who are things we don't like. Neither are innately wrong or bad. For instance, I'd find it annoying to play against someone who autistically recounts the entire plot to multiple episodes of the Golden Girls, and I'd go to great lengths to avoid doing that ever again. But I don't begrudge the guy his passions or hobbies - I just don't share them. And that's okay, because it would be boring if everybody liked the same things in the same ways.

 Sqorgar wrote:

 ChargerIIC wrote:
Ran into a Boobmarine guy once. You know the type; every model has suddenly sprouted DD breasts, uses alternate models for more titty exposure, and can't help but talking about their twin loves of the game and hentai throughout most of the game. I mean, I know everyone has to have a hobby, but some people really need to develop a second facet to their personality.

Doesn't sound like this guy did anything wrong. More like you are just overly judgmental.

It seems like there are two type of awful hobbyists - those who do things we don't like, and those who are things we don't like. Neither are innately wrong or bad. For instance, I'd find it annoying to play against someone who autistically recounts the entire plot to multiple episodes of the Golden Girls, and I'd go to great lengths to avoid doing that ever again. But I don't begrudge the guy his passions or hobbies - I just don't share them. And that's okay, because it would be boring if everybody liked the same things in the same ways.

There's having a fandom or obsession, then there's taking it to the point you let it be the only thing that defines you. Then there's pushing it on everyone else. The line was somewhere before those last two stops.

#1: Had a local Stanker that smelled absolutely VILE.

I don't mean 'he would come in and buy stuff' and stunk; the guy would hang out at the store from open to close, eat two or three fast food meals there, and handle merch and terrain and sit in all the chairs and on the sofa. I could describe the stench, but let me summarize it for you: Any way you're thinking something could stink, what something could smell like- YES, that was what it smelled like. All of it. And yet, he managed to afford $200 in models every week.

Yes, all means were exhausted. We politely asked if he should be spending nearly a thousand dollars a month on models and books. We asked if everything was all right at home. We did everything we could do to find out if there was some kind of problem there, and .... nothing. So, we had a polite conversation in private, just two guys that were really polite... and nothing. He just didn't care, at all.

The owner finally was able to get online reviews, and it took being publicly embarassed by those review comments for him to realize there was a problem- but it was too little, too late. When we approached the owner after the confrontation went poorly, he threatened to ban us for 'bullying' a 'good customer'. The stanker finally got banned from all gaming establishments until he cleaned up (he... kinda did. Sort of.)

#2: Paper Crown Princess stirred drama at a store, the only complaint she couldn't be blamed for was the GW Prices.

We had a girl show up that was a gamer. Which, of course, isn't really abnormal (most of us had girlfriends, wives, sisters, and other women that played for years coming to the store). However, this princess seemed to think it was abnormal and she was some unique and majestic creature. Of course, the reality of it was demonstrably against her belief that she was a rare diamond in the rough... she she set about trying to make it be exactly like that.

She badmouthed every girl in the store, to a point where she was making claims that X gal was flirting with Y dude when X gal's husband was away or something. And then she would corral all the guys together, and the weaker-willed thirsters would side with her and enable this drama. She was flirty, and ... yeah, you were in trouble if you didn't gawk and blush when she flirted with you.

I'm not peculiar about how a girl dresses, but the ONE THING the shop did do that helped was call her out once her attire went from being 'actual clothing' to 'stripper's stage outfit'. The place had a dress code, and she violated it brazenly (and yes, it's the same for men and women).

Basically she formed a little cult of thirsty incels that would lash out at everyone that she didn't like, they'd spend hundreds of dollars on anything she wanted, praise her for he most trivial things (I'm pretty sure they praised her for tying her own shoes), etc. She then kicked things up a notch by trying to stir drama with every guy that didn't worship her...

And then she got herself a boyfriend, abandoned the shop entirely, and didn't even bother to pick up a huge box of models that these losers bought for her. The guys working at the store had finally caught on to her antics by then, but none of them had the guts to ban her.

#3: That guy that ruins everything by being WAAC AF

A shop catered to competitive players, almost exclusively. Which meant the places was a beacon for all the dudes that you never wanted to play with. Guys that threw down their beastmode broken netlists against anything- even that 12 year old that's still got the glue drying on his first box of Space Marines. And then they'd gloat about it.

But that's not the store I'm talking about... we had a guy start haunting the more casual stores.

...he literally couldn't play a game without rubbing his wins in your face and gloating about it. He would talk trash about your army, and tell everyone that walked through the door how he beat the crap out of you. If he asked you to try a new game, it was because he was on the internet researching it and found a broken combo or rule and already bought everything he needed... and he'd STILL talk about beating you (even though it was the first time you tried the game).

And the store kept him around because he generated interest. It's just that... they never noticed that after people played him, their interest might still be in the game but it damned sure wasn't in playing him. This was in the store where I work weekends, so after this was brought to my attention... I barred him from doing demo games and asked him to cool it. He had been warned about this before, but I finally squashed it. He's now pissed off to go play at the WAAC club on the other side of town.

ChargerIIC wrote:

 Sqorgar wrote:

 ChargerIIC wrote:
Ran into a Boobmarine guy once. You know the type; every model has suddenly sprouted DD breasts, uses alternate models for more titty exposure, and can't help but talking about their twin loves of the game and hentai throughout most of the game. I mean, I know everyone has to have a hobby, but some people really need to develop a second facet to their personality.

Doesn't sound like this guy did anything wrong. More like you are just overly judgmental.

It seems like there are two type of awful hobbyists - those who do things we don't like, and those who are things we don't like. Neither are innately wrong or bad. For instance, I'd find it annoying to play against someone who autistically recounts the entire plot to multiple episodes of the Golden Girls, and I'd go to great lengths to avoid doing that ever again. But I don't begrudge the guy his passions or hobbies - I just don't share them. And that's okay, because it would be boring if everybody liked the same things in the same ways.

There's having a fandom or obsession, then there's taking it to the point you let it be the only thing that defines you. Then there's pushing it on everyone else. The line was somewhere before those last two stops.

It's fairly presumptuous to simply assume you got the full measure of a person over a single game of 40K and accurately gauged their personality. Far more likely you're committing the several logical fallacies that we all commit when we wrestle with the inner-thoughts of others.

I'd wager you'd label me a 'boobmarine' guy. My Daemons are an overt tribute to kink. 100%. Given half a chance, I'll talk about the conversions I've made and likely what inspired them.

My Daemons don't represent my totality as a person, even if I spend a whole THREE! hours talking about whips.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
My Daemons don't represent my totality as a person, even if I spend a whole THREE! hours talking about whips.

Up front, I don't think any of this makes you a bad person. But that's just the kind of mentality that I have, and not everyone agrees.

However-

You do have to understand that a first impression lasts a long, long time- and it really sticks. And it's honestly understandable, because if you meet someone for the first time and what you present to them is tiddy models and a conversation about whips in the bedroom... well, unless it's an establishment or environment for that- you're going to give the impression that you're a pervert or some kind of sex fiend. And it's really hard to blame the other person, because that's what you gave them to work with. At the end of the day, YOU chose what to present to another person, and it's not on that person to go do a deep dive on your personality and see if they can dig up something else.

If you show up to a first date dressed like a slob in dirty clothes, and won't pay for your date's dinner... she's going to think you're a cheap slob, no matter what else you have going out. It's on you to decide what to present to other people, it's not on them to try and mine the more appealing parts of your character out.

I am both of the things you allege in your first paragraph. Neither is the totality of my personality, nor is it fair to assume it is after knowing me for three hours in the context of a game of toy soldiers.

I have a R&H force with is an obvious parody of the Stalinist Red Army. I write silly little stories about them featuring a Mary-Sue that is obviously partly based on Stalin. I'm not a Stalinist.

I'm not arguing it's on you to soul-bond with your opponent, move to Greece and open a taverna with them, I'm saying it's unfair (and presumptuous) to make a judgment about the sort of person someone is because of one thing presented for a short time, largely in context.

EDIT - Also, I obviously don't ever talk about whips for three hours. Exaggeration for effect.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
I am both of the things you allege in your first paragraph. Neither is the totality of my personality, nor is it fair to assume it is after knowing me for three hours in the context of a game of toy soldiers.

I have a R&H force with is an obvious parody of the Stalinist Red Army. I write silly little stories about them featuring a Mary-Sue that is obviously partly based on Stalin. I'm not a Stalinist.

I'm not arguing it's on you to soul-bond with your opponent, move to Greece and open a taverna with them, I'm saying it's unfair (and presumptuous) to make a judgment about the sort of person someone is because of one thing presented for a short time, largely in context.

EDIT - Also, I obviously don't ever talk about whips for three hours. Exaggeration for effect.

Let's put it this way, I get it. I know that all people are pretty layered and complex individuals. However, at a certain point you make the decision to decide what foot you're going to put forward. YOU made that call, and you decided that impression was the one you wanted to make. Of all the components of your personality, you chose (hypothetically) "Sex Fiend and Pervert". That was your call, and it's not some passive feature or instinct like blinking or breathing, nor is it a disability. YOU made a choice in how you presented yourself.

I work with what people give me, and that's not something that you just can't help. It's a conscious choice, a form of communication in itself, and it's only natural to go off that. And quite honestly, it says a lot about a person when they choose a certain thing to 'lead in' with.

It's even more unfair for you to expect people to look past the first thing you present them with, with intense passion and expect them to say "let me do the work here and find out more about this person" if the first things bother them or repulse them.

I make a judgement about someone in a short time because that's all I'm usually spending with someone- a short time. If, in that period of time, you present yourself as repulsive- then I want nothing to do with you. You may later get a shot at showing otherwise, but it's going to take some work- YOUR work. Not mine. I've neither the time, nor the obligation to sit and chip away layers of a person after they've elected to present themselves to me in a way I dislike. And if that bothers them, and they think it's 'unfair'- well, good. Maybe they'll help me out and not approach me again, so now we can at least work toward the same goal- which is "me not being around this person".

Racerguy180 wrote:
There is always that one person that is; abrasive, excessively inappropriate(sexist, racist, whatever), generally obnoxious, etc...

I feel this way about the socially awkward dude who talks about his anime porn while Pokemon League is being run ten feet away and attended by a dozen kids. And this was after the store management asked the DnD crew to tone down the cursing cause a parent complained about having to explain what "feth" meant. We are cursed to attract the socially clueless.

TBH if someone shows up with his models converted to have giant boobs and spends the entire time talking about Hentai then yes that IS disturbing, at the very least I'd think most people would know it inapproperate.

Let's not mince words, Hentai is the Japanese word for Perverted, it's ANIMATED PORN.
Some anime fanatics yeah make it out to somehow be superior somehow (I once knew someone who claimed anime was inheriantly superior to anything produced in the west, to the point where they tried to seriously argue Pokemon was better then Star Wars) but at the end of the day Hentai is porn.

Now maybe I'm just old fashioned but I don't belive it's approperate to strike up a conversation about that porn movie you where watching with someone you bumped into at a game store.

That's just creepy

I'm honestly baffled by anyone who talks about porn in public unprompted. Doing it in a games store where minors are a frequent thing, and they're standing ten feet away, is how you get the entire room staring at you with that "what the feth is wrong with you" face.

 LordofHats wrote:
I feel this way about the socially awkward dude who talks about his anime porn while Pokemon League is being run ten feet away and attended by a dozen kids. And this was after the store management asked the DnD crew to tone down the cursing cause a parent complained about having to explain what "feth" meant. We are cursed to attract the socially clueless.

You can present this as a 'socially decent' issue if you like, as someone who actually works in a FLGS and has seen several of them come and go in my lifetime... let me tell you one thing tht you should never, ever forget:

The wrath of a bored Boomer Karen with Social Media and the ability to do a Google Review can absolutely ruin a business. Even if it's trivial and petty. I've seen this stuff get so out of hand, it had to involve police running Karens off the property and outright restraining orders.

Now, I am 100% in favor of the rule "Don't expect everyone else to be your kid's parent/babysitter", so I am tolerant to some degree of people speaking their minds and being themselves without walking on eggshells. The FLGS isn't a babysitting service, and I firmly believe there's something wrong if you're going to leave an unattended child (not necessarily a teenager) at the FLGS with a bunch of strangers.

However, I believe that if you wouldn't say it in front of a prospective girlfriend's parents, then you should probably stow it... or at least be keenly aware of your audience.

No part of what I'm saying is arguing in favour of loudly and discussing porn, fetish, anything like that unsolicited in obviously inappropriate settings.

For clarity.

And yeah, Adeptus Doritos, I mis-spoke earlier. I meant to say it's not fair (and presumptuous) to make a judgment about the totality of the person based on one thing presented for a short time, largely in context.

Obviously it's completely fair to make a judgment about what the Daemons mean about me as a person.

Also, on topic (And relevant to the kids thing):

#4: This dude that really, REALLY needed to hire a babysitter.

I don't have the energy to go into this guy's situation, but I get it... it's hard to be a dad and a hobby gamer. But the guy's kids were out of control. Now, I was told (or rather, overheard him bellowing it angrily at someone else) that the kids had autism or something- I'm not a doctor, I don't know, I'm just some guy that wanted to play games without screeching and screaming. Oh, and then they'd get mad and one would hit the other and then the wailing would start. And he must have mastered some kind of Zen mindset, because he wouldn't even acknowledge it or turn away from his game. He kept on without skipping a beat.

It wasn't really the kids, it was the dad. He didn't seem to understand that he was putting a lot of burden on other people who were just trying to play. Shop owner tried to talk to him, but the idea that his children were being a disturbance to other people was completely irrelevant to him, or lost on him.

This one DID have me leave. A lot of people would leave, if this guy showed up with his screaming kids. There was never any other problem with anyone else's kids, just these two.

He told the shop owner that kicking the children out was discrimination against their disability, and he could get a lawyer. So he said the children were welcome at any time with their mother or another adult guardian, he banned the dad for not paying attention to the children.

#5 The reason Yu-Gi-Oh cards had to be stored behind the counter.

A store I frequented a long while back had a massive number of card players, Yu-Gi-Oh mostly. The kids weren't doing anything 'wrong', I suppose... they just SWARMED the store, so you couldn't really do anything. And there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it. If you were trying to play a game at a table, they would be all over you...

...but things kept going missing. And lo and behold, you'd find out some kid had swiped something of yours. A hat, a pack of smokes from your coat on the back of your chair, crafting tools, an entire model, a bag of dice, your book... stuff that none of these kids even seemed to care about, they'd get caught swiping it and trying to sell it to their friends- fortunately, they also loved snitching on each other.

The store would be swarmed with kids, shoulder to shoulder, and they simply would not do anything to mitigate this crowd. Wargame nights? Magic night? D&D Night? Demo Night? Not if the Yugioh kids showed. But they spent money, so the manager tolerated it... until they were the only ones spending money, and Yugioh alone ain't payin' the bills.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Excommunicatus wrote:
And yeah, Adeptus Doritos, I mis-spoke earlier. I meant to say it's not fair (and presumptuous) to make a judgment about the totality of the person based on one thing presented for a short time, largely in context.

Well, that's just it. No one is judging the totality of the person.

What's being judged is the manner in which this person chooses to present himself to a stranger, where their time together is limited. I'm not walking away from you saying, "Wow, he's a terrible person to the core and his soul is made of doodoo, there is nothing good about him at all!"

I'm walking away from you and saying, "Yeah, if that's the way he wants to present himself and behave around me to play a game, I'd rather just not spend my time dealing with that."

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
What's being judged is the manner in which this person chooses to present himself to a stranger, where their time together is limited.

Not to be rude, but you are talking about playing Warhammer - I'm pretty sure that most strangers are judging you and your friends rather unkindly as well. There was a time when playing DnD would get you labeled as a devil worshipper. Nerds have to stick together because only other nerds can understand that deliciously awkward combination of obsession and cringe. Yeah, this guy is not totally appropriate in his obsession - but you know that. You understand it. That awkwardness is familiar. Because it is in you, whether you know it or not (I mean, you say you actually work at a FLGS). And yet you won't yield for it while expecting others to yield for your Warhammer? You think Boomer Karen with Social Media isn't rolling her eyes all the way back into her head while you try to patiently help her buy Pokemon cards for a birthday party her nine year old is attending?

The nerd world is too small for nerds to be criticizing other nerds on behalf of Boomer Karens and their Twitter feeds.

 Sqorgar wrote:
Not to be rude, but you are talking about playing Warhammer - I'm pretty sure that most strangers are judging you and your friends rather unkindly as well.

Well, if they were the kind of people I was really concerned about being friends with, then I'd probably have noticed their absence. I haven't, so I guess they're doing us both a favor.

 Strg Alt wrote:
Nerds have to stick together because only other nerds can understand that deliciously awkward combination of obsession and cringe.

No, we need to not do this by default. We need to be mature, socially functional adults and hold ourselves to that standard. Just 'sticking together' is why FLGS' still stink like unwashed ass and armpit, because people circled the wagons and 'stuck together' instead of being mature adults and dealing with the issue.

 Strg Alt wrote:
nd yet you won't yield for it while expecting others to yield for your Warhammer? You think Boomer Karen with Social Media isn't rolling her eyes all the way back into her head while you try to patiently help her buy Pokemon cards for a birthday party her nine year old is attending?

Boomer Karen's opinion of me isn't valuable. You know what is? Her money. That's all I want from her. And she's welcome to judge me, out loud if she likes. Because then her money becomes less important, and she's the one that's got to deal with her bratty screecher when he doesn't get his cardboard Japanese doodle critter.

 Strg Alt wrote:
The nerd world is too small for nerds to be criticizing other nerds on behalf of Boomer Karens and their Twitter feeds.

And it stays small, because too many of you lack the intestinal fortitude to hold each other to a respectable adult standard. No amount of female miniatures is going to make women want to play with you if you can't be a mature, well-adjusted adult that takes care of themselves.

 Sqorgar wrote:

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
What's being judged is the manner in which this person chooses to present himself to a stranger, where their time together is limited.

Not to be rude, but you are talking about playing Warhammer - I'm pretty sure that most strangers are judging you and your friends rather unkindly as well. There was a time when playing DnD would get you labeled as a devil worshipper. Nerds have to stick together because only other nerds can understand that deliciously awkward combination of obsession and cringe. Yeah, this guy is not totally appropriate in his obsession - but you know that. You understand it. That awkwardness is familiar. Because it is in you, whether you know it or not (I mean, you say you actually work at a FLGS). And yet you won't yield for it while expecting others to yield for your Warhammer? You think Boomer Karen with Social Media isn't rolling her eyes all the way back into her head while you try to patiently help her buy Pokemon cards for a birthday party her nine year old is attending?

The nerd world is too small for nerds to be criticizing other nerds on behalf of Boomer Karens and their Twitter feeds.

I think he's talking first impressions generally... Like from a human relations perspective. And he's right.

If you're playing Warhammer with another nerd you have that incommon obviously... But if the other nerd seems really really weird/awful during your game it doesn't matter that you're both into the same thing. You aint going to want to spend time with them again (play them again) and certainly have to approach any issues in a mature way. Why should you enable people to do things that take away from collective experiences.

I don't think anyone ever made me want to leave the FLC but one of the guys in my WH RPG campaign is really rubbing me the wrong way. Always has to have the last word, being overbearing and really forcing his character into everything and getting snarky with less experienced players. Certainly makes me want to finish the sessions faster. Not going to not participate and let anyone have that much power over me so its just something I got to deal with it.

I've seen some stores be rather clique-y with the regulars, other than that though no real bad experiences. I always play with the same people every time though, if I was going into stores doing pickup games with strangers i'm sure i'd have more stories by now.

 Argive wrote:
I don't think anyone ever made me want to leave the FLC but one of the guys in my WH RPG campaign is really rubbing me the wrong way. Always has to have the last word, being overbearing and really forcing his character into everything and getting snarky with less experienced players. Certainly makes me want to finish the sessions faster. Not going to not participate and let anyone have that much power over me so its just something I got to deal with it.

OOF. Had one of these. Here's how you can deal with him:

Let him. Let him have the last word, let him do as he pleases, let him do whatever he wants with zero resistance. Let him have center stage, as much of it as he wants. Give it all to him, in excess, and just sit back and let it happen. Don't try to do anything, just let him have the spotlight and don't even bother showing any interest in sharing it with him.

He'll realize he's just playing with himself (literally and metaphorically) and get bored, then piss off.

The message that this sends is that he is just wasting his time, and then when he realizes it you can tell him that it's how everyone else feels when they play with him.