Monday, July 18, 2005

Fantasy world

I am always amazed at some people's lack of civility and respect amongst friends when it comes to game-playing. I always gave my friends in DC props for playing games well and not necessarily focusing solely on winning. And the truth is, most of my friends fall into the latter category. But then there are those select few who will stop at almost nothing to win and stoop to the low level of name-calling and embarassing others just because they don't agree with others, aren't getting what they want, or because their potential win is being threatened. That just makes me angry.

I play fantasy baseball because it's fun, and because it's a great and easy way to keep up-to-date with what's going on in the majors, outside of the Mets. I'm not the best fantasy player, I don't spend hours analyzing stats and matchups to field the best lineup for that night, and I usually stick with most of the guys I drafted before the season started. I made it to first place for a few days in April, and now I am fully entrenched in fifth. I hold no illusions of winning the league I'm in with my friends in DC, and it honestly doesn't bother me much.

A few days ago, a friend in the league decided that his team wasn't going to win, and so he wanted to trade all of his players, but make sure that the trades would be fair and somewhat balanced- i.e., a fire-sale but not at rockbottom prices. I have no problem with that. Apparently, a bunch of other people do. And boy, did they make it known that they were upset. One person even went so far as to call the other "immature and spiteful" and a "three year old." WHA??? Another went on a tirade, lashing out at those who traded with this guy, calling people cheaters. Yep, here you have a bunch of people with college and graduate level degrees, acting like kids in kindergarten, instead of dealing with this situation like the adults they play on TV.

It's frustrating, because it doesn't seem to me that either of these guys actually voiced their displeasure with the one who was putting his team up for sale. Their gut reaction was to go into a tirade, and insult others. Where's the decency in that? One of them tells me that a friend should be allowed to call a spade a spade. That's fine. But really- if you're friends with someone, you should first think about HOW you're calling the spade, and think about the bite and offense in your words.

Suffice it to say, I probably WON'T be playing with some of these characters next year.

Grr.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Boy, that's frustrating :(

I value a well-played game far more than winning. My favorite people to play with do too. Maybe a league of friendly players next year?

I still think it's funny that we were 1st and 2nd in Fantasy Football :)

9:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Something occured to me a little while after all this "stuff" happened - some of the people in the league are playing for money. I think I'm going to have to add this to my list of lessons learned for this season - never play with people who play for money. (Or blood, but I learned that one two years ago).

1:41 PM  

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