Competitive or casual?

People play tabletop games for different reasons. If you are part of different game groups, you probably know how the attitude to playing games can change. Some people are really competitive and do everything they can to win the game. Others are quite casual and often like the social side of playing games.

Game groups usually mostly consist of one type of player. It is rare that you have an even mix of competitive and casual players. You may have a single competitive player in a group of mostly casual players, or vice versa – and of course people in between. The balance has to be right of course, or the minority group will not enjoy the game – or maybe they do because the competitive players are likely to win against the casual players, so maybe that’s what they want.

Also, players can be really competitive with one game, but don’t really care at all with another game. People can also change their attitude to playing games when they are with a different group of players.
I would say I mostly play games because I am drawn in by the game mechanics and the theme – and even though I am generally a competitive player, the social aspect is still more important to me. I do want to win, but also want to make sure the whole group has fun.

As I have found out recently (thank you “The Meeple Street“), you can complete a questionnaire to get an idea of what your attitude to playing games is. Have a look at Quantic Foundry’s online form: https://apps.quanticfoundry.com/surveys/start/tabletop/

I completed it and below is my result – which didn’t surprise me of course, because I knew my attitude to playing games of course – but I will complete the form regularly to see how I change my views over time. After all, I love stats…

How about you? What is your attitude to playing games? Are you very competitive? Are there games that change you from a casual player to someone obsessed with winning? Maybe you play in tournaments where you are very competitive, but you are more of a casual player when you play with your friends. Please post your comments below.