Physical aggression and fighting in a GW or flgs?

[Grimtuff]

Just remembered another one: I was mooching round a local GW on a sunday, so it was packed with kids and two of them had just finished a game and one of the kids had the large GW army case and decided, in a last act of spite to his opponent to deliberately drop the lid of said case on his opponent's army which was located right under it.

Most of the models were crushed, now I didn't know whether to laugh or cry as the guy that did it was quite big for his age and the other guy was about 7-8 stone if he was wearing a backpack full of rocks. The scrawny kid goes right for the other one with a mean right hook then the nerd bitchslaps begin. Never really saw how it ended.

[Huberticus]

One of my mates was the aggressive guy once. School lunchtime games club, I was having one game, he was in another - but the tables were positioned in such a way that meant I could see what was going on at his table. His opponent's (a friend 2 years older than us) mates were all crowded round watching - and one, a pretty annoying obnoxious guy kept suggesting tactical advice to the opponent, and would mock my mate. Basically, trolling him. By. about turn 4, my mate snapped. To briefly describe my mate - he's like a turtle. Slow, relaxed. When he snapped - fastest I've ever seen him move. His fist moved from on the table infront of him (sat down), in a right hook into troll's nose, and then back to the table so fast it took everyone a few moments to realise what happened.
He got banned from the club for the rest of the term, but it ended there AFAIK.

I unintentionally slapped an opponent in a friendly apocalypse game (we're all close friends), as I have the hand-eye coordination of a new born giraffe with the weight of a full grown elephant. He jokingly mocked my team's poor performance upto that turn, to which I responded with an exaggerated Victorian-duellist "how darest thou!" response - only mis-timed the slap and caught him full on in the jaw :lol:

Other than that, in 8 years of wargaming I've never seen anything like the stuff mentioned here. I mean, using clippers as a weapon? "The one rule of Fightclub Games Workshop is: Don't talk about Fightclub Games Workshop"...

[gutsmaka]

wow, comared to stories on forums about violence and annoying kids and rages, my local GW is a safe haven! I mean really, how do things get to this!?

[AngelofSorrow]

I've seen it once. There were some 14-15year olds outside our local GW calling the people inside names ( nerds, losers etc....) one of the kids stuck his head in the door and yelled some obscenities then stood just outside the door to see if anyone would come out and do something about it. Well, it wasn't his lucky night. One of the regulars marched straight out the door and put a right straight into the kids face and laid him out on the side walk. Those kids never came back.


Ready for eternal war!

[sigur]

Never seen anything like this happen.

Me neither. But there's always a miniscule percentage of immature idiots who behave like a three years old and therefore "make the news" so to speak. Sad stories of sad people. As long as it's on the internet, no need to give them much attention of any kind really.

[6mmhero]

Never seen physical violence, plenty of verbal over the years (not just GW games either).
It tends to occur most when either the person is having a bad day or you have people standing round the game trolling which is never fun for anyone.

At the end of the day it is only toy soldiers but some people are far too competitive (again not just GW games, I have seen plenty of verbals over Warmachine btw Jack).

[Rick_1138]

Best i ever heard was from a mate who used to be a GW manager in Preston many moons ago. Basically one of the regulars was 6ft chap, large build and black called Winston, fantastic chap apparently, always helped the kids and such, was playing a game of fantasy, this is about 13 years ago.

Some chav\neds\scum kids were walking past and started shouting racist abuse at the guy, he calmly placed his dice down on the table, went outside and promptly gave the lads a good hiding, came back into the store and carried on his game...there were applause!

The scum lads never approached the police and no one called them either

[magath]

Been going into GW for many years, never seen anything get physical. One or two raised voices, but never physical.

Closest its ever gotten was on a games night, one of the people in walked into a guy browsing the shelves. Guy turns round and starts ****** and blinding at the guy, but thats about it.

@Jack_da_greenskin: I don't think 40k players being "immature" is to blame. Idiots are idiots, no matter what game they play.

[Spider-pope]

I punched a drug addict in a GW a couple of years ago. But that wasn't over a game but to stop him pushing a kid over in an attempt to snort some more superglue. And by punch i of course mean flail-wildly-somehow-connecting-with-his-face-all-the-while-hoping-someone-one-else-would-step-in-and-save-me.
I've never encountered anyone getting physical over the games themselves though. The closest was someone sulking and putting his miniatures away before storming out, all without saying a word, but thats it.

[WodenMHC]

At the now-deceased Cherry Hill GW, I was involved in a tournament wherein I shot my opponent's (who was a grown man) Bloodthirster off the board in one turn. He screamed profanity at me, cursed "Khorne" at the top of his lungs for betraying him in his time of need, picked up his Bloodthirster (nice, heavy, pewter) and smashed it on the ground. He then ran out of the store and punched the wall outside (in the mall, where the GW was located) and left. The store manager (a great friend of mine) just smiled at me and boxed up the guy's models, pats me on the back and says "Thank You."

You want some good stories, I'll ask my friend about his experiences playing in Heroclix Tournaments.

[FaithWraith]

At the now-deceased Cherry Hill GW, I was involved in a tournament wherein I shot my opponent's (who was a grown man) Bloodthirster off the board in one turn. He screamed profanity at me, cursed "Khorne" at the top of his lungs for betraying him in his time of need, picked up his Bloodthirster (nice, heavy, pewter) and smashed it on the ground. He then ran out of the store and punched the wall outside (in the mall, where the GW was located) and left. The store manager (a great friend of mine) just smiled at me and boxed up the guy's models, pats me on the back and says "Thank You."

You want some good stories, I'll ask my friend about his experiences playing in Heroclix Tournaments.

This is the best story ever.

[eldargal]

I was slapped by my opponent after I won a tournament final once, but I broke his nose after and then he went off and did anger management and sent me £100 through the tournament organisers so I guess I came out a head. Apart from that I've had to discipline a couple of players how decided it was ok to grope me, but I've never witnessed anyone get physical over a rules dispute.

[Daniel36]

The fact that this thread exist... Not sure if I should just laugh at the stories or be genuinly sad about it.

I mean, seriously... I know people can be true idiots, but I always expected most wargamers to be, at the least, somewhat friendly beings, if sometimes a little smelly. It honestly surprises me so many people have witnessed this kind of stuff.

I have never experienced anything even remotely like this. I mean... I ran a club in a FLGS where one of the kids was banned by the store owner for calling him out on not having a product in store... a bit of an overreaction if you asked me but to be fair, the kid was annoying... But other than that.

However, I have only recently started frequenting a GW store more often, and I have the feeling that GWs are where the problems are at. Too many annoying kids who have had questionable upbringings, if you ask me. Actually, come to think of it, that was also the place where I was hugely annoyed by someone, but he wasn't being physical or anything.

Honestly, I am baffled by how some people are...

[EmperorNorton]

I mean, seriously... I know people can be true idiots, but I always expected most wargamers to be, at the least, somewhat friendly beings, if sometimes a little smelly. It honestly surprises me so many people have witnessed this kind of stuff.

It's a numbers game. There must be hundreds of thousands of games being played every year. It's not surprising that in a tiny percentage of those somebody gets more agitated than is reasonable.

[Meriwether]

I was slapped by my opponent after I won a tournament final once, but I broke his nose after and then he went off and did anger management and sent me £100 through the tournament organisers so I guess I came out a head. Apart from that I've had to discipline a couple of players how decided it was ok to grope me, but I've never witnessed anyone get physical over a rules dispute.

I simply don't believe any of that.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

I did have a friend in high school who would take his frustration out on the minis (I still have a Mordheim possessed magister who has been pounded flat by a rubber mallet), luckily it was always his own minis. Seen plenty of aggression towards figures, mostly people's own figures, which I've really never understood, but better their's than mine I suppose.

The closest thing I ever saw to physical violence, though, was back when I was in high school and played at a local youth club. Turned out a group of RPGers played on the same day as us, and not to perpetuate stereotypes but they were definitely "smelly gamer" types. I guess they were just having a bad day, or something, but for one reason or another they were giving the kids a lot of grief and the local Outrider (ex-military) gave them a few warnings to shape up, then after being ignored took the GM by shirt collar and belt and literally tossed him out of the store.

You want some good stories, I'll ask my friend about his experiences playing in Heroclix Tournaments.

I used to play Heroclix in stores a lot - most of the guys I played with were way more sociable than the 40K/Fantasy gamers I've met in stores or at tournies.

[Havock]

I simply don't believe any of that.

If she is indeed a 'chick' I wouldn't be all that surprised, though if a man he would likely be the one having to pay up, as breaking someone's nose is not really on the same level as being slapped.
I smell ITG-ishness.

[Meriwether]

If she is indeed a 'chick' I wouldn't be all that surprised

The nose-breaking, while improbable enough to be met with massive doses of mildly amused doubt even *without* the financial recompense aspect, is not the less probable of the scenarios. Whether eldargal is a G.I.R.L. (Guy in Real Life) or not, in 20+ years of frequenting both game stores and game conventions I've never known a girl to be randomly groped by gamers; those desperate enough to want to do so are too shy or too socially awkward to make the attempt.

[eldargal]

I've been gaming fifteen years and those are the two incidences of physical aggression I've experienced, and I don't see why it is more unbelievable than some idiot going after someone with a pair of model clippers or swallowing part of a model. I did overreact by punching him, I have this strange aversion to men hitting me though, strange that. I'll try and be more meek and subservient in future.

[Meriwether]

I'll try and be more meek and subservient in future.

Yes, because that's exactly what I was saying.