I wanna see someone make a midwit meme for Magic the Gathering about the card bloodmoon. The card says “nonbasic lands are mountains.” The idiot would think this turns them into the basic land card called mountain. The genius will know how it actually works, of course. But the midwit would say that it doesn’t take abilities away because it just changes the card’s subtype, which doesn’t inherently remove abilities in general, but for basic lands it does.
But even then it’s a stretch because the midwit in the example would have to be a very narrow slice of the chart. Obviously bloodmoon negatively affects opponents or it wouldn’t see play. Nobody in their right mind is gonna think it buffs cards if they know what it is used for. But still, I remember it tripping me up in a “but wait, why does it do what it does?” way.
I just watch a game or two, focusing on a specific player (so I can see their cards) and learn way better that way than someone telling me the rules. Especially since most of the time, unless they are reading them off the manual, they forget things (or even purposely omit them) that then come up later when you try to do something and everyone is like “no can’t do that!” 😖
This is part of the reason I don’t play tabletop games, my brain absolutely refuses to parse their instructions.
Start with something simple like Twilight Imperium, and work your way up to Cones of Dunshire.
Or try Tsuro. It’s very simple and quite nice.
I really love ticket to ride. I think it’s more fun than Settlers of Catan and a little better as a gateway game.
But yes, Twilight Imperium is very simple and straightforward. If you start learning in the morning you’ll be half way done with a game by evening lmao
JFC, that was me trying to learn MTG. I’m leaving the table!
I love learning new rules. It’s honestly almost as much fun to me as actually playing the game.
It’s like dirty talking for board games
For me the issue is that I don’t really care in the first place because I’d almost always rather do something else.
No, look – it’s simple! Now, let me explain how The Stack works…
Make an app where balatro joker teaches you other card games
Wait until you get to how to count to ten using 2 and 3 cards in Euchre.
What is this goddamn UP Michigander bullshit? You count to ten with a six and a four, like any civilized human
I’m with you up until 9. Seems like all logic went out the window at the end.
Not an expert but this looks more like counting to nine than to ten to me
Tabletop/card games seem inexplicably complex like bruh.
Something about the teaching method of some guy explaining something to you haphazardly, while sitting physically across from you making facial expressions and body language gestures and whatnot, something about the societal pressure to understand the rules in a given time limit as to not hold up a game, yet also make sure you actually do understand it and not come off as an idiot in a group which often features people you don’t know that well, meaning you’re now vulnerable in front of strangers, the way it’s explained purely in the abstract without any relation to the real world which just makes the rules seem extremely arbitrary… It just makes for a rotten stew of incomprehensibility.
On the one hand I actually like it because how much of a challenge it is to my brain and the sheer novelty and shock to the system that the experience brings.
Most of the time games you play either have a commonality with others (genre i.e. FPS) or simulate a real world activity (i.e. shooting people) that have a certain logic to them that’s just self-evident (point at target and pull trigger) and speak a sort of shared language that’s designed to be as ergonomic as possible and on top of that, teaches you as you go with contextual instructions.
Even very complex games like HOI4 (or any Paradox or Paradox-type game) with enormous amounts of intertwined highly complex systems still simulate a real world activity to some degree, I don’t actually have to have any game-specific knowledge to understand that if my government budget is in the red my immediate solutions are to cut costs or increase income (tax) and borrow to invest in infrastructure to increase income long-term and if the menu is intuitive enough, (e.g. Victoria 3), you can just find it.
And games with just absurd amounts of knowledge required like Warframe don’t necessarily expect the player to actually know all, most or really any of it to play at the most basic level, and it’s kinda understood that learning the ins and outs of later content takes hours and hours of periodic wiki perusing and game progress.
So board games that force completely abstract thinking among arbitrary rules going on half understood words of someone with an ever-thickening accent instead of the safe warmth of wiki text on a screen are actually a fun challenge, if you’re the kind of person that likes to blast yourself with ice cold showers to wake up (me).
On the other hand - unfortunately I feel apprehensive about it due to past experience where sincere engagement probably gave my gf’s friend circle the impression that I’m a stunted or something, it kinda sucks to feel like my game performance is judged, when obviously such things are intended more as a mutual activity to stimulate conversation and alcohol consumption rather than some cutthroat assessment of skill. I don’t even know if it’s the case, but I felt that way, so now I’ve just learned to say no completely out of hand to any and all interactive things at any social gathering for the most part.
LOL at Spock trying not to laugh! I have no memory of that episode.
What I see when I try to explain the difference between “when” and “if” in yugioh
put and get a counter in magic
Or any interaction that requires understanding layers.
Countless people have tried to teach me card games, I dont know why. I dont give a fuck about card games, but never the less they persist.
I usually say just tell me the object of the game and then tell me what to do whenever it’s my turn. After a few turns and just observing the game and asking a few questions, I can manage on my own. Way more enjoyable than trying to parse even the instruction booklets.
