So here's something I've noticed, and I could use some community input to know if the sample I've taken notice of is the norm, or is just coincidence.

I play a handful of games as consistently as possible. These games being X-Wing, Armada, Imperial Assault, and Magic: The Gathering. Of these games, I've gone to tournaments for X-Wing, Armada, and Magic. Imperial Assault I just play through the campaign with friends.

One thing I've started to notice is that the in-person community of X-Wing and Armada tends to be a lot friendlier than the Magic:The Gathering community. Every tournament for X-Wing and Armada I've gone to I've had the chance to meet and talk with complete strangers without any trouble. Whether it's about the game itself or anything else semi-related to the tournament. Everyone seems content to talk with and interact with one another. Even during competitive matches, these miniature players seem okay with allowing their opponent to correct mistakes (within reason and the rules). People are usually smiling at the end of a match because the game was fun, regardless of the outcome. I know there are some "bad apple" players, but they seem very rare.

The phrase "Fly Casual" seems to be taken to heart by those I've met playing X-Wing and Armada.

A game like Magic:The Gathering has a very, very wide variety of people who play it. Both good/friendly players and those that aren't so friendly. To keep things short, I've never felt the same kind of friendly and welcoming community from Magic that I have from all the Fantasy Flight games I've gone to go play. And I've been playing Magic for several years now, while X-Wing and Armada I've only gotten into within the last year.

Before anyone post about how wrong I am, keep in mind I'm only speaking about my personal experiences. And this is only from a few select games where there are tournaments I've attended. I have no idea if this same camaraderie exists or not for other games.

So what do you think? Do Fantasy Flight games encourage a friendlier community over some other games/companies? Is it the type of game being played and Fantasy Flight has nothing to do with it? What other games have a very inviting community?

I'm curious, so post what you think below.

Its not that FFG encourages a better community, its that FFG doesn't award or reward a lot of money in this game. If you go and play Magic (or other TCG/CCG style games) there is a lot of money at stake. Here, the only "Money" at stake is what people think of the prize support and what they can get for it on Ebay, if they decide to sell anything. When you are playing for Honor and not money, it breeds a better class of player.

I say it's nothing to do with ffg but rather it's because We are all a higher Class of Being, Namely Star Wars Fans

From my personal experience:

The friendliest tournaments I have been to have been Wyrd, Fantasy Flight, and AEG (Legend of the Five Rings) events.

MTG was consistently bad.

Privateer Press started out friendly, but the events have grown more elitist over the years.

GW events were always a mixed bag and you never knew if you were going to have a great or rotten time. It was very strange. Though Fantasy events were far more often friendly when compared to 40k.

It can be very relative, as well...

I mean, I went to set up an Armada League on Sundays, when the designated X-Wing Time was... I knew I'd be stepping on toes, but I tried to minimise things as much as possible - Making it once every two weeks instead of weekly, putting us at the side, taking up the minimum of two tables...

Our LGS has quite a few tables, but it only has so many 6x3 ones... A few of the X-Wing players were used to getting a 6x3 to themselve,s so they could put their mat down, and put all of their bags and drinks and sundries on the other half... Which meant with 8 Tables and 8 X-Wing Games, there was *no room*, which was against the store's own guidelines.

I still get glares and kickbacks when I arrive before everyone else and make sure I get 2 tables set aside for Armada... Forcing them to "double up" the way they are supposed to...

There were even times they were taking up more tables - deliberately stacking bags on a "bag table" so they'd have a "bag table".

Its odd, and its lessened over the few weeks... But it does show that, in some places, Arses will be Arses, and prevailing community be damned.

I think emmjay makes a great point. The tourney swag is nice, but you're not going to be making money off of FFG tournaments. I've never been a fan of CCGs. I played them casually with friends in college, but I don't like the pay-to-win model in any of my games (which is part of the reason I stopped playing 40k tourneys - those people who would buy the hottest, broken 'net list every tournament).

Also bear in mind that the FFG scene is very young. X-Wing has been out for less than four years and Armada one. The people into it are the ones who are genuinely interested in the game, and while X-Wing is pretty big, at least in my area Warhammer, 40k and Warmahordes are bigger (and Malifaux, but that's because there's one dedicated guy who really pushes it). If you're a competitive d-bag who wants to reinforce his sense of self worth by trashing people in a game that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of life, you're going to look to the ones that give you the biggest opportunity to trash the maximum number of people, which right now are other tabletop games and Magic.

Oh, and Warhammer has always been friendlier than 40k in my area. 40k is much easier to break, so the aforementioned d-bags flock to it like flies on crap (which is unfortunate for the decent people who play the game). And Warhammer used to take a lot more higher-level thinking and maneuvering, which scares the aforementioned d-bags because it makes it harder to crush people.

It's a byproduct from the sheer joy of crashing starships on the table