51 minutes ago, Boom Owl said:

We owe FFG nothing.

We owe FFG our thanks for creating this awesome game and civility when there are kinks in its design.

We are, OTOH, entitled to some expectations that the game stays as wonderful as it has been previously.

4 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

• the European events are bigger with larger attendances from a greater cross-section of communities
• the European players seem to be more respectful to the organisers, the hosts, FFG and each other
• a greater variety of lists in European events seem to be successful - in Swiss, at the top tables, the cut and the finals
• and European players actually seem to be enjoying themselves

Now, is this really an accurate picture, or just the impression caused by the vocal saltiness coming from the west side of the Atlantic?

As one of the oldest players and posters here I will say that Americans on the whole are ruder. Don't know why that is. Lack of upbringing, no social graces, entitlement? It might be all the doom and gloom the media bombards us with daily. I have my own theories on this sad state of affairs but I doubt anyone will confirm it.

14 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

We owe FFG our thanks for creating this awesome game and civility when there are kinks in its design.

We are, OTOH, entitled to some expectations that the game stays as wonderful as it has been previously.

We owe them civility sure. The designers are cool people. Im genuinely thankful for their efforts and all the time they put into the game. But Nym, Lowhrick, Rebel Fenn, Super Shredder Lothal? This stuff isnt a design kink that slipped through testing or wasnt anticipated...its a very intentional design direction.

Its just getting more difficult to continue to call X-Wing awesome. Its an AOE Range Measurement game most of the time. Even the majority of standard casual play has turned into that.

35 minutes ago, comawhite said:

UK population density is almost 8x that of the USA (7.765x)
660 per square mile vs 85
Poland the other meta we hear about alot is 316 per

Source : https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density

In all fairness the population density of the USA is going to have a much bigger range. I'm guessing that if you cut out a UK sized chunk of some parts of the US you'd find a much higher population density yet there are some parts of the US where you might be one of a hand full of people, never mind X-Wing players, in a square km. In some places you'd have to drive far enough just to find a game that you could cross several international borders in Europe.

21 minutes ago, Stoneface said:

As one of the oldest players and posters here I will say that Americans on the whole are ruder. Don't know why that is. Lack of upbringing, no social graces, entitlement? It might be all the doom and gloom the media bombards us with daily. I have my own theories on this sad state of affairs but I doubt anyone will confirm it.

You've never been to France, methinks.

35 minutes ago, Scopes said:

You've never been to France, methinks.

Il y a beaucoup de personnes en France qui sont tres sympa.

45 minutes ago, Boom Owl said:

Its an AOE Range Measurement

Sorry, what's AOE?

3 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Sorry, what's AOE?

Area of Effect, as in bombs mostly and to an extent hyper-accurate turrets. Get into the area of effect and you're taking damage, maneuvering is only important if you are entirely out of the area that's affected by whatever effect is being measured. Harpoons with splash damage are a related thing. An AoE effect in a video or tabletop game would be a fireball that covers an area X size or an artillery template that hits every miniature the template covers.

6 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Sorry, what's AOE?

Area Of Effect. You know, that range 2-3 bubble around the Lothal Rebel that you dare not fly into.

18 hours ago, Oldpara said:

This is true. I attended 6 Regionals in 2 counteries this season: majority of them within 5h drive, closest one in my home city, farthest 2h flight.

I was TO of one SoS (Krakow Poland) and I am gonna attend 3 other SoS as a player (already been to Kopenhagen Denmark, next to go Bologna Italy and Paris France).

Don't think any American has that luxury (except Dion Morales maybe, he's amazing )

This post is probably a good answer to pretty much all the questions I think since it not only answers the numbers question (Regionals just aren’t that dense here) but also points to how being able to attend less might also affect someone’s approach to a regional or the magnification of a bad experience.

Do you think the distances involved in being a regular competitor at big US events leads players into the different mindset of wanting to maximise value from the trip by doing as well as possible, so flying one of the perceived ‘top lists’ where in Europe the shorter journey and higher likelihood that a player can attend more than one means they are more likely to experiment / attend for fun?

2 minutes ago, Dreadai said:

Do you think the distances involved in being a regular competitor at big US events leads players into the different mindset of wanting to maximise value from the trip by doing as well as possible, so flying one of the perceived ‘top lists’ where in Europe the shorter journey and higher likelihood that a player can attend more than one means they are more likely to experiment / attend for fun?

Universally probably not, but certainly to some degree. The number of times I've heard phrases like "I guess I'll play <blah> because this is the only regional/open I'll get to go to this year" is staggering

2 hours ago, Oldpara said:

This is true. I attended 6 Regionals in 2 counteries this season: majority of them within 5h drive, closest one in my home city, farthest 2h flight.

I was TO of one SoS (Krakow Poland) and I am gonna attend 3 other SoS as a player (already been to Kopenhagen Denmark, next to go Bologna Italy and Paris France).

Don't think any American has that luxury (except Dion Morales maybe, he's amazing )

Geographical spread is a huge issue for attendance in the US. I live in the 3rd most populous state in the country (FL) and there were 2 regionals within 6 hours of me, and the Atlanta regional which is about 6 hours for me is about 10 hours for those in Miami. I know many players that would love to go to an SOS or multiple regionals but the time/cost/travel make it pretty much impossible.

5 hours ago, Celestial Lizards said:

Europe is neither better nor worse, just different.

Europe has soccer futball hooliganism. The US has toy spaceship tantrums.

46 minutes ago, Makaze said:

Universally probably not, but certainly to some degree. The number of times I've heard phrases like "I guess I'll play <blah> because this is the only regional/open I'll get to go to this year" is staggering

That also provides a the opportunity to play different lists once goals are met. I mean I don’t even get to six store championships, much less multiple Regionals.

Latest regional aside, I think we need to import some Polish players to the US. Poland appears to be the Austin of X-wing.

#KeepXWingWeird

There’s really very little difference in person. Im a Brit who now lives in North America and have played a bunch of big tournaments in the UK, US and Canada. The only discernible difference is the accent.

That said I’d be happy to never hear the word “Natties” again. It’s fingernails on a chalkboard territory for this Englishman.

Certainly seems to be more negative here in the US, I'd love to see a bit more positivity and brewery based tournaments!

I used to be a scrub that hated on the win at all cost types that played all the broken, npe hyper competitive dirty $#&@. I listened to enough podcasts and came around to the idea that players are going to play to win and the game developers are the ones that need to maintain a healthy metagame.

I'm just about ready to switch back to blaming the players for this. A few more players willing to chase fun instead of acrylic and who knows where we end up.

Beer-Wing Tournament Meta? Sign me the #^*& up!

2 hours ago, Vargas79 said:

I’d be happy to never hear the word “Natties” again.

Who says that? What does it even mean? Sounds vaguely racist. Like Sand People or Wooks.

7 hours ago, Scopes said:

You've never been to France, methinks.

Do French Canadiens count?

12 hours ago, hawk32 said:

Just sayin'....

2 hours ago, GrimmyV said:

Who says that? What does it even mean? Sounds vaguely racist. Like Sand People or Wooks.

"Natties" is slang for "naturals". If you rolled hits or evades without modification, you rolled natties.

I'm in the Southeast of the US and I come across the term reasonably regularly here. Heh, even as a suggested game strategy.

Agree, the arguments, saltiness, weird rules questions, and never ending nerf threads doesn't seem to be a thing over here in Australia as it appears in the US.

4 hours ago, Rat of Vengence said:

Just sayin'....

Came for the meme-wars, was not disapointed