Let me get something said right up front: I LOVE to win, and I HATE to lose. There are few things I enjoy less than playing a SW:CCG game in which I am getting slaughtered. When there's no possible way I could hope to win or at least get into the game a little, I am not having fun. And while I truly enjoy games that come down to the wire and truly test my skills, I'll admit that I'd much rather have a comfortable lead on my opponent. But when I play at Books, Inc. (the local shop that lets us play every Wednesday night) or in a tournament, I try not to let my comments reflect whether I'm winning or losing [Note to Beakman: please notice that I didn't say anything about the way I behave when we play at my coffee table. My temper tantrums in the living room don't count because I'm not being a jerk in public.].
Here's my thought on playing SW:CCG in public: keep your nasty, sarcastic, rude, bragging, complaining, belligerent, and inappropriate comments to yourself. There's nothing less becoming to two otherwise good and intelligent people than the bickering and rude exchanges that can take place during a game. Just because someone just mowed down your hit squad of jawas with Boba Fett's blaster rifle, you do not have a licence to be a jackass for the rest of the game or tournament. OK, so you just got force drained for 11 force on one turn (and that was before you lost four for Asteroid Sanctuary) -- move on and keep that snide remark that you've been saving up to yourself.
But being a bad loser is often preferable to being a bad winner. Here in Gainesville, there's a guy who make really high destiny decks and is a master at traffic controlling his cards so that there are four or five sixes in a row. Then he uses lots of destiny adders to be able to draw four or five cards. While that's some hard medicine to swallow, the worst part is the fact that he has to attract the attention of every person in the room as he adds up his 24 in attrition. "Hey you guys," he bellows, "you've gotta see the four sixes I just slaughtered Boba Fett in Slave I with. No really, come see these four sixes. Can you believe it? I was just waiting for him to initiate that battle. This is so cool!" I'll even admit to being a jerk at times. The first time I pulled off Target the Main Generators in a tournament, I yelled "Kablooey!" as the destiny hit the table -- definitely a little overboard (I probably should have apologized to my opponent). Even more recently, I snapped at some 13-year-old kid at a sealed deck tournament who insisted on picking up my cards and adding my power and destiny himself for every single battle (he also had the worst habit of reminding me about the game text of all of his cards as if I would suddenly forget that Zutton's game text would let him reduce my attrition draws by one). The kid really was making me crazy - as well as violating a few etiquette rules himself--, but snapping at him didn't solve anything and just made him even more annoying.
Not to sound preachy, but I think my point is this. It's OK to be happy or excited about a cool move, but there's a point when you're just rubbing the opponent's nose in it. It's also OK to be upset or disappointed when a game doesn't go the way you wanted it to. But when your expressions of happiness or unhappiness have negative impacts on your fellow players, it's either time to put your cards back in the binder or to rethink the way you're acting. After all, don't we do this because it's fun?
Queen Jawa