Yahtzee is one of the greatest ways a human being can pass their time while the egg timer of mortality slowly empties and the inevitability of death comes knocking. It can be bum blastingly exciting, full of twists, turns and surprises, but you know all this. If you don't agree, I'm sorry, but you're wrong. And the more people that are involed in the match, the better. It really adds to the to and fro, the excitement and tension of the game. But this can come at a great cost. You see, the more people you have playing, the more this tends to create a bit of a carnival atmosphere, especially in a small room. This can lead to the room being filled with an almost unintelligible cacophony of background chatter. This can start to feel pretty oppressive after a time, especially for people like myself that appreciate an organised affair. A chaotic match can also affect your game. For the worse, unfortunately. This can be a right royal pain in the arse, and I for one, can testify to that. There's nothing worse than trying to choose your best move and all you can hear is screaming, shouting and incoherent jibber jabber. It's enough to make you want to stick sharp objects in your ear holes.
But what on earth can just one man do to minimalise these things to ensure you can play at your absolute, Yahtzee blasting best? Well, you could be an absolute insufferable tyrant about the whole thing and demand absolute silence from everybody. This is not recommended, however, as you may find yourself being accused of being a chronic killjoy with nothing better to do than sap the fun out of the whole affair and you might very well find yourself uninvited to the next match. On the other hand, you could try to ask people politely to quieten down, but, if your "group" are anything like mine, they will enjoy a few beers over a game of Yahtzee, and trying to get a group of piss heads to do anything is a bit like herding cats. I have tried this myself, and as a warning, even this can be met with some disapproving glares and a routine beating. Trust me.
So, what on earth can be done then? How do you win (or get others to conform)? The chaotic Yahtzee match is a curse for players like myself, who generally do better in a calming atmosphere. I have played lots of Yahtzee, so this isn't the ramblings of a bad loser (mostly), it's an observation that has been proved time and again. The less stressful the match, the better my results, so there must be a way that benefits everybody, right? Obviously I don't thrive in the chaotic environment, but others in my faction seem to relish it. They seem immune to it, at times it seems like they even require it, like it's an essential aspect to their success. This means any solution to this problem requires an extremely delicate touch. I'm not claiming to have found a perfect solution, but I've had a few thoughts.
A few months ago, I introduced the split match. There is a post on this blog that goes into great depth about how it works so I won't bother here. It was created primarily because we couldn't always get together at the same time. But, it did have the benefit of making the matches smaller, thus quieter. But the split match requires trust that all are going to be honest and not cheat. As much as I trust my competitors, I still only like to use the split match when it's truly necessary. Plus , I always think it's better when all the competitors are at least under the same roof while competing. In the latter few matches of League two, we took the bold step of splitting our large match into two big-ish matches. All the competitors are present, but only half of us play the match at hand, so it tends to be a bit quieter. This does have the benefit of retaining some of the atmosphere of the bigger match while being just that little bit more chill. I have to say, it has worked pretty well. But is it really the best we can do?
At some point the issue of personal responsibility has to come in to play. I'm a fair gentleman, I understand that while I may not like the racket, but others clearly do, and they even benefit from it. So who am I to be a Nazi? It's not other people's fault that some of us like a match a certain way. How do we sort it so everyone can have the best experience while playing Yahtzee? How does one keep everyone happy when it comes down to the choice between a chaotic match or a chilled out, quiet sort of match? Well, I have had a thought. But that's all it is, a thought. I need to make sure if it's even a viable option and this is going to lead me to a seperate post, but let me explain.
We abide by the BHO Rules & Regulations for all our matches, competitive or not. This keeps things on a level playing field. We all know what is and isn't allowed, which makes things fair. But, there is no regulations for a "loud match". And nor should there be. Rules are there, like I said, to keep things fair, not to dictate. So this actually got me thinking. I don't do well with the noise like others, so I'm going to see if I, myself, can do something about this. As much as the "two sittings" match works, I don't believe this should be the norm. No, it's much better if we're all involved at the same time. I though that if I could block out the noise it would perhaps help me play at my best. This is a good Idea in theory, but theory can be very different when applied practically. So I got my dad to spraff a load of ear defenders from a place he has ready access to them. And I'm not just going to use them and leave it at that. No. I'm going to put it to the test and see if this actually benefits players like myself. So keep an eye out you lovely people, for an incredibly scentific and thourough experiment, and if you also struggle with external noise in your own Yahtzee matches, perhaps I'll have some good news for you. I'm not going to lie or skew the results, because after all, what would be the point? I want to benefit from this more than anyone. I'm getting a bit fed up of having to blame my useless perfomances on people that can't keep their tongue in their head.
I don't know about you, but I'm actually curious to see how this plays out. I have to admit, I'm a bit bloody hopeful too, so stick around. You may just learn something... or chuckle a little... or fall asleep... or just not not read it in the first place... but either way, it's coming...
But what on earth can just one man do to minimalise these things to ensure you can play at your absolute, Yahtzee blasting best? Well, you could be an absolute insufferable tyrant about the whole thing and demand absolute silence from everybody. This is not recommended, however, as you may find yourself being accused of being a chronic killjoy with nothing better to do than sap the fun out of the whole affair and you might very well find yourself uninvited to the next match. On the other hand, you could try to ask people politely to quieten down, but, if your "group" are anything like mine, they will enjoy a few beers over a game of Yahtzee, and trying to get a group of piss heads to do anything is a bit like herding cats. I have tried this myself, and as a warning, even this can be met with some disapproving glares and a routine beating. Trust me.
So, what on earth can be done then? How do you win (or get others to conform)? The chaotic Yahtzee match is a curse for players like myself, who generally do better in a calming atmosphere. I have played lots of Yahtzee, so this isn't the ramblings of a bad loser (mostly), it's an observation that has been proved time and again. The less stressful the match, the better my results, so there must be a way that benefits everybody, right? Obviously I don't thrive in the chaotic environment, but others in my faction seem to relish it. They seem immune to it, at times it seems like they even require it, like it's an essential aspect to their success. This means any solution to this problem requires an extremely delicate touch. I'm not claiming to have found a perfect solution, but I've had a few thoughts.
A few months ago, I introduced the split match. There is a post on this blog that goes into great depth about how it works so I won't bother here. It was created primarily because we couldn't always get together at the same time. But, it did have the benefit of making the matches smaller, thus quieter. But the split match requires trust that all are going to be honest and not cheat. As much as I trust my competitors, I still only like to use the split match when it's truly necessary. Plus , I always think it's better when all the competitors are at least under the same roof while competing. In the latter few matches of League two, we took the bold step of splitting our large match into two big-ish matches. All the competitors are present, but only half of us play the match at hand, so it tends to be a bit quieter. This does have the benefit of retaining some of the atmosphere of the bigger match while being just that little bit more chill. I have to say, it has worked pretty well. But is it really the best we can do?
At some point the issue of personal responsibility has to come in to play. I'm a fair gentleman, I understand that while I may not like the racket, but others clearly do, and they even benefit from it. So who am I to be a Nazi? It's not other people's fault that some of us like a match a certain way. How do we sort it so everyone can have the best experience while playing Yahtzee? How does one keep everyone happy when it comes down to the choice between a chaotic match or a chilled out, quiet sort of match? Well, I have had a thought. But that's all it is, a thought. I need to make sure if it's even a viable option and this is going to lead me to a seperate post, but let me explain.
We abide by the BHO Rules & Regulations for all our matches, competitive or not. This keeps things on a level playing field. We all know what is and isn't allowed, which makes things fair. But, there is no regulations for a "loud match". And nor should there be. Rules are there, like I said, to keep things fair, not to dictate. So this actually got me thinking. I don't do well with the noise like others, so I'm going to see if I, myself, can do something about this. As much as the "two sittings" match works, I don't believe this should be the norm. No, it's much better if we're all involved at the same time. I though that if I could block out the noise it would perhaps help me play at my best. This is a good Idea in theory, but theory can be very different when applied practically. So I got my dad to spraff a load of ear defenders from a place he has ready access to them. And I'm not just going to use them and leave it at that. No. I'm going to put it to the test and see if this actually benefits players like myself. So keep an eye out you lovely people, for an incredibly scentific and thourough experiment, and if you also struggle with external noise in your own Yahtzee matches, perhaps I'll have some good news for you. I'm not going to lie or skew the results, because after all, what would be the point? I want to benefit from this more than anyone. I'm getting a bit fed up of having to blame my useless perfomances on people that can't keep their tongue in their head.
I don't know about you, but I'm actually curious to see how this plays out. I have to admit, I'm a bit bloody hopeful too, so stick around. You may just learn something... or chuckle a little... or fall asleep... or just not not read it in the first place... but either way, it's coming...
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