Laconic
YMMV: Etiquette generally agreed upon by a game's community, beyond universally accepted principles (e.g. Unsportsmanlike Gloating is bad)
General
Should it allow examples that only apply to a specific, significant subgroup of players? I think that would be worthwhile, as a lot of games don't really have examples that apply universally.
Nona: Yes
Things that are generally agreed upon:
- Don't rub in your victories
- Don't be a Sore Loser
- Don't abandon a game without good reason, especially if it'll screw things up for everyone else.
- Don't gang up on one player unless
- They have a clear advantage
- The game centers around Player Elimination, and the goal is to get them outnote
- If your group's mostly playing as a way to socialize, don't make moves with no benefit to you besides hurting them, unless you know they'd be okay with itnote
- Be consistent in your interpretation of the rules
Examples
- Abalone: Though not codified into the rules, players are expected to play aggressively. This is because highly defensive play can draw out the game indefinitely, even against a much stronger player.
- Chess:
- In high-level play, it's considered rude not to resign in a clearly hopeless position.
- Online play has a similar problem with losing players running down the clock to waste the opponent's time instead of resigning or playing on. A particularly devious losing player can pretend they're running down the clock, then make a move at the last minute, hoping that the opponent won't notive and lose on time. This behavior is widely despised, and can get you banned from certain chess sites.
- There was one incident in a tournament when a player made an illegal move. His opponent answered without noticing that the move was illegal. The first player then tried to claim a win because the second player made an illegal move. This was widely regarded as scummy and hypocritical, not to mention that it offered a potential way to salvage a win out of a losing game by "accidentally" making an illegal move and hope your opponent doesn't notice (and if they do and you get a game loss, oh well, you were losing anyway).
- In Magic: The Gathering, Commander is a multiplayer format with more emphasis on the social aspect of playing. As a result, several behaviors are frowned upon:
- Targeting a player who fell behind early might be a strategically correct move because it gives you one less opponent to worry about, but is generally regarded as a dick move because then they'd be stuck accomplishing nothing while everyone else is having fun.
- Mass land destruction - an effect that destroys everyone's main mana sources - is divisive to hated due to its ability to set people back and drag out games. Even people who defend it will usually say that if you do blow up everyone's lands, you'd better have a plan to win from that position, otherwise you're just extending the game to be annoying.
- Playing a deck that's significantly stronger than your playgroup's average is frowned upon for obvious reasons.
