Well, hello there again idiot. Welcome back to An Idiots Guide to MCP. In Chapter 2, we looked at the various steps involved in the roster building process. We now have an understanding of the basic rules and crisis, we've built a roster and we're now ready to jump into our first game. But there's something very important that we need to discuss first before we do so, something that cant be found in a rulebook or on a list building app, in fact it doesn't actually have much to do with MCP at all. This is about you, the player and the "social contract" with your opponent.
What Is A Social Contract And How Does This Relate To MCP?
The definition of a social contract is an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits. OK, so there's a lot of fancy words in there and at this point you might be thinking you have no idea where this is going or how this relates to MCP, so let's put it into more contextual terms.
When we sit down for a game of MCP there is an unwritten agreement between each player. You agree to have a game within the parameters of the rules and you then play out that said game until there is winner. Whether this is a casual or a more competitive focused game, there is an implicit agreement between the two players that the aim is to have fun.
Now, there are various factors in what determines whether someone has "fun" and during a game of MCP, there might be factors outside of each players control that spoils said persons fun. Someone might not enjoy specific characters or a certain crisis combination for a varying number of different reasons, and sometimes as players we physically cant rectify those things outside of just not playing them - which isn't always a practical solution, especially in a competitive setting.
But there are some things as players we can control that could spoil someone's fun and this breaks the "social contract" both players have implicitly signed up to when playing a game together.
Breaking The Social Contract
There's two defining factors at play when someone is deemed to have broken the social contract, and these typically involve attitude and behaviour. People have many different reasons for playing the game, but the one defining factor that unifies the whole of the community, from the most casual to the most competitive players, we all want to have fun whilst we play.
So, if you turn up to your FLGS one Friday night grumpy after a long day at work, don't take that out on your opponent by complaining about every dice roll that doesn't go your way. If your at a large competitive event and the round timer is about to clock out, don't start slow playing because you know your ahead and you'll win the game once the timers up. Don't refuse to play against an opponent on a casual game night because they didn't get chance to paint one of their models. This all creates a negative play experience for your opponent and breaks the fun agreement that you have both collectively signed up to.
Creating Positive Experiences
The best way to avoid breaking the social contract is to create better game experiences for both yourself and for your opponent and there's a number of ways in which you can do this. One way in which you can do this, is to set expectations both to yourself and with your opponent. If your turning up to a big competitive event, instead of highlighting to your opponent about all of the meta models they have just put down on the table, take a step back and think about where you are, at a competitive event there will be competitive players with competitive lists, who are still there to have fun, but they are also there to try and win games in a competitive setting that you have also signed up to. This also swings the other way, if you're turning up on a causal gaming night with a highly competitive list and playing into someone who is playing their first game, that's likely not going to create a positive experience for your opponent. In instances like this, especially in a casual setting, it's often worth communicating with your opponent beforehand as to what sort of game they are expecting to play and can avoid any unneccessary negative play experiences.
A huge part of MCP revolves around dice and is often one of the biggest causes of frustration in the game. We have all been guilty of complaining about poor dice rolls or dice spikes from our opponents at some point during our time playing the game but we are not always aware that this creates a negative play experience for your opponent. To become a better player, you have to look past dice, you didn't lose a game because of one or two dice rolls, there is often a series of events which you controlled that led up to that point, could you have done something differently beforehand that would have avoided that situation? The most likely answer to that question is yes, but sometimes that isn't the case and the dice go against you. This is just something we have to accept happens in a game involving dice, you will get spikes just as much as they go against you and to become a better player you just have to accept that there's nothing you can do about it and move on.
Creating positive experiences mainly revolves around reflecting on your own behaviour, take a step back and think about how you would feel if your opponent was acting in a similar manor to you. Are you creating a positive experience for them? A game of MCP often lasts at most a couple of hours, and both players have a responsibility to ensure they both enjoy it while it lasts.
As always, thank you for reading, and please check out our sponsor www.protechgames.co.uk for all your MCP needs.
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