True Fortress Ameritrash Confessions

I'm most active on this site when I've been playing lots of games or have a lot of downtime at work.

I don't think I've ever played any of the games I've received in F:AT math trades.

Black Barney is the funniest guy on here.

BGG reinvigorated my interest in the hobby in 2000 (?), and F:AT re-reinvigorated it in 2008 after I completely burned out on Eurogames.

I find BGG to be an extremely useful resource, particularly for FAQs, rules issues, and negative game comments. Whenever I want to learn about a new game, my first step is always to click on BGG user comments and scroll down to the last page (i.e., lowest ratings and most negative comments).

I regularly game with FATties KingPut and Malloc, among others. Malloc was one of the co-founders of F:AT, I think, although I'm not sure that he even visits the site anymore. He posts on BGG randomly/regularly, though. (By the way, does everyone know that KingPut and ubarose are brother and sister? That may or may not be common knowledge.) Coincidentally, KingPut and I both made lateral moves into wargaming in or around 2010.

Every 12-18 months, I ragequit F:AT when I stumble across a particularly misguided and insular "trash talk" thread - especially when that thread seems to represent the majority thinking of F:AT users. I always end up returning 1-2 months later, however.

I attend the WBC in Lancaster, PA, almost every year. But I rarely hang with the F:AT crowd, as I usually wargame in dingy corners with non-FAT, out-of-town attendees who also happen to be good friends. My two favorite WBC traditions: (1) Legend of the Moonsword (which you should all be playing) and (2) playing Doom: The Board Game with substitute flavor text from other games. One of my favorite WBC sessions of all time involved the Soul Cube screaming out biblical verse (courtesy of Mission to Ecuador ) in every newly discovered room.

I have found my polar opposite in one of the BGG regulars. It is 100% guaranteed that, if that person loves a particular game/movie/band, I will hate it with a passion.

Open gaming at EuroQuest (Fall) and Game Days (Spring) is awesome, and more of you should attend these two Maryland cons. Ska_baron and I had a blast goofing around at EuroQuest (or was it Game Days?) a few years ago. For a 2-3 year period, I regularly posted a recap of these two cons on F:AT.

Random aside: I grew up on video games, but I took a long break - 100% cold turkey - from 1997-2012. Now I'm catching up, thanks to Steam and GOG.com, and recent favorites include: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Witcher 1, Dead Island (my 1st multiplayer video gaming ever), System Shock 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Bioshock 1, The Lost Crown, Payday 1, Batman Arkham Asylum, STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, and Dead Space.

Finally, I'm the only one who understands my username. It's based on an old pseudonym (Wayne Kover), but most people think it stands for "work over" or "week over". Which it probably should.

Mad Dog wrote: I've been thinking of ditching this site lately. Sad, but true.

Not sad for us!

hashtag isnothelping
hashtag doesnotunderstandtwitter

Space Ghost wrote: Generally, if somebody wants a game that I have and am willing to part with, I am glad to just get the thing out of my house -- I have sent out some shit like this (Gunslinger and a few others). I need to send Barnes' a copy of Astron. It is all part of my love/hate relationship with board games -- but I can't be bothered to fiddle with some kind of online payment receiving and processing site, it just seems like more f'ing paperwork. This all makes me question my involvement in the hobby because I would much rather be free of the burden of the game -- but then I miss it....leading to my next point...

This is so true.

Mad Dog wrote: I've been thinking of ditching this site lately. Sad, but true.

Any particular reason?

Gary Sax wrote:

Mad Dog wrote: I've been thinking of ditching this site lately. Sad, but true.

Any particular reason?

I find myself feeling apathetic about most of the discussions here.

Maddog, I had that same problem after less than a year here (probably because I don't play as many boardgames as everyone), so I started up discussions on movies and video games, leading me to feel more connected to many users here. You should do the same! Start up threads on what you want to talk about.

You should stay.

Mad Dog wrote:

Gary Sax wrote:

Mad Dog wrote: I've been thinking of ditching this site lately. Sad, but true.

Any particular reason?

I find myself feeling apathetic about most of the discussions here.

Shit. I'm apathetic about nearly all discussions in real life!!

Will died?

I think the site is way too "inside baseball" at times, and has become a online rec room for about 30 people. I like these people, and I rec with the best of them; but I am saddened by its insularity. Note: I am too busy/apathetic to actually do anything about it.

I think I am honest-to-God friends with Ubarose, Matt Loter, and some others, even though we've never met. For the record, I have met KingPut, wdgrant, and spoken on the phone with SuperflyTNT. I am proud to be Matt Loter's "white stag."

I have low self-esteem, I desperately crave validation, and secretly yearn for Thank Yous. (The site does handle them crappily, in my opinion. I always use CTRL-clicks to "open them in a new tab" to not disturb my current reading.)

Everyone saying they don't like ARKHAM HORROR is dumb and wrong.

I am as obnoxiously left-wing as you suspect. Not as much as Schweig or anything, but about as far as a wealthy white American can be.

Aside for Doc: I am genuinely sorry about dropping the TITAN game(s?). I don't drop because I can't win--I usually drop if I am just going to be a points mop for one player in a multiplayer game.

I don't think this site is that offputting for new users, but I do think it's hard to find. It needs some SEO or something because it never comes up in Google search results when I'm looking for BG info even though I know there's a thread or article here on F:AT for the game I'm looking for. For example if I search "Armor Grid Mech Attack" that blog post I made is the 20th result, and the link isn't even a fortressat.com link according to Google (it's ns2.ubarose.com/somethingsomething).

Some of the personalities here might seem daunting for a new user, but those personalities keep the site interesting.

I never would have found this site if it weren't for some funny old ameritrash geeklist I found on BGG that introduced me to Barnes and robartin. I thought, "I'm on board with this!" and stumbled through a few links that eventually mentioned Fortress: Ameritrash.