Notebook of a Gamer: "Turtling"

[Xhad]

Starcraft

This is actually the game where I first heard the term “turtling”. Turtling is when you build a large number of defensive structures around your base. Turtling in Starcraft sucks.

Turtling is the natural newbie reflex in this type of game. What happens is, the bad player loses very quickly the first times he plays against a person. This is because he is slow and generally doesn't know what he is doing, so the good player can “rush” him with little difficulty, ending the game very quickly.

Why turtling sucks: Real-time strategy games are very much about resource development. Large numbers of defensive structures don't do much to improve one's control of the map, which often consists of numerous resource pools. While the new player is protecting his one base, the good player is often building an army, along with several other bases that are harvesting more resources so the good player can build more armies. In the end the good player is still going to win because the newbie isn't doing anything that is actually going to win him the game; he is leaving his opponents free to develop whatever advantages they need to eventually take him down.

It is true that rushes don't work anymore; the good player has to do some more work. But the turtling newbie still loses, he just loses more slowly.

Magic: The Gathering: There are several ways to win a match at this game, but the most common one is to kill the other player by dealing enough damage to reduce his life points to 0 over the course of the game.

While both players start with 20 life, it is possible to increase your life total using certain cards. While a lot of newer players tend to be attracted to such cards, it is pretty much universally accepted among competent M:TG players that life gain cards usually suck. There are exceptions, of course; any card that gains life and does other things may be improved by the lifegain ability, and sometimes a card that can gain a large amount of life can be worthwhile.

Why do lifegain cards suck? The intricacies of a Magic game are more complicated than anyone who doesn't play could possibly care about, but suffice it to say that this is what usually happens when someone casts a card that only gains life:

-Hero is winning: Not really worth discussing, do you see why?
-Game state is about equal: Hero gains 4 life, not doing anything to improve his board position. Villain improves his board position on his turn. If Hero has the advantage otherwise, see "Hero is winning." Otherwise, this is essentially the same thing as...
-Hero is losing: Hero casts card and gains 4 life. Villain draws a card, does something that deals 4 or more damage. Hero is in exactly the same state as he was before; he has not helped his game state at all by gaining the life.

So a losing Magic player who plays weak lifegain cards generally loses; he just loses more slowly.

MTT Poker

In poker there are a lot of people who realize that in a tournament there is the constant danger of going broke and not being able to rebuy, which can cause strategy to deviate from typical cash game play.

This causes some people to take an irrationally cautious approach to the game. They pass up slight edges early, sometimes even when they believe themselves to be the favorite, in the name of “not busting out”.

Most of these people are not taking their “board position” (i.e. chip count) into account. They ignore the fact that better players are often building stacks early that allow them to bully the other scared players around. They ignore the fact that waiting out too many hands causes their chip stack/blinds ratio to dwindle so badly that they will eventually have to go all-in on a desperation steal anyway. They ignore the fact that “I'm weak tight so please take shots at me” is just about the most suck-ass table image to have against other good players, especially if it's true.

In the end these people don't win; they lose more slowly. Just like in any other game I've ever played.