New players: Should gamers give them a chance?

[Raynor]

Definitely give them a chance. I actually moved from primarily a video-gamer to primarily a board-gamer just because gaming is much more fun with a group. If you're too competitive with players when they have their swimmies on and are testing the waters they'll never come back. You literally crush the life from your own hobby. Table Top games by their very nature are much more social endeavors than video games. You can't just crush newblettes and expect to continue to grow your play group as time goes by.

I'm personally 12 years late to the game of Magic the Gathering because when I was a sophmore in high school and I tried to learn how to play, no one gave me a chance. I got crushed by turn 4 game after game with no tips or helpful comments to grow my understanding of the game so I got bored and stopped playing till my brother in law shanghaied me into playing last Christmas and I discovered the game was actually lots of fun if you weren't being beaten to a bloody pulp before you figured out how to tap your mana every game.

It can be hard to let your opponents win if you're a competitive person by nature, but don't let your baser urges destroy your future fun! One of my best friends is hyper competitive and one of the biggest mistakes he makes even when he lets friends who aren't as good as him (my wife, for example) win is going back and explaining in grueling detail what he could have done and how he LET you win. Just let those new gamers at your table evolve and one day they'll know just how cool you are without you having to tell them More importantly, you'll still be playing with them if you don't smush them into Jelly while they're still on training wheels.