hostility

[Istenem]

i was in a pub in a small town in the southeast today (purely to win some free money). the pub had a paragon, i walked in, ordered a half, intended to stay for twenty minutes at the maximum and maybe make fifteen quid nett profit. the barmaid was very friendly and the only obvious person in the bar was your classic oik drinking wifebeater.

so i drag my sorry arse and undrinkable half to the quizzer. first game WU (yes, i realise a lot of you hate it) i got a very, very poor clearance for 16xx and £3. and some fella appears on my shoulder to say: "that's not how we play the game here, the guys who play it get to £1 then collect it" he did ask me how many grids i'd cleared which is not uncommon when nevergonnabes see a clearance for the first time in their otherwise foetid life. whereupon some other oaf trots in and says "well done" in the most aggressively confrontational manner and adds "don't come back here". they each stand at my shoulder and pointedly stay there.

so i have half a pint of poison, £3.50 in the machine and a couple of heavies who aren't gonna move. PMP was surely ripe (the rest of the town was easy) but i didn't fancy picking my teeth up from the floor so went for DOND (which i never play) and contrived to lose convincingly on a target of 26k. after that i faked a phone call and left the few quid in the machine a and went for a ciggy. £2.00 up and that sort of reception

i am not the biggest guy and intellect doesn't often beat brawn.

so sod that, if any of you travel for a job, is there a solution to this sort of intimidation? or do you learn where to not go. or do you not play after 19.00?

[JG]

Occupational hazard. Very unfortunate. You're still in one piece with only your ego dented. It could be worse I guess.

You mention £15ish up in 20 minutes. That's not bad going on games that seem to carry little risk.

[cool]

Why do writers never provide the name of the pub. Im happy to visit the pub and give them a visit they wont forget. I think that there should be a quicklink to a national table of bastard pubs developed on this website although not titled this maybe pubs that ban with date name address and reason for ban so that people who like to stand up to the unscrupulous minority and their meatheaded moronic customers can make a beeline for their pub. lets have some bannings with pub names.Any pub that I get banned from I will tell that they will be highlighted to the nation(actually to a small anorak minority like myself) on fruitchat! That should get them wanting to show me a baseball bat, but I dont like baseball I like badminton!

[nw6]

I've only had anything close to that experience once- on a local Gamesnet. I reckon word games (this one had Boggle & Word Up) attract the nutters more than quiz games. It's clear from a distance if you have some idea what you're doing. I've never been back.

I travel for my job and most sizeable towns have a few chain pubs so I always stick with wetherspoons/yates/slugs/hogshead & walkabout.

I'd rather play a dead machine somewhere safe and less grim than travel to Stratford or somewhere just to make a few quid.

[grecian]

Bad luck Istenem, that sounds very unpleasant and personally I think you did the right thing in making your excuses and leaving. In a world where there's probably 25k SWPs it's pointless to risk physical harm for the right to play any one of them.

I've never had any experience like that and I wonder if there is something in DMAC's observation that word games might attract more attention, because it is so obvious if someone is good. It's also unusual because I would have thought it more common for bar managers to take this kind of aggressive approach (then again, I've never been asked to leave or treated rudely by bar staff either - maybe I'm just not good enough). Obviously these meatheads thought they "owned" WU in that pub and behaved accordingly.

As to future solutions, I would try to regard this as a one-off if I were you. My only rule (and I enforce it only loosely) is not playing in any serious sense after about 1900 on Friday and Saturday evening. Pubs are at that time too noisy, crowded and unpleasant to concentrate properly (and also I'm usually expected elsewhere at that time). But I'd be quite happy to play anywhere at any other time of the week. I play in one particularly rough local pub from time to time and have never had any problems there.

[Properpro]

I always stick with wetherspoons/yates/slugs/hogshead & walkabout.

Couldn't agree more. In most of these you're lucky to raise enough attention to buy a drink, and they all (99.9%) have machines.

[grecian]

Equally though, machines in non-chain pubs are likely to be of more value, because they're less likely to have been visited by other decent players (because all of us know the chains will reliably have a machine). So I don't think one can afford to write off non-chains out of hand, personally,

[cool]

theonly good thing about friday and sat nights the clientele are often too drunk to notice anything

[Istenem]

in hindsight it was a mistake to only get a half in that place, especially when i had no intention of drinking it. so that is a lesson learned. it was towards the end of my visit; other places had been pretty busy with decent patrons but this place was dead (another independent boozer five minutes away was two deep at the bar). for the sake of a few quid i should have left it well enough alone. anyway i didn't get thumped, just run out of town which is no great loss.
but i have some satisfaction in knowing that none of the apes in there will ever clear WU and i can irritate them by topping their scoreboard in perpetuity.

the only other place where i've had any sort of altercation is near to where i work (again it was because i toppled A REGULAR from the WU scoreboard (by about 700 points)) but i have some small influence in the area so that was easily sorted. overall the hit rate is inconsequential but it was a tad disturbing yesterday.

[Properpro]

Equally though, machines in non-chain pubs are likely to be of more value, because they're less likely to have been visited by other decent players (because all of us know the chains will reliably have a machine). So I don't think one can afford to write off non-chains out of hand, personally,

I do agree, but the vast number of chain pubs means you can afford to take a sensible view on anywhere that might cause you confrontation. In my view it is never absolutely necessary to play any one given site. No need to have a stressful life.

[QuizMaster]

Rule of thumb:

Weigh it up when you go in. If it looks iffy, offer the barmaid/man a drink. This protects you from all manner of aggro from locals.

My scariest experience once was back in the days when pubs closed after lunch and I got locked in by the landlord and two of his gorillas. After some not very veiled threats we came to an agreement that they kept the £90 I had won and I was allowed to leave with my legs intact.

Thankfully such experiences are a thing of the past.

[ggdr]

Would it be too terrible to tell us the name of the pub Istenem? I've never had an experience like that, the closest was on a Gamesnet in London with another player, where a (I think) jovial enough landlord came over and said he hoped we weren't emptying his machine. *Luckily* at that point we were up about £1.50.

[Istenem]

i'm not going to post it on here but have sent you a PM.

[grecian]

Wise words. To be honest most really ropey dives don't have machines. A while back I walked the length of the Kilburn High Road and didn't find one machine (I went in every pub I dared to). In hindsight it probably wouldn't have been worth playing the machine in any anyway.

I wonder whether these central London GamesNet tales are all the same pub. I know that Mr Brewis was only slung out of one pub during his Big Match escapades - a GamesNet near Holborn. Perhaps it's the same pub others have had difficulties in.

[roberto la vigna]

I always carry firearms with me. At the end of the day you could be walking into hostile territory and it's a pub, so you will be outnumbered. Thankfully I've never had to use the firearm yet, although I wouldn't hesitate to do so if needed. What I usually do....hold on, no....let me illustrate what I would have done in your shoes, in that situation there.

You walk into the pub. You order a half. That straight away alerts any knuckle rumblers that you probably read The Guardian and aren't a member of the National Wife Beater's Front organisation. At the end of the day, it's your money, it's a pub. There are no 'in house' rules that say pints only. Your choice. However knuckle rumblers have no notion of 'other people'. They are all Nazis, be they anti-semetic, anti-s34AWPic or anti-SWPWUClearancitic. Never display your firearm before confrontation.

So you find yourself in a classic oik breath, hangerer onerer irritant situation. At this point you turn to face them square and look them in the eyes. State loudly and clearly "Excuse me please, but I would rather you did not invade my personal space whilst I am entertaining myself on this SWP terminal which is provided for customers to entertain themselves for their entertainment. Your presence is detracting from the entertainment I am deriving, therby I request you depart from my company, to allow for my maximum entertainment of this game, which probably isn't That's Entertainment."
Then roll your eyes and add "that also means not watching me from the bar pratface."

You have to time this right. Keep your distance if they move in, keep alert, don't get caught from behind. If they respond positively, that's bad. They'll probably be plotting a way to mess you up later, so you won't be able to relax on your quiz games. This rarely happens.

Usually you'll get an aggressive verbal response. You have to be careful you don't get a rapid fire physical response as firearm or no, that's a compromising situation.

Pull out the firearm after they've called you a few names and made a few threats. Look him/them in the eye and say "Don't even think about it!". In fact bang your hand down hard on a wooden surface and yell "Don't even think about it." Swear if you like, but I know you've got good manners, so you probably would not swear. Adding an 'arsehole' to the end of that will make you sound like Arnold Narshaweggener and the irony of that will be too much for knucklebrains. Pull out your firearm and watch as they become putty. If they don't become putty, make them into putty with bullets.

You shouldn't need a sledgehammer to play an SWP. It's safe straightforward stuff isn't it? Costs a 50p to find if a game is burned to the core or not. Sometimes an AWP can 'show' and then play you to % or even 'take you for a total fool'. I usually carry a sledgehammer, 'just in case'.

I've cleared this with the police. Apparently you are allowed to take forearms (both of 'em if needs be) into a pub, so there should be no legal problems. Just blast the hell outta them!! Also I'm allowed to get 'hammered', so no problems there either. Urinating in public attracts a fine though, so don't do that, use the toilets provided. Keep use of forearms to a minimum in the toilet.

Hope that helps!

The best post I've ever read on here - quality!

I wouldn't play anywhere to make a large profit after seven pm or so.

Have also only ever had aggro from middle-class semi-stupid student types who felt intellectually insecure. Easily dealt with by ignoring them or telling them that they're dicks.