For starters, I'll never wish my opponent "good luck". I don't want them to have good luck. I want them to get mana screwed up the yin yang. More or less, I'm nice and polite, say "Pleasure to meet you" and shake their hand if they offer it. I'm not a jerk or anything, but I wholeheartedly don't believe in wishing someone to have something I don't want them to have.
After game, I'll shake their hand, and am generally honest. If it was a fun game, I'll say so. If it was a one-sided whupping in my favor, I'll be a bit concillatory "Dang, you just had no luck getting your red in", or something along those lines. And if I got whupped, its more along the lines of "I'm a dumbass for keeping that hand", or "wow, your deck REALLY clicked there"
For starters, I'll never wish my opponent "good luck". I don't want them to have good luck. I want them to get mana screwed up the yin yang. More or less, I'm nice and polite, say "Pleasure to meet you" and shake their hand if they offer it. I'm not a jerk or anything, but I wholeheartedly don't believe in wishing someone to have something I don't want them to have.
I don't wish my opponent "good luck" before the match starts. Sometimes, they wish me good luck, to which I say, "thanks." After the match however, I do wish my opponent good luck. I genuinely want them to have good luck because it helps my tiebreakers.
In a very small number of cases, saying good luck in the rest of your matches will actually make the opponents' spirits feel better. It's always nice when someone who you beat comes back and makes the top 8. I have had people that I beat in the Swiss make the top 8 with myself and actually win the whole thing themselves!
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I still don't think this thread contributes anything constructive into the way people approach end-game scenarios, but it's sometimes worth it to get another outside perspective from people who have played FAR more Magic than you or I.
First guy admits he's a terrible loser - Won't say anything, doesn't want to make eye contact when he loses? What the hell? Dude, you need to relax. "It rubs me the wrong way when anyone says anything enthusiastically after a match?" This guy sounds like someone I would never, ever, ever want to play with.
Woman acting like losing a magic game is some huge deal - "I need a minute to recover?""You're immediately getting a hand in your face?" Jesus, she's acting like a handshake is some horrible thing if, god forbid, you lost a game of magic! How horrible! I can't think of anything worse than losing a game of magic! I ask again, how do these people survive in the real world?
Host compares this good game "controversy" to women playing magic? Jesus. Here's a hint, dude - one of these actually matters, and one doesn't. One involves more than half of the potential population possibly feeling excluded, the other is about whether or not a random polite phrase is meant to be secretly making fun of you. God help us.
Not sure these are people you want to be pointing to as being good support for how horrible it is to say GG.
Edit - Also, a lot of appeal to authority going on in this thread. Not only is that a fallacy, magic pros are experts at magic, not experts at social interaction or the meaning of english phrases. Let's not give their opinions more weight than they deserve.
I still don't think this thread contributes anything constructive into the way people approach end-game scenarios, but it's sometimes worth it to get another outside perspective from people who have played FAR more Magic than you or I.
First guy admits he's a terrible loser - Won't say anything, doesn't want to make eye contact when he loses? What the hell? Dude, you need to relax. "It rubs me the wrong way when anyone says anything enthusiastically after a match?" This guy sounds like someone I would never, ever, ever want to play with.
Woman acting like losing a magic game is some huge deal - "I need a minute to recover?""You're immediately getting a hand in your face?" Jesus, she's acting like a handshake is some horrible thing if, god forbid, you lost a game of magic! How horrible! I can't think of anything worse than losing a game of magic! I ask again, how do these people survive in the real world?
Host compares this good game "controversy" to women playing magic? Jesus. Here's a hint, dude - one of these actually matters, and one doesn't. One involves more than half of the potential population possibly feeling excluded, the other is about whether or not a random polite phrase is meant to be secretly making fun of you. God help us.
Not sure these are people you want to be pointing to as being good support for how horrible it is to say GG.
Edit - Also, a lot of appeal to authority going on in this thread. Not only is that a fallacy, magic pros are experts at magic, not experts at social interaction or the meaning of english phrases. Let's not give their opinions more weight than they deserve.
I'd go as far as to argue that these "Pro-Players" who live, eat, and breath MTG are probably worse than average at social interactions. There is no controversy, just some overly loud pros with horrible cases of Unwarranted Self Importance. Say what you want after your game, as long as it is friendly and polite. If your opponent is such an awkward man-child that he/she can't handle sincere politeness, then that's on him/her.
I really wish this thread were locked--it's like listening to democrats and republicans argue about the national budget.
Yet, here you are. By choice.
The mods here are heavy-handed enough already without us asking to lock any thread where the participants can't agree simply because a few people are annoyed by it.
you dont say "good game" cause the game was a good one though
either accept that or live with the feel that your negative reaction makes you look like a fool
Then why do you say it?
sportmanship
This is the first response in this thread to the "why say it" question, so thank you for that.
The answer of "sportsmanship" describes this as a ritual. You say "good game" after a match because that is simply what you do. But to whose benefit is this ritual? There are two possible answers. Neither is wrong, but it's worth paying attention to which one is the case.
1. It's for your opponent's benefit. You say it because you want them to have a positive impression of the match, how it played out, and how the players conducted themselves. If this is the case then it's worth being sensitive to the opponent's signals. If they got screwed and they appear to be on tilt, then it can be worth saying something more sympathetic. "Sorry you flooded out at the end there, good luck on your other matches" does a great deal more to cheer such an opponent up than a canned "good game" would.
2. It's for your benefit. Your sense of sportsmanship and integrity demands that you conclude the match with a "good game", and the wording is important to you. If this is the case, good on you, but be advised that some people in some cases may not take it as a positive. Just don't let it bother you and it's fine.
If you lose a game of Magic and your opponent says "good game" to you, you seriously have just experienced something far better than what hundreds of millions of people are experiencing at that very same moment. People die of violence, accidents, and horrible diseases every day. People live in war zones and live with gunfire as a daily soundtrack. Children go to bed hungry. Humans are trafficked, abused, victimized, and exploited.
You played a card game and someone said it was good even though you didn't think it was and now your fee-fees are hurt. Find a way to live through it....
To me, saying good game is sportsmanship and accepting your lose is also sportsmanship. If my opponents can't accept their loss, then that the lack of sportsmanship on their part and I done my part by saying good game.
I usually say "you should't have countered the dark ritual."
Lol, think I am gonna start saying this after every game, no matter the format or decks. BFZ limited, "you shouldn't have countered the dark ritual," modern, "you shouldn't have countered the dark ritual," standard, "you shouldn't have countered the dark ritual." Nothing like a little nonsense to brighten up the day.
here's something i've never understood about about magic, the phrase good game and its use after a match.
in my experience with video gaming, gg has almost always been meant to be a patronizing thing, synonymous with qq, and cry more, said by the winner to the loser. to me, hearing good game has always been negative after a magic game, even when people don't mean it to be that way. most of the time people DO mean it to be that way though. thats part of it, and the other part is that... okay, you crushed me, completely... is it really necessary to say good game? you might think its good sportsmanship but in reality you're just rubbing it in because it wasn't a good game at all.
all that said, i like 'thanks for the match' or something along those lines far more than good game.
As mentioned, I prefer "Thanks for playing" myself because 'Good Game' always feels either insincere, or it does actually mildly annoy me if it was a game where I didn't have fun, because something along the lines of an unwilling mental reflex immediately says "No, it wasn't." (Which of course I don't say out loud).
If I had fun, "Good Game." isn't a big deal to me, because to me it WAS a good game.
If I didn't have fun, 'Good Game' feels like salt being rubbed in the wound.
Though, this applies more to commander with my friends, where I'm not likely to get to play more than one game a week, so getting trounced and then being told "Good game" after a game I didn't enjoy just feels bad.
And I don't have to win to have fun, it just needs to feel like I didn't get rofflestomped.
When I'm playing in a tournament of some sort, I don't have the same reaction for whatever reason.
you dont say "good game" cause the game was a good one though
That's your opinion. If you say "good game" even though it wasn't one, you're lying. I prefer to say "good game" exactly when a game/match was one, so I actually mean it.
If you're going to go by that line of thought, "good" is entirely subjective and by saying good game, there is always a way to interpret it to be true, due to the subjective nature of the word "good".
Would it be wrong if I replied to a "Good game" with, "Not really, but I still enjoyed playing," if I said this with a smile and a friendly voice?
But why would you even feel the need to say this? Yes, it would still be bad. Just shake the hand and move on. What would you be trying to accomplish by being so pissy?
Here, IMO, is the problem with just not saying GG cause it makes some people salty - we're basically giving sore losers carte blanche to object to anything non-sore losers might say, and then we're in a situation where anything can be taken to have an alternative, secretly rude meaning and we'll keep changing what we say before everyone realizes the eventual truth - this has nothing to do with the phrase itself, and everything to do with people who are upset with the fact they lost looking for something to latch onto to get angry at.
Would it be wrong if I replied to a "Good game" with, "Not really, but I still enjoyed playing," if I said this with a smile and a friendly voice?
It wouldn't be wrong, but on the inside I'd judge you as obnoxious, passive aggressive, a bad sport, and some one I wouldn't want to be friends with, if that was my initial impression of you, not that my judgement means anything in the grand scheme of things.
It wouldn't be wrong, but on the inside I'd judge you as obnoxious, passive aggressive, a bad sport, and some one I wouldn't want to be friends with, if that was my initial impression of you, not that my judgement means anything in the grand scheme of things.
This, on the opposite side, is precisely some people don't prefer to use the term "Good Game" as their "Basic Courtesy/Sportsmanship" term for MTG.
Ultimately, "Basic Courtesy/Sportsmanship" is not a flat, inflexible list of words to be used in the game. It should be based on logic and empathy, both flexible factors depending on the game itself.
If you were playing a game with someone and he or she got mana-screwed badly and you said "Good Game" simply because it was on the flat list of "Basic Courtesy" and he/she just shakes your hand without saying much (or a Thanks), it doesn't mean he's/she's wholeheartedly accepting the term - likewise he's/she's probably judging you as a person devoid of empathy without throwing a tantrum about it. Just because people don't throw tantrums about it doesn't mean they aren't feeling the same things a person throwing a tantrum are.
Someone can be accepting that the game is randomness-based, but even randomness doesn't justify that all "games that are bad due to randomness automatically become "good" because hey, it's randomness". It's still a "bad game" to the player whether he or she shows it or not and an opponent saying "Good Game" when it isn't one isn't going to feel good.
Remember "Good Game" is not actually as ingrained in MTG culture as it is in other games due to the randomness factor (logic) PLUS people putting empathy in their "Basic Courtesy" terms to not just import the term over, even if they use it in other games where the term is ingrained in (and those games are usually much less randomness-dependent).
"Basic Courtesy" without the use of Logic & Empathy is at best a facade and at worst hypocrisy (depending on how the player takes the term on the receiving end as well).
Would it be wrong if I replied to a "Good game" with, "Not really, but I still enjoyed playing," if I said this with a smile and a friendly voice?
It wouldn't be wrong, but on the inside I'd judge you as obnoxious, passive aggressive, a bad sport, and some one I wouldn't want to be friends with, if that was my initial impression of you, not that my judgement means anything in the grand scheme of things.
Pot meet kettle. And that's all I'm going to add back to this thread because it's obnoxious to even read this stuff.
Usually I just say good game. It usually isn't if I win since I'm playing Atarka Red so games I win are usually a blow out, but honestly. If they want to get salty about it that's their problem not mine.
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Legacy: 8 Rack, Omnitell (Both in progress)
Can someone who says "I only say good game if it was actually good" give me a checklist of what makes a game good? Concrete, something a computer or robot could decide.
It wouldn't be wrong, but on the inside I'd judge you as obnoxious, passive aggressive, a bad sport, and some one I wouldn't want to be friends with, if that was my initial impression of you, not that my judgement means anything in the grand scheme of things.
This, on the opposite side, is precisely some people don't prefer to use the term "Good Game" as their "Basic Courtesy/Sportsmanship" term for MTG.
Ultimately, "Basic Courtesy/Sportsmanship" is not a flat, inflexible list of words to be used in the game. It should be based on logic and empathy, both flexible factors depending on the game itself.
If you were playing a game with someone and he or she got mana-screwed badly and you said "Good Game" simply because it was on the flat list of "Basic Courtesy" and he/she just shakes your hand without saying much (or a Thanks), it doesn't mean he's/she's wholeheartedly accepting the term - likewise he's/she's probably judging you as a person devoid of empathy without throwing a tantrum about it. Just because people don't throw tantrums about it doesn't mean they aren't feeling the same things a person throwing a tantrum are.
Someone can be accepting that the game is randomness-based, but even randomness doesn't justify that all "games that are bad due to randomness automatically become "good" because hey, it's randomness". It's still a "bad game" to the player whether he or she shows it or not and an opponent saying "Good Game" when it isn't one isn't going to feel good.
Remember "Good Game" is not actually as ingrained in MTG culture as it is in other games due to the randomness factor (logic) PLUS people putting empathy in their "Basic Courtesy" terms to not just import the term over, even if they use it in other games where the term is ingrained in (and those games are usually much less randomness-dependent).
"Basic Courtesy" without the use of Logic & Empathy is at best a facade and at worst hypocrisy (depending on how the player takes the term on the receiving end as well).
Other competitive sports and e-games have elements of luck in them too. Competitive pokemon game boy battling (yes, it's a big thing) is one example. Sometimes crits allow you to win games you have no business winning. it's still expected to say good game afterwards.
If you only say "Good game" if a game was good for you, and you played well, and drew all the cards you wanted to draw, and get salty and butthurt when your opponent says good game after beating you when you didn't draw the cards you wanted, that just means you're a good winner, and a poor loser.
All other things normal, for example demeanor from both players before and during the game, theres no reason that both players shouldnt be able to say "Good Game". Respect begets respect. Even if your stuck on 2 lands and get pummeled by turn 3, there more to the words than just how there defined.
on top of all that, is this over sensitivity really the mind set we want to have in society? It's the same thing as some one getting upset because another said " Have a great day!" and your day was horrible. Since we cant possibly know if you had a great day beforehand we just shouldnt say it because in a corner case it could be construed as rude or unpolite?
Theres also a such thing as a social norm which is considered polite behavior even if it doesnt nescessarily make sense by definition. It's like saying bless you when someone sneezes. Many, if not most people who say it, are not even religous. And when it's said, the religous connotations iss't even the first thought that comes to mind. We simply believe that when someones sneezes, it's say bless you because thats what polite.
another example, holding the door for someone even when it's totally unneeded and even creates that awkward person half in the way actually making it kinda more difficult to enter/exit. Even though that can be contrued into rudeness because that person may have inconvenienced you in someway, we see past all that and simply see it as good intentions.
We as a community have been on trend to being overly sensitive to too many issues and I think people need to step back and lighten up.
Can someone who says "I only say good game if it was actually good" give me a checklist of what makes a game good? Concrete, something a computer or robot could decide.
That's the root of the problem I believe. Everyone has a different definition of a good game. Some people only consider it a good game if they win for instance. For me, a game is truly a good game if both players had fun and in the end the winner was inconsequential because it was just that fun. For instance, one of my best truly good games was right after the most recent rotation, I put together a jank U/B deck till my RDW got completed. First round of that FNM I played against a U/W control deck. Both of us were so concerned about counters we were just pinging eachother back and forth with 1/1s for about 10 turns. It was fun and we both had a huge laugh about it. While the game might have seemed boring or uneventful to others, he and I had a blast and found the comedy in it, which made it truly a good, enjoyable game.
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After game, I'll shake their hand, and am generally honest. If it was a fun game, I'll say so. If it was a one-sided whupping in my favor, I'll be a bit concillatory "Dang, you just had no luck getting your red in", or something along those lines. And if I got whupped, its more along the lines of "I'm a dumbass for keeping that hand", or "wow, your deck REALLY clicked there"
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I don't wish my opponent "good luck" before the match starts. Sometimes, they wish me good luck, to which I say, "thanks." After the match however, I do wish my opponent good luck. I genuinely want them to have good luck because it helps my tiebreakers.
In a very small number of cases, saying good luck in the rest of your matches will actually make the opponents' spirits feel better. It's always nice when someone who you beat comes back and makes the top 8. I have had people that I beat in the Swiss make the top 8 with myself and actually win the whole thing themselves!
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)First guy admits he's a terrible loser - Won't say anything, doesn't want to make eye contact when he loses? What the hell? Dude, you need to relax. "It rubs me the wrong way when anyone says anything enthusiastically after a match?" This guy sounds like someone I would never, ever, ever want to play with.
Woman acting like losing a magic game is some huge deal - "I need a minute to recover?""You're immediately getting a hand in your face?" Jesus, she's acting like a handshake is some horrible thing if, god forbid, you lost a game of magic! How horrible! I can't think of anything worse than losing a game of magic! I ask again, how do these people survive in the real world?
Host compares this good game "controversy" to women playing magic? Jesus. Here's a hint, dude - one of these actually matters, and one doesn't. One involves more than half of the potential population possibly feeling excluded, the other is about whether or not a random polite phrase is meant to be secretly making fun of you. God help us.
Not sure these are people you want to be pointing to as being good support for how horrible it is to say GG.
Edit - Also, a lot of appeal to authority going on in this thread. Not only is that a fallacy, magic pros are experts at magic, not experts at social interaction or the meaning of english phrases. Let's not give their opinions more weight than they deserve.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I'd go as far as to argue that these "Pro-Players" who live, eat, and breath MTG are probably worse than average at social interactions. There is no controversy, just some overly loud pros with horrible cases of Unwarranted Self Importance. Say what you want after your game, as long as it is friendly and polite. If your opponent is such an awkward man-child that he/she can't handle sincere politeness, then that's on him/her.
My current trade binder.
"People most likely to cry "troll" are those who can't fathom holding a position for reasons unrelated to how they want to be perceived"
Yet, here you are. By choice.
The mods here are heavy-handed enough already without us asking to lock any thread where the participants can't agree simply because a few people are annoyed by it.
The answer of "sportsmanship" describes this as a ritual. You say "good game" after a match because that is simply what you do. But to whose benefit is this ritual? There are two possible answers. Neither is wrong, but it's worth paying attention to which one is the case.
1. It's for your opponent's benefit. You say it because you want them to have a positive impression of the match, how it played out, and how the players conducted themselves. If this is the case then it's worth being sensitive to the opponent's signals. If they got screwed and they appear to be on tilt, then it can be worth saying something more sympathetic. "Sorry you flooded out at the end there, good luck on your other matches" does a great deal more to cheer such an opponent up than a canned "good game" would.
2. It's for your benefit. Your sense of sportsmanship and integrity demands that you conclude the match with a "good game", and the wording is important to you. If this is the case, good on you, but be advised that some people in some cases may not take it as a positive. Just don't let it bother you and it's fine.
There. Thread done.
You played a card game and someone said it was good even though you didn't think it was and now your fee-fees are hurt. Find a way to live through it....
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My cube on Cube tutor
I'm OP_Forever. I'll be putting this in my signature for a while so everyone know I change my nickname.
Lol, think I am gonna start saying this after every game, no matter the format or decks. BFZ limited, "you shouldn't have countered the dark ritual," modern, "you shouldn't have countered the dark ritual," standard, "you shouldn't have countered the dark ritual." Nothing like a little nonsense to brighten up the day.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
in my experience with video gaming, gg has almost always been meant to be a patronizing thing, synonymous with qq, and cry more, said by the winner to the loser. to me, hearing good game has always been negative after a magic game, even when people don't mean it to be that way. most of the time people DO mean it to be that way though. thats part of it, and the other part is that... okay, you crushed me, completely... is it really necessary to say good game? you might think its good sportsmanship but in reality you're just rubbing it in because it wasn't a good game at all.
all that said, i like 'thanks for the match' or something along those lines far more than good game.
If I had fun, "Good Game." isn't a big deal to me, because to me it WAS a good game.
If I didn't have fun, 'Good Game' feels like salt being rubbed in the wound.
Though, this applies more to commander with my friends, where I'm not likely to get to play more than one game a week, so getting trounced and then being told "Good game" after a game I didn't enjoy just feels bad.
And I don't have to win to have fun, it just needs to feel like I didn't get rofflestomped.
When I'm playing in a tournament of some sort, I don't have the same reaction for whatever reason.
If you're going to go by that line of thought, "good" is entirely subjective and by saying good game, there is always a way to interpret it to be true, due to the subjective nature of the word "good".
But why would you even feel the need to say this? Yes, it would still be bad. Just shake the hand and move on. What would you be trying to accomplish by being so pissy?
Here, IMO, is the problem with just not saying GG cause it makes some people salty - we're basically giving sore losers carte blanche to object to anything non-sore losers might say, and then we're in a situation where anything can be taken to have an alternative, secretly rude meaning and we'll keep changing what we say before everyone realizes the eventual truth - this has nothing to do with the phrase itself, and everything to do with people who are upset with the fact they lost looking for something to latch onto to get angry at.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
It wouldn't be wrong, but on the inside I'd judge you as obnoxious, passive aggressive, a bad sport, and some one I wouldn't want to be friends with, if that was my initial impression of you, not that my judgement means anything in the grand scheme of things.
This, on the opposite side, is precisely some people don't prefer to use the term "Good Game" as their "Basic Courtesy/Sportsmanship" term for MTG.
Ultimately, "Basic Courtesy/Sportsmanship" is not a flat, inflexible list of words to be used in the game. It should be based on logic and empathy, both flexible factors depending on the game itself.
If you were playing a game with someone and he or she got mana-screwed badly and you said "Good Game" simply because it was on the flat list of "Basic Courtesy" and he/she just shakes your hand without saying much (or a Thanks), it doesn't mean he's/she's wholeheartedly accepting the term - likewise he's/she's probably judging you as a person devoid of empathy without throwing a tantrum about it. Just because people don't throw tantrums about it doesn't mean they aren't feeling the same things a person throwing a tantrum are.
Someone can be accepting that the game is randomness-based, but even randomness doesn't justify that all "games that are bad due to randomness automatically become "good" because hey, it's randomness". It's still a "bad game" to the player whether he or she shows it or not and an opponent saying "Good Game" when it isn't one isn't going to feel good.
Remember "Good Game" is not actually as ingrained in MTG culture as it is in other games due to the randomness factor (logic) PLUS people putting empathy in their "Basic Courtesy" terms to not just import the term over, even if they use it in other games where the term is ingrained in (and those games are usually much less randomness-dependent).
"Basic Courtesy" without the use of Logic & Empathy is at best a facade and at worst hypocrisy (depending on how the player takes the term on the receiving end as well).
Pot meet kettle. And that's all I'm going to add back to this thread because it's obnoxious to even read this stuff.
I'm pretty sure Jer was just employing rhetorical technique, and cat+butcher walked right into it.
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Modern: Mono-Red Control, Lantern Control, Eldrazi Taxes, Skred Infect
Pauper: Affinity
EDH: Gaddock Teeg Kithkin Tribal, Meren
Legacy: 8 Rack, Omnitell (Both in progress)
Other competitive sports and e-games have elements of luck in them too. Competitive pokemon game boy battling (yes, it's a big thing) is one example. Sometimes crits allow you to win games you have no business winning. it's still expected to say good game afterwards.
If you only say "Good game" if a game was good for you, and you played well, and drew all the cards you wanted to draw, and get salty and butthurt when your opponent says good game after beating you when you didn't draw the cards you wanted, that just means you're a good winner, and a poor loser.
All other things normal, for example demeanor from both players before and during the game, theres no reason that both players shouldnt be able to say "Good Game". Respect begets respect. Even if your stuck on 2 lands and get pummeled by turn 3, there more to the words than just how there defined.
on top of all that, is this over sensitivity really the mind set we want to have in society? It's the same thing as some one getting upset because another said " Have a great day!" and your day was horrible. Since we cant possibly know if you had a great day beforehand we just shouldnt say it because in a corner case it could be construed as rude or unpolite?
Theres also a such thing as a social norm which is considered polite behavior even if it doesnt nescessarily make sense by definition. It's like saying bless you when someone sneezes. Many, if not most people who say it, are not even religous. And when it's said, the religous connotations iss't even the first thought that comes to mind. We simply believe that when someones sneezes, it's say bless you because thats what polite.
another example, holding the door for someone even when it's totally unneeded and even creates that awkward person half in the way actually making it kinda more difficult to enter/exit. Even though that can be contrued into rudeness because that person may have inconvenienced you in someway, we see past all that and simply see it as good intentions.
We as a community have been on trend to being overly sensitive to too many issues and I think people need to step back and lighten up.
People still scoop to Thragtusk.
That's the root of the problem I believe. Everyone has a different definition of a good game. Some people only consider it a good game if they win for instance. For me, a game is truly a good game if both players had fun and in the end the winner was inconsequential because it was just that fun. For instance, one of my best truly good games was right after the most recent rotation, I put together a jank U/B deck till my RDW got completed. First round of that FNM I played against a U/W control deck. Both of us were so concerned about counters we were just pinging eachother back and forth with 1/1s for about 10 turns. It was fun and we both had a huge laugh about it. While the game might have seemed boring or uneventful to others, he and I had a blast and found the comedy in it, which made it truly a good, enjoyable game.
Modern: Mono-Red Control, Lantern Control, Eldrazi Taxes, Skred Infect
Pauper: Affinity
EDH: Gaddock Teeg Kithkin Tribal, Meren
Legacy: 8 Rack, Omnitell (Both in progress)