Note: I've edited this post to leave out the details of an ugly incident which hopefully will be put behind us. .

Some rude behavior.

I think a general rule of thumb should be to not smack talk when you're playing a 3 against 2 AND you got forward city taken from you AND your ally has to come defend your ass. Strat_gladiator decided to break this general rule of thumb. But that's his choice. Although, I'm not sure what drives people to be so rude to complete strangers.

UPDATE: Strat_gladiator posted an apology and a well-reasoned explanation (frustration and psychological warfare). Taken in that context his comments are less inflammatory, so perhaps I went a little overboard in my response.

One of his comments then might be close to the truth:

Was the reason ... the fact that even though you put forth your best effort, you, sir, are frustrated at the situation getting turned around?

He ends with:

I hope we meet again on more friendly terms and I again apologize for the use of that tactic to achieve the ultimate goal, winning.

To that, I accept your apology and consider bygones to be bygones; if you ever wanna play in the future, I'll be more than happy to.

Which brings us to this question. Normally, "all is fair in love and war" and "war is hell" so his "phsycological warfare" tactic would generally be in order, but as he rightly mentioned -- this is just a game. So is rude behavior ever justified in a game? And yes - you can discuss this here in the comments section.

UPDATE 2: Since gladiator has responded maturely, I've honored his request to reword the content of this post. But let us all remember and try to act civilly toward our fellow gamers.
posted by Tim at 10:06 PM