Happens all the time to me and I'm almost burnt out on playing board games with other people because of it. It comes down to a combination of couples that I play with (hate playing with couples because they never challenge each other, even if it's obvious they should) and the players not feeling comfortable challenging certain other players, even though we are all friends. Most of the time there isn't actual tension from the game itself, it comes from how much everyone tries not to step on anyone's toes except for mine which they feel free to demolish into a puddle of goo. It's weird because when we play games, there is one person who clearly dominates at a lot of them, but they don't want to offend him, so they just keep stomping on me and let him rocket off to win. It's beyond stupid.

I see it with Jason Levine too on the Dice Tower, it's fucked up because it's more than just when they play games. Tom is a bully to Jason, but insists they are friends. It's not a friendship, anyone with half a brain could gather that from watching one video with them. It's a partnering of someone who feel superior to the other person and uses every opportunity to mock him. All his videos with Tom it seem like Vasal is doing everything he can not to just mock Jason the entire time. There's such a condescending 'little buddy' vibe that Tom throws off whenever he talks to Jason, reminds me of reading about how Steve Jobs treated Woz.

I remember one time Tom took him off camera during a live session to scold him and I thought 'Tom would never do that to Sam or Zee'. When Jason talks to Sam or Zee, they barely say anything because they just don't like him. I just feel bad for Jason because there isn't anything inherently wrong with him, he just wants to play games and talk about games with like minded people, but those people are just straight up assholes to him.