Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: Harry Faversham on April 21, 2022, 12:41:54 PM
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Nearest and dearest often say...
"Isn't it about time you stopped being Peter Pan; the boy who never grew up... and grew up?"
Well can't speak for anyone else, but it's easier said than done...
(https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=136385.0;attach=170600;image)
;D
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No but endured quite a few snide comments on "playing with my little men." Then I'd go and paint for a little while just to piss her off.
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Yes.
But I live by the tenet 'you don't stop playing when you get old; you get old when you stop playing', and that usually shuts the buzz-killers up... :D
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I only ever get good-natured teasing from OC Domestic.
I do all my painting on shift in work, which has never caused problems (I work on my own, with only occasional visitors) except once, when the manager of our technicians turned up and came in to get out of the pissing rain for a couple of hours while waiting for his train home. I invariably get nothing but interest from visitors, with a side-order of deep-seated envy from a lot of them. However, this one was different... "Oh, you're a 'wargamer' are you?" he said, with a barely-concealed sneer.
His tone was a bit strange, but I gave my stock answer, "Yes, that's right; these are French troops from Napoleon's army. There are some finished ones in the box over there. Feel free if you want to have a look."
"Oh no, I despise your celebration of man's inhumanity to man."
"Well you're entitled to your opinion. Just as I'm entitled to remind you of regulations: No person is authorised to enter this location unless it directly pertains to operational work. Get out."
Watching him trying to stay dry and warm under a tree for two hours was quite possibly the most satisfying and rewarding moment of my life. And he's dead now, so I win. :)
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While ageing is mandatory, growing up is optional.
It is very important to remember that. This has served me well for 57 years now. 8)
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No BUT I surrounded myself with weirdos early on to avoid ever needing to face reality.
I'll stop being peter pan when you pry the tights from my cold green legs.
(I should add my partner drove us both up to salute for mammoth miniatures first show on the promise of a nice meal after, And all my friends are consistently amazed at me being able to pay my rent with toy soldiers - most of my arty friends are fascinated by the whole thing and find it really engaging. I've only really ever got good responses, But i think it may be that being in the midlands puts you at the cultural epicentre of the wargaming world so there's few people around who don't know someone with a warhammer collection.)
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I keep getting blank stares from some family when I talk about my hobby, but I've long stopped caring about their oppinion on it and they know it.
Most others react pretty positive, mostly, as I often emphasize the creative parts and mostly gloss over what rules would be.
(yeah I use some tape measures and dice as every model has some rules on how far it can move and what to roll to remove another model, is the gist of it).
Creativity seems to be mostly appreciated and understood.
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And he's dead now, so I win. :)
No BUT I surrounded myself with weirdos early on to avoid ever needing to face reality.
I'll stop being peter pan when you pry the tights from my cold green legs.
These responses are hilarious lol
I think most people who know me think my "tiny men" or "doll" collecting is probably one of my more normal traits.
I tend to joke about it with people myself. Once I went on a mega-long rant about my love of being able to re-create a small part of history and my pedanticness down to how long the length of an Austrian waistcoat in the Napoleonic wars. The bloke next to me (an extremely intelligent engineer) started to talk about his love for physics and how engines work to which I replied, very clever but it's no Austrian waistcoat.
Funnily enough, I think I've been insulted more times for my taste in music which is relatively normal than my love for wargamming.
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I did a few times, so I dropped them and got a new significant other. lol
My long time wife is very supportive and even contributes, and that is part of the reason she is my long-time wife; and will be for the foreseeable future. :-*
Plus, I am not afraid to embrace the ridiculousness and absurdity of my hobby at all.
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My brother-in-law asked me a while back if I was still playing with my army men.
Sigh.
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I did a few times, so I dropped them and got a new significant other. lol
My long time wife is very supportive and even contributes, and that is part of the reason she is my long-time wife; and will be for the foreseeable future. :-*
Plus, I am not afraid to embrace the ridiculousness and absurdity of my hobby at all.
I am lucky in this aspect too. One of the reasons we started dating is because I tried to explain my hobby and she immediately replied "Oh, like 40k? Yeah, I've dabbled in that." One of our earliest bonding activities was going in together on the first Kings of War Kickstarter ;D
A lot of hobbies are kinda silly at the end of the day. Life is full of real-world misery; if no one is getting hurt, who cares what people do to bring themselves a bit of happiness?
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In the past I've heard one or two very minor comments aimed at me from "friends" and family members, but they've been negligible and easily ignored.
I've largely kept my hobby to myself (other than with trusted, like-minded people), and that's worked pretty well.
My wife doesn't mind at all -- she's not interested herself, but she'd rather I was in the house painting soldiers than going out to football games or doing a potentially dangerous sport.
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If anything my wife would prefer to see me paint more, over my other methods of wasting time. But then she's artistically inclined, and even used to own minis herself (3rd ed Space Ork army, among other things, though she never played) so all good.
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While ageing is mandatory, growing up is optional.
Hear, hear!
We are all given a tiny spark of madness when we are born,
try not to lose it.
:D
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As someone who's in his 35th year in the military, this one's always amused me -
"Mummy when I grow up I want to be a soldier"
"Sorry Son, you can't do both" lol
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"Oh no, I despise your celebration of man's inhumanity to man."
I get this more often than "When are you going to grow up?", perhaps because I've now spent more than half my life in punk and straightedge circles - your mates aren't going to accuse you of not growing up when they've sacrificed the chance of a career to play basement shows in endless permutations of bands.
And while I applaud your response, Jemima, I guess we all understand the underlying sentiment that the above response tries to hit but misses. No one much likes the guy who is a bit too keen on his SS units or misses the irony of 40K or seems a bit too keen to play scenarios that are really massacres, right?
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Get it sometimes and promptly ignore it. Simple life guiding philosophy: never lose the ability to be childlike in our wonderment at the world in which we live without being childish (unless a young enough child to justify it).
Or, a favorite retort, "So, you are threatened by a group of, mostly, grown men playing with toy soldiers? I'm having too much fun to care." That tends to incite a case of 'guppy mouth'.
What we do is mildly silly but rarely harms anyone and, in my case reading so much history has caused me to see war as a tremendous waste of effort. Wargaming has actually lead me to believe war is futile - except as a hobby with little metal men. (Those who do get harmed are usually those who refuse to take basic safety precautions like wearing proper protection when using an airbrush. Or being careless with an X-acto knife (guilty).)
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It helps with the stress of being a grown up, not being one all the time, if that's what a hobby is, bring it on and more, its the things that help keep us more sane than most.
I am not planning to fully grow up if I can get away with it. Ever. Life is far to short for that.
Or as indicated in another conversation recently, "oh your into that" - yes - "bit childish" - not really but I'm not wasting game time explaining it.
"Well i need you to..."
"Sorry my cat wants to play, bye"
Guess they got someone else to deal with the I-need as I not heard any more about it.
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I thought being grown up is when you finally decide to grow a long beard, have a beer gut and play nothing but Historicals, (Horse and Musket era stuff in particular)... At least that's the plan.
In the past I've been told its a bit sad. Also been on a few dates where the other party gave me a funny luck.
I don't get the moral posturing anymore. Reservist with two degrees in military history. They're gone before I even get to the toy soldier bit. lol
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Actually, when they ask that question or any others along those line, I just turn into full on Dr. Spencer Ried
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/Spencer_Reid_%28Criminal_Minds%29.jpg)
As to How the game was derived from many other games such as that of chess, which was said to be the "Game of King" and from "Tafl" a Vikings version of chess. Then later on, military unit started using what is known as the table method, which many modern armies still use today to describe the actions and the after-action reviews and briefings. It wasn't until H.G. Wells the well know English novelist who not only wrote fantastic novels, but he is also known to have written out one of the first know rules for wargames, with the main title of "Little Wars", assigning units different values and strengths. It was played out using dice, different lengths of string and a stopwatch and the game also had an umpire, who help to determine the outcome of the game.
By this point they are running of scream as blood runs from their ears. lol lol lol
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I get this more often than "When are you going to grow up?", perhaps because I've now spent more than half my life in punk and straightedge circles - your mates aren't going to accuse you of not growing up when they've sacrificed the chance of a career to play basement shows in endless permutations of bands.
And while I applaud your response, Jemima, I guess we all understand the underlying sentiment that the above response tries to hit but misses. No one much likes the guy who is a bit too keen on his SS units or misses the irony of 40K or seems a bit too keen to play scenarios that are really massacres, right?
Isn't every 40k game a massacre? lol
I think it can be mixed responses much like Jemima mentioned, some people are amazed, usually when it also connects to local history. For instance Hamburg units for the Franco Prussian War. Usually haven't had a problem though, and usually found myself worrying more over it myself than was actually needed. My neighbour once came around and saw me sprayprime some vehicles for the Second World War and got super nerdy about things and asked a lot of tech related stuff, so yeah. Can't really say I've had a really negative response that made me worry about my hobby in a critical way.
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I point out that I do only historical forces vs contemporary opponents, and applaud their attitudes insofar as these clearly refer to goblins and trolls, wizards pretending that what they do is scientifically plausible future reality, or "timewarp" games, retch and shudder. They're usually too bored to keep the subject going after this.
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Growing up costs too much. I still live with the parents, but with the money I didn't spend on rent, I retired early by ten or twenty years. Plus have a dog (and two parents who can survive computer illiteracy).
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Why is the "grow up" topic locked? I ask purely out of interest - no axe to grind on it.
Doug
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Why is the "grow up" topic locked? I ask purely out of interest - no axe to grind on it.
Doug
Long story short, the OP was only very tenously hobby-related, and it generally went downhill. This kind of unspecific, "slice-of-life" topic has a nasty tendency to draw out the worst in folks for very little positive gain, which is why they are noted as "negative" examples in the forum rules as to what not to post, even on General Discussion (this board should, as all boards, be ultimately hobby-focused).