Dealing with Hobby Burnout

[Arbedark]

Shooting is a good way to realize how cheap wargaming is.

Sadly if I took up shooting as a hobby His Majesties Constabulary wouldn't be best pleased!!

[Mr. White]

A therapist can never hurt. More generally though, it looks like maybe you're just at point where you should be putting as much time as you can into playing the game as you don't need to be painting much of anything at all anymore. That's a spot many people would like to be at. Sounds like you have enough inventory to create all kinds of games. If you don't have any regular opponents then perhaps the new challenge can be finding some likeminded folks to get games going with. The social interaction and being able to actually use all this stuff you put so much time, money and effort into is only going to be good for your mental health.

And as that may take some time, spin up some cool solo projects and put effort into documenting them for others to see. Show off all your stuff!

Thanks.

I've wondered...and maybe I should spin this into its own post...for people who have "matured" their projects. Do they still have passion to play with those models later on? 10years later on? or does no longer painting and hobbying on a project decrease their drive to play?

Maybe wait for the upcoming post on that before knocking this one off track...

[Mr. White]

A therapist isn't necessarily a bad option if you can afford one, but I suspect this board can provide you with quite the support group. 

Your post made me realise more clearly what I'd been trying to say earlier in the thread. I've never suffered burnout, but I certainly have felt a kind of saturation. There was one point a few years ago where I was really, really enjoying converting small sci-fi warbands in the 40k setting, and looking at each new release for useful conversion ideas. Then it hit me - how many of these warbands do I actually need?* What is the point in yet another one? - and I lost the buzz for it pretty much immediately.

That wasn't burnout though, I came to see I was happy with what I had and didn't need more. I'd reached saturation point. If that's where you're at too, I hope it also feels like a good place to be. It worked for me, anyway.

*64 turned out to be the answer to this question.

I hit on this with Blood Bowl. I love the game. But I'll never paint another full team again.
(famous last words!)

I blogged about it: https://wyrdstonesandtacklezones.com/2024/10/27/blood-bowl-skaven-team-and-the-end/

[Easy E]

Mr. White, that is probably the closest to where I am at too.  I think it is a bit of melancholy for a few reasons:

1. My child (and skumgrod) is a few months away from going off to College far, far away
2. My local group (that I am a founder of and built since day 1) is going a different direction than me game-wise
3. I have a lot of miniatures, forces, and period that maybe get out on the table once every other year
4. For career reasons, I might need to move in the next year or two to parts unknown and possibly with much smaller space than I have now
5. Aging parents that will need my assistance soon

All of this "life uncertainty" has left me feeling a bit.... static.  I feel a bit hemmed in and trapped in amber until some of it sorts itself out.  In the meantime, I am not getting any younger!

This has left me a bit adrift in the wargaming space.  RPGs have been much more appealing as they cost me almost nothing and require me to just show up on game night.

[jon_1066]

Should this thread be titled “A Wargamer’s Midlife Crisis”? 😀

If you are 50 you should expect 20-30 more years wargaming.  Who knows where you will be or what people around you will be playing when you reach 65.  My gaming has been transformed by a chance meeting and discovery of a great wargame group in my town.  We use figures from everyone’s collections, some dating back to the 70s.  If you have the storage space I’d never chuck any painted figures as who knows?

[Moonglum_]

Should this thread be titled “A Wargamer’s Midlife Crisis”? 😀

If you are 50 you should expect 20-30 more years wargaming.  Who knows where you will be or what people around you will be playing when you reach 65.  My gaming has been transformed by a chance meeting and discovery of a great wargame group in my town.  We use figures from everyone’s collections, some dating back to the 70s.  If you have the storage space I’d never chuck any painted figures as who knows?

Lovely. That's the right message, though I understand that these things are often easier said than done when you're in the depths of it.

[fred]

I very much agree with Jon - who knows what you will be enthused to play at some point in the future - and having 80-90% of a playable army stashed away is great! This is especially true for historical figures, but still true to a degree for GW stuff.

Easy E - given all those big life changes - I’d not sweat gaming too much and go with whatever feels right at the time - low prep games are great when life is super busy. At other times being able to commit lots of time to gaming is great and you can get back into more involved games.