"Are you experiencing hobby malaise?" Topic

Are you going through a period where it is hard to get your excitement or energy levels up for miniature wargaming?

Not so much a wargaming malaise but it is hot in my hobby room this time of year so I am not painting much. The heat does affect my feelings.

No!

To some degree….work is so hectic, plus an injury means that I haven't done anything hobby related for a long time. However, I still love the hobby so I guess it is a temporary aberration.

I had a wonderful farewell game at my friend Nazrat's house Thursday night. It was well attended and we had a great time. That game will have to hold me while I pack and get ready to move to Dallas, Texas from Charlotte, NC. I have been packing up all my miniatures and supplies and hope to have everything set back up in my new digs as soon as possible. So no not a hobby malaise just too much real life at the moment.

Yes, but that's mainly due to other stress this time.

For reasons I have discussed in The Lounge, I frequently have difficulty actually working on my hobby stuff. For instance, tonight I had big plans to set up the painting station and knock out more Persians… but it feels safer and more secure sitting on the couch with my wife. Mental illness is a helluva roadblock sometimes.

Just the opposite right now. I seem to have found a renewed drive, ordered a batch of new stuff to paint, and put paint to figures at a regular rate for the first time in awhile.

I was going along full tilt there for a while, cranking figures out pretty quickly…and recently with work, and my recent massive dental issues, things have kind of come to a halt.

I did do some painting last weekend for the first time in about a month….so hopefully the fire is starting to light again….

Complete opposite for me. My seven year old kid has discovered proper wargaming and is having a hoot. Infectious fun.

Nope.

Nope.

Yes. Painting is now a chore, rather than a pleasure. Oh, I'll still buy minis with yet another project in mind, but leave them uncompleted. Or since this had been going on for a while, not even open the package since I KNOW I'm going to lose motivation and not finish.

I'm hoping Frostgrave will be different. From my more productive days, I've lots of fantasy minis, and I only need to paint a few specific types that I don't already own. In fact I bought two of them today. A Reaper Bones Undertaker (Apprentice Necromancer) and an Assassin who will become "The Grey Mouser" [from Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser series]. While I already have a barbarian figure for Fafhrd, if my enthusiasm holds, I'll break out my hoarded Mordheim plastics and build a custom Fafhrd. (Rereading the short stories, Fafhrd had the sense to dress appropriately for cold climates. My barbarian models were sculpted by folks who had Conan in mind, and when he traveled in hot southern lands to boot.)

Bill: Do you access to a wargamer's version of viagra?

Yes.

Not right now. I just got out of a slump.
Finishing the troops for a project has me jonesing to knock out the terrain so I can play!

I`ve run into the problem at various times.
The cure seems to be to put everything away for a while and go get involved in something else, either a different aspect of the hobby or even another hobby altogether.
This can sometimes bring you back to the older hobby after a while but with a fresh outlook on what you were doing.

Not at all. Retired, I just keep churning stuff out. I run a game at my house just about every other Saturday unless I am at a convention or otherwise away.

Tom

Finally getting out of it. Luckily I've still been gaming semi-regularly at least, but for a variety of reasons time, energy and enthusiasm have all been sadly lacking for rather a long time for me.

I do seem to be crawling out of the rut at last though – new decals last month, for the first time in a long while, rather a hefty improvement in my reprint pile and order turnaround, and in the last couple of weeks I've even picked up a paintbrush for the first time in best part of a year.

Of course I feel like I'm tempting fate even typing that, but hopefully things are somewhat on the up at last…. ;-)

From my perspective, this post is rather well-timed. I have some free time and am sitting on my couch debating if I should play a solo game. However, I have a bad case of miniatures malaise; I haven't painted or played anything in 2 months and it seems unlikely to change today. Oh well, I'll just go with the flow. I tend to get out of these naturally.

Nope, even more productive than normal.

Have spent best part of last two years painting/finishing/selling my deceased best mates collections for charity.

Am also clearing as much as I can of my own lead/plastic/resin mountains so that when I go someone else doesn't spend best part of two years doing mine.

I still buy the odd 'ooh shiny' item so I am still a 'normal' wargamer in that respect.

Yes certainly do , "she indoors" makes me watch tv programmes on hoarding ! Need a positive deadline get a army painted for X Opps well done PSC just got the order I made Yesterday in their sale and have added to the mountain.Opening box now !

For a long time, yes, but things seen to have taken an upswing recently.

I was rarely going to the old group because they had long phases of doing stuff I wasn't interested in, or I just wasn't being invited for reasons unknown even when the subject appealed to me, and on those occasions when I did go the games were more social occasion than games (the inevitable consequence of continually trying to stretch games using rule sets designed solely for two players, and the standard-size forces mandated by those rules, to involve five, six, or seven people).

Recently I've found a new contact and have returned to one-on-one sessions that are actually worth turning up to because the forces are sufficiently large to keep me intellectually engaged with the tabletop action for the entire duration, and it looks as though other contacts (old, rather than new) might soon present me with similar opportunities.

I have been taking on line classes after work, so my time has gone down to almost zero.

I was very thankful my friend John was able to come over and do all the work to set up and run a game at the begining of the summer. It was good to play and take a break.

Matthew

Yes other things take precedence ..unfortunately

Never

DM

Right in the middle of painters fatigue, but as its income I have to push through it and apply, never thought of it as a job but some times… Still I get excited when it all comes together and the box is posted and I move onto the next 80 odd figures and the customer calls and gives the happy sign for my work. Would love to play more but its solo efforts for me (location:( )
Cheers all and buck up lads its one of the best hobbies ever even if partly undone.

Going through a busy patch at the moment… should be better after the school holidays end and I can get back to 'work'…

Too much work, not enough play, has been the theme of my life for decades. I hope I can work myself into a decent retirement in a few more years. Thanks for asking, I guess.

A bit but WWII Naval has now changed that.

Yes, due to health reasons. Due to that even household priorities are being delayed. hoping that somehow this all changes and I get the enthusiasm back.

Yes but it will pass.

No never!

yep going on three years now. :-(

No but I did a few years back. I lost all interest for over a year but when I came back after pulling back from wargames for a while I was more enthusiastic than ever.

I have been dealing with apathy for a few years now and slowly over coming it.

Nope!

More of a general malaise. Between work, our business, and trying to keep the house up I am too busy and kinda bummed bout not playing. So when it comes to painting, its been more difficult to get motivated. I started out good this month got a decent amount painted. Then I tried doing some 6's and hit a wall. It's been a long time since I had done any 6mm and I wanted to start them again. But, I need new glasses and it was too difficult to see them. So I set them down after a week of moping, at least till I go order my glasses, and I am working on some 20mm and 28mm WW2 Germans instead.

I play mostly solo, so yes and often. However that applies only to actual gaming. I am always either building terrain or painting figures. Using them is the problem.

Yes. It takes me forever to paint a single figure. I write down rpg game ideas, but I don't always finish them. As for wargaming, I just never seem to have the energy for it.

I remember coveting 40mm elastolins as a 9 year old in Cincinnati and swearing to myself "someday" I am going to have lots and lots of those beautiful models……( and they aren't made anymore). A few years ago SAGA came out with different plastic 28/30 mm models. Ohhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhh, I love modeling and painting them and absolutely loved the rules for most (most) of the factions. -(some are downright weird)- but I love modeling the little guys. Now need to figure out how to attack real estate.

Comes and goes, I think. I can go hell's bells for a stretch and then ignore everything for a month or so.
Sometimes, I am just sick of it.
The rest of the time, I love it.

Probably mimics most things in life now that I think about it.

Yep. For six months now. I really find hard to feel excitement for anything. Actually, I was thinking about selling all my wargaming stuff. Maybe I will just keep my SYW and Ultramoderns, and get rid of the rest.

Nope. I'm actually wishing I had more time for gaming so I could do all the scenarios and periods I want to play.

I would actually like more time to play and paint. Before I moved, I was in a painting rut. But in the course of a cross-country move last October, I shed about a third of my collection by giving it away ( no time to sell them). Now that I am making new friends in my area, focusing on just the games and periods I love, I enjoy painting more.

I'm finding that actually finishing a project is exciting and fun, and it tends to send me on to finish the next one.

I've just finished an extensive project for Dux Bellorum, and its given me the momentum to finish up my Sengoku Jidai project. Just 36 more figures to paint for that one.

If I have a large lead mountain, it actually slows me down. I get depressed, feeling that I've lost focus, or been irresponsible. Perhaps that is a part of why finishing a few projects has rekindled by interest again.

All that I have left is a modest horse and musket project that I've wanted to do for some forty years. Its doubtful that I'll purchase much more. I'm far more interested in playing and puttering with the actual games now, than in collecting a mess for my children to clean up when I'm gone.

When real life intrudes, and I feel too distracted to paint, I still try to force myself to paint for twenty or thirty minutes. It becomes a zen-like activity, and life seems a bit more clear, and less stressful.

No … experiencing so much enthusiasm – never enough time as always with wargaming …

Phil

I'm with Yesthatphil. I'm so enthusiastic about the hobby at the moment. I've had some free time for painting etc. Been working through my lead pile which just motivates me to do more. I'm getting a variety of games at the club. I entered a Blood Bowl campaign and despite never having played the game before have reached the final. I've come up with a 5 player Western Bank Heist with a twist which I'm running at the club at the start of October. Really enjoying things at the moment.

I'm currently in a "not enough time to do all the gaming things that excite me" phase, but I've certainly had the malaise before. Take some time off, read some new things for new inspiration, clear the rest of my real life of the stuff that stresses me out; one of those things has usually sufficed to put some zest back into the hobby.

Yeah, for a couple reasons the past few years.

No suitable opponents or friends my age, so going solo. Reduces my drive to paint.

I often am torn between scales for a project, leading to paralysis, or just what project to do. I like too many periods! Limited money and time.

Spending more time with the kids, who are all moving out next year when done with college or heading off to college. Playing video and board games with them. Not easy adjusting to this new normal of an impending empty house.

I often miss the good old days when I gamed every Saturday night!