"Obsessed with detail" Topic

You often read, on forums, such posts that state, " I would like to be doing Napoleonics, but don't like the idea of having to argue about button colours.."

You can replace "Napoleonics" with other periods & read similar about a fear of sneering & hyper-critical judgements supposedly levelled at anyone's figures showing the merest of mistakes.

Is this one of myths of our hobby? The "rivet-counter" (or button, if you will) who springs out to savage anyone daring to do a certain period without an obsession for minute detail?

This is not to say you can't be as accurate & picky about your own work. But I've never met the bogey-man passive-aggressive button counter on forums, at clubs or shows. Do they exist?

I think it's a myth. I have never encountered anyone like that myself.

What is true, is that in any given slice of wargamers, interests within any given period can diverge. You have those that are more interested in the geo-political aspects of a given war. Then there are those that are interested in technology, or tactical doctrines. Others are more interested in unit organization and uniforms.

I guess that e.g. the geo-political types would call the uniform-people obsessed with detail, simply because they are interested in an aspect of military history that doesn't interest them.

Sadly, yes, they do exist and I have encountered at least one – and, ooh surprise, he was a napoleonic gamer. But glad to report that even he, to at least some degree, somewhere along the way saw the light and eased up a bit.

I look upon the hobby as a means of escaping from real world challenges for a moment – though I don't believe in avoiding fixable challenges, some just never are – and my approach is that the only person that needs to be satisfied by my efforts is me. Sure, it is nice if others like what I do. But I am the sole final arbiter of whether I've succeeded or not. If I've enjoyed a process, success; if not, well, try again. The word fail just doesn't belong anywhere in our personal hobby time. We might need to change a hobby, but we don't fail at them.

I have two separate viewsexpressed.

What i personally won't do

And what others do.

I personally wont paint blue samurai armor, becamein from my understanding they didn't have blue laqure, so any blue that is on my samurai armor, is frome the lace.

How ever i don't give a flying toss if others paint them blue.

And buttons? When in doubt any metal will do.

I knew one person like that who seriously argued in the group we were in that troops values should be assigned on the excellence of the paint job. Of course he was head and shoulders better than any of us, AND prolific.

He was a Napoleonic player and had painted only troops of the Imperial Guard, and he wanted his excellent paint bonus to go ON TOP OF the already "All French are +3" in everything rules we were using.

This type of person is quite different from what my group calls "The Osprey Nazi." These are people who will bicker that the shade of red you chose for the Graf von Hotzitotzi Regiment of the Austrian army is incorrect. I HAVE encountered them. I always shut them up by asking "Pantone true-match number please." These people I have encountered ONLY at conventions and they announce it quite publically. They don't give a hoot about the color, they're just trying to insult your magnificent set up.

Later he moved into the Seven Years War and wanted the same thing for his Prussians.

I've encountered maybe two in my whole life. I didn't play more than once with either of them.

Pedants are not enjoyable gaming companions.

I suppose we can get to know each other and make allowances, because other virtues overpower the pedantry. But in those two cases that I remember, that wasn't going to happen; simply because the pedant had no interest in "lowering" himself to play on our subgrade (undereducated) level….

It's a myth. There are always exceptions, but since the 70s I have never encountered anyone like that. Although I have played far less Napoleonics than other periods. We kid around a lot.

I was teasing someone about using some 1815 British in an 1812 battle. I got teased for having a "Betsy Ross" type flag with one of my AWI units. But all in jest.

I think most of the guys that particular, paints both sides of the conflict. I always paint both sides, so I am the only one to blame if something is wrong.

It is hard for me to notice buttons on 15mm figures. In 6mm I think you can get away with anything. Anymore I am just happy if everyone's figures has paint on them!

OK … a slightly different take on this.

The "button counter fanboy" (two words for behaviour, one for timbre) is the reason I can't participate in Star Trek and Star Wars gaming unless I am setting up the scenario for other non-fans.

Part of the reason this person seems so mythical, IMHO, is that when people see them, they avoid them. Most people have reasonable enough social skills to recognize behaviour they want to avoid before becoming hopelessly entangled in it. I think we only see them when there is a sufficiently new situation where we can't beg off early.

Also, most people are generally decent. There are degrees of this type of behaviour which are not obnoxious. When it is done, it may not always be with mean intent. And, as decent people, we tend to ignore/accept it in our friends … "He's not that bad … just roll with it."

Dear Etotheipi

That is a good point. Most people are decent, and it is only one or two who fit this stereotype. As I said, in all my 54 years of gaming I've met only two of the Osprey Nazi's

Otto

"Osprey Nazis"--I get the idea,but if they really took Osprey as their "high ground", they'd deserve pity,more than contempt. Let's see, the errors in the Russo – Turkish book start with the first sentence,as I recall…