"Sentient Bean: a disappearing wargamer" Topic

I use the ex- TMP member "Sentient Bean" as a ‘Type' in a biological sense: an example that serves to anchor the defining features of that particular taxon. The taxon in question is the Disappearing Wargamer.

My question is what happens to wargamers who drop off the net?
We know them well by their cute pseudonyms & can even count them as Internet Friends. Sentient Bean, for example, at first annoyed me on the old CA boards with his bland, faintly Rightist political views which I later found more amusing & we often chatted amicably on boards & on PMs.
He no longer posts nor has for some time. Has he "dropped off this metal coil", passing on to that great wargame in the sky? Has he merely dropped the hobby; now hybridising dahlias in his fibro cottage in Bray Brook or Werribee in order to pass his twilight years? Is he working out thinning out that metal mountain of his, far too busy for the internet, now.

Or has he merely changed his name and conducts spirited conversations about Killer GW armies on the Fantasy Boards under the name Captain Gallus?

Where are all the Disappearing Wargamers of yesteryear? Where is Gumption, Khevemiller, The General & Metal Midget and all the others?

I would like to thank the 2 senders of PMs who "helpfully" pointed out I could use TMP's search engine to find the Bean.

I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they're only scientifically illiterate (& not functionally illiterate)with no idea what taxonomy is. Please read the OP's first paragraph c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y.

The point, accessible to the meanest intelligence, was not to appear as some sort of internet stalker but to wonder at the longevity of gaming as a hobby. That is, what happens to gamers who, apparently, no longer game. Why do they abandon the hobby?

Any more "helpful" PMs aren't really required….

Where are all the Disappearing Wargamers of yesteryear?

Maybe they just got bored with the online side of their hobby. Many blogs seem to "die" after a while.

Is there room in your taxonomy for "can't be assed posting on TMP anymore"?

Is there room in your taxonomy for "can't be assed posting on TMP anymore"?

Sure. You comprehend "Taxonomy"? You clearly aren't from Melbourne 87))),

My blog is moribund but I stay connected through here, other sites and print mags.

There's also the possibility that folks just die. My wife wouldn't know to report my death here at all. It's not a secret – she just doesn't have time or interest in this aspect of my hobby life.

old wargamers sink under unpainted lead

When the unpainted to painted ratio finally exceeds 100 to 1, they drop off the internet.

The gamers I am familiar with that drop off either got bored and moved to other interests, or finally painted their last miniature and passed on to the next level.

LOL! Then let us avoid a discussion of whether it should be called folksonomy!

Terrement – now I wonder what the actual, average ratio is.

Same here. Sigh.

Steady boys I painted the like of them recently. Cometh the game cometh the figures. Mind you at this stage there is no hope of buying figures now to paint in three decades time. Still don't despair.

It's a very good question that I don't have an answer to.

One of the (many) reasons I use my (for want of a better term) 'birth name' on forums and such like is, if I disappear in some fashion (prison, death by violence) there's a chance someone might read about it in the paper and join the dots…

John T

I know if I disappear I am relieved to know that the ODB would come and find me, no matter the reason.
But on a serious note, the above comments ring homemail and true over the years.

Grimm

"Here lies the body of poor old John Treadaway,
Who asks passers here to please not throw his "thread" away.
He died,not in prison, nor from cycling antics,
But at the hands of a mob of Peter Jackson fanantics."

You used to see in the old wargaming mag's classifieds (remember them, John?) the header: Wargamer Selling Up.

That was some indication of the spectrum from deceased to ennui.

I guess now you can but wonder. I take the point you can simply be bored/annoyed with posting on the internet. To a certain extent, I now longer even read much at the Naps board: much is just raking old ground. And folks like the 2 Melbournians ("Austalia's Cultural Capital" : now there's an oxy-moron for you) who PM'd me can be a trifle off-putting.

But still, why might people drop the hobby itself? Failing eye-sight & can't paint? Bored by inadequate rules?

I think we may be placing too much value on loitering on websites like this as an indicator of their investment in the hobby. The Bean is still around, and is still rolling dice and painting for example.

Maybe their wives won't let them use the computer any more.

@ Doctor X

Maybe their wives won't let them use the computer any more.

Or their mothers.

Or their mothers.

Or there isn't broadband at the care home …

Phil

….or the kindergarten.

Yeah, I know some wargamers just get tired of the internet. Some are cast by Bill into outer darkness 9where there is much wailing & gnashing of teeth) etc.

But *why* do they stop wargaming itself? Sell-up? Consign their figures to the Tip?

From my experience life gets in the way. For some unde4 forty it's starting a family, others career, or both.