"Reasons Why Tabletop Gaming Is The Best Mid-Life..." Topic

…Crisis You Can Have.

"Having discovered motorbikes in my twenties, the passion stayed with me for the next decade and a half until I helped bring a child into the world. At that point I considered that perhaps dangling off the side of a sports bike like a demented monkey and scraping my knee along the road at silly speeds wasn't the most responsible lifestyle choice any more.

However, it does mean that as I approach my 45th year on the planet, I haven't had any mid-life crisis urge to go out and buy the latest crotch rocket and twist-grip myself into an early grave. At least not yet.

Instead, the past few years have seen me rediscovering a hobby that has been with me since childhood: tabletop games. And by that I mean rediscovering an (un)healthy obsession with tabletop games, only now I have a bigger Budget…."
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Amicalement
Armand

Having a bigger budget in older age can also be a bit of a challenge. I don't have the same restraints keeping me from buying way more than I can paint. I'm trying to substitute will power but it is hard to resist all those shiny new toys!

So … wargaming is better than a 25-year-old girlfriend and a red convertible? I'm not entirely convinced.

Time span, Oberlindes, and maintenance. You know what that convertible will cost you over 20 years? At which point you will be mocked for not having a newer one anyway, and it's even worse with the girlfriend. But my c. 1972 Westphalian Cuirassiers haven't cost me a dime in 40 years, and still get a column charge increment. They're holding up a lot better than I am.

(Different if you'd forgotten about the color of the car and specified a redhead of course: easily worth the money, and they never wear out. But if you pick the right History major, you can have the redhead AND the Napoleonics!)

@Robert Piepenbrink: A midlife crisis that lasts 20 years isn't a crisis -- it's a psychological disorder!

I'd say two years tops for the 25-year-old and the roadster, then get back to your regular life.

Yeah, even so it is going to cost more than rules, miniatures, paint, and terrain, but it's going to cost a lot less than trying to climb Everest or trying to drink and fish at all of the bars and deep water spots that Hemingway enjoyed.

Is it still a midlife crisis if you've been doing it since you were seven?

I suppose I had a mid-life crisis at some point, but I couldn't tell it apart from all the other crises.

I'm wondering if anyone's ever considered the possibility that wargaming can prevent a MLC. You get to hang out with the guys, blow stuff up, and act like a kid for a few hours a week. This prevents desperation from setting in, obviates the need to desperately grasp for satisfaction. Does MLC come from a sense of lost youth? You've hardly lost it if you just bought a hundred dollars worth of toy spaceships. Does MLC come from not knowing what you want? Gamers know they want to roll better, kick the Russians out of Stalingrad, and finish painting the Carthaginians.

I'm waiting until I'm 60 for my midlife crisis. That means I can't die until I'm 120 years old. Right?

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I got the red head when I was 28 (still glad to be married to her 28 years later), had a red firebird then also- that's long gone (not useful for 5 children or hiking gear).

This hobby as well as being the leader for a troop of Trail Life USA, keeps my inner 15 year old going- so no crisis on the horizon for me.

Crisis is still thinking in the read head and the fancy car… (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I'm long past being able to have a mid-life crisis !!!!