I agree with most of what he said. I am not a miniatures painting artist, don't want to be, don't care to be, don't claim to be. I paint to a basic level, and I am happy with it. I am all about painting my armies, and gaming with them…
This video reminds me of what I read about, and hear about, with folks falling into traps with their FaceBook accounts: they read about everyone else having such a wonderful life/existence/happiness, as per their FB account, and they wonder why they are not as happy/successful/loved/etc. It is, of course, a lie…
I think too many gamers fall into a similar trap. I don't care how good someone else is at miniature painting. I only care that my mini's are painted to a tabletop standard (GEtGW: Good Enough to Game With, at arm's length). If gamers won't be caught dead playing with my "poor quality" figures, then I guess they won't be playing in my games. No problem for me.
I just want to play games with painted miniatures. I don't care about putting on an art show on my tabletop. I just want to play games. Dissenters can keep on walking. If they've worn out their shoe leather, I'll make a donation for new leather so they can keep on walking! I don't need them near me. LOL!
Besides, I've played with a true miniatures artist. He painted for companies who actually paid him product, and cash, for giving them product to photograph for advertising. He was truly talented, and his work was amazing…
We played a few games with his artwork. During the game, as the figures were being handled, and played with, they suffered damage. He spent 12+ hours working on many of those individual figures. When they were damaged, he had to spend many more hours, repairing them. I don't think he was entirely happy about that.
To be honest, I hated playing with his mini's. I knew they would get dinged up in the game, and I did not want to be the one who did it. It was a liability, which distracted from the game, and really made it anything but fun.
When folks damage my mini's in a game, I tell them: "It happens. Figures get damaged during play, so don't worry about it. I'll fix it later. Let's continue with the attack!"
My GEtGW style of painting averages around 10 minutes per figure. No matter how careful everyone is, damage happens. I chose to just get over it, as the alternative is to never play with them, to avoid damaging my "artwork"…
My figures take time to repair as well, but usually no more than 10 minutes. I'll see you at my table, ready to play -- if you can tolerate my GEtGW style… Cheers!
