"How serious are you about the hobby?" Topic

On a scale of 0 (not serious at all) to 10 (intensely serious), how seriously do you take miniature wargaming?

There was a time hen it was 7or 8. Currently it is a 5 at best and dropping. H

Ferd +1.

There was a time I was a real ass and would try to grind you to dust and dance and gloat on the pile. Winning was everything. Those days are long gone and I just paint to my best ability (which is far inferior to others) and just play for the company and fun. The only bad games are those that none of us enjoy…

Dave

Gaming 3
Painting 8

Gaming 6 – as in desire and enjoyment. Victory be damned!
Painting 9.5 – 10-12 hours a week grinding out troops

Gaming--6 – Fun overall!

Painting 9 – Many enjoyable hours getting reinforcements ready!

Gaming is probably a 3 or 4. I like the idea of gaming and do it at conventions or the occasional time me and one of my gaming buddies have schedules that align.

Painting is probably a 9 or 10. I paint slow but it's my meditation process. Even if it's just 10-15 minutes a day, I try to paint 5 or so days a week. My overall hobby interest is about a 10 because I also love the research and planning of hobby projects. It satisfies the investigative urges; I remember digging around to try and find out the finish on Somali Beagle bombers during the Ogaden war. When I found a post from Tom Cooper referencing an interview of a Somali Air Force veteran, I learned they were an unfinished metal. I was pleased to get my beagle correct.

Gaming – 3
Painting – 7
Organizing my hobby space – 10

"Serious' is an odd word choice for this question. Define please?

I enjoy the hobby immensely, I have never made it a priority. Time with family and friends has always been more important, and luckily, a lot of my friends wargame 😃

0. It's a hobby I do for fun. There is nothing "serious" about it. I do think, however, that fun is seriously important for good mental and emotional health. So are friendship, camaraderie, intellectual challenges, socializing, etc., etc..
In that case, my answer is 10.

So put me down for "other" when the final poll is introduced.

I enjoy the hobby at a 10.
Does not make me more valid as a gamer but I do spend a lot of time on it

martin

2 and 8. I try and paint as well as I can. When playing a game I try to win and maintain focus on the game. Reading about the period and researching uniforms both get done. If I find out I made a mistake or the paint job is not what I wanted or the game is lost I don't get angry or stressed out, it's a hobby and should be fun. Certainly you should try and do your best but when you don't how you react is the key.

Pazival, well said. +1

Gaming 7
Painting 5
Research 7
Friendship 10

Seriousl is an interesting word. I'm serious about the modeling aspect of the hobby in that I want to paint to a high standard and like to enter competitions. I paint to play, not really busts or display models. That said, if I think something I've done can win, I would enter it into Golden Demon even. So painting-8

I play for fun, I enter tournaments to enjoy myself maybe win Best Painted and finish in the upper half. Playing-5

Fun 10
Gaming 9 –
I am a gamer when doing the Wargame hobby.
It includes making terrain if I do not have that type available. Very occasionally drawing currently unavailable afv'S But now prefer to commission them nowdays.
Writing rules and keeping them "state of the art".
Painting -57
Hate it, see no need for it personally. I occasionally colour stuff, it would be an insult to those who paint for fun to call it painting.

I don't take it super seriously. I paint, model, and research for relaxation. Most of my gaming these days is solo. It's ok, but my opponent is of very uneaten quality.

10
I have been selling since 1983.
Designed miniatures rules in the 1970-90s.
Had one boardgame published.
Wrote many articles and conducted research for several game systems including FOG and Mighty Armies.
Used to attend over 20 shows a year as a vender.

Gaming 5 – It is a fun social thing for me. Winning/losing is tertiary.

Painting 9 – It relaxes and focuses me.

"Serious" is very subjective in that question, Bill. I wargame because I love the toys! I collect to many! I also love the challenge of the game. I love the friendship, and back stabbing on the table. Researching a subject can be very rewarding. Painting is a PITA! Do I take the subject seriously, no. I used to be a hard core gotta win kind of player. Now it is about the people I game with. I am lucky to be in a couple groups that have fun and only a little bit of drama.

Friends 10
Game 8
Collecting 10
Painting -10
Research 7
Seriousness 3

Gaming is a solid 7 for me, its my best source of socialisation and I look forward to it.

1 enjoy painting but I'm not that good or fast. Rarely game anymore except occasional solo games.

9, if could game more 10 so there is room for advancement

I am not sure what "serious" means. I get a lot of enjoyment from the hobby. Sometimes that is just being on TMP and facebook, other times it is playing games, researching, buying figures, etc. I game to have fun, but I do expect people to try like they want to play/win the game. I guess a 5 or 6, maybe.

10

link

Why is the general consensus that being serious about something means you are a douchebag about it? I can be serious about wargaming without needing to grind my opponent to dust or win at any cost.

In my experience people who exude douchbaggery about an activity aren't actually serious about the activity. They are serious about being a douchebag. When the activity is taken away (usually an external constraint), they generally have no problem shifting the focus of the behaviour to another activity.

I am Ferd….

It's definitely becoming less important – it's no longer my main hobby I guess. Probably of 3rd importance where once it was all consuming.

I seriously want to enjoy myself! And I manage it for the most part, so a 10.

Wargaming 4
Doing all the research into uniforms/logistics etc 7
Running my ImagiNation of Keinrat-Altendorf 8
The mindfulness of painting, albeit mediocre painting 9

I would say that I don't take it "seriously", but as to how important it is to me, the gaming, painting, creating terrain, assembling models etc is a 10 for me. The only thing I devote more time to than the hobby is the business I own

What does serious mean here? Certainly it does not mean to me whether I win or Lose in most of our secnarios we are not even sure what a practical win is.

We are in the middel of some facinating and entertaing games trying to understand why in actualkity Meat wave attacks succeed. This is a serious interlectual persuit between friends and is facinating but I'im not sure I call it serious, no win or lose to get obbsessed about and nobody is going to die, its just a fun study, so its not serious as are far as we are concerned. So what is serious?

@etotheipi, is that really the general consensus? We don't have a general consensus about what "serious" or the question even means. What is a 10? Does it mean that you are passionate about all aspects of the hobby? Or does it mean that you are skipping out on the birth of your first child because you've got a convention to get to and, with the blizzard coming in, it is going to be an twelve hour drive?

Of the people who offered an explanation of their rating up to my post, most either said that serious is the win at all cost mentality, or that fun is incompatible with seriousness.

Ok. That was not my interpretation at all.

I assumed "serious" meant "passionate about". If it means caring about whether I lose too often I would have quit a long time ago

There was a time I was a real ass and would try to grind you to dust and dance and gloat on the pile. Winning was everything. Those days are long gone and I just paint to the best ability (which is far inferior to others) and just play for the company and fun. The only bad games are those that none of us enjoy…

I think you misunderstood the question. Not super competitive. But how passionate you are about the hobby.

Bill, I think you need to clarify what you mean by "Serious."

9

If you mean serious about the hobby as a whole and not competition. I am very serious and passionate about historical gaming. Which is an outgrowth of my love of history.

I think Parzival has it about right: I'm not "serious" about it in the way I am about some other things, but as a hobby -- painting, reading, gaming -- it does take up a fair part of my life. I'm moving back to my ancestral spawning ground in Washington shortly, after 25 years in distant parts, and I did make sure that my new neighborhood would have an active gaming community and that my new house would have space for my nonsense. But I moved back to the West coast for serious reasons: to be close to family and old friends.

serious, adj. (1) demanding careful consideration or application, (2) acting or speaking sincerely and in earnest, rather than in a joking or halfhearted manner

Top result of Google search for "serious definition".

Making and painting things demands careful consideration or application, if you are sincere and earnest in wanting good-looking results. So making and painting are serious endeavors, and I am serious about making and painting.

Planning and running a miniatures game likewise demand careful consideration or application, if you are sincere and earnest in wanting your players to have fun, and at the same time to have a difficult, demanding, and believable experience. So planning and running miniatures games are serious endeavors, and I am serious about planning and running games.

Playing a miniatures game demands careful consideration or application, if you are sincere about obtaining your objectives, whether those objectives are reaching a certain victory level, learning about the rules system and game setting, or enjoying time with friends old and new in an environment that builds trust and gives pleasure. So playing miniatures games is a serious endeavor, and I am serious about playing, even when my objective is just to have fun with friends.

So, yes, I am very serious about having fun in my hobby.

Oberlindes Sol LIC an excellent set of definitions.

Just for me painting is definitely not one bit of the hobby I personally take seriously. But each to their own entertainment is what you like to, do not what others do.

Writing 10
Gaming 6
Painting 3

I'm with the folks hung up on what you mean by ‘serious.' My passion level is probably a 9 or 10. If you mean serious as in competitive or win at all costs, then I am at a 1 or 2. I am in it for enjoyment, victory be damned.

Tgerritsen +1

Interesting question, Bill.

It's a hobby. If, for some reason, I wasn't able to game any more then I'd miss it a bit. That's all.

As for the different parts? I no longer enjoy painting, but do enjoy the results. I still like a bit of scratch building and I still enjoy building models- stand alone or for gaming. I enjoy a good game, win or lose, but avoid overly competitive players because the result is more important than the game interactions to them. I also still enjoy board wargames (when I can find an opponent) and some computer wargames (such as Steel Panthers and WDS Campaign Series). Researching uniforms, organisations, campaign histories and (particularly) flags is still a major part of the hobby for me.

So probably not as involved with the hobby as I was when younger.

Gaming 1 – No space in my current place.but dream of beautiful sculpted terrain boards every night. If I had the space…
Painting 8 – every day, got the cheapest airbrush setup on Amazon and have been base coating tons of new legions and robots I had planned.
Ninja VHS – 8 Godfrey Ho on high rotation, video decks humming, more tapes coming all the time.
Anime LD – 8 Boxsets up the eyeballs, genlock and dedicated Sub Station Alpha laptop laying down subs without mercy. Reference books and model kits all in support.
RPGs – 10. Always either writing new scenarios for nobody or writing up accounts of play.

Not sure about the serious thing, but the hobby is important to me! I spend most of my spare time planning, assembling and painting models and terrain for tabletop gaming. Due to the amount of time I invest in the hobby I want the return to be worth it. What makes it worth it to me is when those fully painted models are being used in a game on the tabletop with completed terrain. It is the only way I will play now. Playing on a table with unpainted miniatures is a big down grade in my experience so I just don't. Don't care how others approach things or if they are cool with throwing down a sea of grey I am not. Luckily I have a solid group of people that also enjoy the full experience of miniature gaming. If that makes me a snob to people with no drive I am okay with that.

For me "serious" is the level of historical realism I can relate to from my experience and research, yours may be different and I respect that. I just can't get over the fact that units not activated or on their IGYG turn are sitting there doing nothing and I'm powerless to react. Game mechanics in most commercial games cannot be found in real manuals or AARs.

I understand the reason for balanced games but historically battles were rarely balanced. I'd challenge a player to fight me as a defender at 3:1 odds but I chose the terrain with a realistic pre-game hidden setup. I lose most of the time but I make it very painful for my opponent and it makes me a better player in the use of tactics.

For me, there is nothing serious about historical war gaming when you are rolling dice or flipping cards to tell you what to do and when because no historical commander ever did such a thing. Nor did they roll dice to see who can move/shoot next.

Maybe it's because I have no imagination or I'm just a snob. However, games like these can be enjoyable for me, and other times it is tedious but I'm always respectful and keep my mouth shut if I don't like something.

I am a member of a weekly meeting club that plays many different eras and commercial rule sets that resemble the above but I play them for the social aspect and the visuals of the figures and terrain. It's a good group, I need all of the friends I can get.

Painting: I don't have the time for now, maybe in the future.

OK, so I'm a self-righteous snob, it's a burden I have to bear.

Wolfhag

+1 Wolfhag. I'M BACK also been away from a router for a few daya, so its beem longer

For me, there is nothing serious about historical war gaming when you are rolling dice or flipping cards to tell you what to do and when because no historical commander ever did such a thing. Nor did they roll dice to see who can move/shoot next.

The counter to random effects on orders and outcomes should be "because no historical commander ever had troops not do exactly what was expected the way it was expected".

The point of IGOUGO is not that units are expected to act sequentially and wait. A round of all units taking a turn is what comprises one time slice, not each individual unit's action. Simultaneous whole force, chain reaction, and other order modalities all have their own conceits. In general, none is any better than any other, it's just down to what you want to represent and specifically how you do it.