More than a Hobby

[xbenblasterx]

I love Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, not just that I love Wargaming, It's helped to chuck a serious video game addiction, which in turn has given me time to go out socialise with fellow war gamers, re ignite my passion for creative writing and generally just become a more social person I've realised my love for film and the cinema once more, but best of all my favorite past time now involves gaming, painting with some fantastic miniatures and enjoying a world of fantastic lore! All thanks to 40k it has to be said.

Everything I enjoy in life at the moment seems to be connected to my hobby in some way (Including posting on this forum!) but If I read it's from the Black Library, when I game it's 40k, my film and Tv preferences seem to be Sci-fi or fantasy based in some way.

So it got me thinking when does it stop being a hobby and simply becomes the way I live my life? Is anyone else noticing this that this hobby can become entirely life engrossing, not that I'm complaining!

[Lexington]

I can actually trace about 80% of my career and job skills to 40K in one way or another. It's scary stuff sometimes.

[Wolfshade]

It is a way of life! Like lots of hobbies you suddenly get wierded out when you realise how much time you invest or catch yourself thinking about a new tactic or paint scheme or next project

[Proximus]

Agree. Wargaming taught me many important lessons about life.

Know the rules and how they interact to become a better player. Add markings, battle damages, OSL effects and conversions to your models to make them look better:
Pay attention to details

Don`t just buy models you like. Carefully plan out your collection in advance:
Long-term planning.

Building an army and learning how to play it and getting to know their fluff can take years:
Be patient.

You won`t have much fun playing the game unless you are a person who`s fun to play with:
Be a good sportsman. Be polite. Be respectful.

Just having a nice looking army is a good feeling, but having build and painted that army yourself is much better:
Real satisfaction must be earned. It pays to invest effort into something.

I consider all of these as pearls of wisdom I intend to teach my kids someday - although not necessarily by wargaming.

Plus lurking in forums like this one really helped to improve my English. Plus general experience with using tools, problem-solving and creativity. It`s a long list.

Yes, wargaming is more than just a hobby for me.

[Deadlift]

Nice idea for a thread.

But for me my hobby is just an escape from the daily grind, I love to paint and playing the game is just an extension of that. If I had to give it up I wouldn't be happy that's for sure, but it's not a way of life for me. I have other priorities that take up lots of my time. Wife, kids, business etc etc. it's my 40k and gym time that keep me sane

[MrGiggles]

Well, with life generally getting busier and busier, I'm not sure that hobbies really fit the traditional definition anymore. As a society, we seem to have less and less free time and more and more stress and strain. Doing fun stuff to destress and stay sane is more of a requirement now than ever, I think.

Related to this is the fact that there's even more of an opportunity to really 'get into' a hobby than there ever has been. You've got the core game, novels, local and web communities, the hobby aspect, podcasts, video streams of tourneys and battle reports just to list a few. These are all things that can tie into and/or reinforce the hobby. Despite the communities being different, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most other hobbies have similar access.

I actually do think that wargaming in general and 40K in particular are just hobbies. I just don't think that hobbies are just hobbies anymore for the most part.

[LordGrise]

For me, it's a hobby - but since it's pretty much the only hobby I have right now, well, there you go. I started out trying to be a player, but the crowd I was playing with are pretty focused on tournaments and serious competition. I'm very definitely NOT into that - my perfect hobby evening would be some of my buds - I haven't seen some of them in coming up on a year - a one-pot meal of some kind, (stew, soup, chili - I live in South Texas) beer, (or good cider - seems to be taking root down here, and I thoroughly approve) show-and-tell, just talking about whatever while playing, do-overs, ridiculous peanut gallery on behalf of the poor beleaguered models (hope I spelled that right)...

Thing is, schedules just don't come together for that very often. So I've gotten into the modelling end of things more - currently modding a set of captured/salvaged Sentinels for my Gue'vasa. When I'm done they'll be closer to Crisis Suits that Sentinels in WYSIWYG-i-ness. Can't paint worth a damn - my eyes aren't good for fine detail for long - but I'll basecoat them and try to detail them a bit. They'll be cool, and that's what counts in my book.

[Rissan4ever]

I love this hobby for several reasons.

1. It's a creative outlet for me. It lets me express myself to people in a way that also allows them to express back, and that's not something you get from video games.

2. Community. I used to be a larper, but with a wife and two kids, I don't have time for that anymore. I missed that sense of community, and 40K got it back for me. I can now come together with people who share my nerdiness and feel comfortable.

3. It's constructive. When I spend time playing video games or watching TV, it's fun, but at the end I have nothing to show for it. With 40K, I use those hours to actually produce something beautiful. It's not time wasted; it's time spent making something that I love.

4. It's not porn. I've been struggling for several years with a porn addiction, and 40K has given me something positive to do with my alone time that keeps my mind off the porn.

[knas ser]

I love Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, not just that I love Wargaming, It's helped to chuck a serious video game addiction, which in turn has given me time to go out socialise with fellow war gamers, re ignite my passion for creative writing and generally just become a more social person I've realised my love for film and the cinema once more, but best of all my favorite past time now involves gaming, painting with some fantastic miniatures and enjoying a world of fantastic lore! All thanks to 40k it has to be said.

Everything I enjoy in life at the moment seems to be connected to my hobby in some way (Including posting on this forum!) but If I read it's from the Black Library, when I game it's 40k, my film and Tv preferences seem to be Sci-fi or fantasy based in some way.

So it got me thinking when does it stop being a hobby and simply becomes the way I live my life? Is anyone else noticing this that this hobby can become entirely life engrossing, not that I'm complaining!

Really great to hear how it has helped. For me, I think it helped ingrain a lifelong live of probabilities and statistics. It's not been directly attributable to my career, but that love of calculating the odds in my head does show up in many subtle and useful ways. It is a more social hobby than computer games and the quiet sustained focus of painting is a lot more helpful to creating a state of relaxation than the fast-twitch B.F.Skinner stimulus-reward pattern of computer games which are mostly designed to keep you addicted to push-button-get-reward long past the point of relaxation.

Want to sell how good WH40K is? It combines the hobbies of chess and watercolour painting. You can't get more arty-intellectual than that!

[Psychosplodge]

4. It's not porn. I've been struggling for several years with a porn addiction, and 40K has given me something positive to do with my alone time that keeps my mind off the porn.

But this is the internet, It can be...