Collectors vs Casual vs Competitive

[ToHitMod]

Painting and collecting are my hobbies. Occasionally, once a month or so I'll play, but i prefer fluffy games with a story, not all about points and all that boring stuff

[Domine Nox]

I love to play, but generally more of my time is in the hobby aspect as I am not free to play as often as I would like. So the armies sit on the shelves and wait patiently.

[Dave Bone]

No wonder most folks aren't complaining about the codexes. Nobody even plays the game anymore.

I think I'm gonna start ebaying my 6th and 8th ed books right...now.

[Psychosplodge]

but they won't sell, nobody plays the game...

[KingMardi]

Of all the choices, I fall closest to "I play sometimes, but mostly just collect". I play a flavor of warhammer, a couple of times a year and paint 40 ish models a year.

[Gilbert Gordon]

It's been several years since I last played a game. I still have a Space Marine and Imperial Guard force, and I'll purchase a new model or figure if I like the way it looks. Now I spend the time collecting and painting...when the mood takes me!

Stopped playing because in my area it's become all about competition, and I'm just in it for the fun. Have played in tournaments before, both won and lost, and it was okay...but when you're in constant tournament mode, like most of the gamers I know...it gets a little annoying!

[ligolski]

I play once in a while with friends and thus seem to just collect a lot and theoretically list build a bunch...however I would love to play more, just need people to play against.

[Charon]

I play quite often (1+ games a week). Started in 2nd edition 40k with the Dark Millennium box. I wnt by train very often so I got myself something to read regularly. One day I forgot my book at home and found a magazine called "White Dwarf". It was absolutely amazing and I fell in love with the battle report featured there (Eldar vs Orks) and from there on I starte my own armies.
I always was a player but was collecting too (and I got EVERY specialist system out there)
I had a Chaos and Undead army in Fantasy and Chaos for 40k. Some of my friends picked it up too and we played at every opportunity. I always bought the newest stuff for my armies even if I didnt intend to use it.
Years came and prices got higher but that was ok for me as I just "needed" new stuff.
Then the downwards spiral began. First my Chaos Army was invalidated (it was Warriors + Beastmen + Daemons), then my Undead where killed (splitted up into Khemri and Vampire), so I stopped playing Fantasy.
A freind of mine also stopped and gave me his dark elves and eldar. I started to play fantasy again with Storm of Chaos (Druuchii Slannesh Cult) als I had daemons and dark elves. New edition and I stopped it again as Slaanesh Cult was illegal now. So I sold them and never had a second look back on Fantasy again.
40k was more stable. The transistion to the "no brain" 3rd edition was quite hard to swallow and I still miss some mechanics (Cover, range modifications, PSI) but it grew better. I meet more ppl to play with and also started to participate in club and national tournaments (with good results).
Nowadays im more of a fluff gamer. I still like balanced games but I love to write stories for my armies or our campains. All of my models are painted some of them heavily converted. Its 3 armies now (CSM, DE, Eldar) but I stopped collecting. I wirte armylists, I playtest and if I like the result I buy. The model can be as great and shiny as it could be, if the rules suck I'm not gonna buy it. No need to take away space on my shelves (they are needed for most of my specialist teams/warbands/fleets/...)

[pseudodelic]

Funny how the comments so far don't really support the votes... perhaps the collectors have more to say? I play... I hadn't played or painted for about 25 years and suddenly got the itch. I am busy building an Ork Army (see my posts on here) totally fluff as they are underpowered in terms of rules and codex at the moment. I love building them and painting them and making them look real. I play casually and tournament and love it win or lose. I guess you have to collect to play but you don't have to play to collect. I do think that either way a well built and painted army/set of miniatures is preferable to BNIB or just build and possibly just base coated. As for Hordes etc... I think some miniatures are great, the fluff is evolving and the rules are kept current. GW could learn a lot from their competitors but if they ever will who knows... lets hope if GW go down the sink one of their competitors picks up the baton and does a better job of it. I still wonder why we don't all get together as a community and take the best of all the rule editions and codices and come up with the definitive army list, rules and perhaps even fluff to make Warhammer 40k and WFB what they should be. Then GW can just concentrate on their "core business" making miniatures and models and leave the gaming to a committed bunch of US (no not America)

[Deadlift]

I'm a painter 1st player second, I went for the 2nd option as far as 40k goes. Throw x-wing into the mix and I'm playing a game at least 1-2 times a week. It's my favorite to play by far now.