We are getting old

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**-Loki-**

sarpedons-right-hand wrote:
I don't really get excited about gaming related stuff anymore. Certainly not like I did when I was 11-12 years old. However, I am excited about an upcoming project of mine, getting 1000pts of Squats for my 2nd edition fetish.
But i'm not psyched about playing a game with them, I'm much more excited about sitting around, filing, glueing, prepping and painting them. Mostly because it gives me a few hours 'me time', but partly because it's been a long time since I've actually put brush to mini.

But then, I'm 34 and I've started getting excited about buying towels and choosing colours for our kitchen….

I was like that before I looked to the wider community. I was going through the motions. Grab a box of Tyranids, build it, maybe use it some day, add it to the queue. When I got into Infinity, it was like unwrapping presents on Christmas day when I was a kid. So eager to get into it all. Same when I started Malifaux. I've had the feeling about Dropzone Commander often, but I've restrained myself on that so far.

**chromedog**

I never really did the 11-12 year old hyper thing, though (certainly not as a gamer - I started gaming around 16-17 or so - after being an electronics and science geek at school).

There are things that provoke a "MUST HAVE" response - but it's a measured response, not a lunge for the nets to put down the first pre-order for it.

**-Loki-**

Yeah but you've always been old.

**Jehan-reznor**

I am glad that i never grew up, i still get excited about new miniatures, movies and books, not so much with video games for some reason.

**Eilif**

I may not be excited about 40k and my interests don't all revolve around "new releases", but I'm with Jehan. I still get excited about miniatures, perhaps even more now than before.

I feel like whether you're a new-and-shiny kind of buyer or a bargain hound like myself, product selection wise, there's never been a better time to be in the hobby. So much shiny stuff!

**Runic**

winterwind85 wrote:
Dear Dakkanians

most of the topics i fly over while reading the forum are about
- my sisters of battle will never get an update, my cc units suck, gw is to expensive, gw will go down etc etc etc...

i tried to find a reason for myself why many eople including myself are often so frsutrated about the hobby.
im now 29 years old, i had the first experience with 40 k when i was 14. There was a shopping mall in the city i lived that had a small stock of gw products.
i bought some marines and tried to paint em yellow with red shoulder pads, but had no clue what the game was all about.
this went until i was 17 and visited my first gw in frankfurt am main in germany.
guys inside where scary and i realy didnt match any of em so i got off and my minis slept on the roof for about 5 years.
when i left my parents home i tried to collect them between old christmas needls and decoration and managed to save some catachans the marines and some other stuff.
then the hobby again went asleep until i was 26.
i met a client at the hospital im working in and he was clearly a fan.
we talked alittle and i went back, but this time more professional.
when i buy stuff i do so while a) i want it b) it is good gamewise.
when i paint miniatures i read airbrush tutorials, tutorials for painting diffrent parts of em, i have stuff here enough to make up forgeworld design studio.
what i want to tell...
the magic is gone.
when i go to my flgs or gw store im still happy about new releases or happy when a wayland package arrives.
but why is the thrill gone?
maybe the same reason i dont like world of warcraft anymore?
maybe the same reason i dont have the time anymore i had before?
we all grow up.
many people are long time in the hobby.
when i talk nowadays to friends and ask for a game we have to set you a match 2-3 months before we do it and even then it.. difficult.
i was in afghanistan for 7 times, have to pay the rent for car, house, phone, insurance etc...
maybe just the priorities changed?
sure its easy to say...

gw is bad they made this, they changed that... I DONT LIKE HAMHAMHAM!!!!!!!

maybe WE changed?not gw?
just a thought that came to me

Probably some truth behind this and I commend you for posting it, but will probably be shot down by the inevitable DakkaDakka Anti-GW Hatetrain Special Forces. Some of the bits I can see in myself, altough I don´t find the games unsatisfying, still a lot of fun for me. It´s not as "magical" to paint and buy miniatures as it was when you´re 14, but it´s still a fun way to chillax and create stuff.

**jah-joshua**

i saw a great quote from Aldous Huxley yesterday...

"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm."

painting minis has never lost it's appeal...
30 years later, i still love cracking open a new box, and clipping parts...
i may be 40 now, but i am stoked to play with toys every day

...

cheers
jah

**Easy E**

Eilif wrote:
I may not be excited about 40k and my interests don't all revolve around "new releases", but I'm with Jehan. I still get excited about miniatures, perhaps even more now than before.

I feel like whether you're a new-and-shiny kind of buyer or a bargain hound like myself, product selection wise, there's never been a better time to be in the hobby. So much shiny stuff!

I don't get too excited about individual models or even games. Instead, I tend to get excited about projects! Like creating a set of Gladiator Rules and getting the models painted and arena built to back it up, for example. Or putting together a list of aircraft, acquiring/building them, and playing a campaign or recreating a battle with them etc.

**Eilif**

Easy E wrote:

I don't get too excited about individual models or even games. Instead, I tend to get excited about projects! Like creating a set of Gladiator Rules and getting the models painted and arena built to back it up, for example. Or putting together a list of aircraft, acquiring/building them, and playing a campaign or recreating a battle with them etc.

Well put, and it's basically my approach too. Putting together a new faction for our club's sci-fi setting excites me. Building a sci-fi urban terrain set, excites me. It's not about following what GW is putting out anymore. It's about taking a project from idea to completion.

Of course "completion" is not always well defined. Many like myself have a tendency to skip back and forth between projects, armies, etc. But that's part of the fun too.

**Vermis**

I think people are kinda missing Winterwind's point, in that 40K is starting to look tired to him. No huge shock there?

I also think there's a difference between childlike enthusiasm and arrested development.

**Scott**

I'll just pile on with the others that say (basically) - play what you enjoy with those who help you enjoy it.

If it ain't 40K, there are plenty of options out there.

**Occhiolini**

16 Years old, here
I think I would consider myself the last of the first gen wargamers
or perhaps the first of the second gen wargamers

I started playing around with 40k when I was about 13 and just recently started working twords building my own army.
In the time that I have seen the 40k scene, it looks as it is drying up, rather than dying as a whole.
There has been alot of changes since 5th edition when I started playing with buddies. Especially changes to the market, things I were unaware about as a young teen.

I think GW has had its time around the block, I don't think there are enough new players to support them. And there are too many old players leaving the game as well. I think alot of people just cant afford it or don't have the time for it anymore. So being me sucks, finally old enough to get into the hobby I have long been waiting to start investing in right at its decline. I cant afford the pricey models GW makes, especially if they're only getting more expensive.

I think I actually might quit 40k before I start, save myself time and money. I would just invest in another wargame thats not doing so bad but I don't think I will have the same feelings for it ( The 40k universe was really really awesome to think about as a kid ) and playing wargames wouldn't be the same for me.
Now I think the best case scenario would be that GW responds to its loyal fans, makes prices more reasonable. They would advertise their game more, and engage with their fan base. Unfortunately I don't really see this happening, seeing if GW were to do that they would have done it a long time ago.

I find myself in a tricky position, I think I'd just wait it out.

**Eilif**

Occhiolini wrote:
16 Years old, here
I think I would consider myself the last of the first gen wargamers or perhaps the first of the second gen wargamers

You make some good points my friend, but you're not first or second generation of wargamers. More like Third or fourth Generation. No offense or belittling of your views intended, just a matter of math, since you've only been gaming for 3 years in a miniature wargaming hobby that itself stretches back at least to the 50's which is when commercial products became available specifically for miniature wargaming.

**frozenwastes**

Yep. Here's Peter Cushing standing next to his display cabinet in 1956:

**purplemonster**

I started palying in high school around 2nd Edition. After that I was hooked. However, several things have kept me out of the hobby for some time.

I'm sure other people have had the same issues arise in life. You have to set priorities. As we get older we get wife, kids, families, and those things take priority. Since this hobby is such time intensive, I just didn't have the time. Plus the fact that it isn't cheap (but what hobby is) and I needed the money for other things. So my excuse is that I didn't have the time or money...but trying to get back on my feet and back into the hobby although quite a bit of things have changed over the years for sure.

Total different white dwarfs, big robots, flyers, and some kind of weird sled thing for Grimnar. Interesting times.

**Eilif**

purplemonster wrote:
Plus the fact that it isn't cheap (but what hobby is) and I needed the money for other things. So my excuse is that I didn't have the time or money...but trying to get back on my feet and back into the hobby although quite a bit of things have changed over the years for sure.

It can be quite cheap though. An interesting thing I've noticed is that though GW has always been the expensive option, compared to inflation, it was a lot cheaper in the past, even though there were fewer bargain options. Now days GW has gotten much more expensive compared to inflation, yet there are many more affordable gaming options than there were in the 80's and 90's and the cheap stuff is of better quality than it was.

I would go so far ast to say that while the "GW hobby" is more expensive than ever, but the wargaming hobby is more accessible and affordable than ever. And, that's before you take into account the massive used market that's benefiting from 2 decades of massive hobby growth. As for me, I'm spending less $ for more minis than ever before.

**frozenwastes**

It can be ridiculously cheap. You can get 54mm plastic historical figures for about $1 each and if you want to go with 1/72 plastics, they're usually 40ish for $10. You can get your paints and terrain material at the dollar store and use free rules off the internet.

If sci-fi or fantasy is more your thing, you have cheap toys to paint up and play with. The last time I was in the dollar store I saw a pack of 4 robots for $3 that would look cool painted up and then could be combined with some free or cheap rules from the web. Heck, skirmish gaming with Reaper Bones would be very reasonable and they have sci-fi and fantasy stuff.

**Ir0njack**

I'm 27 now and picked up GW back when I was 14 or 13. So I've been in the hobby either as a collector or player for over a decade and my love for it has yet to die or even really wane. When there are new releases or rulesets I'm always excited to see them, even if its not my faction.

The only thing that kills it for me is the price, also the timesink factor is part of it as well but I have just had alot on my plate lately and had to temporarily shelf my hoddy to ensure I had food and a place to live

**Ascalam**

35 here.

I started 1st ed fantasy at the behest of my brother, and 40K not long after (punker orks ftw

)

I've played every edition of 40K, and most of the WHFB editions (1-6 i think), as well as Tyranid Attack, Necromunda, Epic, Gorkamorka, and a heap of others.

I lost interest in WHFB a few years back, and have lost a certain amount of interest in 40K lately too. I scaled back my armies, and don't play as often, but new releases can still wow me, even if they are for an army i don't play. The stickershock can wow me too, though not as pleasantly.

I play other games too (such as Warmahordes) but that doesn't preclude my enjoyment of the odd game of 40K, and if i'm not in the mood for 7th (quite often) we can dig up an older edition and old codexes for a game.

Whether GW is worth it, OP, is up to you. If you don't enjoy the game any longer, find one that you do enjoy.

**Eilif**

frozenwastes wrote:
It can be ridiculously cheap. You can get 54mm plastic historical figures for about $1 each and if you want to go with 1/72 plastics, they're usually 40ish for $10. You can get your paints and terrain material at the dollar store and use free rules off the internet.

If sci-fi or fantasy is more your thing, you have cheap toys to paint up and play with. The last time I was in the dollar store I saw a pack of 4 robots for $3 that would look cool painted up and then could be combined with some free or cheap rules from the web. Heck, skirmish gaming with Reaper Bones would be very reasonable and they have sci-fi and fantasy stuff.

I use alot of toys in terrain and vehicles, but there's no reason one can't use regular wargaming scale figures for affordable wargaming. New 28mm figures are available in fantasy, sci-fi and historical wargaming for seventy cents to a dollar each from companies like Wargames Factory, Old Glory, Warlord, Perry, etc. If you're willing to pay 1-3 dollars a piece, the selection is absolutely enormous.

It's never been cheaper to be a wargamer than today.

As for cheap paints, I highly recommend "Delta Ceramcoat". While it's not quite as nice as miniature brand paints it's the best pigmented and smoothest of the craft paints and at $1.40 for 2 oz (60ml) it's a far better deal than miniature paints which typically cost around $3-4 for 1/2 oz (15ml). I use Delta for almost everything now.