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I have kind of had a crisis of gaming as of late and I am not sure how to verbalize it. I am not wanting to come off as a troll or fire starter, but I am legit hurting in my love of gaming. I am approaching this post with MY OPIONIONS and how I PLAY THE GAME. You will probably have a different reason for playing and style of gaming. Your was are not better or worse than mine. There is no intention to bring up bad/wrong fun here.

I have played the game of Warmachine since it came out 15 years ago. In that time I have made and lost friends while having life changing experiences. There have been 3 separate rule changes in that time. All the while I have dutifully bought updates and continued to play. I just can't anymore. It is not the game I fell in love with. It has turned into arguing about lists, playing on flat 2D boards, messing up my bases with arc lines, timing games, vast masses of unpainted armies. I can't even convert models without the fear of other players or TOs having issues with the model making it null and void. This is NOT how I WANT TO PLAY.I love to convert and paint, I am simply getting sick of games with proprietary minis. There are such a plethora of figures out there I will never get to use that I want to game with. I play a ton of D&D but even I don't get to use all the figures.

Looking over the game I realize I am the minority and there seems to be few people who share my opinions. That is fine, I am old enough to realize the beliefs in games and life are not held by the masses in general. I have never been divorced, but I have had relationships end I am feeling sort of the same way.

Thoughts?

Take a break, play something that caters to your needs, and go back to WM later.
Mantic, for instance, has games that use the models you have. See what others near you play, get in a demo game, and see if it has what you want.

You might run into a group that plays like you do, or you might find a different game altogether. Why did you get into WM in the first place?

I went through exactly what you went through only for me it was after three years of playing it back about ten years or so ago.

For the same reasons.

Warmachine was the game that fully got me out of tournament games for good.

Take a break, find an alternative game to enjoy and in due time return to the game in question.
I have had the same experience with 40k and FoW in recent time.

Now I more or less only enjoy Warhammer Fantasy or Pike&Shot.

That's nothing to worry about. There are plenty of excellent games and other hobbies out there.

Hold onto your figures until you're 100% sure what you want. If you still don't want to game with them after a while, sell them on and move on. It's just toy soldiers. No worries. What you've mentioned is one of the overwhelming reasons I will not buying into current 40K. There's a great world of non-tournament wargaming out there...and the water is fine.

I started playing because let's face it at the time it came out the only options were GW, Confrontation, and Historical games.

I was sick of GW and if it was not dead I would still be playing Confrontation. I enjoyed a lot of the people I use to game with but for the most part the people that still play I am not a fan of.
I liked that I could paint a few models and play, but that is not the case anymore.

Burned out of Warmachine after MKIII release, burned out on 40k at 6th, now jumping back into it. You need breaks. try other games.

I binged on DZC, D&D5th, and Hearthstone recently lol

If you still have your GW stuff, try Kill Team (if you had 40k).
It's quick-ish, has few silly rules as the big stuff is excluded, and you get to tinker with the models.
That depends on why you disliked GW.

Well, that's a much harder choice. The toughest thing in wargaming is finding a couple of people who are like-minded and you enjoy spending time with. That's at the crux of gaming...it's a social experience, best shared with friends.

A small portion of people are uber-competitive and enjoy simply beating face, regardless of who/where.

Finding a group (heck, even one opponent!) that you look forward to spending time with, and love gaming with - that's a challenge that no one can really help you with. I'm now 200+ miles from my gaming group and struggle to find people locally I can stand to be around. If you have a local gaming store that's a start --- or perhaps look if your local town/city has gaming groups on facebook. That's a good way to get to know people and find places/people who are gaming.

If you find a couple people who play Warmachine the way you want to play, it could be a whole new game for you. It's easier to change games than it is to change friends though.

Seems To me to be a mixture of two things here.

It seems to be a combination of the game you are playing, and the game culture you are playing in.

Neither is necessarily a game ender.

To the former, take a break. Burn out is a thing. I've burned out of 40k at the tail end of fourth and never really came back. I also burned out of WMH half way through mk2. With 40k, I never recognised the signs and I walked away far past the point of burnout. The game hasn't never recovered for me, with WMH, I recognised the signs and took a break, and just painted fora year. When I felt the pull back, I went back, kept my foot off the accelerator, and realised I still loved the game. I'm enjoying mk3.

To the latter, gaming culture is a thing. And it can be a very toxic, unfriendly place. Often, i finds what kills a game isn't necessarily 'the game' but rather, how people insist on approaching the game, as though some kind of unquestioning obedience to an angry god is called for. Age can be a thing. You've been playing for fifteen years. That's a long time, and stagnation can seep in. As you get older, what you want out of things changes. The desire to prove yourself the best as a teenager and twenty something often becomes a desire to play some games and chill out as you get older. That culture you loved when you were younger is toxic when you get older. It's like drinking. As a thirty something I wouldn't even think about approaching nights out or whatever in the same way I did when I was 18. I'm older now. I'm not interested in the stuff I enjoyed as a teenagers.

The things you talk about -

beowulfhunter wrote:

It has turned into arguing about lists, playing on flat 2D boards, messing up my bases with arc lines, timing games, vast masses of unpainted armies. I can't even convert models without the fear of other players or TOs having issues with the model making it null and void. This is NOT how I WANT TO PLAY.

That's as much your gaming community as anything else's. Maybe it's them you need to take a break from? You've been playing together for a long time? As well as stagnation, that length of time breeds in familiarity. And as they say, familiarity breeds contempt. Contempt in a group leads to a toxic atmosphere. Without realising it, and especially over fifteen years, you can be sucked into a very negative and toxic culture that feeds off of itself in a really bad way, and you may not even realise it, or recognise it in yourself.

There are people, and other groups that love warmachine for models, for lore, for all the things you like (for example... me!) and don't want to swim in the shark tank. A few years ago, at the Scottish masters, I ended up having a chat with a few guys about this, and it turned out we were all in the same place. A bit older, a bit more mature. Other life commitments thst meant we couldn't dedicate our time to warmachine-fu and becoming grand masters of a game of toy soldiers. Non of us felt we had anything to prove anymore, especially in a game of toy soldiers. And to be honest, looking at the sharks in the room, none of us felt particularly interested in trying to become like them, and dedicating ourselves to the game body and soul. We just wanted to put our stuff on the board, play some games, and while we wanted to play a good clean and tight game, we weren't not particularly interested in spamming just the power builds. And in the few years since then, you'd be surprised how many WMH, and former WMH players came out of the woodwork, who had, up to that point been completely uninterested in, and even driven off by the arms race and commitment required of the community/game at the time, were attracted by our approach of toning it down a few notches and being a bit more casual and easy going about the game. Part of why I enjoy the game now is I don't take it so seriously, and I don't really play against people for whom warmachine is a way of life. I. Guessing the approach would work for you.

Put out feelers. Find the other players, whether inactive, dormant or even former ones. Look online and talk to people. Find people that want the same things out of their games that you do. Play with them. Paint models. Make up terrain. Leave the clocks at home and go easy on the power pieces.

Ultimately. Playing with like minded individuals is the Core tenet required to have a sustainable and enjoyable hobby In the long term.

Hope that helps!

Ironically, I went through exactly what you have done with Warmachine for the second time this year.

I played first edition then just fell out of love around the time of second edition, I took a few years away then rejoined around the time Convergence came out... And I loved the game, I loved the way it played, I had a new found love for the aesthetic etc. etc. but when MK3 came, I hated it, I didn't like the changes, they made my favourite models rubbish and some models I owned actually unplayable (after removing tier lists) and I could not be bothered.

I refocused myself to something different, and cheaper in AGOT LCG, such a vibrant meta in my area and such a great game, I play it more than I ever did Warmachine and I feel in a few years time I will come back to Warmachine, so maybe do the same?

Take a step away, find something else you like (that hopefully is strong in your meta) and come back to what you love in a few years time.

Agree with a lot of what the guys have said above about community, and finding people to play with that have a similar goal to yourself from the experience.

Would also like to add, there is an old adage 'a change is as good as a rest'. Why not give something else a try?

What video games, what movies or music, do you play, watch or listen to repeatedly for 15 years without varying your library at all? I'm guessing that list is probably quite small.

Wargaming can require much more of a time investment than some of the pastimes I have listed above, and so you can't afford to be quite as flippant and changeable with them. That being said there are a number of wargames (or board games) which don't require much of a start-up and might give you a breath of fresh air.

And if after a rest you find that you want to go back to the other games, or feel invigorated, there is nothing to stop you and knowing the popularity of Warmachine it will still be there!

Collect and play something that interests you. Gaming is only one part of the hobby.

 Pacific wrote:
Agree with a lot of what the guys have said above about community, and finding people to play with that have a similar goal to yourself from the experience.

This is probably the best advice. I know I would not be as into 40k if it were not for the friendly and understanding group I have currently.

You're not alone go out there and try games from other companies, don't go off and burn your stuff though you may want to return some day.

I've fallen into and out of love with quite a few games over the last 29 years.

Sometimes it goes slowly, from love, to like, to dislike, to outright loathing - sometimes I find something else before I get to dislike.

In most of the cases, I've even managed to hold onto certain models from those games. I'm a miniatures gamer, the miniatures are what GET ME INTO the game. Even if the rules end up sucking, the miniatures are the gateway. I can dislike a game without hating the minis.

I can't play a game if I have no like for the community, though.

Warmachine is one of those games where I love the miniatures, love the setting and... am not all that fond of the game.

But I would run an Iron Kingdoms D&D or Pathfinder game in a heartbeat.

(Damn, but I love the Trenchers....)

The Auld Grump

I too felt the slow decay of affection for Warmachine. It was my first miniatures game that I ended up stopping when I had kids (babies are very time consuming). My friend kept up with it and last year or so, I decided to play with his group. A great group of people, but I just wasn't able to play the game how I wanted to play. Over time, I grew increasingly frustrated with the experience, to the point where I actively started to loathe the game. I never upgraded to Mk3.

In fact, just yesterday, I was missing playing with the group. That made me revisit to Privateer Press forums... and I quickly realized why I quit the game in the first place.

Warmachine is like an arranged marriage. You don't get to see a model and fall in love with it. No, you play with the models you have to play with. With luck, eventually, you'll grow to love them (in a Stockholm syndrome sort of way). I didn't. I resented it. I wanted to play with the models I liked. I didn't want to buy models to fit my list requirements. I wanted to build my lists around the models I had already bought.

Right now, I'm all in on Infinity. It's a really interesting game with a very appealing aesthetic (I look forward to painting just about every model), but it is also a game where list building doesn't win the game for you. With Warmachine, I literally had games where I spent the first 30 minute turn watching my models get decimated with nothing I could do to affect it. My first turn had three models left. That sort of wholly unfun type of experience doesn't happen in Infinity.

It's never too late to put them up for adoption

 Sqorgar wrote:

Warmachine is like an arranged marriage. You don't get to see a model and fall in love with it. No, you play with the models you have to play with. With luck, eventually, you'll grow to love them (in a Stockholm syndrome sort of way). I didn't. I resented it. I wanted to play with the models I liked. I didn't want to buy models to fit my list requirements. I wanted to build my lists around the models I had already bought..

There is so much wrong in this paragraph I don't know where to begin...

Ruin wrote:

 Sqorgar wrote:

Warmachine is like an arranged marriage. You don't get to see a model and fall in love with it. No, you play with the models you have to play with. With luck, eventually, you'll grow to love them (in a Stockholm syndrome sort of way). I didn't. I resented it. I wanted to play with the models I liked. I didn't want to buy models to fit my list requirements. I wanted to build my lists around the models I had already bought..

There is so much wrong in this paragraph I don't know where to begin...

That was my experience with the game.

That was also my experience with the game as well.

I feel your pain, but my falling out of love has more to do with never being truly in love in the first place.
The only reason i started playing WarmaHordes was because 8th edition WHFB. Now that I fell in love with Kings of War, there is really no reason to keep playing a game that just gets more expensive every passing day, and that is falling in the all too known cycle of power creep and spam.

Fully understand where you are coming from. As others have said just take a break. What ever you do, DO NOT SELL YOUR MINIS.

Along time ago, I gave up Battletech, Star Trek tactical battles and other games. I regret that. So when I finally got into 40K years later, I quit again. This time I didn't sell or give away my stuff. I am so glad because I came back and quit plenty of times.

Recently I didn't quit, I just took a break from minatures. while I have went on the forums, my passion for doing minis waned but just kept up or in the hobby by visiting the forums for the last few years.

So just take a break. Doing it for 15 years without a break is quite amazing. So take a break. Maybe all you need is a few weeks or months to be away from what you love. Maybe even a year or two. Thing is, you will be back.

Who says you have to give up? Just put things away and when you are ready, you will be back to what you love once again. Maybe it will not be love as it once was, but you will have the "itch" and then you can play or model or what ever it is you like to do.

Not sure what you mean by this though

I am simply getting sick of games with proprietary minis.

That happened to me with 40k. started playing in 3rd, stepped out in 4th for personal reasons, came back in 5th and 6th, then stepped out in 7th and am slowly selling off everything but one army.

40K just became that ex where you realized you were going in different directions, and you still feel some fondness for him/her, but you see where they are now and you just can't see a life together.

8th will decide for me a third bad edition will see me selling off stuff.

I'll keep one army but the rest will be a nice deal for someone.

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Hah! Dont stay in the walled garden go try the products of other companies.

Sounds like you need a break.
Find something else to do with your time, play a few pc games or console games. Chill. Go watch (or play) whichever sport you like.

If you do come back to miniature gaming (like we all here do), then read/buy a load of different rulebooks and find the one you like best. Either find a group that likes it or get a few people into it.

 Bottle wrote:
If you're after another game with a great ruleset with synergies and combos, can be played highly competitive or relaxed and narrative, but allows for conversions, 3rd party models and lots of terrain, I would say give Age of Sigmar a shot. I think you'll like it and even better is the miniatures can be used for D&D as well.

Bottle, you're either in threads defending AoS or you're peddling it. I'd type some analogy of drug dealing but I just cba.

Also, as someone who's played every version of D&D since I got my first rulebooks in the late 1970's - I feel a little insulted that you'd suggest anything recently released for AoS is in anyway usable for D&D.

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