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so im just poking around looking for others ideas on how to stay focused on one game.
every time that I think I have a game that I want to play nailed down I start to nit pick it and find reasons not to play it.
sounds silly huh?

for instance, 40k. im working on a guard army. I start to get ideas and work on it then I start finding things I don't like... I don't like my list, I have no counter for this or that, I want to get this to add etc...

infinity... model X is cool, ill wait to get that. I need to work on terrain first. I want to make counters etc...

its to the point that I don't think ive actually played a game in several years...lol

as an idea of how bad it is on my work bench I have...
myth
imperial guard
orks
dreamforge eisenkern
infinity operation icerstorm
shadows of brimstone
wrath of kings
deadzone
dystopian legions
wild west exodus
bolt action

and im sure im forgetting 1 or 2.
I need some dakka mental help or something...
any thoughts or ideas?

If you find a way, please tell me how.. !

I try packing stuff away that I'm not playing, not look at the game's website etc. That way if it's out of sight, it's out of mind, and I can focus on a single project.

Also, limiting my purchases to so much a month, which tends to focus you on one game or another.

And I also really try to limit to just one mass battle system. That way I can switch between batch painting units, to putting more effort into single minis for a skirmish system. I find if I'm doing production lines of units for two long it just gets soul destroying, so try and switch between styles of game and eras of history as well, so it doesn't get too stale.

Honestly, I don't really try. I'd rather switch over to another system, army, style or genre than force myself into doing something I find boring. In the last few months I've worked on 3 40k armies and some misc pieces, about 6 LotR factions, Deadzone, Infinity, 2 Malifaux Crews, and a selection of Star Wars toy repaints in various scales/styles.

But to try and be a bit more heplful, I find a few things get me to stick with an army longer than a few weeks at a time (with varying degrees of success).

- My blog has been very helpful here; if I post a few Blood Angels, get some feedback on them, that pushes me to work on a few more acting on that feedback, ect ect.

- Progress; the more I get done, the more I get done, the more I get done! Being able to put up completed squads/warbands/strike teams on the shelf is a good an inspiration as any to give them some company.

- The rare chance I get to actually game helps too, it makes the units something more than shelf ornaments.

I think lots of people have gamer ADD. Hell, I have ADD within a game.

I sorta wax all over the place, so i don't have any good advice. For a good long time now i've been hot on WHFB, and lately Xwing too, but i'm kinda getting the Warmachine itch again as of late.... i think what i'm really craving is a good skirmish game.

I think the best way to maintain focus is actually play games!
It helps if you have a regular group you play with.

The best way is to use a narrative campaign with slowly increasing force sizes.(And only play with what you have painted up.)

Or any sort of league or campaign that keeps you interested in playing and thinking about how you are going to use your models.
Painting models you want to use in a game is far more inspiring,than knowing they are just going to gather dust on a shelf, no matter how much effort you put in...

Ambivalence with any degree of progress is better than total inactivity, in my mind. I find 'hobby ADD' simultaneously frustrating and rewarding. It sucks, never seeming to complete an army or fully explore a system, but at least you're getting things done, however piecemeal, instead of bogging down and losing steam, entirely.

Since we've not yet seen the advent of cheap hobby-Ritalin (sp?), I just try not to fight the flow. In my case, 'the flow' is more of a trickle than a torrent, so letting it wander where it may is the best (perhaps only) option. If, at some point, inspiration or an urge to game strikes me, I'll have a starting point for any project I want to focus on. If, instead, I simply grow tired of the ever-growing pile of scattered, unrelated WIPs, less effort is required to start seeing smaller projects completed - I've already got a start on anything I could choose to focus on.

Things like narrative campaigns and slow-grow leagues sound like great options for maintaining a degree of focus. If the pace is reasonable (doesn't suck up all of your hobby time and energy), it would give you a consistent background project that meant measured progress, no matter how you spent the rest of your time. Lower risk of total burnout with a higher chance of a completed army and a nice string of games by the end.

Different people simply have different levels of focus, or different areas they prefer to focus on. Hobby focus is no different than any other, which is why some people do better in different jobs or different hobbies.

That all said, I find that I'm very task oriented. I don't quite have a strict written order in which to work, but I always have a few tasks queued up, based on what I'm going to play soon, what is almost done, etc. So for example, I'm playing in a Kings of War event at Adepticon, so getting my Ogres army is my main priority. Second in priority to that was adding on a few heavy weapons to my Bolt Action Germans, and next up will by my HH Emperor's children.

I sort my goals by "projects," which is generally anything for a given faction in a specific game, or the equivilent. So my Bolt Action Germans are a project, as are my KOW Ogres, PP Cygnar, 40k IG, FW Emperor's Children, Myth captain's pledge, etc. A completed project leads to wonderful peace of mind, as there are no loose ends.

Also, be realistic when setting hobby goals. If you can paint 10 models in a good week of painting, maybe make a goal of painting 5 every week. Anything extra is gravy.

I prefer to concentrate on one game as i am bad collector hoarder suffering from shiny object syndrome.But since i do supply models for a few of our poorer players.It can be tough.
Also helps is that we only play usually one game system at a time.To many games to many distractions.

I get a group of people that are fun to hang out with and play regularly. The more fun I have playing a game, the more I play it.

For 40k i find that arranging games rather than pick up games works best. both of you generally know what each other will bring gives you enough general idea of how to play each other

instead of a SURPRISE Knight list or something.

un/lucky for me no one plays infinity around me so i keep them as a side painting project.

I really try hard to stick to one faction in a game. Been playing a lot of warmachine latley so my Menoth army has been my main focus for about a year now. Picked up the bolt action starter set in December so after I get my Menoth assembled and painted Iam going to work on BA. There are so many games that I would love to try: infinity, judge dredd, Kings of war but right now I just don't have the time. Have to many other hobbies besides gaming that also take up a lot of my free time.

I don't. My enthusiasm for the hobby comes in bursts. I had my longest in a good while about 3 months ago when I powered through almost a dozen Infinity models, and now I've hit that wall again where I need to force myself to make progress.

I don't. I get inspired to do something and then I do it. I might stop before it's done (which is very unlike me, but seems to occur with gaming things) and then go onto something else. No focus.

It's a curse.

It helps to put a limit on the amount of games you play so you don't overwhelm yourself. I recently hit my limit. At the moment I'm playing 40K, Battlegroup, Firestorm Armada, and X wing. I think anything else would break me.

I think playing, or at least personally interacting, with other enthusiasts is vital to maintaining my 'focus' on wargaming and 40K specifically.

Generally I have ADHD when it comes to projects and the units etc within them. While that's fine and keeps me interested, lately I've been forcing myself to finish off started figures and units instead of "filing" half-finished stuff into figure boxes and so forth. It's been immensely satisfying finishing off so much lately.

I've also started bringing in a few figures to work - like 2-8 and 5 paints max - and usually figures that I have a "mental block" with at home. You know - you stare at them but can't get motivated to spend the time to do this or that to them to get them finished. Funny how that becomes desirable and fun/relaxing to do when you have that limited choice (and limited time of 20mins or so!)

More generally, I find that gaming also keeps the motivation going. When you have a game in a week or 3 days, it's really motivating to finally get that unit finished.

I'd start by not have nearly twenty different things on the to at once. Get down to three or four then If you do the hobby butterfly thing, you're just bouncing between a few bits and are more likely to get somewhere.

I thought that finishing of my Lizardmen last year would be the big push I needed to get on with everything else.

But I was wrong. I hate Lizardmen (except Skink priests and Chameleons), and found it more of a chore than anything else, and I feel like it drained my last bit of hobby joy.

I started painting two Infinity O:I dudes recently, but then decided I wanted to play Kings of War, so I bought a two player starter set. So far, I've built ten Dwarf Ironguard.

I had a massive game of WHFB on Saturday, using my mates Dwarfs and now I'm working out 1000pts of Skaven, which means I'll be taking my rat half of IoB out of storage (again).

Not to mention one Kickstarter (Arc Worlde), Deadzone AND Dreadball.

Oh and my old RT era, 2nd/3rd ed metal Eldar are primed and ready for some attention too.

My office/hobby space is a mess. I have decided on a new system: to box up/put away everything except two systems.

For every unit I build from the KoW starter I'll treat myself to a couple of Infinity minis.

For every KoW Unit I paint, I'll buy/build a Skaven unit.

I'll let you know how I get on...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 brendan wrote:
I think playing, or at least personally interacting, with other enthusiasts is vital to maintaining my 'focus' on wargaming and 40K specifically.

I'd agree with this. I'm going to be visiting my local gaming club much more frequently. Might even take stuff to build/paint, or pay some young grot to build my stuff! .

It's all too easy to get in from work, watch the news, eat then veg out in front of netflix.

I limit my games to two at a time.

Currently it is WHFB and Infinity. It has been - at various times in the past, Battletech and 40k, Void and 40k, Warzone and 40k, Void and stargrunt, 40k and whfb, etc. Always two there are.

I play one, paint models, make terrain for each for a set period. My club runs an annual WHFB tourney in May - so my focus on terrain shifts to that around April each year (regardless of whether or not I'm currently playing it) and I return to "other" projects after this passes.

wow.... glad its not just me, lol...
we need to start a help group or something.

I suppose I should really work on whatever I feel like working on and stop fighting myself. like some of you said, getting a little done at a time is better than not getting anything done at all.

I do however think that I need to pick something and force myself to finish it so I have at least one complete project to actually game with.

I never limit my self to one project or game, but I have a few strategies for getting a given project done.
1- Prep for a Convention. Sign up to run a game or enter a tournament that will force you to finish a given project. I'm running a 28mm Mech Game at Adepticon and it has forced me to make 6 more mechs, 7more buildings, etc.
2- Get involved in a club. I organize a club and we tend to plan our events about 2 months out. That gives me a reason to finish up a few units for whatever army is going to be used.
3-Always have 2 or 3 (but no more) projects on the table. When one gets a bit boring I can keep working but switch to a new project. If you can keep to 2 or 3 projects you can jump back and forth getting stuff done while not getting stale.

If you aren't gaming at all, it sounds like you may be becoming an acquirer rather than a gamer. Get out there and play something and you may find some more drive to get stuff done. Maybe you could just setup a game with someone at a local FLGS for 2 weeks from now and get to work prepping/finishing a force.

Agreed, prepping for a convention or a tournament is a great way of keeping focus and actually getting something finished!

Also, if your club has got something lined up for one game or another. I've discovered a fair few games (and actually enjoyed ones that I didn't think I would) just because I've succumbed to peer pressure and bought in to whatever the people I know are collecting.

I think it has to do with a combination of age and maturing interests.

When I was in my 20's and 30's... I was all over the map, and couldn't,t keep track of everything.

I had 40K, Striker, WRG 6th & 7th edition ancients, Runequest, Traveller, Stormbringer, Centurior, Leviathan, OGRE/GEV....

I can't even recall everything.

And I had nothing prioritized.

Sometime around 2000, after I had lost everything, I decided to prioritize, and to dedicate most of my time to Middle-earth, and to Stiker Sci-Fi miniatures (15mm & 6mm hard Sci-Fi). And... If I had the time, to try to see if I could do anything with Hyboria (a sword&sorcery based world).

The focus on Middle-earth turned into an outright obsession when I began to read the secondary and tertiary sources and academic works of Tolkien.

And this in turn led to a more focused investment in miniatures.

I do have a very small number of other miniature projects, but I don't go wild buying up stuff for Flames of War, or Infinity, and I am fine with only having a few miniatures for these.

Having a goal of sculpting more appropriate miniatures (even if they remain "unofficial") has made it easier to focus upon finishing painting the armies I do have, and in devoting time to designing the eventual replacements for the GW "LotR" miniatures (which are nice, but simply are not Tolkien. They are Peter Jackson's, and have little to do with what Tolkien described as his world).

And having a group of players with a similarly narrow focus helps.

MB

That's not really age or maturing interests, though. They might be contributing factors, but you suffered a pretty significant loss, and when rebuilding it makes sense that you had more of a focus. In many ways, I'm the opposite. I have a bit of everything, and as I've gotten older my interests have also broadened - also due to the wider availability of plastics. When once it almost all GW but open to other models, it's now multiple historical periods, LotR, GW, and a lot more besides from many, many manufacturers.

Absolutely. I think also these days it's not just that there is so much stuff available, but that it is so easy to access and find other communities for. You have to think that the internet is a massive part in the explosion of popularity of new games in the past decade, especially within the sci-fi/fantasy wargaming market.

chromedog wrote:I limit my games to two at a time.

I try to do this also, as well as limit my collection to a maximum of two armies for a particular system.

 Pacific wrote:
Absolutely. I think also these days it's not just that there is so much stuff available, but that it is so easy to access and find other communities for. You have to think that the internet is a massive part in the explosion of popularity of new games in the past decade, especially within the sci-fi/fantasy wargaming market.

Very True. It makes it very easy to find reasons to acquire lots of stuff. While you can get feedback on your painting, etc, I think it doesn't give you as much impetus to actually finish your larger projects as it does to acquire them.

In my experience, getting a project done in a reasonable amount of time most often happens in the context of actually being able to share your progress and play in-person with other gamers.

Having trouble maintaining any gaming focus these days. Sadly, I lost 9 Blackreach Orks out of my 100-Ork Green Tide. After that happened, I have been feeling quite sad. I mean, you know, only 91 Orks left.

"AAAANNNNNDDD if one green Ork, should accidently fallllllllll;
There'll be 91 green Orks, standing on the wallllllll!"

Have you been drunkenly shooting lines of Orks for fun?

Budget yourself. I can only spend about $20 a week on whatever interests me. So I have to save up for GW models, or play Warmachine.

My focus is largely dictated by my friends. I enjoy playing for the fun of it, for the crazy things that can happen. (like running one Tau commander with 12 Marker Drones, all firing at BS5, Scoring 12 Marklights on a single unit. Firing three rail guns, four seeker missiles and four plasma rifles, and not kill a single damn thing due to armor saves.)

I work on whatever I need at the time. If I have a tourney coming up I focus on that. Prep for what is coming soonest, I guess.

I tend to only have 1 hobby project 'live' at a time, usually based on what I'm playing currently., with a couple of individual painting mini's kicking about.

The idea is I'll work on a project on and off for a few weeks and when I get bored it'll go back into storage and another one will come out. I'm currently on a drive to get all of my stuff assembled, based and primed, so that it's all at least usable in a game, but beyond that I've got no immediate goals.