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have you ever been embarrased by something to do with the hobby.
if so then write it up here.

It can be pretty embarrassing to think that I share a hobby with some of the people I meet on hobby forums.

+1 to that.

An old friend I grew to detest due to his immaturity surprised me the other day when he entered my flgs and told me he played, that annoyed/embarrassed me to be put in a similar class to him.

There has been a couple of times when my two closest friends (who are not interested in the hobby but are kind of nerdy in their own way) like to bring it up when we are out sometimes. Mostly in front of a big group of us down the pub trying to embarrass me but it really doesn't work anymore.

"Where was you Tuesday, playing with your toy soldiers?"

"Yes...yes I was"

"Oh, erm"

The two most embarrasing things about the hobby are:

1) The perception of the hobby as a stereotype in the eyes of the media and mainstream that consumes it.

2) Those involved in the hobby who are aware of the stereotypes associated with it by the above and annoyingly continue to act in a manner that validates said stereotypes.

Sooooo many of number 2) Wolf.

I don't think they act on purpose like the stereotype. I just think it's why that stereotype exists. There are social awkward people out there who do a lot of nerdy things. If anything these days though, it's a lot more acceptable than say 15 years ago.

Although that might be computer gaming seen as being "cool" these days.

When that movie, 'The 40-year old Virgin' came out and the lead character has a scene where he's painting minis. For like a month afterwards my non-gamer friends would make jokes about my age and sex in general. It wasn't embarrassing just annoying as all hell.

I have no shame about meeting strange older men from the Internet*

*To play Warhammer

The kids at the FLGS (omitting name for obvious reasons) reinforce just about every stereotype that exist about gamers. I go in there and walk past the comparatively normal MtG players, and I can't help but feel a little shamed. Though "smelly nerd" is thankfully one that has not cropped up yet.

There are a few exceptions though. "Reprehensibly obnoxious guy who has a really attractive girlfriend who seems pretty cool" comes to mind.

On the other hand, I'm the creepy old guy showing up to play toy soldiers with a bunch of highschool kids. That's kind of embarrassing in and of itself.

Sigh...

I think the OP will be embarassed when he realises it's spelt "Ordnance". There is no "I".

Grimtuff wrote:I think the OP will be embarassed when he realises it's spelt "Ordnance". There is no "I".

Not at all. He is very clearly the master of all things pertaining to, and of, municipal law.

Grimtuff wrote:I think the OP will be embarassed when he realises it's spelt "Ordnance". There is no "I".

not to mention missellping embarrassing and occurrence...

Listen, I have played D&D in a bar, and I currently play Warhammer in a pool hall. Everyone has their geek, if you're embarrassed about it, go live under a rock...

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:

Grimtuff wrote:I think the OP will be embarassed when he realises it's spelt "Ordnance". There is no "I".

not to mention missellping embarrassing and occurrence...

Listen, I have played D&D in a bar, and I currently play Warhammer in a pool hall. Everyone has their geek, if you're embarrassed about it, go live under a rock...

I could not agree more! For me the whole geek thing is pretty cool. Look at the success of shows like 'The Big Bang Theory' and how successful they are.....
If you are embarrassed by your choice of hobby maybe it's just not for you. It'd be like being embarrassed by the football team you support. Never be ashamed of your colours guys, it's choices like that which make you you!

In my early days of tournament play (I had just switched my wolves from Vanilla marines to the real wolves) I completely spaced that the normal land raider had a different capacity and the Ultramarine land raider and was transporting 2 more dudes than was legally allowed.

Got through 2 of the 3 rounds for that day without anyone (including me, TO's, and opponents) realizing it and the third game was against a very new player and he said "Wait, I am probably wrong, but doesn't that only hold 10 guys??"

Oops!!! Needless to say, that's never ever happened again lol!

Young, started playing an intense match. Started winning alot, but opponent was mad. A bloody brawl started erupting, anger filling the room. Minis were shattered. Then, I heard the police just outside. In an instant, they open the door get on the floor everybody walk the dinosaur.


..But anyways, that never happened. The only emabarrassing thing is when family wants to see ''what i'm up to'' and they see Slaanesh 6- breasted daemons..

A Black Ram wrote: The only emabarrassing thing is when family wants to see ''what i'm up to'' and they see Slaanesh 6- breasted daemons..

Haha true true . .

I've never been made fun of for enjoying warhammer in both its aspects (excluding instances of cute teasing), so I have nothing to be ashamed about.

A Black Ram wrote:The only emabarrassing thing is when family wants to see ''what i'm up to'' and they see Slaanesh 6- breasted daemons..

Oh man, not just family for me, there are some incredibly immature people who I used to call friends that go crazy about the fact a tiny piece of metal has breasts modelled on it.

It's also pretty embarrassing when the hobby is immediately described as "a geeky game" by a fellow hobbyist to people who have never heard of it before.

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:

Grimtuff wrote:I think the OP will be embarassed when he realises it's spelt "Ordnance". There is no "I".

not to mention missellping embarrassing and occurrence...

I believe it's actually misspelling

Avatar 720 wrote:

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:

Grimtuff wrote:I think the OP will be embarassed when he realises it's spelt "Ordnance". There is no "I".

not to mention missellping embarrassing and occurrence...

I believe it's actually misspelling

A friend of mine once told me that I didn't fully understand the concept of irony.

Which was ironic, because at the time we were standing at a bus-stop.

TheBlueRedPanda wrote:

Avatar 720 wrote:

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:

Grimtuff wrote:I think the OP will be embarassed when he realises it's spelt "Ordnance". There is no "I".

not to mention missellping embarrassing and occurrence...

I believe it's actually misspelling

A friend of mine once told me that I didn't fully understand the concept of irony.

Which was ironic, because at the time we were standing at a bus-stop.

D-oh!

Hmm getting asked why I have one technicolour finger nail after I have been painting.

Oh and getting accused of being a nazi due to having an aquila pendant. That one got worse after my history buff buddy pointed out that two heads actually made it byzantine and so on...

TheBlueRedPanda wrote:

A friend of mine once told me that I didn't fully understand the concept of irony.

Which was ironic, because at the time we were standing at a bus-stop.

I went into a standard model shop - trains, RC cars, scalextric etc and asked about modelling supplies. He asked what I wanted to do and, rather than say "I'd like to build an ork battlewagon" I simplified and said "I'd like to scratch build a model tank."

The snobby look he gave me, coupled with the condescending "You want to scratch build a TANK?" meant I never went back. But seriously, since when does the guy that sells model trains for a living get to laugh at my hobby? Is there a hierarchy here? Are we trapped on a scale somewhere between comic books and LARP?

My wife tells me off for being embarrassed by my hobby, which is nice.

A friend of mine once told me that I didn't fully understand the concept of irony.

Which was ironic, because at the time we were standing at a bus-stop.

I think he was confusing irony and pathos.

Emmkay wrote:Hmm getting asked why I have one technicolour finger nail after I have been painting.

Oh and getting accused of being a nazi due to having an aquila pendant. That one got worse after my history buff buddy pointed out that two heads actually made it byzantine and so on...

People point at you and shout "Byzantine!!"? You have some very pretentious enemies..

A friend of mine once told me that I didn't fully understand the concept of irony.

Which was ironic, because at the time we were standing at a bus-stop.

Never been embarrassed due my wargaming, but the vast majority of people I associate with are pretty nerdy in one way or another and understand it.

doctorludo wrote:

TheBlueRedPanda wrote:

A friend of mine once told me that I didn't fully understand the concept of irony.

Which was ironic, because at the time we were standing at a bus-stop.

I went into a standard model shop - trains, RC cars, scalextric etc and asked about modelling supplies. He asked what I wanted to do and, rather than say "I'd like to build an ork battlewagon" I simplified and said "I'd like to scratch build a model tank."

The snobby look he gave me, coupled with the condescending "You want to scratch build a TANK?" meant I never went back. But seriously, since when does the guy that sells model trains for a living get to laugh at my hobby? Is there a hierarchy here? Are we trapped on a scale somewhere between comic books and LARP?

My wife tells me off for being embarrassed by my hobby, which is nice.

Yeah, those people can tend to be a little pretentious about the whole hobby. I guess that happens easily when you let your hobby become your profession. Either that or he's some die hard historian. "NO!!! THOSE TANKS ONLY HAD 3 RIVETS INSTEAD OF 4 BECAUSE OF THE PRICE INCREASE BETWEEN '41 AND '42!!!".

I deal with more slight awkwardness than embarrassment. Plenty of people have seen my workspace or my models and I'm certainly not ashamed of it/them - the hard part is judging when someone is genuinely interested, merely being polite, or only very vaguely curious. I'd feel like more of a tool for rambling on about stuff they can't even follow (in the case of those that lack any frame of reference), let alone find interesting, than for being involved in that stuff, myself.

Although, now that I think about it, I did recently refuse shaking hands when one of my girlfriend's colleagues from the lab stopped by because my hands were covered in personal lubricant. I was tempted to tell him so, but he seemed a little too uptight to justify messing with him. As it was for working with greenstuff (which is what I was doing beforehand, mind you - making pressmolds), I wasn't lying when I called it "mold release." Again, not particularly embarrassing (being that I'm so very well-adjusted), but a tad awkward (granted, he was a tad awkward, so it's rather hard to gauge).

I'm a geek and proud!
The only embarrasing things are the stereotypes and when people fit them.
Like the kids(or adults) who make a massive deal about their games, argue rules till they're blue in the face(rage quitting included) or the socially awkward people who can't string a proper sentence together.

I just hope they'll get it eventually and break the stereotype, i mean video games seem to be seen as kinda cool these days, but only if you play the latest call of doody *sighs*

I was embarrassed when I entered a GW with my girlfriend. I have never had a GW nearby, but I make weekly trips to Victoria to see the girlfriend and conveniently, there's a GW not far away.

My girlfriend plays 40k Eldar and thoroughly enjoys the painting/modelling part, so we went in to grab some paints and a new unit or two. The embarrassing part was the awful stench that nearly every gamer in the small room gave off. Genuinely terrible. It embarrasses me to admit that I'm a nerd and play 40k when there are still examples of individuals that perpetuate the smelly nerd stereotype.

Its hard to show your friends that 40k can be interesting and that the nerd stereotype doesn't exist like it used to when some 40k players can't figure out how to bathe daily.

Anyways, that's what embarrasses me about the hobby, and I swear that the next time I attend a sizable tournament, I'm bringing extra deodorant sticks.