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Hiya gals and guys of Dakka,

As the title states, how has GW been a good influence in your life?

I found out recently I am being made redundant, meh it happens, but I found that I could always fall back on my hobby and be content. After all, I have invested nearly thirty years in it. And I play CSM and DE! Glutton for punishment ATM.

Let's get positive and reflect on how our hobby is awesome.

All the best.

40k. Sometimes people forget that not everyone brings triple riptide and grav cents and when you remember that suddenly everything looks good. The amount of laughs I've had with my friends whether it be rolling 4 ones (with 4 dice ) or just joking around. The social aspect is huge for me, but I also get to partake in a (turns out to be) really fun hobby. The feeling of opening up that box and seeing all that grey plastic is still amazing

The plastic crack does it for me too

After years of addictively purchasing new models and kits for a variety of different games I can now safely look back and say that at the roots of it, GW started me out in this hobby and thanks to them I shall never have money for drugs.

I have no money for drugs haha

40k. It costs your money, it costs your time, it costs your life (wife). Positive influence. Doubtful.

My painting skills went from bad to respectfully mediocre, I stopped playing league of legends (and buying those useless skins) so I am generally happier/less salty, and I now have been making friends outside of the work place which hasn't really happened since college.

I also lack money to buy drugs due it being spent on little plastic orks.

GW made 40k. 40k inspired me to write fluff and fan fiction. Writing improved my English language skills. The hobby as a whole (writing fluff, modelling, painting) also improved my creative skills.
And I suppose I got to waste time while having fun. Arguably I could have spend that time on useful productive activities instead (studying for example ) but having fun instead of working is positive too isn't it?

It's cured me of cabin fever before. That's positive.

I was lucky and found GW when they made lots of cool games and showed you how to be creative and have fun.(1988-1998)

Then when GW plc started exploiting their position , I left GW behind , and found other companies that showed people how to be creative and have fun, without charging silly amounts of money.

It let me discover warmachine/hordes! :p

But on a serious note, it gave me a hobby I greatly enjoy and an IP and introduced me to a load of fantasy worlds that have enthralled me for over ten years.

Plus it keeps me out of trouble. Mrs.deadnight likes the fact that she can count on me painting wee metal doods instead of going out and boozing, or watching silly sports!

Something to do during the 3 months of summer

It taught me how to use spreadsheets.

Made me dream as a kid.

Taught me hobby knife safety

Taught me how to contact the Hive Mind.

I mean er wat.

Without GW and 40k I would have even less of a social life and would be without things like DoW and Space Marine and Total War Warhammer

Grew up and found miniature gaming through Hero Quest, followed by Battle Masters (both supported by GW) and then eventually picked up some GW marines without knowing they were part of a game system.

Later enjoyed the golden period of GW in the mid to late 90's with wonderful independent games like Necromunda, Warhammer Quest, etc. While I've shied away from most of their current stuff --- back when they were a failing business run by geeks the atmosphere/attitude of Games Workshop was actually quite tremendous.

Through those games etc. I definitely became a wargamer, moving on to create my own games (even selling some). As sad as it seems later versions of 40K helped me when designing my Old West game --- providing examples of precisely what I did not want in a table top wargame.

So, good, and bad, but it was a good start. Definitely kindled the imagination when I was 10-14 and starting.

They gave me a game to play with my mom that we both enjoy, and a universe I can enjoy indulging in with my partner.

It's too bad all my models and everything have been packed in boxes for almost a year while we've been trying to sell our house.

Also it was fun to talk with my dad about strategy stuff while he was still around...

When I was in middle school we had a Warhammer club where I met a bunch of my friends. I had no clue what warhammer was at the time but damn did the plastic crack get to me.

I love boardgames and video games, but the physicality of it makes it so much more enjoyable somehow. Plus the hobby has made me a much better painter than I ever thought.

I've branched out and played other miniature games (currently getting into malifaux) but gamesworkshop has always had the best models to me. Malifaux are a pain in the arse to assemble and paint with their super insanely small detail. Same with Infinity. Some Privateer Press stuff looks cool but Warmachine/Hordes has very.....angular models. Almost like they were designed in 2d first. Every one of these companies could do something about the prices though

The models I've built and painted are actual objects of artistic creativity. They will live longer than I will.

I guess I improved my manual dexterity, I also developed a taste for painting models differently than seen in books.

However, the most important thing is that it forced me to go out and talk to people. As someone who gets incredibly anxious when I need to talk to strangers, being forced to to play with my toy army helped me develop from a kid who couldn't look a stranger in the eye.

I tend to be more productive getting chores completed more quickly so I can get to my hobbying.

In my younger days I struggled to learn to make friends the hobby helped with that.

I have become very good at finding things... Spotting a needle in a hay stack is easy compared to finding a dropped purity seal on a grey rug.

It's introduced me into the wonderful world of miniatures. Even if I'm not really into 40k that much anymore I have GW to thank for that.

I rather like the tactical aspect of the game, and especially the creative aspect with my conversions and stuff. It's nice to make things and show your 'not so much into 40k' friends and they go "wow that's pretty cool"

Of course there is the whole social side too, forging a narrative from your games, meeting new folks and so on.

Positives:
I made some friends
I learned how to cast
I learned how how to sculpt
I learned how to paint miniatures.
I leaned how to build small scale maquettes

Negatives:
It filled my storage with gaming stuff and miniatures.
It costed me thousands of euro's over the years while I could not really afford it.
All the time I spend on it keeps me from doing any true creative projects.

It helped me meet a lot of cool people, who I can count as dependable friends. It helped my creative side. It helped in getting me out of some serious personal problems. Finally it showed me that it's never too late to try something ambitious, like writing, even if it is mainly for myself.

It helped me read more fiction and be think outside the box in design and customisation. These days I'm into adding things to anything, cars, clothes etc and it all comes from trying to make my army look great on the table.

I've also gotten to know some really great people, including one guy who I ended up seeing loads of concerts with. Someone in every town plays it, so I have friends all over the uk now. If I'm lost or alone in a new place, there's always always a mate at gw.

I'm sure it's also improved my maths skills (and budgeting) just from dice rolls and crazy prices.

I don't want to sound consumerist or anything, but I can thank that company for a lot of stuff when I think about it.

They cut down my video game time a lot. Thank god. Barring the very rare game I usually don't play anywhere near like I used to.

Just not fun with how the industry is going. I've said it many times but GW is actually "nice" compared to a lot of video game publishers and even some developers and I think GW and nice are the last two things I would ever put in one sentence.

Basically it's stopped me going completely insane. I suffer with a chronic medical condition that limits my life considerably. 75% of the time I'm out of it and can't do much aside from sleep or lay in bed. Before I got back into the hobby I was on a clear path to becoming a hermit.

Last year I got out all my old 2nd edition 40k stuff to sell, it had been in the attic for nigh on twenty years. But I decided to strip it all down and repaint it. Mainly because it would give me something constructive and positive to take my focus away from my illness, and something to actually do when I wasn't sick. It's done wonders for my mental state, I'm no longer anywhere near as depressed as I was, and getting back into the hobby has pushed me to get out of the house when I'm able to, and go to gaming club or the local GW for a game of 40k. So not only have I managed to scrape some sort of social life together, but I've made some new friends along the way.

I honestly think getting back into the hobby has stopped me sinking into a deep depression.

So yeah, I think it's had a massive positive influence on my life, not quite sure where I would be without it now.