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Of course it has little bearing on that. Hence why I didn't bring it up, you did.

The point from the start was that I don't like being lumped in with the kind of person who plays video games to excess when people find out I like wargames. And yes i do believe somebody who spends most of his free hours playing video games is making less of their life than I am. I'm allowed to hold that opinion.

The stereotypes of 'Geek' culture and those who push it are probably a part of the reason people look down on it.

While I loathe the Big Bang Theory, I know people who fit into it's characters descriptions, and don't realise they will alienate people by acting the way they do.

 Glorioski wrote:

The point from the start was that I don't like being lumped in with the kind of person who plays video games to excess when people find out I like wargames. And yes I do believe somebody who spends most of his free hours playing video games is making less of their life than I am. I'm allowed to hold that opinion.

I suppose I can't argue with that but it's a distasteful opinion, and completely unfounded.
I just hope you've understood at some point that not everyone is looking to be productive in their spare time, and would rather experience something emotional or intellectual.

How old are you, OP?
Since your profile states you started gaming in 2007, I suspect you are a very young person.

I'm 42 and have found that hostility toward gaming is mostly a kid thing and that when you get out into the real world...the adult world...such attitudes tend to become less common and the push to be "cool" is all but non-existant.. You find far less of the "lets make fun of the weirdo" type behavior amongst adults than you do with the teenager demographic. It has certainly been my experience that when I mention my gaming to my non-gamer friends or (especially) when I show them some of my painting the usual attitude is mild interest rather than hostility or a condesending attitude.

This is of course just my experience. Others may vary.

TR

Honestly, I think most opinions of 40K are simply results of them not knowing anything about it. I mean ANYTHING. They think it is weird for the same reason they would think it was weird if you said you were into the restoration of authentic Zydeco sheet music from the years 1720-1760.

What small portion doesn't spring from that comes from them realizing it involves miniatures, and conflating warhammer with comic book collectibles. Apart from people who wargame, very few people have anything resembling an opinion on 40K.

 Griddlelol wrote:

AegisGrimm wrote:
Hell, I just got home from a LARP event with my wife.

Role playing is something I could never do. DnD, LARP or any of those things. It just doesn't sit with me. I'm no where near bombastic enough. However, I'd never call it a waste of time. I don't enjoy fishing or poker, but I wouldn't call those a waste of time either. Entertainment is never a waste of time.

Oh, it can be great fun with the right group. My group gives me the roleplaying satisfaction of a tabletop RPG, with the added dynamic of a group of 20-40 that are teaming up against the game staff to accomplish things (while others might be trying to undermine our efforts) and the full-contact 'adrenaline rush' of a paintball/airsoft game. It helps that our events are also 36 hours straight- I have gone to sleep at 2am, only to be woken up at 4am by other player's shouts of alarm to fend off game staff "monsters" attacking our cabins from out of the woods. I once fought for the whole of such a morning combat while barefoot and bare chested because I didn't have time to strap on my platemail, lol.

It's not a waste of time, as I get to hang out with tons of my friends. It's nerdy as all hell, though.

I agree with basically everyone here, most of all being why people consider us as being lowlives. at my club in Dubai you would be amazed at who goes there; one guy says he has a degree in biochemistry. even my friends can't believe that i play it. no one dares critisise me cos I'll just kmock them all over like my kaptain does on the table.

Wargaming, and 40k in particular, is not much different to golf, or paintball, or speedboats.

They can cost roughly the same amount (Build a HH army with titans, and compare that to a set of golf clubs.)
Golf is hardly physically taxing, and lugging your army cases to the club/store can leave your arms trailing along the floor.
Most are fairly social, if only after the event.

Sure, it's unlikely to work well when out on the pull.
But for those of us who don't feel the need for substitute trouser-padding, it'll do.
Does golf look good in the display cabinet?

So, if anyone pours scorn on what I spend my Saturdays doing, I might ask what they get up to instead.

I rem my dad came in one night while we were playing D&D and asked why we played with a frown on his face and where was our friend Nelson and why we weren't out with him since he was usually with us. I said he is at a rave dropping acid should we leave know b/c we could probably still catch him if we left now. My dad just said carry on and never bothered us again.

Then they got on me for my unhealthy obsession with EverQuest (Which it prob was b/c we were playing 18 hours a day and not working) but dropped it when he found out it was how I got a duplex, a car, and my college money, All I needed was 1 pair of Golden efreeti boots a day to sell on ebay. They went for $200 to $300 a pair on ebay. The 1st Cloak of Flames I sold went for $3000.00 on ebay. Rubicite was easy to get and sold for a ton too. I told my parents at least if I have an addiction it will set me up for life and they never got on me again. I sad when Ebay was threatened to be sued by Sony Verant and dropped all EQ items that was the best money I ever made in my life.

It was also fun when people said what do you do for a living and I got to say video games. They would always ask, "People spend that much on video games?". I could at least make people understand by explaining how much my dad spent on his hobby (golf) and my mom on hers (tennis). People will spend money on hobby that is all there is to it.

War gaming is definitely viewed as being on the lower tier of geek culture and unfairly so. I can't convince my friend to get into the game, he complains about the cost, yet he buys every single meh game for ps3 that comes out and trys to tell me why I have to buy said mediocre game. To each their own. Personally 40k has been more than just a game, it is a creative outlet, it is a hobby and it is a game. At he end of the day I have something to show for my hard work, be it a painted squad or finished character. What do you get out of a video game? Steam achievements, Sony trophies? Now don't get me wrong, I play video games but I preferr games with a larger picture, like eve online or planetside 2. They are still no replacement for wargames IMO.

Now there are plenty of bad stereo type gamers out there. Super geeky 15 year olds, TFGs and this one guy who started a conversation with me as I was walking out one day and OMG his breath was horrendous. I wanted to vomit it was so bad. But he is one out of 15-20 people who are mostly normal geeks. I think to walk into a game store and play a table top game with someone between the ages of 15 and 30 takes a person who isn't so driven by normal social conventions. We find it fun to geek out and discuss 40K background. That being said we all have out interests, one thing I can never wrap my head around is anime and why people like it... But like I said its all personal preference and what we relate to.

War gaming is definitely viewed as being on the lower tier of geek culture and unfairly so

Ever seen the documentary on the gaming scene that came out a number of years back titled, "Uber Guber"? I recomend it, if for no other reason than I know most of the gamers intereviewed in it. It can be a bit uncomfortable to watch some of the more....err...extreme characters though. Anyway, one of the people in it makes the valid point that there is a sort of "geek hierarchy" in the gaming community in which historical gamers occupy the "least geeky" and most socially acceptable level of the food chain. This is followed by fantasy tabletop gamers, then the pen and paper RPG players. The LLARPers are at the bottom of the pile. The point is played for laughs, but like much good humor, it has a basis in reality.

TR

I understand why you feel as if Wargaming is hated and such but here in Belgium the situation is quite different.

When people ask me about my hobby they always have a wrong concept (don't blame them, what do they know?). I'll always add that we play with dice and a but-load of rules and we have to assemble and paint them and such. The great social side of it I amend as well and so on and so on. I find that if I just tell people a few things about it their opinion is always greatly changed. You could say = I play warhammer 40k, it's a tabletop game with little soldiers. (Then people would place you right in the stereotypical geek part of their social construction) but if you would say = I play warhammer 40k and it's a hobby in which you have to build and paint... and in a few sentences explain everything cool about it, people will certainly not dislike it! I had many who wanted to visit the GW store in Antwerp just to see what I was talking about, none of them started it of course, never expect that, but if you explain just a little they'll understand alot more!

On the money spend part, yeah people always claim it to be expensive, sports hobbies are too, but my friends are music addicts and they claim my hobby to be expensive (fools). Once one of them said, you really should spend less on your little soldiers so you can party more, I said I didn't spend anything on my little soldiers this month, what have you spend on music this month? When he started counting in his head he already knew he couldn't defend since he gives out alot more than me he suddenly realised, just buying cd's! so he never mumbled about it again, or just to tease me, them little teasers!

So, when anybody asks about it, light all the good parts of it up and people won't dislike you or the hobby. What also helps is not being the stereotypical geek, some of my hobby friends are just those kinds and that never helps our cause. (but hey, when you explain the hobby throw this in there, "yeah it's a geek thing!")

 Glorioski wrote:
I'm still struggling to see anyone naming video games as one of their hobbies on their CV and being able to explain to a potential employer who doesn't play video games why it's a worthwhile use of their time.

I help interview for potential apprentices at my work and this is no word of a lie, in his list of hobbies/interests he listed that he was a member of Xbox Live, the other older staff who interview with me thought that this was something impressive/important (none wanted to admit they didn't know what it was.) I then explained it was something you paid for to let you play video games with your friends online. He was pretty much written off as not getting the job at that point. (He also interviewed very poorly though.)

However for my interview as an apprentice electrician, I actually took a model I had converted/painted with me into my interview along with my CV and achievements etc, when I showed it to them they were very impressed and mentioned that it would have taken a careful amount of patience/skill to make and paint the model as well as I had. (Turns out one of the guys interviewing me was a Flames of War and Historical wargamer.) So he made a point of letting the others know that my work was top notch (which I was beaming about afterwards ).

I'm not saying I got the job because of that alone etc, but it just goes to show our hobby does have its values, even if others find it pointless/stupid.

At the end of the day I'll do whatever I like to do and I've never hidden it from anyone and I never will, if people think it is stupid or pointless or something to make fun of me for then good for them, as far as I'm concerned I couldn't give two s**ts.

Also on the note about video games, Video Games are Art. That is just fact. I agree completely with Griddlelol here. it has given me some very valuable skills and my life would have gone to hell without them as sad as that may seem to some.

 Rysaer wrote:

 Glorioski wrote:
I'm still struggling to see anyone naming video games as one of their hobbies on their CV and being able to explain to a potential employer who doesn't play video games why it's a worthwhile use of their time.

That is just fact. I agree completely with Griddlelol here. it has given me some very valuable skills and my life would have gone to hell without them as sad as that may seem to some.

Like this ?

 TheLionOfTheForest wrote:

 Rysaer wrote:

 Glorioski wrote:
I'm still struggling to see anyone naming video games as one of their hobbies on their CV and being able to explain to a potential employer who doesn't play video games why it's a worthwhile use of their time.

That is just fact. I agree completely with Griddlelol here. it has given me some very valuable skills and my life would have gone to hell without them as sad as that may seem to some.

Like this ?

I know who I will be taking cover behind

honestly with the MICH his head is like a perfect sphere...

Not quite like that, I'm a lot less spherical but close enough I guess

oh and for the OP I have gamed most my life, been on 2 1/2 combat tours and now medically retired from the United States Army, many of my fellw soldiers played 40k and video games, and have gone on to do great things in their careers and lives, a measure of a person is not his hobbies, its just the fruits of his labors to spend as he/she sees fit, to judge based on that is the text book example of stupidity. END RANT

 Chronepsis wrote:
"Parents just don't understand".
-Will Smith 199?

1988. Yes, Will Smith is that old.

*shrugs*

All of gaming-dom, whether its table-top wargames, RPGs, video games or CCGs have gotten various amounts of gak thrown at them for almost 40 years now. It has waxed and waned as time has gone on and, in fact, the last decade or so has seen video games, RPGs, and CCGs especially enjoy a rather wide-spread acceptance amongst the general public. The problem, of course, especially in the CCG realm, is that these games were adopted by young children, and so when you have long-term fans of the genre, who are well into their adult years, playing a competitive game with 9 year olds, it looks very, very odd to the outside observer.

Well, at least tabletop gaming isn't mainstream enough to get the ridiculous "omg wargaming causes violence" stigma.

Knock on wood...

I got bullied at school since I liked warhammer called Nerd, weirdo and alot of more hurtful names just because they thought it was some sad little game that little kids played I just really liked reading the novels for how Grimdark they were and when someone asked what I was reading and I tried describing what it was and what it was from people laughed at me, especially when I mentioned how to play warhammer

i reckon it is really unfair judging people on their hobbies or what people think the hobby labelling it with the typical NERD stigma which most people immediately think when you mention warhammer and what it is.