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I dont find it addictive at all.

I find that the collectibility aspect of these types of games is a major factor in the addictiveness, in the same vein as why World of Warcraft is so popular. They both have this positive reinforcement aspect, where once you achieve one goal there is a new goal that is just a little bit higher than the last one. In the case of Warhammer 40k there is starting out with an army, small 500 point games and from there you expand in order to get larger games in. And with each iteration of your codex new units are added that gives people more reason to expand. Add to that the social, fluff, list creating, etc that others have mentioned and you have a system where you can keep expanding until your wallets empty. And while there are some bad aspects of the hobby, they are manageable and have some silver linings. Like people becoming disenfranchised with the game and dumping their stuff on E-bay/bartetown/dakkas swap shop for a faction of the price, I should know this considering I have almost 20k of Necrons now all of it heavily discounted.

 welshhoppo wrote:
There is a reason people call it plastic crack.

Basically, everytime you play it is always different. It's not like a game where you can learn to beat the AI. Your opponent may bring a new list which floors you, or the dice gods might decided that today is the day of the 1 (leadership tests do not adhere to celebrations of the day of the 1, they celebrate the day of the 6 intead.)

This. If 40k were a game of skill then the brightest person would simply win every time and everyone else in the group would get sick of it and go on to video games or something. But while there's enough tactical thinking to keep you engaged mid battle (mainly in relation to LOS/movement, also comparing the damage output of potential attacks), it basically all comes down to dice at the end of the day, so it's always basically random.

Literal reason?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oniomania

Dopamine responses from grabbing a little guy and adding to your pile of other little guys with the grand vision of a complete army painted to the nines walking across the board.

 Zarynterk wrote:
Me thinks Jancoran is an undercover agent of GW here to spread wild propaganda and spin deceivingly intricate webs of lies in order to gain our affection...

Never will this work I tell you, NEVER!

Hehehe. Not a plant or a shill. Just tellin it like it is. I saw Robotech when I saw Tau and fell in love.

Well, it appears that in our gaming group 40k lost an edge due to the obvious reasons.

This basically concerns long-term players who partially moved to WM/H, while players who came back into the hobby recently seem to be the ''addicted'' ones.

Cynical view alert!

Optimism of those who have not enough experience to judge 40k objectively.

And the need to vocally justify the expenditure by those who invested so much into it, before they become aware of the lack of value they got.

mr_maxime wrote:
I dont find it addictive at all.

Heresy! Lies!

40k, as well as any other table top war game, plays on the risk/reward centers of the brain. Just going through the steps of playing the game combines anticipation, gambling, critical thinking, and artistic appreciation into a near-ritualized activity which rewards you at each step with a dopamine response. Building an army you like and want to play rewards you with dopamine. Getting that army to look just right rewards you with dopamine. Successfully arranging for a game rewards you with dopamine. Going through each step of the game, from rolling for sides to deployment to You-Go/I-Go rewards you with dopamine.

Winning? Dopamine.
Getting angry? Dopamine.
Lossing? Denied dopamine.
Bragging? Dopamine.
Frustrating rules? Denied dopamine.
Arguing about frustrating rules? Dopamine.
Buying models? Dopamine.

Its the same mechanic behind addiction, specifically habitual addiction. Be it accidental or intentional, the Gaming Community are habitual addicts chasing their next high via the ritual of table top gaming.

Hi, my name is SJ, and I'm a Gaming Addict. <Hi, SJ!>

Lanrak wrote:
Cynical view alert!

Optimism of those who have not enough experience to judge 40k objectively.

And the need to vocally justify the expenditure by those who invested so much into it, before they become aware of the lack of value they got.

Admittedly, I waver in and out of WH40k and have since I first got into the hobby back in 2004-05. I just recently took a year-long break (missing most of 6th Edition, to my dismay). But in my fondness for 40k, even as my army collected dust, I was still reading plot synopsis online and even picked up a couple of new (to me) BL novels. I re-read a couple of my older novels, and for no real reason, kept up with what was being launched by GW. I haven't bought any new models or rule books, and won't for a while longer (with the exception of the new 7th Edition BRB... -ing GW...), I still have a bunch of models that need to be fixed, customed, painted, re-painted and assembled. Which means I get to wait even longer to get a Wraithknight. ( ) The breath of fresh air that was me wandering away from the hobby and the way I've gotten back into the hobby, (paying more attention to other people's advice and ideas on the universe, mostly through Youtube Videos while I paint, but also by reading this and other Forums) has given me much more levity about GW and the Grimdark future setting they publish. It's a game, a story and an expression of aesthetic tastes, and despite the fact that GW can make you mad, that levity and love of the game and setting keeps me coming back.

 jeffersonian000 wrote:
Hi, my name is SJ, and I'm a Gaming Addict. <Hi, SJ!>

Hello SJ. I'm M.A. and I too am a Gaming Addict.

 rabidguineapig wrote:

mr_maxime wrote:
I dont find it addictive at all.

Heresy! Lies!

40k lost my interest quite some time ago. Still quite compulsive about buying other cool minis, especially rackham ones I dont own.

On a side note, switching to full plastic and resin really decreased the enjoyment for me. I loved hearing the solid *thunk* of a model as I moved it across the table. Finecast makes me feel like im moving terrain around and I hate it.

I live in the Salt Lake City area. On Thursdays, me a lot of people get together at a place called Hastur Games and Comics, and play from 7 to 10 (occasionally past that, to the slight annoyance of the shop owners, but usually we're pretty good at wrapping things up before then).

What is the experience like for me? We laugh. We play. We have our moments of glory (or shame). We all enjoy this so much that we even have our own made-up characters, like Captain Van Damm, who rides on the back of a Vendetta gunship with a thunder hammer so he can vector strike people. Or Thomas, the Crisis suit who wields an old-fashioned lantern for a markerlight. Or Kaptin Blacktoof and his first mate Mista Skrew.

After we play, we go to an all-night waffle house and talk, laugh, and eat until the wee hours of the morning.

I wouldn't trade this for the world.

In a nutshell, 40k has helped me make friends. IMO, that's well worth the overpriced models and books.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

I just have no problem at all with the addiction idea. Its the healthiest addiction Ive ever seen though.

 Kain wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:
I think what Freud would say is that it all stems from your impulsive desire as an infant to collect your own poop.

There's a reason why Freud's ideas are only considered a bedrock for modern psychology to be built on, rather than a basis to be based off of.

To be fair, Freud has some good points such as the personality aspect, however most of the time it really is just a loophole he found in psychology and said "lol you can't disprove it"..

Seems familiar with what I see in the YMDC part of Dakka

Bact to topic, I like the converting side of the game, I enjoy seeing my own creations going in and blowing stuff up

Put simply: It's a power trip. You have under your control something that can destroy something else, and you created it, and you take pride in that.
And if you lose, what's the big deal? You'll get another shot at it next weekend.

Personally I don't care if I win or not, yeah its nice to win, but i feel better knowing that I like the models I own and have personalised, given a story and well... what the guys above have said all too perfectly.

People that are in it for just winning kinda annoy me, as much as i respect their personal preference, the kinda people that spend a shocking amount of money on the most broken set of units, cheat their point margins and just have very little knowledge on background and the brilliant lore that I think definitely rivals that of Lotr and various others (As mentioned above, and suprised me that someone else agreed) overcoat their models in a thick green ooze of paint and play to 100% win at all costs.

Either way I love the game for the building, painting, personalization, history, lore/fluff and my opinion on games is more of a "Meh" considering some actions are practically unfluffy or "Look wierd" visually.

Its a choice of course, but if you take a large str 10 blast on a vividly cinematic formation of a squad whereas taking only 3 casualties by a very fruity looking line formation of termagaunts to minimise blast effectiveness gets at me.

Basically.... This is just me being really picky though, apart from said prices I cant think of much bad to say about Warhammer in general. All about 40k

The fluff is what makes 40k great.
40k also offers a huge amount of conversion possibilities compared to other miniature games, which is also a major point for me.
My only complaints about 40k are the high price compared to other games, the boring turn system and some of the more glaring balance issues.

To save the universe and mankind from the aliens... Duh!

It was definetly the fluff/setting. But GW's horrific policies have easily killed by addiction to 40k the game in its current form. But by all means, everyone should still embrace 40k without GW.

The background is rich and unique in the genre and the models are usually great and easy to assemble or convert. I think people stay with the game hoping it will be as fun as it feels like it should be. sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.

I like making things. I love the tactile sensation of working with materials, from fabric to hardwood. My primary employment is as a fashion designer and lately I've been doing an obscene amount of lingerie work. I tremendously enjoy it. The precision... the delicacy. But I'm also an unabashed nerd and it's hard to convey to some of my gaming bros the sorts of stuff that I'm doing with work because they don't really have a frame of reference. They're not artsy-fartsy enough to grasp some of the crap that I do which isn't anything against them... just as there are "car people", individuals that get excited by RPMs and engine stats there are people that get heated by high quality silk and buckles.

So Warhammer 40k gives me a means of expressing myself artistically to those that I like hanging out with. The fact that it's 40k is irrelevant for the most part. I've latched onto the setting and mythology moreso than Warhammer Fantasy, that's the only real reason for it.

Warhammer 40k gives me a medium to relate artistic flights of fancy and aesthetic notions to people that I genuinely like hanging out with.