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Ahhh.... So much memories with this amazing "expensive' art.
I had so many moments with my chaps, back when we were so new to the game. And I never knew any of the rules... Looking back at them makes me laugh.
Just to sum this up, I had many very fun times playing with my plastic crack.

I used to play online videogames and sat at home all the time. Now I have more of a social life. I have friends that want to hang out and playing games, mainly 40k. I've always enjoyed modeling and now I get to do that more. Mainly how GW has influenced my life is that I've found that my local group is a pretty good group of guys. We are willing to help one another, both in the hobby/game and in life.

Earlier this year, one of the guys lost his job. He worked at a game shop and it went under. He posted in our FB group that he lost his job. Several of the guys in the community have management jobs and told him to apply where they would work and they could get him a job so he could at lease make some money til he found something he wanted. Now the guy makes almost double of what he was making at the game shop and gets to more time off. Personally, I've helped couple of our group members move.

@ General Kroll, that is great news. I hope everything is working out for you.

Well after I got sober I realised I needed something to keep my hands busy to save me from going back so I picked the hobby back up again. Idle hands are the devils work

NoiseMarine with Tinnitus wrote:@ General Kroll, that is great news. I hope everything is working out for you.

Thanks, the whole illness thing has kind of become the norm for me now, so it's really just a matter of getting it under control and making sure I can do something productive during the times I'm not under the weather.

 General Kroll wrote:
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.

That's great news. I'm trying to do basically the same thing. So far my depression wins, but I'm confident that in the end I'll manage to be the one on top. Best wishes for you.

 Xathrodox86 wrote:

 General Kroll wrote:
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.

That's great news. I'm trying to do basically the same thing. So far my depression wins, but I'm confident that in the end I'll manage to be the one on top. Best wishes for you.

Thanks. You too! I personally find that no solution to an illness is a cure all in one job. With my condition, it's lots of little things that add up to help make my life a little better than it could be, and that's the important thing to focus on.

In practice, thanks to them;

-I'm aware of countless awesome stories and characters
-I've met great people probably in the hundreds
-I've had a great time playing with said people
-I was born with artistic talent, and I've channeled that through the hobby
-Painting and modeling is somewhat relaxing when done without gritted teeth

They are the reason I found this hobby, which I still enjoy thoroughly even though they have driven me away from their own games and products. For that I do believe they have had a positive effect despite all the dumb gak I hate about the company.

I have been suffering from Agoraphobia and related social anxieties and Severe Depression since I was 13(now 29) and having GW and 40k especially is one of the few things in my life I can actually engage in without my brain and its issues getting in the way. Whether it be the Black Library novels or an idea for a model or two, the hobby is great at getting me out of a potentially negative headspace.

Also even though I am Agoraphobic and can regularly never leave my house for months on end the brilliant staff at my local GW are well aware of my conditions and problems and always come up to me and talk and ask how I'm doing on the odd occasions I can get into the store. In fact with their help and support I was even able to get myself to a Games Day a few years ago at the NEC Arena in Birmingham. They have also helped me re-engage myself in the hobby to the extent that I've been able to have 2 battles in the store relatively recently which is something I have been unable to do since Pre-Eye of Terror Campaign in 2003 I believe.

I know GW can get a lot of stick both deserved and not, and while I personally disagree with a few of their decisions I can honestly say without doubt that my life would be in a much worse and darker place if I wasn't involved in this brilliant hobby.

No matter how bad/stressful life gets I can always lose myself in the 40k universe and forget about my problems/reduce my stress.

Because of 40K, I have learned to be more confident about myself. I used to be rather self-conscious about my colorblindness and as a result I never drew or painted in color.
Coming into my local 40K community and seeing how people with very well and less well painted armies came together and had fun is what did it for me. And even armies that weren't very skillfully painted always had a certain charm to it because you always can see the care someone puts into their models.

I started painting and some peope jokingly started saying: "Well, might as well quit the hobby because the colorblind guy learned to paint better in half the time it took me to paint like that!"
It really lifted my spirit and as a result I started learning painting around being colorblind, using colors in a way both visible and appealing to me and others.

For me personally, Warhammer (Fantasy to some extent while it was alive, but primarily 40k) has been a saving grace during very dark times in my life as a very gripping and enthralling escape.

From close family members being diagnosed with life threatening illnesses, to me losing a long fought for (years) career due to injury and struggle to find employment due to a failing economy ( particularly my local area within 1hr drive in any direction), since I was a teenager 40k has been a fantastic escape.

On some of my darkest days, I've just come home, put on a movie or tv series and just completely mentally checked out with a paint brush in hand.

Other times whilst ive been catching long train rides up for interviews or exams at like 0500am running on 45 minutes sleep, I lose myself in some Black Library fiction and become completely engrossed in the rich extensive world that is the Grim Dark Future

There is a close friend of mine who used to stay just outside of my local area, with about 3 neighbours, in a reception dark zone with very limited access and no internet connection, and upon losing his job I know he dove into 40k painting and reading pretty hard in order to keep his sanity.

To summarize, the Grim Dark Future has been a constant in a life that has forever been the complete opposite.

Idk if I could chalk this up to GW, but I go through heavy periods of depression or anxiety where I can't really deal with things other than eating and sleeping. Painting usually can really help depending on if I can get a good start made or not.

and I kinda grew up in the middle of nowhere (approx an hours drive to be anywhere with people in it barring the cluster of pubs that constituted a village), I didn't really get to hang out with people a great deal outside of school/work so the fluff kinda tided me over for stuff to keep my head busy.