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Jack of All Trades, Master of None.

A horrible amalgamation of the 4-5 Pillars that just kinda exists.

Maybe Butterfly is more accurate, because whichever I'm more invested in depends on where the wind is blowing or which currently smells sweeter.

Mostly a collector, but also the other three to a fair extent.

Also, one more which wasn't mentioned - theoretician. I enjoy thinking about the game, listbuilding, reading codexes etc. This probably takes up more time for me than the others combined.

Conditions have made me mostly a collector (no dedicated modeling/paining area in the new house, nor a local place to play) but I enjoy all aspects.

I do play games like OGRE with (how dare he?!) cardboard chits, but LOVE playing stuff like Wild West skirmish or modern skirmish on some of the fantastic terrain I have with really well painted figures. I love assembling and painting weathering figures/vehicles and then using them in games.

I'd classify myself as a game designer/game tinkerer.

I only have one game on sale right now, but I've too many back-burner projects to mention. Love changing games up, and I'm never afraid to house-rule anything - and that includes board games.

My mentality is very much "if you don't love the game...change it so you do". I don't know if I've played a single game of 8th which didn't have a custom scenario (because chasing tokens is fething lame). I've been modifying games since I was ten (scribbling new hero cards for Hero Quest using Ral Partha minis I'd purchased, etc.).

I love supporting games with cheat sheets, updates, upgrades, tokens, counters, faction dice, etc. I also like pushing the spectacle of a game. Wargaming is an expensive and time consuming hobby, so I couldn't imagine wasting my time playing it at less than the best I can manage.

I enjoy supporting older games, compiling files, references, and other stuff -- I run a blog for 2nd ed. Warhammer 40K with a wealth of resources, etc. Really enjoy that stuff.

Hobby Butterfly is definitely the best description of me.

I flit from project to project at a moments notice. What that project is seems to depend entirely on what I've been reading about or looking at recently. For example I've recently been reading a bit of classic sci fi (War of the Worlds, Jules Verne etc) and as a result currently have a Steampunk/VSF project going on. A couple of months ago it was Fantasy Napoleonics. Next month it could be the 30 years war, 6mm fantasy, a naval game, anything. Even I don't know what it will be yet.

As a result I am drawn to small projects so I guess I'm part of the reason that mass battle games are apparently dying (they're not but some people seem to think that). I'm also a big fan of rule systems that can be applied to multiple eras/settings and miniatures that can easily be used with multiple rulesets. Keeping things fresh is the best way I have to keep myself interested in things.

Overall though I do consider myself to be interested in all aspects of the hobby both as a consumer and creator. I enjoy building and painting miniatures but creating my own using my 3d printer is also something enjoyable. I both buy rule books and write my own, sure I've never got anything truly playable but it's still a fun process to at least give it a go. Finally I do enjoy reading the fluff behind fictional games and will gladly either create my own settings or fluff for my force within an existing one.

Now if only I could actually get a game in. Between all the board games and D&D sessions I play I've not had a chance to play a miniature wargame for at least a year and a half.

 immersive_world_crafter wrote:
If pushed, how would you classify yourself within this hobby? What label would you apply to your category? If you’re in that category, what other categories of tabletop war gaming hobbyist are out there and how do you label them?

For full disclosure, I ask because I am setting up shop within our specific hobby industry and want to be able to provide my copywriter with some insight into the different types of categorisations of hobbyists there are out there without applying my own biases into the mix.

Too late. You can't go full categorizationist without a head full of biases.

Buzzwords aside, what are you offering? That matters more than nondescript disclaimers about 'our specific hobby industry' (which means nothing) delivered via a copywriter.
You're approach is necessarily going to be very different if you're just selling fluff (which is what your handle implies to me), or terrain, or if you've got a whole new game system in mind, or just a generic seller of bitz through ebay.

I'm a player first for sure, though I do enjoy painting minis.

I'm a painter of miniatures (some converting) and especially a builder of terrain which is my favorite part of the hobby.

Genre wise I enjoy fantasy, sci-fi, Post-Apoc and WWW2 gaming.

I never thought of myself as putting much empahsis on the actual playing, but as I've played a wargame of some sort almost every other week for the past 8 years, I'd say that's a fairly large part of my hobby as well. I'd say I'm a casual social gamer the club I'm a part of is the source of a good number of my long term frienships.

All that said, If it's buying habits you're interested I might not much use to the OP's hobby because most of what I acquire are used or heavily-on-sale minis and lots of resale shop junk toys to turn into terrain as well as a smattering of indie wargaming rulesets.

Voss wrote:

Too late. You can't go full categorizationist without a head full of biases.

Buzzwords aside, what are you offering? That matters more than nondescript disclaimers about 'our specific hobby industry' (which means nothing) delivered via a copywriter.
You're approach is necessarily going to be very different if you're just selling fluff (which is what your handle implies to me), or terrain, or if you've got a whole new game system in mind, or just a generic seller of bitz through ebay.

You’re absolutely right, I do have a head full of biases. As we all do.

This is exactly the reason why I am asking for your perspective, rather than just blurting out my own to the copywriter. Purposefully, I wrote ‘our specific hobby industry’ to be a shroud of meaningless rhetoric without putting words into the heads of those that replied. By design, I have attempted to avoid keywords and references that I am aware of and could potentially bias responses.

Voss, I really like how you have challenged what I am doing here. You also have a decent assessment of what I am selling from my handle. I wouldn’t have put it that way, but I guess yes, I could in part be described as selling fluff. I have been an experience designer in the software industry for many years, and I am bringing that perspective of understanding customers and designing for the experiences that they encounter into this venture. I want gamers to be as fully immersed in a world they are gaming within as much as I can muster. I will be selling scenery, customisations and services that aim to meet that criteria. I consider myself an artisan, and I will labour over the details. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but for those that appreciate that level of detail, I hope to be the go to person to provide that.

You have really made me think on this, this evening. Thank you.

I would classify myself as an analyst/experimentalist, with a dash of troll. I dissect a game system, expose its flaws, recommend improvements, and enjoy exploiting edgecases for the comedy value.

I definitely have a lot of all four pillars of the hobby in me. As a collector, I've got a little bit of almost everything for the armies I play (excluding a few unit types that I most likely just haven't gotten around to yet), and I play 3 different armies, with two others building up to playability. As an assembler, I love building the kits, but the downside is that my shelves have way too much gray plastic or black primer showing and too little paint. As a painter, I tend to take my time too much and the result is me acquiring stuff faster than I get it painted, hence the aforementioned "pile of shame" cluttering my shelves. As a gamer, I try to get in as many games as I can, both competitive and casual. I've started tailoring my collecting toward the competitive side since my local meta is very cutthroat, but I'm always up for a more relaxed and fun gaming experience.

In short, I enjoy the hobby in all of its aspects. I predominantly play 40k, although I've been eyeballing Blood Bowl and Age of Sigmar some, and I actually have some models for Warmachine/Hordes and Mantic's Dreadball, although I have never played either one (and don't actively collect them either). I do enjoy the occasional game of Magic: The Gathering as well (Commander format exclusively), and I play some boardgames with friends, so I consider myself a well-rounded gamer.

 greatbigtree wrote:
I consider myself a Garage Gamer. My primary enjoyment of the hobby is as a social engagement with my friends. We play to win, and the prize is bragging rights. We prefer tight, balanced games, or multiplayer games where imbalance (Magic, for example) is balanced by the free-for-all mechanics allow weaker decks to hang up on stronger decks

Ditto, except I'd fall into the lapsed-but-latent category. My armies and hobby stuff are all boxed away after a serious clear out, but I'm still keeping some awareness of what's going on for when I return.

I'm a mixed hobbyist (I love painting despite being terrible at it) and gamer. The game is a mix of brain exercise and socialising, and is unrelated to the painting side. I collect a lot of stuff just to paint, and I'm happy to field grey (or 2/3 colour) mini's.

When the kids are big enough and hooked on gaming, I'm planning on turning the garage into a permanent gaming room

I guess I'm mostly an OCD-level collector.

I've collected duplicates of the rare OOP-miniatures I've wanted to include in my DKoK-army, just so I've got backups in case something goes wrong. That mounted commissar model doesn't come cheap if you want the real thing, and not just some brittle, sloppy knockoff.

Although, it has to be said the plan has always been to assemble and paint the model, so the backup is there in case I make any mistakes.

 Polonius wrote:
I consider myself to be an army builder. I like playing, but the parts of the hobby I love most are painting and collecting models to represent the army vision I have in my head.

Also this.

I consider myself to be an army builder. I like playing, but the parts of the hobby I love most are painting and collecting models to represent the army vision I have in my head.

I'm a painter, collector, airbrush hobbyist (I do some projects outside of wargaming), and fanatical terrain nerd. Gaming happens when it happens, but due to my work schedule that's not nearly as much as I'd like.

Casual gamer with major painting issues.

I paint badly and put things together and play games where we change or make up rules as we go.

I would probably not buy anything from your store, i am sorry.

I suffer from terminal Figmentia.

Really, though, I'm kinda "most" of the things. A collector, painter, and player, probably in that order mostly due to time restrictions. One of the downsides of having some disposable income but not a corresponding amount of disposable time.

Actually thinking about it I'm not sure where I would place myself. I think I'm probably a collector, my long term goal is to get a decent sized 40k army for every faction out there fully assembled and painted (a pipe dream I'm sure many of you are familiar with). While I can afford it I'm buying models for my imperial armies and painting them up as and when I get a chance. The unpainted collection is getting a little bigger each month, but at the same time, I might not be able to keep buying at this pace so I'll no doubt catch up eventually.

I've got grand ideas on a huge campaign I'd like to do once I have the models collected and painted, but I know realistically it's a few years off yet.

Painter,

I paint 20+ hours a week

I play 1-2 games in a month

I used to be TFG powergamer crushing newer players and being an all around ass. I am now hyper casual player. Getting older I guess

Is the copywriter for your business plan?

 Easy E wrote:
Is the copywriter for your business plan?

No, I would never be do frivolous! My ability to write formally for a business plan is not a problem. Writing in an engaging way at the right tone of voice for my own businesses website is where I need help. My copywriter is an amazing professional and this thread has been very helpful for her. Thank you all so much for your valuable input.

2 years ago I would have said I was a player and got at least a game or two in each month.

Nowadays I'm a collector. I've bought and assembled huge quantities of stuff but rarely paint or play anymore

Listbuilder.

My enjoyment from the game isn't from my models, or paint, or even playing. I just like to make lists and then proceed to mathhammer the gak out of them.

I'm a casual, non-competitive gamer.

Literally every army, unit, etc. that I have is based on me looking at the miniature/model and saying "I like that, it looks cool, gimme".

I enjoy modeling, but I rarely have time to paint. Fortunately I have a friend that's finishing up most of what I started (I at least prime them and put some basic colors on them).

I dislike hyper-competitive players and powergamers, and I think there's a funny cycle where they just scum up the meta and everyone quits playing- then the powergamers piss off for a bit and the fun players start again.

 immersive_world_crafter wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
Is the copywriter for your business plan?

No, I would never be do frivolous! My ability to write formally for a business plan is not a problem. Writing in an engaging way at the right tone of voice for my own businesses website is where I need help. My copywriter is an amazing professional and this thread has been very helpful for her. Thank you all so much for your valuable input.

Okay, just make sure you have a Business Plan that is reviewed by a professional.

Good luck.

I consider myself to be a 'Miniatures Enthusiast'.

I am here for the minis, I love collecting them, converting them, sculpting them from scratch, all of it. I still play miniatures-centric games, (though more RPGs these days than Wargames), though in part this is because it gives me an opportunity to use my minis. I like making terrain, though I am just as happy assembling a kit, as scratch building something. I don't paint. Not that I don't like too, it's just so low a priority, I don't get around to it these days.

I also really enjoy consuming fluff material, particularly as it relates to the miniatures, as it give them a greater context and grounding.

I could go on, but lets keep this short for the OP.