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This is actually about both 40K and Fantasy, but since I tend to spend more time with 40K, I put it here.

Now, during the 90es and half of the 2ks, used to know everything about both game systems: every rule, every model, and everything about the background, even some obscure old RT era things. From about 2006 on, I was content knowing most of it, letting minor matters like novels about obscure space marine chapters go past me, but knowing all that really had something to do with the models and the game.

Recently, however - say over the course of the last two years - I am beginning to feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff there is to know. GW seem to have been releasing more and more new models, a massive amount of new background material via Black Library and Forge World, including all the RPGs and things like that. Now I had a two-month hiatus during which I was out of touch with the hobby community, and I feel as though there was so much new stuff, I do not even want to try to learn about it all.

40K - and Fantasy, for that matter - seem to become so complex, both fluffwise and ruleswise, I just cannot understand it all anymore.

Is that just me getting old - I am 30 now! - or do most people feel like that?

40K is aimed at teenage boy nerds who have a huge capacity and love for masses of detailed trivia.

It's not surprising that at the age of 30 you have moved past that stage. You are probably using your brain power for things like work and life rather than special rules that change every year or so.

I'm the same... RPGS, oblivion 40k and phd have replaced prgs warhammer 40k and school.

Phototoxin wrote:I'm the same... RPGS, oblivion 40k and phd have replaced prgs warhammer 40k and school.

You mean for you it is not the way it is for me, but the same as it has always been for you? Or the other way round?

Kilkrazy: Yes, that could be true. I had not considered that perspective yet.

Same thing happened to me (and I'm 29). Basically, I just stopped caring so much, and started playing more systems. It stopped being so important to memorise EVERYTHING, and when books and rules were re-released I flicked through to familiarise myself with them, but thats where it stops these days.

Trying to memorise every rule for every faction for a dozen or so game systems is just tedious these days.

Oh it gets much worse as you get older.

Things change at an exponential rate.
Your memory starts to deteriorate at the inverse square of the rate the new stuff is created
This generates an inability to tolerate the immense pointlessness and stupidity of all the new stuff.
As a result you will finally emerge as a fully fledged Grumpy Old Man.

oh, and hairs grow out of your nose as an extra insult from an increasingly hostile and implacable universe.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Oh it gets much worse as you get older.

Things change at an exponential rate.
Your memory starts to deteriorate at the inverse square of the rate the new stuff is created
This generates an inability to tolerate the immense pointlessness and stupidity of all the new stuff.
As a result you will finally emerge as a fully fledged Grumpy Old Man.

oh, and hairs grow out of your nose as an extra insult from an increasingly hostile and implacable universe.

Also, at some point you run across a really cool way to do things, and so for the rest of your life you always claim that it was better 'back when.'

But on the real, yes, I feel your pain brother. I've had to give up comic books entirely because of this.

Well, I don't think it actually lessens my enjoyment.. it might even make me enjoy it more, because instead of nerd battles about who knows better, I can more often enjoy finding out new things without feeling that I need to know about it.

I think up to the point where I realized this, I felt I needed to know everything about 40k. And that is actually not true.

As a new player, and being 33 years old, I think a great deal of the problem is that the rules are confusing, poorly written, all over the place, and there are so many "if this, then that".

When you get older, you simply can't dedicate the time and effort to one task like that. Which is why I'm so happy these forums exist because I can learn what I need to know quicker than I can reading the GW rules / codex.

crazylegsmurphy wrote:I think a great deal of the problem is that the rules are confusing, poorly written, all over the place, and there are so many "if this, then that".

100% this!!!

The rules really need a better proofreading team assigned to it.

Its like they shot maple syrup into chimps and had them proofread...

ur getting old end of story.

Well I'm 46 now and just learn the rules for my army as well as a small bit of the fluff from the codex. I started when 2nd ed was around and have followed all the eds since but quit trying to remember all the story fluff and just play the game. Its like trying to get to know a pawn or rook in chess, hmm.

I feel just the same as you, Skylifter. Especially when it comes to background. The rules I have more difficulty with now because I play several different games, so I'm trying to cram more into an increasingly sluggish head. The background has just proliferated way to much for me to still be interested in the new stuff, a lot of it contradicting itself, almost all of it poorly-written and uninteresting.

Ham doctor wrote:ur getting old end of story.

... and you obviously need to get your head down at school and concentrate on your English young man!

Wait for the next generation to start writing the rules and fluff.
ZOMG There was like this Primarch who was waaaay kwel and like a total AWESUM BADASS dude!!! He totally pwnd that Chaos LOSER! /story.

Edit: No comments about Matt Ward already writing like this please!

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:

Ham doctor wrote:ur getting old end of story.

... and you obviously need to get your head down at school and concentrate on your English young man!

Wait for the next generation to start writing the rules and fluff.
ZOMG There was like this Primarch who was waaaay kwel and like a total AWESUM BADASS dude!!! He totally pwnd that Chaos LOSER! /story.

Edit: No comments about Matt Ward already writing like this please!

Just like Ma--! Aw.

Seriously, though, I do feel the quality of fluff has declined.