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Did any of you fellow 40k wargamers ever experience a situation in which people have insulted you or made fun of you because you play warhammer?
In my case, a few years back, the popular gang at school, always made comments about me, and other 40k gamers, and made snitty remarks that we play with dragons and catapults, etc.
I know some of these moments were so infuriating, but unfortunately, it is illegal to deliver the Emperor's wrath on the ignorant....

So, any of yous guys went through such experiences?

 Phosis T'Kar Jr wrote:
Did any of you fellow 40k wargamers ever experience a situation in which people have insulted you or made fun of you because you play warhammer?
In my case, a few years back, the popular gang at school, always made comments about me, and other 40k gamers, and made snitty remarks that we play with dragons and catapults, etc.
I know some of these moments were so infuriating, but unfortunately, it is illegal to deliver the Emperor's wrath on the ignorant....

So, any of yous guys went through such experiences?

Im sure everyone has experienced this on more than a few occasions in their lifetime. I personally have been mocked mercilessly since I started. But then I look at the people mocking me and I realize they are only covering up their own pain and yadda yadda yadda... I brush it off and get on with my life. I honestly don't give a flying feth what they think about what I do in my free time, and I care less what they do in theirs.

My own personal experiences have cost me more than a few bruises (on both sides) and several dozen models destroyed (Back when my high school had a gaming club). It was just once or twice there were actual confrontations mostly it was just mocking and the usual things. Just brush it off and go on with your life mate. Those kinds of people will always be there in this world and its up to you how you react to them.

Same thing there, mate

Happens everyday to me. Worst bit was when during an outing with a bunch of chicks, I popped into a gamesworkshop. Those girls gave me a hard time after that. All you need to do is not take it too seriously cause after a while it stops bothering you.

I found it just depends on how you react to the tormenting.

I was into 40K throughout highschool and even ran the local gaming club in the area - every time someone tried to bring it up in a negative light I would either laugh it off or explain the appeal to them (depends how receptive they were, I even managed to convert a few ) then again i was fairly convincing (managed to wrangle $500 worth of scenery out of the local GW because I ran a club with 20 paying members).

Like any other form of harassment if they dont get a reaction they don't bother bringing it up again.

Everyone has there thingts no different to console/pc gaming - the obsessive stats are no different to sports fans frothing over batting averages etc...

Most of all it is your hobby; enjoy it and dont let anyone detract from it!

 Dmyze wrote:
I found it just depends on how you react to the tormenting.

This is why I always ritually torture and slaughter anyone who dares to insult me. After the first few people get turned into a bloody example for the others the insults tend to stop.

Interestingly enough only by one person and she had serious mental problems where she physically assaulted several people (and this is ~8 years after high school). All the other people that have found out have not given me flack or ended up joining up with me. Even during high school I almost got the high school to endorse a DnD/WH club...fell 1 member short when one of my people graduated and I didn't have time to recruit with American Football training camp.

I don't recommend most of the ritual sacrifice routes as they tend to require a great deal of cleaning. You have models to paint why make unnecessary mess?

 ansacs wrote:
You have models to paint why make unnecessary mess?

Play Khorne.

 Peregrine wrote:

 ansacs wrote:
You have models to paint why make unnecessary mess?

Play Khorne.

Fair enough. Make sure you have proper sealant then as blood dries to a dust like consistency fairly quickly. You will go from khorne to nurgle within the year.

Oh yes. Several times. Though... those situations turn unpleasant for them and not me. I'm the guy known to be almost impossible to insult. It just get's frustrating to the other person if he/she keeps trying.

Pfft, Warhammer has made me the coolest guy in the class.

Although, I do cop a fair bit of flak in my FLGS for playing a race with a Matt Ward codex.

Stop playing 40k until after you finish school.

Problem solved.

I didn't play 40k at school and had no issues - but that was up until 1986 and 40k wasn't around yet.

Never had any extra problem with such back in school, maybe because a stack of books really wasn't anything the bullies cared about. Most of them could barely read so they weren't going to check what that new book was about. To them it was enough that you could read. Poor things. :-)

Id say the thing that bothers me the most is when other 40k players throw a huge fit about something. For example 6th ed had just come out. A grey knight player over in FT. Walton threw a huge fit because he lost a single paladin and a rhino to my previous codex tau. He won easily but he threw a huge fit about how he didnt table me in two to three turns and how i took a few things out turn one.

When I was making a drink run up to the food court for myself and my fellow GW staffers, a gaggle of girls saw my red shirt and the fattest one then started to tease me about playing with boys toys & wanting to be a boy and asking me how does it feel to be a girl-boy and other crap like that...

I simply turned to her and asked her how did she like having to pay her boyfriend just to touch her.

The number of people pointing and laughing at her afterwards made me smile!


Basically, if someone wants to be donkeycave and try to throw humiliating/degrading insults at me, well, I just throw better ones right back at them and leave them the ones who are crying.

Meh, I embrace my D(o)rk Side. Besides, the people that know me (that matter) love me for it, and luckily for me, to the people who don't know me, I don't really look like the kind of guy you want to tease much.

 Maelstrom808 wrote:
Meh, I embrace my D(o)rk Side. Besides, the people that know me (that matter) love me for it.

Amen to that

Its better to be yourself. I got flak from people for being a brony that also played Warhammer, WH40K, DnD, Starcraft, ect. just dont let it get to ya. I love playing Warhammer and thats not going to end because of some jerks getting their kicks through me. I owned up to my interests when people would joke about them, now they dont joke.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Thatguyhsagun wrote:

 Maelstrom808 wrote:
Meh, I embrace my D(o)rk Side. Besides, the people that know me (that matter) love me for it.

Amen to that

Better said and wholly agree

I got teased in highschool.

3 years of gym work
A hot girlfriend (who lets me drag her into
FLGS)
And an attitude that says "I'm better than you and I know it"

Haven't had an issue since, if anyone asks I just own up to it,"Yeah those are little plastic men, I told you I was a nerd bro", you'd be surprised how quick people give up mocking you if you openly mock yourself.

Meh we;ll have our revenge when the imminent apocalypse dawns and half the people who mocked you cant work out how to light a fire or safety cook food. We can wait, time is on our side.....


Revenge of the Nerds, judgement day is coming......

"Did any of you fellow 40k wargamers ever experience a situation in which people have insulted you or made fun of you because you play warhammer?"

No. I'm incredibly handsome and artistic. Women fawn over me and men respect my painting skills.

My family asked what I was up to and I said 40k. I had to explain it to them. They said - Oh no another game. I showed them some of my painting. Now they ask to see what I have finished next.

Work was the same way till I bought in a couple of pieces. People admire talent. If your good at painting show off a couple of pieces.

Maybe the simplest thing to do is recognize that Warhammer is inherently nerdy and not "cool" by society's standards. I see alot of posters who seem to want to defend 40K as the coolest activity in the world...but it's not. Flying airplanes is cool. Surfing is cool. Rock climbing is cool. Sports cars are cool. Having a girlfriend/boyfriend and being physically fit are also cool, but that's another screed for another day.

I don't advertise the fact that I play 40K to everyone around me. I don't wear the t-shirts, or have Dawn of War audio clips as my ringtones. I have friends at my FLGS, and other friends. Of the "other" friends, only a few (really my girlfriend, roommate, and former roommate) know I play or what it is. They are close friends, and respect and value me for who I am and one of them is super into manga so he can't judge anyway.

You want to be "cool"? Do something cool, and don't take your hobbies too seriously. My response has always been "yeah it's really nerdy but it's fun". Then I go back to whatever I was doing.

As others have mentioned.... this thread pretty much pertains to the highschool years. Back then I didn't advertise that I was into 40k and just discussed it amongst my other friends who were into it - problem solved. If you try and be a hero by rebelling and playing at school..... you are asking for it. We had some of these heros playing yu-gi-oh in the hall..... pro tip: you will never be able make "activating my trap card" sound cool when you are 17+

Now in my mid 20s it is about knowing which are your friends can appreciate this hobby like you do. To the friends who can't appreciate it: "I build and paint plastic model kits in my spare time" - that is all they need to know.

My point: 99% of the time people paint targets on their own backs. A bit of caution can save you a load of grief.

Not really. I've had people bug me about the time and money I spend on it rather than it being 40k specific. Not really "LOL GEEK! You play warhammer!", more "Wow, I can't believe you spend that much on plastic army men". To which I usually respond with "yeah, it's nice having the extra money to do what I enjoy". They usually shut up then.

In high school, I went to school on a military base. As you went up in grades, more and more of the guys went to the military school. By the time you hit 12th grade, the girls out numbered the guys something like 5 to 1. Most of the guys that didn't go into the military school were either: physically/mentally unfit to do so (no insult to them, it's just not for everyone), some kind of super rebel (which in our area didn't make you cool), or just someone who lived near the base and went to school there with no military ties.

Since the base didn't have much to do, being a geek/nerd/whatever was the norm. I remember playing 2nd ed D&D with 12 people, only 3 of them were guys, and most of the girls were pretty hot. A girl who I played mixed doubles tennis with actually introduced me to warhammer.

Lesson I learned, go to high school on a military base if you are a nerd/geek/whatever.

Not really, but then, how would they know I play Warhammer in the first place? Are they roving from FLGS to FLGS, hoping to stumble on someone to mock?

If you are roaming your HS telling random passers by how awesome your converted tentacle themed Slaanesh army is you are probably going to get some flak, but that's more because you don't know the time and place to discuss your hobbies than because anyone knows or cares what Warhammer is. Nobody likes being bored with stuff they have no interest in.

If it does happen to come up I don't make a big deal out of it, and neither has anyone else. If folks get antsy about it just say it's just a video game, old school style.

Experiment 626 wrote:
When I was making a drink run up to the food court for myself and my fellow GW staffers, a gaggle of girls saw my red shirt and the fattest one then started to tease me about playing with boys toys & wanting to be a boy and asking me how does it feel to be a girl-boy and other crap like that...

I simply turned to her and asked her how did she like having to pay her boyfriend just to touch her.

The number of people pointing and laughing at her afterwards made me smile!


Basically, if someone wants to be donkeycave and try to throw humiliating/degrading insults at me, well, I just throw better ones right back at them and leave them the ones who are crying.

... seriously though, I've not had any problem with people knowing I'm a gamer in... shoot... twenty years or so now. RPGs and video games are enjoying a level of cultural popularity like never before seen.

Currently going through it...
To be honest... This is going to sound really geeky...
But I wanted a space marine drop pod to come flying down from the sky... Crush half the female dogs group and then some SternGuard veterans popped out and pumped a few Dragon-Fire bolts in the survivors heads... But not me

@Phosis T'kar jr. I know that feel bro... I know that feel...

I don't play long enough to have many stories , I also seemed to be lucky as opponent goes . But there was this one time when I was visiting my aunt in UK for summer . She took me to Warhammer World and I was very exited. There I happened to run in to three things I saw for the first time in my gaming life . List tailoring after seeing someones army and asking , if he has any other models with him and calling someone a sore loser after wining with a tailored list when your twice or more the age of your opponent . Making fun of someone nationality and expecting the person should find it funny too.

In my school there is a club but I usually dont go until I am sure that no prefects are walking around so that I can join them. The club founder is my science teacher and henis very cool and sometimes goes to my local GW. I do prefer playing at GW than at school sice I feel more relaxed - but I always am on the lookout for school people so that I can roll and hide behind a counter. It must be one of the secretive things. When my friend introduced me to it, it was almost like we were part of a secret organisation or something...