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I'm not ashamed of who I am or what I like. I will openly discuss my war gaming with anyone and will show off my models to anyone who is legitimately interested. I will not however bring it up as a topic of conversation with those who may not be interested.

One of ex-girlfriends (with whom I am on still good terms) told me a funny story about one of her pals whose new boyfriend wouldn't let her go rifling through his drawers. Naturally, she waited until his back was turned and started to have a good dig about. She was suitably horrified about what she found. "Was it porn?" my ex asked her. "It was bloody worse than porn!" her friend shrieked back. Yes, she had discovered the Warhammer collection, but because he was an otherwise stable human being, their relationship is still going strong.

I just started playing 40K last year with my son (he's 12). My wife thinks its a little funny, but hey, I put up with her hobbies! We are lucky to have a nice LGS near our house.

I did play a bit of D&D in high school and college, and most of my classmates did not know. It's kind of hard to explain to some people, but if you dragged them to your game they always had a good time. (but, I could never get my friends to start playing 40K)

My son's school friend called him a 'nerd' last month - but now his friend is painting his new Tyranid battleforce! GW online marketing and forums like this one got him all excited.

As you get older you find you have time for different hobbies at different times in your life. I have done a lot of outdoorsy stuff (fishing, camping) medieval re-enactment and now wargaming. It's easier to fit in to my crazy schedule. My wife was admiring my new Battlewagon and said 'you know it's really just an excuse for you two to collect toys' and I had to say 'Yup.'

My other hobby is triathlons and people think I'm a bit strange for doing that too.

Seems to me that if you do anything beyond spending Friday and Saturday night getting wasted, then you are considered a little peculiar.

Flashman wrote:Seems to me that if you do anything beyond spending Friday and Saturday night getting wasted, then you are considered a little peculiar.

Ah! Truer words are seldom spoken!

From my personal experience it is best to just not mention it unless the people/person you deal with is a known geek(s). I've spent enough time with non-geeks in my various jobs to know that telling somebody you paint and play with little plastic men will grant you a minor pariah like status. I say this because a lot of guys I have worked with either hunt or play golf. "Painting silver pants blue" is generally deemed as the hobby of a little kid and not a "serious" hobby. I'm not ashamed of my hobby. If anybody knows me for any extended amount of time they know about my fascination with little soldiers.

I have a friend who was a Quality Control Manager for a major dairy producer. They were doing a write up on him for their newsletter. They included everything about him except for his painting and playing. Since then he doesn't bother talking about it.

Since I'm 6' 4", a boxer, jazz musician, and financial manager, people are always surprised. They seem to always compare 40k to Risk and it takes an ungodly amount of time to explain what I do. Basically I always end up offering to send pictures and people really like it. I always find that when people are at my place and I show them my gallery of painted/converted stuff they're no resistance.

I never hide it, but always reveal it at a time when it's not me and a bunch of people. It just seems to work better that way for me.

I'm 7' 9", an ex-Marine and ex-Navy Seal, can lift a car with my bare hands, can chew through iron bars, I've ducked off to run another marathon during a marathon I was already running (and managed to win 1st, 2nd and 3rd in both races) and when I'm not dating three super-models I'm training our next generation of astronauts at NASA.

I kill people who think I'm weird for having a 40K hobby/addiction, but I have immunity granted by the President, even though I'm Australian, which is cool.


*Some of the above may not be true.

Müller wrote:I don't wear any wargaming apparel... I don't see a reason why since I don't get paid by GW to promote them and I don't really think their logos, etc. look good... I wear my normal metalhead clothing thank you very much

Quoted for inconsistency. Are bands paying you to wear their badly printed shirts?

I talk about wargaming if necessary or appropriate, but I meet half a dozen new people every day at work and wouldn't mention it to more than 1% of my clients. Some will have a few minis around a room or in a display cabinet, or have an obviously Eldar/Grimdark username or desktop. Once I met a client with a full army at the FLGS about a week after fixing his computer, but we hadn't discussed it before. A few copies of Dawn of War on the shelf does not a wargamer make.

Obviously on Dakka I mostly discuss wargaming. Other than that and going to FLGS I don't really frequent any other social outlets at present... my workload is crippling. Girls? Meh. My girlfriend isn't really interested in wargaming, but since she's a colour analyst we talk about painting!

H.B.M.C. wrote:I'm 7' 9", an ex-Marine and ex-Navy Seal, can lift a car with my bare hands, can chew through iron bars, I've ducked off to run another marathon during a marathon I was already running (and managed to win 1st, 2nd and 3rd in both races) and when I'm not dating three super-models I'm training our next generation of astronauts at NASA.

I kill people who think I'm weird for having a 40K hobby/addiction, but I have immunity granted by the President, even though I'm Australian, which is cool.


*Some of the above may not be true.

Best. Post. Ever.
Never before has the internet borne witness to such glorious post.

H.B.M.C. wins the internets.



Ghidorah

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:I also think those shirts with sayings like "The voices in my head say they don't like you" are completely stupid.

God.

I hate Hot Topic so much.

I feel sorry for anyone who is ashamed of themselves for what hobbies they enjoy, when said hobbies are as innocent and mundane as gaming.
You're afraid people will think "bad things" about you? My condolences.

...and I love those smart@ss t-shirts. LOL


Eric

artyboy wrote:I don't have a single piece of clothing in my closet that even alludes to wargaming. I carry most of my figs in gun cases so people don't usually ask about them, although I do get curious looks from time to time. I'll talk about it with anyone, though. Usually the topic comes up when I have people over.

I thought of carrying my models in a gun case once and was going to buy one but then I thought " What would the cops do if I walked into the mall where my FLGS is holding a gun case the size of a rifle? Anyways to be on the subject, Everyone in my class knows I play the game from me always reading the codex's at school and don't really care. They laugh a bit but think the ork models look pimped and love looking at the purple SM's in the codex





-Orkishly

H.B.M.C. wrote:I'm 7' 9", an ex-Marine and ex-Navy Seal, can lift a car with my bare hands, can chew through iron bars, I've ducked off to run another marathon during a marathon I was already running (and managed to win 1st, 2nd and 3rd in both races) and when I'm not dating three super-models I'm training our next generation of astronauts at NASA.

I kill people who think I'm weird for having a 40K hobby/addiction, but I have immunity granted by the President, even though I'm Australian, which is cool.


*Some of the above may not be true.

OMG we must be twins because this is totally who I am... except for the Australian part....

I think the most interesting thing in this thread is the difference in opinion between the different ages.

The older gamers very much have developed a strong sense of ego.
They dont feel the need to go around telling everyone about their hobby, recruiting people. They dont feel the need to stand up and proclaim, "I am gamer, hear me roar."
To them, gaming is the same as someone playing rugby as their hobby.
"What's your hobby?"
"Oh, I enjoy painting and collecting models. You?"
"Oh cool. I enjoy playing rugby, watching movies.'
"Oh sweet, what position do you play?"

Older people have just been though enough life to not care what people's hobbies are beyond a passing interest. You're not going to reject a new friend because in his own free time, he paints some models. I mean, you just couldn't care less. Wargaming, stamo collecting, sports, knitting, readin books, its all the same, and who cares what people do?

Where as younger people are much more likely to judge someone based upon a hobby, they are young and have a very much "us and them" "Me and you" mentality. Younger gamers lack the social experience to realize not only aren't hobbies that important to other people, other people don't want to hear about your hobbies in great detail, really. Also other people just dont care about your hobbies.

That's what I've taken away from this thread, anyway.

Flashman wrote:My other hobby is triathlons and people think I'm a bit strange for doing that too.

Seems to me that if you do anything beyond spending Friday and Saturday night getting wasted, then you are considered a little peculiar.

People with no hobbies/interestes beyond alcohol & TV will find any hobby wierd.

Interestingly i was talking with an ex gf about my hobbies {i am a devoted RP gamer (WoD, DnD, Dark Heresy)} and she was bugging me about spending time over the details of my ongoing Vampire story (me being the GM). To which came the the inescapable reply: what do you prefer, me spending time with friends over a game OR me going clubing and dancing alone/ with said SINGLE friends.
When i meet someone new and the subject of hobbies turns up they are usually surprised to find out said hobbies exist. But since i don't discuss plotlines-battles outside my gaming circle it boils to this: when other guys obsess over 22 muscular hairy guys running after a ball (it's called soccer gents) i am available for romantic diner

Plus i consider myself sufficiently cultivated so as to be able to hold a conversation without ever bringing up the subject of nerdy passtimes. (Yep i am a nerd)

P.S. Hobbies are just that. They don't define who we are. They just cast shadows over our personallities.

I'm not ashamed of myself, nor my hobby.

I *am* however, ashamed of the complete freaks and anti-social gimpoids that share my hobby, and would hesitate to identify myself as a gamer to strangers incase they mistook me for one of *them*!

I usually tell people I wargame if they ask about my hobbies, if they don't care I don't talk about it, simple as that. I am openly a geek, and if anyone says to me 'wow you are a nerd' my usual response is 'the geek shalt inheret the earth'.

In my opinion, if someone is that shallow and worried about 'street cred' that they could not be my friend/would have to alienate and belittle me because I paint silver pants blue then its thier loss, I mean they are the ones that don't get to bask in my awesomeness!

My current gf doesn't care for wargaming, but doesn't stop me, we have an agreement that if I want to spend tuesday evening at FLGS then I can, so long as we keep priorities in check lol

djphranq wrote:OMG we must be twins because this is totally who I am... except for the Australian part....

You're my clone. Many clones of myself were ordered years ago because the world needs more than one of me. None of my clones know they're my clones, much like the Sensai don't know that the Emperor is their father.

So that basically makes me the Emperor.

Does this mean that I can be a Commissar Calgar clone? I want to be so I can use the avatar while you're offline.

There's a tendency for people outside the hobby to percieve us as the stereotypical nerd, geek, neckbeard rules lawyer. That's partly because SO many gamers fit this description. I'm lucky to have a gaming circle of people who don't.

But it's for this reason that I'd feel weird bringing the subject up with random people. I'd hate them to think I was one of THEM. But let's be honest, it never DOES come up in conversation. I understand that talking about Warhammer would be boring to anyone outside my gaming group, and I'm enough of a grown up human being to have plenty of other things to talk about in a social situation, so i don't bring it up in conversation with people who don't play.

I don't think anyone has ever casually asked me what my 'hobbies' are! Most of my friends don't know i play warhammer, but then a lot of my closer ones do. Maybe they asked where i had been all day and i told them i had been away 'geeking', etc. They find it a bit odd, but don't think any less of me for it, because i'm a wonderful and fantastic person regardless of my geeky hobby. Many of the people who find out i play already know what Warhammer is - maybe they had a friend in school who played it or a little brother or something, so i don't find it takes TOO much explaining.

I'd never 'mention' it to new people i meet as it doesn't define my life, and i wouldn't want them to think of me primarily as 'Ian the Warhammer player'. Same reason i don't mention that i'm vegetarian when i introduce myself to someone, unless it comes up in conversation. It's not how i define myself, it's just something i do.

Either way - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/226288.page

Osbad wrote:I'm not ashamed of myself, nor my hobby.

I *am* however, ashamed of the complete freaks and anti-social gimpoids that share my hobby, and would hesitate to identify myself as a gamer to strangers incase they mistook me for one of *them*!

Indeed, the gamer stereotype exists with good reason and a trip into your average GW on a Saturday will be confirm this. The scrawny kid who looks like mclovin only more ugly, check. The fat kid who stinks the shop out and normally wear combats, check. The leather trenchcoat wearing teenager with the bad hair, black fingernails and those ridiculous new rock boot's, check. If fact you would be hard pressed to find anyone hanging around a GW who doesn't look like they belong there. They do pop in occasionally, But tend to buy their stuff and leave pretty quickly.

Osbad wrote:I'm not ashamed of myself, nor my hobby.

I *am* however, ashamed of the complete freaks and anti-social gimpoids that share my hobby, and would hesitate to identify myself as a gamer to strangers incase they mistook me for one of *them*!

QFT. I went to ReaperCon earlier this month and met some truly scary members of the wargaming hobby. What's worse, these types run in tight social circles - kind of like an elitest nerd faction. I don't know wether to laugh or laugh heartily at being shunned by them.

I talk about it with anyone who asks. I stopped talking to my girlfriend about it when she called them little plastic dolls. The hobby knife twitched in my hands when she said that and I felt that it was best for both of us to never speak of this again...

Osbad wrote:I'm not ashamed of myself, nor my hobby.

I *am* however, ashamed of the complete freaks and anti-social gimpoids that share my hobby, and would hesitate to identify myself as a gamer to strangers incase they mistook me for one of *them*!

Yeah.... QFT.

And don't forget kids that LARP. That's a scary breed of gamer.

Roleplayer knows the reason for this thread
I shall have to send my flying monkey ninja assassin werewolves (or FMNAW for short) to kill him and all wittnesses...

I don't try to hide it, but I don't go around preaching about it either - if a new workmate happens across some of my models I'll mention I paint them, but won't launch into a detailed description of ork mentality.

Don't see the point in trying to hide it from gf's either - obviously it wouldn't be the first thing you mention in a club, but trying to make sure they never find out is just weird - either they'll not mind, or if they do freak out they probably weren't worth going out with anyway.

I normally let people find out for themselves. I don't really talk about it unless they ask what the things are.

Everyones got 'weird' hobbies. People everywhere are obsessing about something. Showing Dogs, Remote Control Cars, Political Bloggers, Golfgolfgolf, Feral Cat Rescue, Geneology, Online Poker, World of Warcrack, Karioke, SCA, UberOrganic Gardening, Most of this stuff can easily be more expensive than 40K (unless you collect multiple armies!!) I have always warned my son to be careful of hobbies grown men like, because they get expensive!
I think when you have met a man who shows goats competitively you kind of get a better perspective on what is a strange hobby. (those were some cool goats)
Most people keep their hobbies quiet until you ask them, we are not unusual.

Yeah I always like it when M:tg and WoW players tell me that they won't get into any GW game because it costs too much.

Makes me think of Nelson and his Ha-ha