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Hi Dakka, I am seeking your advice in my time of need.

I am now in University and I find that the hobby can suck up a lot of time, which takes away from my degree and extra-curriculars. I am currently pursuing an economics/history double major and am heavily involved in the United Nations association at my school. I have two friends who paint and play Warhammer 40k, however I find I can almost never set away a weekend to get out to the gaming store with all of my studies etc.

I also notice that the most successful people at my university don't have a "hobby" in the sense that I wargame. Their "hobby" is usually something I consider more like "work," such as a career orientated extra-curricular or going to the gym. Obviously my priority in life is not to play Warhammer, it is to get the most enjoyable job that also makes me enough money to live comfortably, (most likely something to do with economics policy as that is my interest). As I am studying history in addition to economics, perhaps a hobby that somewhat synergies with it such as Flames of War, or more conveniently, PC Real-Time Strategy gaming (total war, company of heroes etc) would be a better use of my down time. I don't enjoy partying either, so my relaxing time is usually on my own, and most of my social time is spent with classmates or at United Nations club socials.

My last conclusion is that to an extent, the less pure "fun" stuff (like Warhammer for example) one does, the more fun other things become in their place (such as historically set PC games for example).

I am wondering if anybody is in my situation where you knew had to take a break from the hobby for a while, but didn't want to, and how you went about waning yourself off of the hobby. So dakka, thoughts on how to quit the hobby for a while? Should I just leave all of my hobby stuff at my parents house next time I visit? I find that black and white solutions do not usually work.

When I was in university I spent 20 minutes every night painting miniatures. It was a great unwind time that let me decompress and I found nights I didn't paint I pretty much spent an extra 20 minutes falling asleep.

I say bring most of your stuff back but keep a small selection of paints an a few miniatures. If you are going to game at all, tell your prospective opponents that your stuff is at home but you'd be happy to show up and play whatever side if they supply the figures, scenario, etc.,. Maybe you'll end up playing, maybe you won't.

I just packed it up and didn't look at it until I did have the time to do it again.

Not "sell it all now and try to buy it all back later", just box it up and set it aside at the bottom of a cupboard, where it sat ignored for x years.

IF, when you once again have the time, you no longer feel the call of the dice, then you can sell it off.

Selling it off early only results in gamer regret later on.

Funny, i eschewed all other hobbies FOR painting miniatures - pc gaming was too immersive, and with two small kids and a masters degree, as well as a consulting firm, time is precious.

You must do something though, otherwise you'll burn out. Set aside 30 minutes a night and 2 hours a weekend (or 8 hours a month) and force yourself to paint or whatever in that time.

That is nothing that will ruin your studies, and that kind of time for yourself is hugely important.

I have given up on playing substantial games like I used to before i went to university.
If your a freshmen, its gonna be alot harder,but im a senior who is taking generic GEs for his senior year meaning alot of my time is actually free, and even I find it hard to paint, especially with my housemates judging me because i spend my freetime alone.
My suggestion? Take the easy stuff to paint. Take the scouts, the guardsmen, the Tacticals, Not the Warhound lol.

Try and get into a game that doesn't require so much time investment, or just scale down how often you hobby. I find leaving some figures and paints on a tray and grabbing them every now and then pretty good and I'm getting more painting done than I thought.

Most of my gaming currently is Frostgrave (takes maybe an 2-3 hours when you include set up time) or board games that I can drop onto the kitchen table and be done in an hour.

Seriously? I had free time coming out of my ears at Uni. I could have done with something like Warhammer to occupy me! Mind you, I did only get a 2.2...

I struggle with finding the time now that I work full time and have a wife and kids...

I've played 40k since I was in high school (the 80s!), and in different periods of my life, I've had to really tone down the hobby. Everywhere from spending 40 hours a week on hobby to zero.

In my opinion, it depends a lot on where you find your fun.

One of the reasons that 40k has been so durable a hobby for me is because I can enjoy it all by myself, in 15 or 30 minute pockets of time, just before I go to sleep, or in 5 hour stretches if I have the time -- because I really love working on models. Those armies can be lovingly built up over 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months, or 5 years, and that's a real treat for me. Or I can work on an army list in a 5 minute pocket of time.

At the same time, when I'm able, I can game with my friends with those same models. What could be better? But if modelling, especially at a glacial pace, doesn't appeal to you, perhaps look into a game with fewer models, or play a 40k army that doesn't require a lot of models (like Grey Knights).

Another thing that really helped when I started was getting my first army out of the way. Once I had an army to play with, there really wasn't any rush in building or painting the second one (at least for me), and over the years, every army has taken progressively more hours to build. I probably built my first army (space marines!) in a couple of weekends. But now, at this particular point in my life, an army is probably a 4,000 hour endeavor, mostly because I'm just in no rush.

Did very little miniature gaming in college, some painting, but it took up so much space (dorm or table) that it wasn't practical. My gaming then was mostly limited to video games with some board games.

I think it's a very interesting dilemma, MaxZ. I often feel like I'm spinning plates when it comes to my hobbies and interests. I read a lot; exercise a fair bit/play football; play video games and of course, building and painting Warhammer minis.

Despite 'the hobby' being my most rewarding personal endeavour, I often feel forced to nudge it down my list of priorities. I'm lucky that I have a very understanding and patient wife but I know that my hobby time is real luxury time, not least because we also have kids to look after. The amount of time and money I invest in this hobby means that I'm always walking a bit of a tightrope when it comes to maintaining a harmonious household. I also am prone to feeling a little guilty at times when I know there are other more pressing, real life things I should be dealing with.

I think the biggest positive that you should keep in mind is that you've bags of time to scratch your hobby itch, even if it might not seem that way now. I gave up 40k very reluctantly as a 15 year old and didn't pick it up again until I was in my early twenties. In the intervening time I drank myself stupid at least three times a week; managed to somehow get my degree; and most miraculously of all, meet the woman of my dreams.

Bearing that in mind, I think that even if you do haul all your stuff back to your parents', it's not the end of the hobby road! Even though I gave up the hobby grudgingly back in the day, I am almost glad that I've been able to come back to it later a much happier and, perhaps crucially, financially stable person. (even if it is a nightmare trying to keep 'Daddy's grots' out of the clutches of my progeny).

I think that ultimately you should do what makes you feel happy and remember that a hobby is supposed to be fun and not just another source of anxiety and worry. Just try and find that magical balance that the other posters have talked about, which will hopefully mean that your hobby doesn't have a negative effect on the rest of your life.

 NidLifeCrisis wrote:
Bearing that in mind, I think that even if you do haul all your stuff back to your parents', it's not the end of the hobby road! Even though I gave up the hobby grudgingly back in the day, I am almost glad that I've been able to come back to it later a much happier and, perhaps crucially, financially stable person.

How true this is

There was probably a 10 year period of my life where I had very little participation in the hobby and just stored all my 40k stuff at my parents' place because my condo was just too small. Especially after my girlfriend moved in. But it all came back a few years later; not that the itch never went away -- just later on, I had more time, space, and money to do hobby stuff.

Moved to Japan and didn't do anything for about 6 years then i started again.

Speaking as someone that is at uni and still going full speed ahead on hobbying (and no, my studies aren't suffering for it! ), I found the biggest issue was space/transportation; my solution was simply to pack my modelling stuff up in a shoe box, and take games that don't require a huge amount of space for storage or gaming (at the moment, that's X-wing and Batman, both fit in small boxes, can be played on a 3x3' table and are easy to transport. I have one 40k force with me, but that's again packed away into a rather small box, and is less than 40 models.

Time-wise, I've not found it to be an issue; I am competent enough at managing my time that I can get my work done with time to spare and that time I use to paint/play video games/read/write as the mood takes me. On one hand, I'm not going to be sitting there putting the final touches to a Space Marine captain when I have an essay due in the next day, but equally, when said essay is done and my notes are up to date, I don't feel guilty or suffer academically for taking a couple of hours off to paint or have a game with the uni's gaming society.

Obviously your own situation might be different, my course is quite reading-based so I don't have a massive amount of timetabled stuff, and aside from the gaming society I have no real extra-curricular activates, and I'm not the kind to go out partying or whatever so I have a fair bit more free time than many, I imagine.

What I will say is that if this is something you enjoy doing, do not stop or give up completely. You may not be able to dedicate as much time to it as before, but I think it's much better to keep going slowly than come to a complete stop. So long as you're managing your time responsibly, there's no harm in taking time off to do the things you love.