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All things in moderation. Just because you have a hobby or interests that are "geeky" doesn't mean the rest of your life is consumed with those interests. The social misfit gamer dorks are the ones that give the regular gamers a bad name. If you like a game or hobby, you don't need to (and shouldn't) do it 24/7 to the exclusion of relationships, gainful employment, excercise, etc. Like I said, ALL things in moderation... being obsessive about anything is unhealthy.

I keep my work life and personal separate... mainly because I don't want work tainting my personal life... not the other way around. I'm old enough to fall into the "I don't need your approval" category, however when I was younger I just seemed to hang out with folks with interests as varied and off-norm as mine (though they may have had different interests), so it really never mattered. However I didn't start gaming until I was in graduate school, so by that time it was pretty easy to avoid social pressure.

I keep it secret. Because i'm in highschool, I play Football, i wrestle, and i hang out with some fairly popular people. So i think for now i'll keep the wargamming on the down low.

I dont wargame, just hobby, but I don't really advertise either. It's not that I give a crap in particular one way or the other, but I don't feel the urge to talk about it with people I know wouldn't be interested. I have geeky interests but don't really come off as one to most people, and I suppose I am ok with leaving it that way.

Honestly though, kids are cruel, and I wouldn't advise someone in highschool to advertise it as the others will def have a go. Same as above, I wouldn't keep it a dirty little secret either, but just know your audience, don't bring it up with people you know would not be into it whatsoever.

MajorTom11 wrote:
Honestly though, kids are cruel, and I wouldn't advise someone in highschool to advertise it as the others will def have a go.

That's a pretty big generalization. I did it, and the standard response was "Wow! You PAINTED that? Like... With your hands!?"

Yeah I like showing off paint jobs, but there's a line to be drawn...

I worked at a call center for a while and one of the guys I worked with happened to play Magic cards. I had the fortune of running into him at a game at a buddies house (I never really played much, just dabbling beer n pretzels sort of thing so it didn't strike me as a big deal.

Next day at work he would be accosting me constantly with deck ideas and stuff and quite frankly I couldn't give two gaks about the game. Then he started on about D&D. This guy had absolutely no tact, very socially awkward and yeah it got to be kind of embarrassing, especially since I was more interested in my band, and was single at the time, and having this constant geek conversation hovering over my shoulder wasn't exactly helping. I politely told this guy that I really don't like to talk about gaming when I'm working and poof problem solved.

I'll babble all night about warhammer or battletech or painting with other people who are actually interested, but I wouldn't make a big loud conversation in a crowded room, not out of shame, just out of respect that nobody else knows or cares what the hell we are talking about and really don't need to hear it. It makes me seem like a jerk, the awkward guy seem even more like a jerk, and generally just annoys everybody else. Being an annoying geek doesn't leave open many opportunities to get a date when the guy next to you keeps going on and on about Magic Cards or whatever.

When did I say "Go ahead and suck people into discussions about your fancy toy collection"?

I thought I just said don't be afraid to advertise your hobbies. I do, though I also consider myself to be quite awesome on the side so that levels it out.

just a slight aside to the term "geek"... the unit i am in the term "geek" can sometimes be thrown at a person in more of a complimental form than as a ribbing for one's hobby...

the only non-real hobby that anyone gets actually made fun of for is WoW.. but all of us miniatures wargamers, D&Ders, and MTGers are pretty well "safe" in our nerdom. For the most part, in the army, i have found that most people couldnt give 2 gaks what your hobbies are so long as they dont keep you from performing your job (or are illegal, like drunk driving).


Also, I have tattoos... which somehow still puts me into the "fringe" of society, it should be quite obvious what i think about folks opinions (mind you, i have my own rules regarding the placement of my tattoos, as well as the military's)

Right now work is slow, so im on dakka, while painting my lizardmen!!!

I envy your job.

I certainly wasn't open about it in highschool at all, I don't mean wargaming, I mean playing video games and WoW and such.

I'm more open about it now (hell, my fiance got me into wargaming) since I live my own life, and can't really be judged by anyone who knows who I really am.

Hell, I have Pein's piercings in my ears, if that's not being openly nerdy, aside from that they make me intimidating, I'm not sure what is.

I don't advertise, but I don't hide it either. I generally don't talk about it with my friends or coworkers because most of them don't care about it, but I'm not shy about asking some of the people I work with that play if they feel like getting in a game later in the week.

Last time I brought a girl back to my room she was just interested in how I go them to look the way they did. She even sat down and painted a Marine!

Buttlerthepug wrote:Ill be honest, in all my years of Junior High and High School, I denied and kept it a major secret that I played warhammer... Even when people came over to my house and saw all my models I would go as far to say that it was from elementry school and that I was selling them :( .

This is what I do at school at the moment cause the amount of banter i get from all the people who spend their lives on facebook and ps3/xbox360 gets incredibly tedious so it is just easier if they don't know.

I don't think you can compare facebook. Lots of people use that as a way of contacting old friends, it isn't all Farmville and MafiaWars. If anything gamer-geeking is kind of anti-social in most social environments, while facebook is encouraging people to actually be in contact with each other about stuff that doesn't involve statlines and mathhammer and such things that precious few really know or care about. It's just a communication tool.

I'm not one who particularily cares. If someone brings it up, I'll mention it, but otherwise I mostly just keep it to myself.

it's not that I don't like enjoying 40k, far from it. I'm proud of what I've learnt, how I'm working, and my painting, drawing and english skills have all been bettered by it.

asid from that, most of the people I call friends are either into wargaming, or are intruiged by it.

The fact is, it's not the hobby that makes you a geek. by that same play I'm a kewlkewldood. I do alot of extra-ciricular. I do basketball 7 days a week, including a job of refereeing for about 400 ish a week. I also do school, and manage to batchpaint about a squad a week.

I'm definatly an adamant hobbyist, and if people are really not having it, they can suck eggs.

I'm proud to be a geek. Proud!! I have Warhammer stuff at my cubicle at work. When I was on Facebook, I would post my battle reports even though my friends on there don't play.

Why is this not a poll?

I am definitely a closet nerd, force of habit from a lifetime of keeping it under wraps even though I know I should not care what other people think.

Living in Southern California, land of the shallow, isn't all that conducive to geek culture either.

Kudos to those of you who don't try to fake the funk.

Wise words from the Mighty Reecius!

Havn't seen you for a while dude- been on break?

Hello DakkaDakka!

In many ways I am a coward and afraid to really be myself around people. But I am proud to be a gamer though. When I realize that all my friends are gamers, then to be embarrassed about 40K is to be embarrassed about the people I love. Emperor give me strength to be bold and unashamed!

--- Frankie

I'm generally pretty conservative about it. I am by no means trying to hide my hobby, but I understand that it just doesn't pique most people's interests, and so I don't tend to bring it up at all unless I'm hanging out with someone who's interested in tabletop gaming.

Waving your hobby in someone's face when they obviously have no interest is almost as bad as criticising someone for enjoying something. Unless someone specifically expresses interest, I'm not going to involve them in it.

Anyone who knows me know I'm a gamer. I've even brought some of my stuff to work and show it around, getting comments of how good they look and questions about how I can paint in that small of a detail.
I even used miniatures in a job interview that landed me a higher paying training position at work. I trained my interviewers on how to trim, clean, and prep miniatures for painting.
Out of 100 people applying for the job, I was one of 5 that got it based off the strength of the demo I gave.
I made sure my wife knew about my hobby before we even started dating, and after we got married, she helped me paint up a couple of armies.
A lot of times I find that being open about your hobby is a great way to recruit people into it, because a lot of people never really got playing with toy soldiers out of their system.
On the rare occasion I meet someone that wants to be a jerk, I find it's really not very hard to turn the tables on them and make them look like a total fool with the stuff they like to do.

Relapse wrote:
I even used miniatures in a job interview that landed me a higher paying training position at work. I trained my interviewers on how to trim, clean, and prep miniatures for painting.

this story intrigues me. care to share more about the event?

eoinmorgan wrote:

Relapse wrote:
I even used miniatures in a job interview that landed me a higher paying training position at work. I trained my interviewers on how to trim, clean, and prep miniatures for painting.

this story intrigues me. care to share more about the event?

Be glad to. There were 5 job openings for trainers at the place where I work and 100+ applicants. I made it through the first interview and was told to bring something non work related to demonstrate my training skills that I could teach in about 15 minutes time at the second interview .
After going through the options for about a week or so, I decided to take some Warhammer Orcs in on their sprues to demonstrate how to get them ready for painting. Using the EDGE (explain, guide, demonstrate, enable) method, I had the interviewers prepping Orcs for painting. I let them keep the miniatures they prepped and they ended up on the shelves in their office as conversation pieces and I ended up with a job that paid me $2.00 an hour more and the ability to effect how the company ran it's product.

Pride!! But the ninja pride where you don't tell anybody that you are a nerd until they show there Geekness first.

Relapse wrote:

eoinmorgan wrote:

Relapse wrote:
I even used miniatures in a job interview that landed me a higher paying training position at work. I trained my interviewers on how to trim, clean, and prep miniatures for painting.

this story intrigues me. care to share more about the event?

Be glad to. There were 5 job openings for trainers at the place where I work and 100+ applicants. I made it through the first interview and was told to bring something non work related to demonstrate my training skills that I could teach in about 15 minutes time at the second interview .
After going through the options for about a week or so, I decided to take some Warhammer Orcs in on their sprues to demonstrate how to get them ready for painting. Using the EDGE (explain, guide, demonstrate, enable) method, I had the interviewers prepping Orcs for painting. I let them keep the miniatures they prepped and they ended up on the shelves in their office as conversation pieces and I ended up with a job that paid me $2.00 an hour more and the ability to effect how the company ran it's product.

That is truly a beautiful story. Very inspirational. I should try that for my next interview.

Relapse wrote:
Be glad to. There were 5 job openings for trainers at the place where I work and 100+ applicants. I made it through the first interview and was told to bring something non work related to demonstrate my training skills that I could teach in about 15 minutes time at the second interview .
After going through the options for about a week or so, I decided to take some Warhammer Orcs in on their sprues to demonstrate how to get them ready for painting. Using the EDGE (explain, guide, demonstrate, enable) method, I had the interviewers prepping Orcs for painting. I let them keep the miniatures they prepped and they ended up on the shelves in their office as conversation pieces and I ended up with a job that paid me $2.00 an hour more and the ability to effect how the company ran it's product.

That's a really cool story. Definitely one of the few situations where Warhammer-related activities actually put more money in your wallet!

Yeah I don't i'm pretty open about it, if they ask I'll tell.

I don't bother informing the ass hatters of my wargaming hobby as I know it would end in tears, for them.

Other than that let the people judge me how they like I love wargaming and I'm a proud nerd

Pride - happy to bask in me geekness/nerdgasms whatever. Facebook is covered in stuff that marks me out as a gamer.

I'll also happily tell folks I am a gamer, staff at work, strangers I've just met, have even advertised for players in the local store. (Thats local convience store, not a GW.)
Also staff tend to know as I'll often paint or model in work, one of the advantages of slow days in the week when you are a manager at a family store.

Probably helps the wife is as bad as I am, and both boys are going the same way.

ShivanAngel wrote:
As Bill Gates says, "Be nice to nerds, you will probably end up working for one".

so true

i plan on painting my minis in art class this semester