I went to the massive Salute 2010 expo yesterday hoping to be impressed enough by all those geeky gamers (hand-painted tabletop miniatures, not computers) to consider re-starting it as a hobby.
But I'm afraid it didn't quite do it for me. Such a shame. I rabidly want to get back into dragons, goblins, wizards and dice rolling, plus the glorious smell of paint filling the house.
But the fans of this hobby often seem like they do it just because they are too passive-aggressive to enjoy Horny railway modelling. There's too much bluster and insular arrogance, and too little joy, as if they feel that are somehow doing the cleverest hobby on earth.
It's as if they feel that they really WOULD lead real armies to victory should our world leaders call upon their tactical support. The 'fantasy' really does seem to extend into their reality just like it did for me when I was a kid ... but not so much now that I'm an adult. Maybe I'm the one with the problem?
They didn't seem to understand at all how shallow some of it was. One guy tried to get me to buy his new game. When I aksed what's good about it he proudly explained "Have you ever played the game Warmaster? It's like Warmaster, except in my one low dice rolls are good ... not the other way around". It was like watching a guy think he's amazing because he'd invented a Rubics Cube with a different set of colours on the sides. Yet in the world of tabletop gaming that sort of thing is fairly typical.
I'm being a bit harsh. It's still an amazing hobby. But I guess my 400 25mm dwarfs and other little lead miracles will have to sit in my parents loft for a longer time. Sob.
But I'm afraid it didn't quite do it for me. Such a shame. I rabidly want to get back into dragons, goblins, wizards and dice rolling, plus the glorious smell of paint filling the house.
But the fans of this hobby often seem like they do it just because they are too passive-aggressive to enjoy Horny railway modelling. There's too much bluster and insular arrogance, and too little joy, as if they feel that are somehow doing the cleverest hobby on earth.
It's as if they feel that they really WOULD lead real armies to victory should our world leaders call upon their tactical support. The 'fantasy' really does seem to extend into their reality just like it did for me when I was a kid ... but not so much now that I'm an adult. Maybe I'm the one with the problem?
They didn't seem to understand at all how shallow some of it was. One guy tried to get me to buy his new game. When I aksed what's good about it he proudly explained "Have you ever played the game Warmaster? It's like Warmaster, except in my one low dice rolls are good ... not the other way around". It was like watching a guy think he's amazing because he'd invented a Rubics Cube with a different set of colours on the sides. Yet in the world of tabletop gaming that sort of thing is fairly typical.
I'm being a bit harsh. It's still an amazing hobby. But I guess my 400 25mm dwarfs and other little lead miracles will have to sit in my parents loft for a longer time. Sob.