"PanchoVilleneuve ST" (PanchoVilleneuve)
01/26/2015 at 02:03 • Filed to: Nerdlopnik
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"PanchoVilleneuve ST" (PanchoVilleneuve)
01/26/2015 at 02:03 • Filed to: Nerdlopnik | 4
| 5 |
Going to my friendly local game store to buy models and possibly set up a future game of 40k, I looked around at those who were playing and I realized I just may be transitioning from the second to third group who plays tabletop wargames.
First is the kids, aged 9 or 10 or so up until 14 or 15 or whenever you start to redirect your attention from tiny plastic spacemen to girls. Second is the young adults, people who re-embrace their geekdom in college and start the hobby back up. They range from about 18-19 up through the early 30s, or even older if they are the special kind of "that guy", the socially awkward dork that sees their lack of social graces go from endearing to embarrassing with each passing year.
The third, and final, group belongs to the dads. They're the guys in their 30s and 40s who take their kids to comic book shops and game stores in order to hopefully pass their geek hobbies onto their offspring. Because of this, they usually only play games with either their kids (when teaching them the game before setting them free) or other gamer dads. Eventually, through the all-powerful cosmic force that guides all dads, they give their kids the sci-fi and fantasy models they have amassed over the years and, through a desire to continue playing with the only group they have left to game with, other dads, take up historical wargaming using rulesets that manage to be as needlessly complex as they are dry, where all the enthusiasm and creativity that went into, say, creating your custom Space Marine chapter's paint scheme and background fluff, dies in favor of making sure your Napoleonic-era Prussian riflemen's pants are painted an accurate shade of gray so that you are taken seriously by the other boring dads who hog half the tables at your FLGS spending less time playing and more time debating if the rules adequately take the effects of tall grass into account during a cavalry charge, a situation where painting failure means you should probably just stay home and take up Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The thing is, though, I'm not "that guy" and I'm not a dad. I'm socially competent enough to engaged to be married to a truly amazing woman and am considered interesting and witty enough to be frequently invited to events where conversation is the order of the day, but the closest thing I have to having or even wanting children is a cat and a desire to have more cats (because cats are rad). I'm very heavily into all sorts of heavy duty tabletop nerd shit (I mean, I'm into Warhammer/40k enough to know who Necoho and Malal are), but I find myself aging out of the group of people who would willingly play such things with me.
This is the price of aging. This is the fate of the geek.
AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> PanchoVilleneuve ST
01/26/2015 at 02:26 |
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Take solace in the fact that you don't live in your parents basement, presumably.
JustWaitingForAMate
> PanchoVilleneuve ST
01/26/2015 at 02:28 |
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With the price of 40k figures it's only the last group that can really afford it.
Or start a pretty hefty cocaine habit for the same price.
E. Julius
> PanchoVilleneuve ST
01/26/2015 at 02:41 |
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For someone who's really into this hobby, you have a lot of not very nice things to say about the other people who do it. For what it's worth, my older brother (31) plays lots of board games and card games at his local shop, and it seems like he plays with a pretty diverse group of people that are all pretty nice.
Tohru
> PanchoVilleneuve ST
01/26/2015 at 03:14 |
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Rico
> PanchoVilleneuve ST
01/26/2015 at 07:28 |
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I wouldn't worry too much about it. You've had a self realization moment which is okay, it shows you have a lot of self awareness which in my opinion is a major part of being socially competent as you put it. As long as you are aware you'll be fine and you won't end up looking like this guy:
