One source of friction in our hobby is that there is not a single hobby. Like the name of this blog, it includes both toys and games.
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At one end of the spectrum there are modellers. They make and collect models of military subjects (soldiers, tanks, aircraft).
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At the other end are boardgamers. They play games on military subjects, using counters to represent the armies.
In the middle are the miniature wargamers, playing games with model soldiers.
Beyond the spectrum are the railway modellers and poker players.
It surprises me how many individuals don't acknowledge this range of interests within a single hobby. People posting on discussion boards frequently assert that their favoured part of the spectrum is the entire hobby and tell people with different preferences to shut up with their "off-topic" posts. Modellers ridicule hex & chit gamers and demand people post pictures of what they have been painting, while the insult "nogames" is thrown at anyone who is modelling but not playing with their models.
My own interests started with models (Britains, Timpo and Airfix 1/32 scale), with me telling stories about what they were doing. My grandchildren do the same sort of thing with their Duplo people. A school friend introduced me to simple skirmish rules when we were 9. SPI boardgames took over my attention 2 years later. And then D&D at age 14. So my interests have always been games, with the modelling aspect being just an incidental thing to create the pieces that go on the table. Usually that's just a quick slap of paint onto some models and get on with the game. Since I turned 18 the role-playing games have mostly been "theatre of the mind" with spare dice representing the characters and painted models optional.
By the way, there does seem to be some sort of magic, where a model represents an actual person in a child's mind. Children will talk about what the man in the blue hat is doing and why he is going to drive the ambulance now. I suspect that some of this spills over into miniature wargaming, which may explain why figure gamers find cardboard counters so unsatisfactory.
Where is your natural home on the spectrum?
Until next time, health & happiness to you all.
I’m more of a gamer than a modeler / painter as well. I only paint miniatures in order to have them for games, and if I was more wealthy I’d happily pay someone else to do it (and have done do before and will do so again). 😀
ReplyDeleteGood point, Stew. I've also bought quite a few ready-painted miniatures, when they were affordable
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