What kind of Hobbyist are you?

[Lord Manton]

A quick little straw poll today.

I don't want this to devolve into a slinging match, with people claiming that there is a right way or a wrong way to play. I simply want to ask: 'What kind of Hobbyist are you?"

I would have to say, at the end of the day, that I'm a collector. I love the fluff of all the different universes on offer. I love building and painting miniatures, putting little details in to tell stories. And I love playing the games. But more and more, I find myself trying to 'get the set' so to speak.

When the latest Space Wolf Codex was released, I was excited to see a formation for a Great Company. This gave me a structure to my collecting habits, that would let me get a couple of each of the units I like, so that I can use them in a game.

Now, with my Chaos Space Marines, I find that I want a unit of undivided Chaos worshippers, a unit of Khorne's followers, a diseased Nurgle squad and so on and so forth. Adding to this I want a squad of each of the cult marines, and then a Special Character to lead them into battle.

I even find myself looking back at the models from the 90s and even some from the 80s, and rather than thinking "Holy Throne of Terra, that's a fugly mini," I look at them and can appreciate the style of miniature design from the times they were created. The old Tyranid Hive Tyrant is a great example. Sure,he doesn't look as imposing or down-right terrifying as the newer sculpt, but there's a certain charm to his toothy grin and gangly pose that really has a character all of its own that I really enjoy.

How do you do it?

------------------------------------------------------------- EDIT -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sadly, I don't know how to edit the poll to include more options. So instead I'll add some definitions.

Gamer - I made the distinction in the poll between Gamer and Narrative gamer. I think that on this basis, a gamer is more accurately a competitive gamer. Your primary passion comes from playing the game. This is not to exclude casual gamers, I suppose the distinction is, again, that the passion comes in the playing of the game, whether that be every so often with a couple of friends, or in more structured and formal settings, typically a tournament.

Collector - I think this one is pretty self explanatory. You just have to have that shiny new mini, whether it fits with your army or not. You simply can't deny yourself going out and buying the new model that strikes your fancy, or you'll spend hours, days, even months tracking it down, looking in the bargain bins, on eBay or swap forums.

Painter/Modeler - This one is for the artists. There are those of us out there, who truly can call themselves artists when it comes to painting and converting minis (or even scratch sculpting!). You find your zen when you sit down and put brush to plastic/resin/metal. On the extreme there are those who don't play and couldn't even tell you what a Space Marine actually is, but they still love to build and paint the models. That said, there are some who play and engage with the settings, but find the most satisfaction painting.

Narrative Gamer - A narrative gamer is the person who likes to tell a story. You can be competitive; really wanting to test your mettle in combat. You can be a casual gamer. But ultimately, for you it's all about telling a story with your miniatures and letting the dice decide the fates of the characters. Most often, you find yourself playing campaigns and really trying to forge the narrative.

[Mike X]

You should differentiate between casual gamer and competitive gamer. Lumping all gamers into one group is incredibly misleading.

[Gamgee]

Gamer/Collector.

I mostly prefer to game and have a collection of decent painted mini's. Award winning paint jobs are not my thing though. Since I do like to play.

[daboarder]

Everything, complete package,

In my opinion the most important thing is the story and setting, then the miniatures and the game and finally would be collecting the miniatures alone, they can be really nice but they need a solid game and a fantastic story to even remotely get me interested

[Ruleslawyer]

You really need to break this down a bit more. I'd class myself as a Painter/modeler/gamer

[odinsgrandson]

I can't say that I'm anything but a painter first. Sure, I've got several of game nights in any given week, but over Gencon, some very good painters talked to me about how much time we spend painting, and I ended up doing more than anyone.

[Charon]

Everything from that list.

[corrm]

A bit of everything, but I prefer gamer. I enjoy painting and building models, but to me, that is a means to be able to play games with them.

[Cactus]

Painting first, fluff enthusiast second, gamer third.

[Morgrim]

Painter/modeller. I haven't played a game of 40k in person since 5th ed (curse you friends for all moving away) but I still pull out my Dark Eldar to sculpt a cool new mount for my beastmasters (who are beastmasters and therefore never going into battle on a mechanical skyboard, what was GW thinking?), or test a nice scale pattern on some warriors, or see if I can freehand a galaxy onto an aethersail.

[Erik Setzer]

Gamer first and foremost, and I don't classify types of gamer, as people would claim that trying to win means you aren't a narrative gamer and vice versa. I like scenarios, but I also like balanced matches for pick-up games.

If a game grabs my interest, the models will be fine. I haven't seen any models that are too horrible to use. I do enjoy painting and modeling, and then showing off my work on the table. A painted army, especially a unique one, is one of the things I enjoy seeing most, and it enhances the gaming experience.

I am not a collector at all. If it's not something I'll put on the table to use in a game, I don't see a reason to have it. The figures I use for playing the games look good enough on a shelf between games. (This same mentality applies to other hobbies. My dad enjoyed collecting nice looking 1/32 slot cars, but I insisted on not having any that weren't used for racing, with a lone exception that was extremely rare that fell into my lap. Similarly, I "collect" mugs and drinking glasses, but don't have a single one in my apartment that I haven't used at least once, and likely more than once.)

If I'm not playing a game, I won't get the figures to paint (and certainly not to collect). If I wanted to model, I could find much better options out there. But I do my painting and modeling to enhance my game experience.

[Arkhan Land]

I put collector but I focus on older models not newer ones, often times converting them into current codex units which didnt have models in previous editions

some examples being - lots of RT lead figures, Lots of solid resin Tanks from that era, Lots of old pattern SM vehicles some of which have been converted/updated to modern styles/units, other wacky rare old models.

It would be remiss though to mention that I still play fairly often (usually about two battles a week), I guess the reason I put myself as collector is also because I have way way more stuff collected than I play, as in maybe 5-6k of points of models that never ever ever get fielded except in the biggest of games usually just to fill out points in apoc level games. Some of whos armies I dont even bother getting current codexes for anymore.

I still keep updated and play about 4-5 codex armies each about up to 3k, but man I love some stuff of my childhood, no lies

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Collector/modeller or sure. I love assembling and painting stuff mostly - I enjoy sculpting a lot too but for my own game, not GW.

[Path Walker]

Looking at this small sample (which given the nature of this forum is biased anyway) its almost as if GW know what they#re talking about when they say the game isn't the most important part of the hobby

[odinsgrandson]

Looking at this small sample (which given the nature of this forum is biased anyway) its almost as if GW know what they're talking about when they say the game isn't the most important part of the hobby

I can see what you mean there, but I don't think they have to sacrifice one to get the other.

I only play with painted miniatures, and the standard that I paint my gaming minis to is pretty high (not as high as the ones I paint for competitions, but when I enter gaming minis into a competition, they always at least make first cut).

So I put painter first. I mean, I'm a professional painter, and a competitive painter. How could I not?

However, I feel there are different types of gaming, and I do game quite a lot (two RPGs and two board games in my average week). I don't fall into the narrativist or simulationist when I actually play a game. When I'm playing a game, I want to be able to play as well as I can, and my opponent to do the same, and for us to have a great time because of it.

Games Workshop's games tend to not deliver that sort of gameplay. But there's absolutely no reason why they can't, and still not sacrifice the quality of their miniatures (smaller companies can pull this off, and still have quality minis).

[benn grimm]

I don't really do collecting any more, I have far too much stuff which doesn't get used for whatever reason, plus it kinda works for comics, which can hold their value and even grow, gw stuff not so much and it doesn't half take up room.

The quality of the fiction(BL and studio) seems to be going through a bit of a dry patch, apart from the occasional HH gem and even that series seems a bit lost in the wilderness of late. Painting can be a lot of fun and relaxing, but also can get kind of dull when you're doing it by the numbers.

Sculpting/converting/kitbashing is I think where the real joy in this hobby is for me atm. You can say what you want about gw, but they do an amazing range of compatible multi-part plastic kits made out of a pretty decent quality plastic. And you get so many extra cool bits these days, it'd be almost rude not to use them in interesting and varied ways.)

Gaming can be also be fun when there's time.)

[Da Gargoyle]

I like to think of myself as a gamer first, but to be honest I spend more time building and painting. Not that I have any great skills, but I do like to make sure the paint job is solid and that any shading was intentional. I have seen colour schemes on troops that would have looked brilliant but the owner did not seem to have the patience for more than one layer of paint. I also tend to field units that have at least the first layer of their colour scheme on if not all the detail and it takes time. Would definitely like to play more games though but the nearest club is now miles and miles away.

[spiralingcadaver]

Painter first, gamer second (and I won't collect a line I don't respect the game for), narrative gamer somewhere in there- narrative as in scenarios and not kill each other only, not narrative as in, here's some random crap that occurred, collector last: I won't jump at a model unless it's somehow time-sensitive (LE or a fantastic deal).

[40kGamer]

Hate to mirror image you mate but I'm in the same boat! ;)

Definitely spend the majority of time as a Painter/Converter... silly fluffscale Space Wolves took years to complete, Gamer/Narrative Gamer second as I enjoy a good game and prefer something other than set em up and knock em down and definitely a collector last... outside of unreleased or ultra rare/limited models I don't care about 'collecting' general releases.

[nsc]

I mean, in the grand scheme of things I'm a gamer.

I play video games, role playing games, board games, war games, card games, and party games.

I like games, and you can break those categories down further.

For video games I'm primarily about fighting games, I mostly play FPS though (it's what my friends are into), I love RTS, action rpg, "hardcore" action games (devil may cry, dark souls), "beat 'em up" action games (killer is dead, god of war), building/sim/management games, contraption games, puzzle games, rogue-likes, etc. etc.

For tabletop RPGs, D&D (I've played every edition), Paranoia, WHFRP, FFG 40k RPG, Gurps, Harnmaster, DRYH, Fate, Mechwarrior, Shadowrun, Hackmaster, Labyrinth Lord, etc

For boardgames there's you know, all of 'em, euro and thematic. Worker placement, resource management, deduction, real-time, dice-rolling, etc etc.

For wargaming you know you've got DBA3, Invictus Basic, Invictus, Mighty Armies, HoTT, Age of Sigmar, Infinity, 40k, Battlelore, CCA.

So yes, I game, I game a lot, BUT, in respect to tabletop wargaming, it's definitely about building terrain and painting miniatures.

Especially when it comes to Age of Sigmar and 40k. I don't care about 28mm armies, They look much more like armies at 6mm and at 2mm they look like actual armies (in my opinion). I can load up total war and play out huge battles, I can break out my 6mm armies and have fun pushing blocks of units around. If there's something that can be simulated in a game, there are hundreds of other options at my disposal to "game it out"

However, there's a lot to be said about how relaxing pulling a brush across a 28mm model is. And the freedom in AoS/40k campaigns as a DM (game master, spelled a D because I'm old school yo ;) ) which let me make up rules (without people saying "but Carthage didn't have that...") and play out interesting scenarios and stories. It's like a blend of tabletop rpg in my wargaming, it's lovely :D

So yeah, plaster bricks are just modern day lego bricks (cheaper) to me, and I get to make castles and hills and trenches, and push little toy soldiers around these awesome ruins and stuff, and with a load of friends (or soon to be friends) I can tell a story about a small conflict.

Building, Painting, Campaigning, this is what the hobby is to me.