Is it time to put the Hobby back into your daily routine? Come see why science says you should bring the hobby back to your life!
Time to Bring the Hobby Back. Hello and welcome once again to Spikey Bits, your portal for articles, cool pictures and other fantastic hobby content! Make sure you go over to the Long War and see all the exclusives that being a Veteran brings you!
Hi, my name is Ridvan. I am also known as ‘Skari’, I run the SkaredCast YouTube Channel and Facebook group. I am very excited to partner up with Spikey Bits and the members of the Long War to continue to enhance your gaming experience!
I could think of no better way to jump right in than with an editorial on the topic that is true and dear to our hearts here. We are here to Bring The Hobby Back!
But what does this mean?
It is a philosophy, a way to engage in a social contract with friends and complete strangers. The best part is, we have all control over it! It does not matter what game system Warhammer 40k, Age Of Sigmar, X Wing, Flames of War, Warmachine Hordes these principals apply to all of them.
Bringing Hobby Back is a choice and its a good one at that. I shall first explain what I mean with the term and then shall offer some simple yet deep advice on how you can also make the choice for yourself. The hobby is broad, it involves picking a collection of miniature soldiers, buying them, building them, painting them, collecting a cohesive force and ultimately facing off in epic conflict on a tabletop with a like minded individual, rolling some dice, having a laugh and then having stories to tell to our children for many years to come.
The beautiful thing about this social hobby is that we all relate to different parts of it with varying importance! For some of us, the sheer thought of stomping every other force into dust is what makes us tick, for others, the feeling of finally getting that big centrepiece monster in the display cabinet or mega conversion and green-stuff creation finished is what makes us crave the next project! At its core, it is very hard to pin point what makes the hobby the hobby for each one of us. And this is why, Bringing the Hobby back is so important! It is about accepting that we each have a reason, and that the hobby is different for each of us, to accept it, and to foster all corners and aspects of the hobby without alienating others.
In recent years being “good” at the hobby had become about being the best at smashing your opponents to bitz. The “Best overall” at almost every event was simply the best general. Hobby, conversion, theme and painting scores had fallen by the wayside! This serves as a catalyst to alienate the innate painter, or collector from the main stream tournament scene of the game. So, restricting the game alienating others and depreciating any aspect of the hobby is NOT bringing the hobby back at all.
This is the choice that we all make, as gamers or as community leaders, or as tournament organizers. The choice we make is one of inclusion, it is up to you to choose to allow the game to be played in all aspects of it. Its not an easy choice at times but it is a worthwhile one! As Veterans in the hobby it falls upon us to encourage others to make the choice to include new things, to accept the painting, the playing, the theme! To illustrate this, an example… theme can be anything… I once saw an army that was themed as a zombie apocalypse horde! It had been converted… it was what some call a “counts as” army, the army had been built using the tyrannid codex, the tervigons where trucks covered in corpses… the termagants were zombies… the zoanthropes were giant ogre zombies with uber brainz! and the Swarmlord was the mega GIANT zombie… the Hobby was strong in this army. Sadly, this army had a lot of flack from fellow gamers… although all the time and effort had been put into it, there was a negative reaction from some tournaments and players. The army was banned from attending a few events… nevertheless THIS is what the long war is about, the choice that was made with this players army was one of fear, and as such alienated the creative juices of a fellow gamer.
Choosing to include fellow gamers ideas and creativeness is at its core an inclusive philosophy, it will increase the variety of what we see on the table and decrease the “net lists” that we see over and over again… these mega lists are filling the void left by the lack of other elements of the hobby such as theme, fluff, composition and soft scores!
Here Come The Harlies!
I feel a bit rambly… I can get a bit long winded… but I want to end with this. Make the choice, CHOOSE to be inclusive, CHOOSE to embrace change, CHOOSE to allow the hobby back into your gaming group, be it an Imperial Knight or a Baneblade, be it allies or the new Death From the Skies supplement! I guarantee you, if you choose with the right mentality your gaming experience, the time you spend on the hobby, the money you spend on the miniatures will all be more valuable and Ill tell you know, the stories just get better and better.
Bring the Hobby Back!
This is Skari – your grateful host – out.
