Hello 2019! Happy new year and all that. I thought I'd start as I mean to go on and write about something I love - tabletop gaming. It wasn't always that way, though...
The big hobby interests in my life are by far Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Magic the Gathering and the various things that go hand in hand with those. It wasn't always the case though. For a long time I was a total game snob.
After my early teenage Warhammer days and the MTG phase in my early twenties at the start of the 2000s, I turned away from the things that brought me so much pleasure and fell into the enticingly glamorous embrace of being a musician and DJ.
Gone were my video gaming days when I unplugged my trusty old Sega Mega drive for the last time. Gone were my days being thrilled by tabletop games like Space Hulk, Warhammer 40,000, Space Marine and the like. Gone were the times spent tapping lands and sending cards to do battle against other decks. The thing was, I didn't just stop playing – I actively started to deride what I'd loved. Looking at that period now, I understand that I did that as a defence mechanism as I could no longer afford to indulge in hobbies that cost money or time.
I poured myself into being in bands and buying music to add to my DJ case and told myself I was happy, when I was anything but that. The tumultuous personal events of those years made me bitter and insular, actively shunning pretty much anything involving genuine social interaction. I told myself I didn't want to, when in reality I did and I just couldn't.
At the time I was running a scummy yet expensive home on a paltry wage and felt trapped in a cycle of things being constantly out of my reach. Once the music career went wrong (bands broken and friendships lost or damaged for years to follow), my appreciation for fun stuff returned but the urge to join in didn't. Several years of struggling had left their mark on me.
Eventually, once I'd become a writer and music journalist those things could be pushed aside again as I was busy, but again this wasn't fulfilling. After I left music journalism in 2016 due to family commitments and a day job, I edged back towards my old hobbies one at a time, starting with comics and cult films.
Those served me well, but now I was a dad I wanted something more interactive in order to reclaim some of that enjoyment that I'd denied myself for so long. I saw the snob I'd become, looking down my nose at huge, expansive industries loved by millions, and there came a day where the negativity dropped away and everything came flooding back.
Here I am now, delving ever deeper into Games Workshop lore and games I loved and games I missed and brand new games, playing Magic the Gathering with my sons and other players in person and online, visiting Warhammer World on a regular basis and also relishing retro video games all over again.
What have I learned? I've learned that fun is really, really important to being happy. It's easy to lose yourself in the pace and stresses of life, but there still needs to be some fun along the way. I'm glad I realised that, as I'm having the time of my life. Right now, I'm game for anything.
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So yeah, let's get busy, shall we 2019? I have a lot of work to do, and I hope I can offer plenty of fun content soon for you... and for the Emperor!
After my early teenage Warhammer days and the MTG phase in my early twenties at the start of the 2000s, I turned away from the things that brought me so much pleasure and fell into the enticingly glamorous embrace of being a musician and DJ.
Gone were my video gaming days when I unplugged my trusty old Sega Mega drive for the last time. Gone were my days being thrilled by tabletop games like Space Hulk, Warhammer 40,000, Space Marine and the like. Gone were the times spent tapping lands and sending cards to do battle against other decks. The thing was, I didn't just stop playing – I actively started to deride what I'd loved. Looking at that period now, I understand that I did that as a defence mechanism as I could no longer afford to indulge in hobbies that cost money or time.
I poured myself into being in bands and buying music to add to my DJ case and told myself I was happy, when I was anything but that. The tumultuous personal events of those years made me bitter and insular, actively shunning pretty much anything involving genuine social interaction. I told myself I didn't want to, when in reality I did and I just couldn't.
At the time I was running a scummy yet expensive home on a paltry wage and felt trapped in a cycle of things being constantly out of my reach. Once the music career went wrong (bands broken and friendships lost or damaged for years to follow), my appreciation for fun stuff returned but the urge to join in didn't. Several years of struggling had left their mark on me.
Eventually, once I'd become a writer and music journalist those things could be pushed aside again as I was busy, but again this wasn't fulfilling. After I left music journalism in 2016 due to family commitments and a day job, I edged back towards my old hobbies one at a time, starting with comics and cult films.
Those served me well, but now I was a dad I wanted something more interactive in order to reclaim some of that enjoyment that I'd denied myself for so long. I saw the snob I'd become, looking down my nose at huge, expansive industries loved by millions, and there came a day where the negativity dropped away and everything came flooding back.
Here I am now, delving ever deeper into Games Workshop lore and games I loved and games I missed and brand new games, playing Magic the Gathering with my sons and other players in person and online, visiting Warhammer World on a regular basis and also relishing retro video games all over again.
What have I learned? I've learned that fun is really, really important to being happy. It's easy to lose yourself in the pace and stresses of life, but there still needs to be some fun along the way. I'm glad I realised that, as I'm having the time of my life. Right now, I'm game for anything.
==
So yeah, let's get busy, shall we 2019? I have a lot of work to do, and I hope I can offer plenty of fun content soon for you... and for the Emperor!
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