Pointless Views: Dealing With Hobby Funk
January 3, 2020 by crew
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![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
Very interesting to gear part of your issue with enjoyment has been what others, or the internet, has brought to your particular fandom. I get quite irritated when I hear the constant calls about the imminent collapse of Comic book movies as a genre, a call that’s been echoing for about 10 years at this point, though fortunately for me it’s not made me feel despondent as you describe, I will enjoy what I enjoy, pick a Comic off my shelf, go opening night to see Black Widow, Binge watch the next Comic based tv show that drops online (maybe Watchmen depending what platform it ends up on), and greedily eye up marvel Crisis protocol and all of the awesome sculpts coming for that game. On the flipside to me I do have a friend, a GW staffer, who hates what the loud voice brings in to the hobby, it spoils his enjoyment when people use words like Sigmarine to denigrate AoS, hates leaks that are taken out of the context they were supposed to be revealed in, he just can’t help himself. I guess what I’m trying to say Warren is sadly I think it’s just a thing that some folk are affected by others whereas some will just retreat inwards, not saying one is more healthy than the other mind you.
Like a medicine ball with teets. Appreciating the Mighty Boosh reference beyond words
Hey @avernos ever drink Bailey’s from a shoe?
Yes, it’s Aurebesh and it spells: REBEL. The Rebel insignia could have been a give away @warzan 😉
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Ennui does hit from time to time. The reality is that the hobby *is* at its heart totally pointless. What *is* the point of painting up tiny fighting mens and rolling a few dice around? Nothing is achieved at the end of it directly. No cancer has been cured. No hungry have been fed. Exactly in the same way as sport is entirely fruitless in its aim – who gets across the line first, or knocks a ball into a net more often than the other guys.
From time to time I just can’t be arsed to do stuff because of that feeling. What brings me back though is the *side-effects* of the hobby. The end result (winning a game played with fully painted miniatures) is not actually the point of the activity for me. Ultimately we will all return to dust and our piles of painted lead and plastic will be the same. Nothing will be achieved by them, and be even less important than the FA Cup results of 1972. C’est la vie! The world will not be any better a place because of the £1,000’s I have spent on my hobby.
That makes it fruitless. It doesn’t make it “pointless” though!
The *point* for me is the “me time” in my mancave, painting or prepping models, or just shuffling my boxes of unpainted lead around meaninglessly. And it is the social time with similarly-minded mates having a painted army and a game to play with them affords me. Those are the “point” of my hobby. The relationships I have made, the fun we have had together. The relaxation I have attained which has given me the strength to return to the fight in the “real world” and achieve things there that have made this world a better place. That is the “point”! The hobby is a means to an end. Others find it in an evening in the pub. Me, its my little tiny fighting mens.
*hums montage music*
Addendum…
As for the impact of films or media in general… bleh! Couldn’t give a flying fig about any of that. It is all disposable pap. I enjoy some films and TV series, many of them geeky. Few of them inspire me directly. I am interested in what I am interested in. Whether the rest of pop culture out there happens also to be interested in it at the time is of no moment. It is fun if they are. If they aren’t then feth them! Couldn’t give a flying fig. Personally I think all of Star Wars (and Star Trek, and pretty much all space opera in general) is a steaming pile, but that’s just me. I love Lord of the Rings, but realise others think it is just silly dwarves and fairies. Fair do’s.
Post script…
Loving Lloyd’s increasingly bushy beard. Go beard! There are not enough non-hipster beards out there. Go brother!
Very well put.
Hobby resolution: Paint 2 minis for every mini bought. 😉
That is an excellent strategy I have employed for some time now. I also don’t buy anything I’m not going to (in part at least) paint/build immediately. I must admit that the Burrows and Badgers as well as the Triumph of Death minis have put me behind in my goal. lol
yeah… I fear for the release of Skyrim hitting at a time where Legion get’s a bit slower for me 😉
I don’t find Hobby Resolutions in January to be useful at all. Indeed, I think January is probably the worst month to try and change anything in your life… The weather is shit, still dark most of the time, people tend to be more miserable than normal… Fuck that for a game of soldiers, waiting to spring is probably a better idea.
And I am not proud to admit it but I can be one of those negative Star Wars cunts on the internet, but at least I realise that and I’m trying to change. I’ve never watched all of the prequels… I tried but they really weren’t what I wanted in Star Wars. I enjoyed Episode 7, a great nod to the old school and really was looking forward to seeing how the story unfolded. Episode 8 was terrible and now I don’t care about anything other than the original Star Wars movies… it is also probably why I haven’t got into Legion or went to the Star Wars weekend, Star Wars just doesn’t have the same appeal any more but I try not to go on about it… Though I am going on about it now…
Avoiding spoilers for GOT, even after this long time, is completely justified (anyway, but especially) because the last books haven’t been published. I don’t want the last series to spoil the last books. However different the series became from the books i expect they’ll still be some spoilers, not least ‘the ending’.
I doubt he’ll keep the same ending considering the ripping it got, to say it was a let down doesn’t begin to describe it
As i recall David Benioff and D. B. Weiss said they got ‘the ending’ from G. R. R. Martin. Of course this might have changed, what they mean by ‘the ending’ might be less significant or have a different significance in the books, and many of the threads leading to ‘the ending’ and the closing of the saga as a whole will be (and are already) different in the books, but none the less there may be a keystone or corner stone in there. I don’t think i’d want G. R. R. Martin to (re)write the ending of the books in response to the response to the ending of the series, and he has said that he wouldn’t be changing or crowdsourcing his narrative even if people have guessed ‘that the butler did it’, so i’m not expecting him to (re)write the ending. I would rather bet on G. R. R. Martin’s execution (no pun intended) being significantly (and much, much) better and have him pretend that the series never happened so that i can do the same.
No spoilers please.
Oh I remember him saying that as well, and I can’t for the life of me see him keeping it after that debacle.
Wow. That bad huh? Not that i want you to let me know, but it sounds like they must have all ‘woken up and realised it was all a dream’ or somesuch. I’m almost curious enough to watch season 8 to see how big this car crash was.
I stand by the preferences i gave in my previous comment though.
I’d wait for the books. The series will always be there
I would love to see an large-sized storm trooper!
The endless critisms of stuff is definitely more than a little annoying, because it also makes regular criticism impossible as you get lumped in with the ‘hates everything’ crowd.
And yeah, the endless side commentary and ‘backstage’ documentaries have become so normal that they kind of deflate the dreamworld that movies try to create.
It’s like being told how the Force is caused by midi-whatsits.
We didn’t need that info.
It should have been a mystery or left to our own imagination.
This obsession with both fans and creators of having to explain everything (either within a movie or its advertised toy materials) is what probably drives this feeling of pointlessness.
It doesn’t help that we’ve grown up and can spot the gigantic plot holes in the recent movies from a galaxy away.
That’s not to say that the original trilogy didn’t have its problems, but they were pretty minor compared to the recent set.
I think it’s also because the third part of this recent trilogy only starts to make sense if you pretend it is the end of a different set of movies (one that already showed more of the big boss).
Also :
Cosplay gets a different feel once you’ve done it yourself.
I won’t say it transforms you, but becoming a character that’s different from yourself is an odd experience.
@warzan – grey boxers and go as the worm from Empire that almost eat the Falcon… just a thought!
not sure the grammar is quite right there… hohum
lol
As for cosplay… I am more surprised that Warren doesn’t already own a batman costume or are his days of jumping off the wardrobe over?
depends on the build quality of the wardrobe mate 😉
If it was IKEA I bet Justin could get one up for you fairly quickly
How I deal with the hobby funk: I switch from minis to terrain, from painting to building/crafting. I also create my own pocket universes for my minis, as in I make up their background and the events that lead them to where they are. That way the universe others have made is reduced to framework, background, and I’m way more invested.
The Prequels are still shite, except three, that was not bad. With the new movies, TFA was not bad, Rogue One was ok, the rest is shite.
I think it’s worth considering that the festive diet, or something else not (directly) related to the hobby, might be the cause of this ennui. For example, alcohol is a depressant. I recommend walking; a constitutional, as it were.
Don’t worry about your size (or lack of it) when doing cosplay.
Yes, there’s going to be people (especially on-line) who will tear you down for not having the exact perfect match of whatever or whoever you are cosplaying.
However there’s plenty of people who will appreciate the effort and the guts of putting yourself out there.
@warzan you must let us know what COLOUR is 2020, what do you think 2020 will be like good or bad???
Perhaps @warzan, you are missing the gaps – as in “gaming in the gaps”.
SW: Legion does seem quite specific, with all of those named characters. Even 40K looks to have reduced the area for finding a gap, I remember previous editions where there were lots of options in a codex to build your leader how you want to. Now the options appear to be reduced, making things a bit more prescriptive.
The number of times research was mentioned in the vid had me thinking that you may be experiencing a problem in finding “the gap”.
Totally agree with you Warren, had flexi days to take over Christmas due to my 12hr shift work and thought right i will get this done and that finished even set up a table for a game off Bolt action solo on the 15.12.19 and looked at it each day and its is still bloody sitting as was today 03.01.2020. But what i have now realised i need to just focus on just the system and periods i want to play in and stop looking at others and thinking yeah that would be good. So has off this year i am concentrating on my love for WW2 and bolt action which no doubt you have realised i can play solo with “PLATOON FORWARD” rules attached from 2 Fat Lardies and Version 4 of “NUTS” from TWO HOUR WAR GAMES, i am also going to be doing an alternate scifi playing of Star Wars using a PDF rules downloaded from JAYS WARGAMING MADNESS but using 40k minis and some star wars troops because why not and my Fantasy will be ” RANGERS OF SHADOW DEEP” and “WARLORDS OF EREHWON”by doing this i have found my hobbie bug is now fired up and i have already started to collect my 40k minis and painting some more WW2 stuff, so ” ONWARDS AND UPWARDS INTO 2020″…..OH YES HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERY ONE.
Wow walls of text today
For Hooby funk and I think we have all suffered from it at some point the reason I find for it is the realisation that the ruleset your using is a bit poo and you need a change from it
Is it time to renew my subscription to Horse and Hound, It seems our leader is getting into dressage.
Just remembered the “Over 30’s Cosplay” group on Facebook of which I am a member. I don’t Cosplay and haven’t done any re-enactment for 20 years now, but it’s still enjoyable being a member, if only to see that I am not the only ancient nerd out there!
My hobby resolution is still 1920×1080, my hands aren’t stable enough to paint at any higher resolution……….
Ok. For real, I’m going to continue what I started halfway through last year and try to do some hobby everyday. I mostly started this when I ran into more physical health issues and it is helping me deal with it and learn to accept it.
@warzan Jek Tono Porkins
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Jek_Tono_Porkins
I think when I hit “the funk” the fix is always to get some games in doing something new. If I’ve been doing loads of Historicals, I’ll switch to fantasy/Sci-Fi (and vice versa). Sometimes all the prepwork for a game can overload you (and the hobby becomes a grind), so it’s good the remember the point of all this prepwork at times and just get some games in. I do sometimes feel that my enthusiasm for Sci-Fi/Fantasy wanes as I get older, the inner child can no longer marvel and the grognard in me starts to criticize (I basically decided I wouldn’t like the new Star Wars movies BEFORE I’d seen them due to reading all the “SJW” and “Woke” articles, or basically all of the sudden the films got “serious” and the flight of fantasy was quashed). Historicals is always a good place to go, as there’s so much to research about and the fact there’s many rulesets for each period you can easily play the scope of the game YOU want (ie I’d love to see a 6mm Star Wars game, but that ain’t going to be coming out).
you will be a fantastic Jedi @warzan
Mas Amedda, the vice chair of the Galactic Senate, also could work if you want an alien race and keep things relatively cheap with clothing that is simple and flowing.
Happy new year, one and all. A personally relevant episode this week for many of us I suspect. I found holiday depression and hobby ennui crashed headlong into each other this year. I found focusing on the hobby in different ways helped a lot. I played games with my painted toys and watched painting and conversion videos when I sat at my desk. In past I have found cleaning or re-organizing my space can reignite my desire to work. This year, being so close to my goals was what made me push through and keep the brushes moving and finish off my last few buildings and minis for my Wolsung collection. I think cosplay is a great way to keep the creative juices flowing while converting a life size mini. Hope we get to see your progress.
I appreciate @warzan attempting to put this into words – as I think I have experienced this kind of thing. I’ve two superficial (but 80/20) comments and one deeper one which I have battled with but still not resolved myself.
1. It’s christmas time, you may just have needed a break from all your regular activities or stuff you’ve spent a lot of time on this year. I think Lloyd’s comment around the illusion of having time is correct. I managed to clear my YouTube queue but that’s about it with all my “extra time”
2. Hobby is about enjoying the process, and often the process is the answer in and of itself. Overthinking leads to procrastination. This I get quite often and forcing myself to sit down and get on with any project usually clears the pipes as the process soothes the thinking brain.
So those aren’t rocket science and usually break the funk. But I have a deeper funk which creeps in if I allow it. It’s a matter of creativity. Within me I have strong creative urges which feel a bit like a caged animal. I want to create something, my own world, game, novel, faction, army….I don’t know what it is but I want it to be mine and be an expression of myself given form. Trouble is, every time I turn the logical brain to the problem I go round in circles and wind myself into a DEEP funk which paralyses me from doing anything. I’ve learned it’s because it’s not a problem that can be solved by thinking. And unhelpfully I am not a natural creative – I’m wired more cerebrally. So I use the hobby as a slow drip creative outlet to soothe the animal. Hopefully one day it’ll find it’s own way out.
That’s why this time of year can be a trap for me. I actually deliberately put the hobby to the side for most of the period. No hobby goals. I waited for the new year to arrive to pick it up again and enjoy the process.
Now that’s my problem but for @warzan the return to enjoying your hobby last year may have awoken a creative streak which is looking for an out? TBH it sounds like you’ve already identified the right actions to get you going again – just execute on those and see what comes along next!
Some Cosplay ideas
https://images.app.goo.gl/4c6HDwPeZBiv2ze49
https://images.app.goo.gl/LXSRqtEdPatid7Y97
I have a few friends who constantly moan about the new Star Wars films, they also. moaned about the episodes 1-3 as well. I’m like you’re grown men throwing your dummy out of the pram over a few films, grow up. I think for the diehard whinge bags (dedicated Star Wars fans), they’ll never be satisfied with any film, and it’s basically because what they really want is to capture that sense of awe and wonderment they experienced whilst watching it as a kid. The problem is they’re all jaded cynical adults now and so will never gain that same experience again. So like true mature men they go on the internet and bitch about it… like kids lol
“I think for the diehard whinge bags (dedicated Star Wars fans), they’ll never be satisfied with any film”
It’s possible:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_vii_the_force_awakens
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rogue_one_a_star_wars_story
“…..and it’s basically because what they really want is to capture that sense of awe and wonderment they experienced whilst watching it as a kid”.
And that’s pretty much it. I’d love to go back and watch the original Movie (1978 in Tralee Cinema) when I was 10. Just to re-experience the awe and wonder again would be brilliant, back then I didn’t care about plotholes and backstory. I just thought Stormtroopers were the coolest things ever (well and Tie Fighters ofc), and lots of things that went “pew pew”.
And perhaps that’s part of the “funk” we can get trying to play Sci-fi and Fantasy games, we just get older (and turn into “historical grognards”) and look too deeply into everything.
I can get that feeling of hobby funk sometimes, especially if I see the amount of stuff that is piling my room.
I think what’s the point then I think what could I do instead and mostly I come to the conclusion what’s the point in that.
In the end I like playing my war/board games more than I would do those other things and that helps me get through to paint my minis. It also helps that the people I play with like to play with those painted minis.
Hobby funk….. maybe you just need to take a break for a bit. You can get over saturated in hobby stuff and it loses its “wow” factor. Let’s face it. The “wow” factor is what got us here in the first place. That first mini that made us get all excited!! Now When you have tons of minis yet to be painted, people over analyzing everything from movies to rules. It could make a person lose interest. It happened to me. I took a gaming/hobby break. Suddenly i found myself longing to paint and push some minis, roll some dice, read some new rules. It’s like fasting!!! lol. Seriously. It worked. I hope you find a way through your funk Warren. It could just be the stress of life. It tends to strip us of all things magical/fun and non practical. Any ways. Sending you some California love my dude. ???
ooooh that priming weather!
@warzan After watching the episode all the way through I did wonder whether your funk was subconsciously connected to the Star Wars saga finally coming to an end. It’s been with us for 42 years, which for a large majority of us all our lives. So I did wonder if deep down the knowledge that the saga had finished was the thing causing the funk.
I know that Disney have plans for further Star Wars related films and TV shows but those aren’t the Skywalker saga, after all these years it’s finally finished and for many that’s probably quite despondent, knowing there will be no more trips into that world of those particular characters.
I played various games AOS,40K D&D etc. and felt a little of what is the point. I then progressed to historical and for a while that was fine. But the same feelings came back, until I got into playing historical but through campaigns. I am playing Chain of command at the moment where one battle impacts on the next. They are based on real battles in a series, I now not only learn about battles etc that really happened, but at the end when counting casualties it brings the real sacrifices to life and the real price people, including my family, paid. don’t know if this is the kind of thing you were talking about.
I know what @warzan means about IPs feeling a little shallow. I absolutely love Star Wars and 40k and a whole host of IPs but I just can’t dive in quite like some people do. I hear people talking about the Star Wars expanded universe or 40k lore as if it’s real history, I have seen nerd rage with people arguing over the finer points of lore and I wonder if they know what they sound like and how no matter how much they enjoy it, it’s fiction, it’s just contrived nonsense that has no bearing on real life. I don’t say that to them, whatever floats your boat. But that highlights what I truly think, deep down, about all the IPs I love – I know they aren’t real and it stops me from taking any of them seriously.
From a gaming point of view, I love the Star Wars primarily for the visuals, which are drawn almost entirely from the film. But beyond the films I don’t care about the lore enough to engage with the expanded universe, I just want to paint some miniatures and tell my own stories and not have people beat me with the stick of the expanded universe
If you are not enjoying it, don’t do it. Hobbies are supposed to be relaxing not stressful. If you are having trouble take a break and do something else. However from someone who has lost the ability to engage in hobby, trust me when I say that right now I would give almost anything to even for the chance of having hobby funk rather than simply not being able to hobby.
@lloyd hobbies should definitely require some kind of brain work, but should use your brain in different ways to work.
Years ago I painted a 2000 point Warhammer army every 3-6 months. After the destruction of the Old World I suffered serious gamer funk. Nothing got painted for 2-3 years at least. If it hadn’t been for the release of Saga, I’d probably have given the hobby away. I played KoW 2nd Ed but on the proviso that I painted nothing new for it.
I remember sitting down to paint my Blood Rage miniatures but with the view of using them for Saga and was a Clan into it before I thought “I really enjoy this! I should do it more often.”
I still hate painting AoS minis (although I do enjoy painting Shadespire gangs) and can’t paint more than a Kill Team’s worth of 40K minis at a time. Strangely though I can paint an 8 point Saga force without a second thought. I think the rise of gang size games has helped my painting so much because I can punch out a gang a week. It allows me to chop and change genres and game systems depending on my wants.
@warzan I’m so happy that you mentioned Plo Koon, I was thinking he would be a great character for you. To keep expenses down perhaps you could 3d print the face mask aspects of the mask and then work with foam to finish off the rest of the head.
For tips on how to paint that mask with more appropriate flesh tones check out Punished Props on YouTube, they do lots of great video tutorials on working with those materials. And a lot of tips working with foam and other things important to cosplay.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC27YZdcPTZM24PgjztxanEQ
Building the mask, rather than buying it, will not only keep costs down (or at least shift them) it will allow you to dig your hands into new aspects of hobby that may fascinate or even show you a new path out of that hollow.
On my phone, so for now I’ll just say… Star Wars was that bad huh? 😉