Reply To: Anti Shiny Syndrome League

[civilcourageParticipant 11134xp 4]

Hi my names Nick and I’m a miniature addict….this is the right place right?

I’ve never been one for big purchases and are quite mindful of how much I spend on miniatures but recently my free time has virtually disappeared and so my grey pile is growing ever larger, its not getting painted and I’m not getting to play games. Because of this I’ve realised I need to focus on a few favourite games, so when I actually get some time I’m not trying to remember the rules or searching for the right minis. I also need to be more mindful of the minis I buy, for example do they work across multiple systems, are they few in number etc

This realisation has also helped me not buy into much that’s new and find ways of using the models I have in different ways. For example using old 40k models that have been gathering dust for years on the onepagerules ruleset, no new minis required.

Mulling this over whilst writing this i think we need to identify why we buy new minis and see if we can limit those reasons so we don’t go over board. Are you buying the newest thing because the new rules have made them the best and made your older models obsolete? Maybe don’t move to the new version/rules.

Are you buying new things because it’s exciting and new, maybe have a cool off period to let the excitement die down a little and look at what your actually getting and the liklihood of you playing/using it.

I know I tend to buy things when I think they’re good value for money, I’ve now started really looking at these offers and thinking am I really ever going to use that or am I just attracted by the price.

Reading these posts I was interested to hear people also buy to help with mental health lows and it’s great to see people realising how temporary that ‘hit’ is and how it can also make things worse in the long run. It’s great to see these messages getting out there and hopefully help others be more mindful of why they are succumbing to shiny syndrome.

There’s a lot of time and money spent on marketing and I think it’s good to fight back and say actually I don’t *need* this, however much I feel I want it.

I’ll still buy new models every now and then but I’ll be thinking very hard about why I want them before I do, and as for new rulesets I doubt I’ll be buying anything new for an awful long time to come.

This hobby is here to make us happy, less stressed and ultimately more fulfilled than we would be without it, I think if we ever find its not doing that something is wrong and we should look at why and that’s exactly what you all are doing so kudos all.