A cure for FOMO ?

[limburger 21704xp 2]

Given the topic in this weeks’ XLBS I wondered if there was anything one could do to stop that fear of missing out that sometimes happens when new shiny is advertised.

I started thinking about the total available hobby time I have and kind of discovered that if I ever were to do the math in full I’d instantly have a reason not to buy anything ever again.

This gives us :

• total available time each week : 7 x 24h =  168h
• sleep : 7 x 8h = 56h
• work/school : 5 x 8h = 40h
• food : 3 meals per day, half hour each average : 1,5h x 7 = 10,5h
• potential hobby time : 168 – 56 -40 – 10, 5= 61,5 h

If I reduce the games I can play to 5 I’ll average 61,5 / 5 = +/- 12 hours each week per game
That’s 2 days per week you can spend on a single game in your collection of 5.

That’s a hobby budget  for dirty stinky gaming geek without attachments … 😉

Within that budget you need to :
– assemble and paint your miniatures
– travel to and from events every x weeks
– play at least one game every x weeks

Smart hobbyists will make sure drying time doesn’t interfere with hobby time, or else you’re going to need a second army to be able to have a bit of hobby to do …

OTOH … this is starting to sound like a job instead of a hobby 😉
Mandatory fun commences …

[flatbattery 8265xp 0]

That’s certainly one way of looking at it. I usually force myself to go and look at what I have unpainted or unplayed and that usually puts me off, also I’ve had to consider the amount of space I have left, which isn’t much.

[brianfowler713Participant 3336xp 6]

My cure is poverty. Don’t have to keep up with the trends when you can’t afford to keep up with anything… 

[limburger 21704xp 1]

money is a resource that can be fixed, by either getting a job that pays more or by acquiring habits that cost less 😉

Time is the only resource that everyone is short on as you can’t make more without sacrificing your sanity.

 

[sundancer 42972xp 1]

I’m in with a combination of being stingy and having a family. If I buy things they really need to be worth my time and money…

[demonsub 12746xp 3]

One technique I’ve heard of and (sometimes) used in the past is how much worth are you getting out of a particular product.
So, for example, I recently received my all in pledge for the latest Core Space Kickstarter which cost me £189. So far I’ve played 4 games, that’s £47.25 per game. obviously this is a very basic reckoning and it could be argued that since I’ve had fun with building all of the card scenery that’s more worth. Also I now have a load of miniatures and terrain to use in other games which is even more worth, not to mention all of the hours I’ll spend painting.

But yeah, the more games and systems you get the less chance you get to play each game then the cost per game will be very high.

So although even if you can afford the latest fomo generator (game, miniature, book, etc) spending some time thinking how much worth you’ll extract from that product may convince you not to get it after all.

Not sure how clear all of that is but hopefully some of it makes sense.

[limburger 21704xp 0]

50 pound may sound like a lot, but that’s just money.
I also spend that on a night out … and after that it’s gone.
As such I’d argue that the money aspect is unlikely to actually cure you, because there’s always more money coming in.
Heck … with interest rates being what they are I was spending it on kickstarters in order to get something other than (effectively) negative interest …

Which is why I’d argue that discovering how much (or little) time you could spend on everything you own may be a more effective way.

Oh … and the idea that stuff could be multi purpose is another possible trigger for FOMO.
Unless you play miniature agnostic games and loot other games for treasure you may be deceiving yourself as to how useful those bits actually are outside of their native games.

I’ve lost track of : oh that kickstarter looks cool and if it sucks I can use the minis for [insert game] … only for that to never happen, because I got distracted by yet another one with even cooler bits …

Terrain can be multi purpose, but at the same time you’re not going to be mixing cardbased terrain with the latest necromunda terrain set either. I’d also argue that terrain is the one thing you can make yourself without relying on external sources, provided you’ve got a few good sources to teach the skills. (like Mels’ Terrain book 😉 )

 

[demonsub 12746xp 2]

I think it’s a mixed bag. Yes it’s just money but that really depends on how much you have to spread around between stuff, and yes, I’ve spent money in the past on things after persuading  myself that I’m loosing money that’s sitting in savings due to negative interest.

Also I agree that I’ve convinced myself in the past to get things with a possibility of using them for different games only to never use them or get something more suited.

Time is valuable and yes, ultimately that’s probably the limiting factor on how much we can spread around between all of the stuff we get for our hobby.

BTW, I’ve just had another game of Core Space this afternoon so 5 games = £37.80 ?

———

So really if fomo drives us into buying things and we get use from them it’s all good, but if be buy things and they sit on a shelf and never get used then it’s probably bad. It’s a tricky one to pin down isn’t it.

[limburger 21704xp 0]

yes … very tricky to pin down, especially when you consider all the marketing tricks that are used against us.
(but that’s a free will discussion for the more philosophical amonst us 😉 )

Even the bootcamps were a bit of a FOMO event … and at the same time I had enough fun to consider them worth every penny, because I got to fly for the first time in my life and see the BoW HQ up close.

If I were to use the ‘literal definition’ then I must say that the bootcamps were the only actual FOMO impulse buys on my list.
Everything else was more me not daring to limit myself to just one game (and one army ).

With kickstarters I can defuse the FOMO by simply ticking the box that sends me an e-mail 48 hours before the campaign finishes. If I still feel like backing at that point then I kind of have proven to myself that wasn’t afraid of ‘missing’ out.

Although even then it can be hard to resist the ‘just one more game for my collection’ thought.

I think the best anti-FOMO advice is to force yourself to wait at least X days before pushing the ‘buy stuff’ button.
Give yourself time to really think it over and consider how that new thing would fit within your current games.

If that pushes yourself outside of that “limited time / buy now …” window that the ads are screaming about then so be it.
Learning to accept that you can’t have everything all the time can be tricky, but it is a useful thing to experience.

[warbossd 4562xp 2]

Something that has changed for me recently is my perspective on my ‘pile of shame’, and by perspective I mean that literally.

Previously it was all out of sight in our spare room and garage, but we’ve recently downsized as the kids have grown and flown and now a lot of my hobby stuff is in plain sight in the main bedroom and in my hobby room.

Seeing thousands of pounds worth of miniatures and terrain and CCG collections in plastic totes in front of my face on a daily basis has made me waaaaay more restrained when it comes to  adding to it.

It’s also made me think about the things I never got full value out of like my ASOIAF kickstarter and make plans to go back and do something with it, even if it is only to move it on.

[odinsgrandsonParticipant 4288xp 1]

I tend to measure new project acquisition based on whether or not I’ve completed previous projects.

Money isn’t an issue if you actually don’t buy minis faster than you paint them, you know?

But I also paint like mad and still fit a ton of game nights into a week.

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