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Weekender XLBS: How Do You Deal With Gamer Burnout?
February 4, 2018 by brennon
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First!!!! Yeah Baby …. unless Warren has snuck in a sneaky Haiku
No you definitely beat me to it this time lol
Your butt is welcome
Remember @higgy, my butt didn’t get one lol
Happy Sunday!
Well lute we have here! A light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long…and we have games that burn so very very brightly…err or something 😉
Good morning, everyone. 😀
Okay, to answer @warzan ‘s question – the US Marine Corps used to bolt those wooden planks on the sides of some of their tanks during World War II (I’ve recently been mildly corrected on which tanks exactly), not really to add any extra armor thickness (it’s just wood, after all) …
… but to defeat Japanese magnetic antitank mines. So less like schürzen, more like improvised Zimmerit paste.
The first Marine unit to really use this was Charlie Company, 4th Marine Tank Battalion, during the landings at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, February, 1944 (Source: US Marine Corps Tanks of World War II, Steven Zaloga). This was mostly a measure taken for Shermans as far as I can tell (and @foehammer888 has mentioned on the other thread), but those planks look pretty awesome on this Stuart as well!
Marines have always been a “improvise, overcome, adapt” breed, and although tank vs. tank combat isn’t something you see very much in the Pacific Theater, you do see plenty of improvisation, added and applique armor, crew-invented camo schemes, etc. “Bird Cages” were another thing you’d see over hatches to prevent Japanese infantry from tossing in grenades or satchel charges.
Definitely some great work on that Stuart, though, and a well-deserved Golden Button! 😀
Oh, and @dignity is right about the schürzen. Completely useless against any kind of kinetic-energy antitank shell (AP solid shot, ect.) because the schürzen is really very thin and the shot goes right through to hit the main armor face with virtually no loss in projectile velocity or impact energy.
But schürzen works wonders against any kind of HEAT-based projectile (High Explosive Anti Tank) – especially shaped charges like bazookas, PIATs, etc. These kinds of warheads, because of how they work, are only effective when they explode RIGHT against the target. This is because the shaped charge inside the warhead sort of “inverse explodes” . . . it focuses a tiny jet of liquid metal that more or less “blow-torches” a hole through the armor.
But anything that triggers this explosion prematurely, even six inches away from your main armor face, completely defeats its heat-based injector “jet” to burn through the armor. So schürzen (or really any spaced armor) really works great against that kind of warhead. Since these kinds of warheads were becoming more and more common as the war went on, it was natural for this kind of spaced armor to be added to more and more vehicles.
In the post-war era, spaced armor started to give way to laminate armor, which defeats these “liquid metal jets” even better.
Thanks @oriskany exactly as I thought all along mate 😉
“… Exactly as I thought all along mate …”
See that? We’ll make a historical grognard of you yet! (steeples fingers, sinister chuckle)
Yup Jim got photos of Marins Shermans like that, Think Warlord do a model. Though my hero Marine tank crew is the one with a Japanese tankette strapped on the back.Must have been an interesting conversation when he tried to get it shipped home.
Yeah, kinda figured Sam was gonna be Seal Club’d. Tho Justin had logical reasons to field the stuff he did, it was maybe subconsciously but undoubtedlt built to beat Sam at every turn.
I was cringing more & more throughout the *logical-ing* that was, to me at least, thinly veiled power-gamey. Maybe it was in good faith, but damn, even tho I don’t play MB:P, I could tell it was over before it started.
Blaster was here… no offense intended, just calling it like I saw it
Hmm, idea for non-Greek deities to “guest battle” in the Greek pantheon?
Lets get some Egyptians and Babylonian blood in there.
Isis and Ishtar vs. Aphrodite and Athena. Tag Team “bra & panties” match.
You’re welcome.
Soooo, that was a fallen AT-AT on the table. Someone spill the beans!
Happy Sunday!!
Happy Sunday!!
Sounds like it might have been an interesting topic today but for the first time in a long time Xlbs kept pausing,resetting itself to the start of the video or just went to a blank screen so sadly gave up
If your on a mobile device or tablet click the cog wheel and select 520p
That seems to help
Thanks
For a invading god maybe juptier or mars coming to put the final nail in the coffin for the greek god and firmly planting their sit on the table
fully on board for the Bootcamp
@warzan thought that might give you a boney part 🙂
It did mate lol
Gamer Burn Out – also know as Hobby Burnout
Interesting article I came across some time ago:
http://www.stevensavage.com/blog/2013/12/geek-job-guru-the-danger-of-hobby-burnout.html
Interestingly I don’t suffer gamer burn out as I don’t get to play more than once or twice a month … that sort of keeps it special. Hooby burn out as described above by the dashing and knowledgeble Mr @ultramarine40 used to be a problem for me until I got over it by having four projects on the go at once , and you just do what you feel like doing… It’s a hooby not a chore.
Only 4? You are doing better than me with the multi tasking as I reduced it to 2 only painting projects on the table at any one time to help me stay on task when I get Hobby time and actually get stuff completed that being 1 unit of infantry and 1 unit of vehicles max.
For me it wasn’t so much Hobby burnout, more Hobby frustration as I had too many things started and only getting limited windows – stop – start – just fail really at getting any completions.
Breaking these down into manageable smaller goals has seen me complete more models and enjoy the time spent rather then grinding away with limited perceivable outcomes.
I’ve hit this burnout issue.
First it was miniature games last year. One day I couldn’t face the thought of another massive ruleset to learn, the cost and the painting of loads of new minis actually made me depressed. Finding people to play a new game was difficult as although you could teach people, very few people now seem willing to take on and invest in a a new minis game.
I turned to board game, with cheaper costs, smaller rulebooks and less space required.
I always loved painting and painted most days but two weeks ago I couldn’t face picking up a brush.
Is there too much choice?
Or is it too easy to turn on the TV and watch rubbish?
Good point about TV. My hobby life entered a new era about 4 years ago when we had massive work done on our home.
Right at the beginning of the project the builders took out an external wall and severed our TV aerial connection.
There didn’t seem much point reinstating it until we had progressed further into the build so I left it and left it and left it…
We went without TV for over 12 months and it was amazing. My painting increased exponentially. I started a gaming club in my local town. I moved away from GW into a plethora of new games and systems.
I dumped my xbox in the garage and left digital gaming for dead.
I had never been so happy or productive.
My wife could only watch so much youtube so we did eventually get our TV and satellite reconnected but I never went back to it.
Happy Sunday 😀 .
So when do @dignity and Mr Ronnie Renton go head to head in ( what i refer to as ) a ” Bard off ” ?
For burnout, I consider myself quite lucky.
With work and everything, I get to play any game so rarely now that its always a novelty and enjoyable, my hobby is mostly painting miniatures now. However, when I get a bit burned out on that, I switch things up, and make a scale model of some kind. I find just changing subjects a bit works wonders.
In fact, after I have painted a squad or two of miniatures, I always try and do a vehicle, or some terrain before I start on the next mini, again, breaking things up so the hobby stays fresh.
I do sometimes spend a couple of weeks away from the site as well, I still watch the weekenders, but i find keeping away from all the news can be good for me. I’m a hoarder, and its easy to get overwhelmed by all the new models, and avoiding the endless news for a while helps with that.
Well for me the guest God into Pantheon would have to be Blind Io from the Discworld, or any of the Discworld gods for that matter because they are essentially based on the different gods of history and so it would be good to see them matched up against their counterparts…:-)
This. All of this. Just… just yes. Discworld.
Hobby fatigue – have had it more than a few times. Biggest case resulted in a 7 year gaming break. Something I’d say straight off the bat is that your hobby time is your entertainment time. if you are not enjoying it or if it is feeling like a grind or like work then something is probably up. You might need to evaluate what is causing you to feel this way – if you can zero in on it being one particular aspect of the hobby process you can probably work out ways to address it.
Without doing a full-blown process map or decision tree, a few things that might help with particular aspects of gamer fatigue follow:
– Feeling guilty. If you would just rather be doing something else then do that for a bit until you feel like coming back to hobbying. This is supposed to be downtime for you so if you would rather be binging on a console game or grinding on an MMO for a bit go nuts and have fun. we won’t judge and we’ll all be here when you feel like coming back 🙂
– Rules overload. Too many gaming systems to keep up with/learn/maintain, constant FAQ updates and new sourcebooks to memorise etc. If this is happening maybe just limit yourself to one or two games like @brennon is trying to do. Or go for something rules-light that you and your gaming circle have fun playing. Maybe limit the games you play to just the core rules or select add-on’s/expansions for a bit. Or just play a previous edition of a game or a non-supported game for a while where the rules are no longer in flux. (I’m personally still playing 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy and consequently don’t need to worry about rules changes…).
– Painting/assembly. If you are daunted by masses of unpainted minis then just set small manageable micro-targets for progress. I spent last year setting small goals on the Hobby Weekender threads and by the end of the year had knocked out over 300 minis and dozens of terrain pieces. If you don’t think this will work try starting a Hobby Log on the forums to keep the momentum going, or organise painting days with your gaming group or set time aside to paint online while watching others paint on twitch etc. If you have the funds and inclination, consider having an army professionally painted. If not, maybe there is someone in your peer group that would be happy to help you out with painting the minis for you. Failing that there’s the Army Painter method if you want to get minis with some colour on them down on the table quickly.
– Just too much stuff. If the volume of projects you have in front of you is preventing you from getting any hobby done consider offloading them. If you can’t bring yourself to part with things, maybe keep a few things aside, box up and label the rest and place them into storage somewhere safe but not necessarily visible. This will limit the amount of things you have to work on and hopefully take some of the pressure off.
– Change of focus. If you are just burned out from playing one particular thing consider switching games and or themes. eg if you are a miniatures gamer and are just not feeling it maybe switch to board/card/RPG’s for a bit. Or if you play one type of game consider switching genres (historical/fantasy/sci-fi/horror) or scale (skirmish/tactical/operational etc)
– Rediscover the classics. Go back to the games that got you excited about the hobby in the first place and break one of them out for a bit of a nostalgia hit. 2nd edition BattleTech/Talisman/Hero Quest/Dragon Warriors anyone?…
– Source material/lore. Maybe do some reading around the lore of a game, or around a theme in general to get you back in the hobby groove. Doesn’t have to be directly connected to the game per se, reading Neuromancer might get you wanting to do some cyberpunk stuff, or Robert E Howard’s Conan stories might get you excited about the prospect of a swords and sorcery RPG not directly tied to the Hyborian Age.
– Terrain. My personal fallback, If I don’t want to paint minis I’ll just start building terrain pieces for whatever gaming system or theme I’m interested in playing.
Having said all that, if you can’t work out what is causing you to lose interest in hobbying maybe just set yourself a period of time where you are going to commit to not going to do any hobby at all (maybe 2 weeks?) and see if you start to miss any aspect of it or start to look forward to the end of that time period. If you do, well and good. If not, maybe you do need to set the hobby aside for a while and try your hand at a different skill set or diversion until you feel like taking up hobbying once more. As I said I stopped for 7 years at one point but am quite enjoying being back now. And if you do decide to take a break please don’t feel like you’re letting the side down, we’re all in the same boat and we’ve all felt burnout to some degree at some time so there’s no judgement here 🙂
Lots of good ideas here @evilstu
really great post @evilstu
happy sunday! now im on hobby time painting some elven union comission and having fun with episode.
@dignity wow you really pooped the bed on this one. it’s like you’ve never seen a tree in person, the star shapes one is maple (canadian flag) and ash is so different from many others that its really hart to mix them up. @warzan may I suggest that you take justin on one of youre walks, so he can see for himself that cows are not purple and sheep don’t wear really fussy pullovers.
p.s. I love all of you
lol @tosjeck I will have to drag him out with me for a ramble mate
Justin in codpiece
No tickets sold for boot camp
Sorry Game of Thrones
Would rather in than out of codpeice…..
Burnout is a fascinating topic. Something that is probably worth saying is that the solution for avoiding it is very specific to the individual.
Personally variety is huge for me. Like Justin I cannot face playing the same game week in, week out.
Board games don’t appeal to me as I know I cannot play them more than a couple of times before the experience becomes stale. Miniatures games offer variety of factions, armies within factions and variety of opponents. Much more exciting for me.
My point?
If you are not enjoying something any more, spend a few moments to really reflect on why and do NOT feel guilty or self conscious about setting parameters on your gaming hobby.
If a good friend comes to you gushing about their new card game but it’s not your thing. Don’t force it.
My feeling, informed by experience and not evidence, I have to add, is that it is often pressure that creates burnout.
Pressure to keep up with as games release schedule.
Pressure to keep up with a rapidly changing meta.
Pressure to participate in games with friends that you really don’t feel a passion for.
Using myself as an example. I have gone off large scale combat games and I am largely indifferent to GW games systems.
I prefer small scale skirmish style games with lower model counts. Frostgrave, Malifaux, Infinity etc.
I dislike investing in board games as I find them too restricting.
I dislike power gaming and meta chasing.
My gaming club is typical in that most people are 80% 40k players and they will happily play that every week.
I do not feel pressured to ‘fit in’. I keep buying new games and trying to get new players interested and I have had some success with Frostgrave and Malifaux.
I’ve made time to visit a gaming club in a town 7 miles away recently and met a guy called Karl who I totally sold on Frostgrave and who in return is offering to show me The Hobbit SBG, a game I have yet to try.
Obviously at 46 years old I have had over 30 years to become comfortable with my own gaming ambitions and I can honestly say that I have not felt ‘burned out’ on the hobby, or any aspect of it for years.
With age comes wisdom.
How do you deal with gamer burn out? badly for the most part.
The thing is when it comes to most gamer burner out I think comes from other reasons. For example, I have had wargaming burn out for a long time mostly because of the opponents in my area but when someone who is a mate of mine wants to have a game of any wargame I get really excited because I know we are going to have a good time. Like when I got tabled by my mate but I won on points in one game we had a great game because it was close and it wasn’t all one-sided. There wasn’t arguments over rules, we looked stuff up sure but we wanted to get things right not a leg up over one another.
I think usually having a single game is really good because often the game is a backdrop to something greater especially with RPGs where the game is just a vessel for story. I think one of the best ways to avoid gamer burn out is to avoid the things that cause it primarily bad players, bad situations and poor environment.
Rather than bad, I’d say opponents with a different mind set. But the point is very valid.
If you game for fun and the social experience and face off win at all costs net listers on a regular basis this is a recipe for misery certainly.
see I don’t even think it is netlists I think it is everyone being on the same page, I loved competitive magic and people playing netlists was super common but everyone was on the same page. I think netlists are a bit more toxic in wargaming because the average game lasts hours not minutes. But ultimately I think we agree, but yeah I meant bad I can accept different mindsets, but maybe if you met some of the opponents in my region you might get it ha ha…
Yeah there bad :/