When to dial a Friend!

Gaming: What is the Purpose to Life?

A couple of days ago, I got into a rather philosophical discussion with a long-time gaming buddy of mine named Bob. Bob just turned the big 6-0, and it hit him pretty hard. A day after turning 60, he was home alone while his wife went out shopping. Bob heard the proverbial snake in the garden whispering from the guest bedroom closet, which houses all of his painted minis and a good chunk of his unpainted minis as well. In a moment of weakness, he opened the closet door and found 30+ years of gaming staring him in the face. Had he given me an emergency phone call at that moment, he would have been able to avoid what came next. Gentlemen, he grabbed a legal pad and a pencil and proceeded to catalog his figures. He started in the late morning, and it was almost eight by the time he was done.

The next day, I saw him at our local game store holding the legal pad in hand. He came over to the table I was sitting at and began to tell me about some of his findings from that wayward venture. An old International Paper Company box full of unpainted Battle Fleet Gothic figures, unpainted TSR miniatures (yes kids, TSR produced their own miniature line for a few years), and forces of various sizes for almost every army produced for the 40K universe, just for starters. The guy that was sitting next to me, Gary, who is in his mid-thirties, was visibly in awe of Bob's accumulated bounty. Gary's wife keeps him on a limited gaming budget, so needless to say, the thought of having a whole closet devoted to miniatures was inconceivable. I sat back and listened for awhile as Bob read off his inventory. I stopped him before he could start listing off the historical figures he had accumulated.

I said, “Bob, with all due respect, sir, what is the point of all this?” He answered pointedly, “Exactly.” Then he proposed an insane addition to his already soul-crushing venture, “I'm thinking of adding up how much money I have spent on my miniatures” “Do you know how much I have probably spent on this hobby?” he added. He went on, lamenting about how much money he could have spent on cars and vacations, or stashed away in his savings, if only he had not given it to the overlords at Games Workshop instead.

Bob is not the first guy that I have known who has had an existential crisis about this hobby of ours. I have lost two gaming buddies to logic. They both decided that the hobby was impractical and too expensive. They decided to “grow up”instead, whatever that's supposed to mean.

I did not want to lose another gaming buddy, especially one like Bob, who is willing to help me build forces for future campaigns. I told Bob, respectfully, to “stop the insanity.” Does this hobby cost us money? Yes. Does this hobby require our time and energy? Yes. Could we be doing other productive or worldly things during the time that we are planning our armies, buying minis, painting minis, building terrain, and gaming with friends? Yes!

So in answer to Bob's question, what is the purpose of gaming? By that same logic, what is the purpose to any hobby? My wife has various crafts she likes to indulge in, ranging from sculpting, to painting ceramics, to making beautiful scrapbooks. She does not sell any of her finished products for money. She never asks herself if she has too many unpainted canvases or if that unopened pack of scrapbooking stickers will ever be used. Quiet simply, crafting is her way to unwind. She loves preparing ideas for scrapbooks, buying her supplies, then making her vision a reality.

Gaming is that for me. I work long hours at a job that I try not to take home with me, but in this day and age, that is sometimes easier said than done. Gaming takes me away from the anxieties and duldrums of day-to-day life. It gives me something to look forward, something to plan for, and in that, I find a kind of purpose. It also ensures that I am a social creature, not a nihilistic recluse, and that is a feat in itself. I have more friends now in my old age than I had in my teens and twenties.

Am I ever going to get back what money I have invested in the hobby? Answer: do pigs fly if you are not a Pink Floyd fan? On the other hand, I'd hate to think of my life without the pleasures of gaming. For all the ex-gamers out there that dared to overthink the hobby, may you find something in your life that gives you as much pleasure as building my new Early Sassanid army gives me.