In praise of miniocrity

Why do I spend so much time obsessing over tiny toy soldiers? I spend time painting them, playing with them, organising them, reading about them, buying them , researching them, building them, packing them, unpacking them, hiding them, blogging about them, selling them, talking about them, arguing about them, obsessing about them, identifying them etc etc. The list of activities that can be assigned to miniscule fighting chappies is horrendously long when you start to think about it. What is it all about? This odd habit that we find ourselves neck deep in?
Well, it's a Hobby.



We are lucky enough to live in a society that allows us to have some time in the day that we can greedily call our own. And that (often small, if you have a Job, Wife, Kids etc)amount of time we can indulge in an activity that has no other merit than it is something that we find enjoyable. In my case I  get to indulge my kid brain. I can spend time not being a parent and an authority figure and spend some time being me. A Hobby is a way of distracting yourself by being creative or acquisitive in a way that brings a little warm fuzz to your soul.

What can happen, however, is that, what started out as a enjoyable distraction, can become an activity that adds stress to your life and becomes a negative rather than a positive to your well being.

How does that happen?

In Praise of Mediocrity by Tim Wu NYTimes

In the Article above Tim Wu describes how Hobbies can gain a competitive edge and this produces a set of circumstances where, without even noticing it happening, your Hobby becomes an arena for you to compete with others. Your obsession about your 'wee men' mutates into an obsession about something else. Perhaps it's the need to collect a whole range of figures, perhaps it's about winning all your games, maybe you just want to make your painting better than the next person. All this is made more acute by Hobbies being shared over the internet. In today's world of likes and comments, followers and adsense, instagram and podcasts, your impact and presence in the groups that you have joined becomes something that is easily quantified. 'Why didn't that post get as many likes as his one?', 'Why did no one comment on my paint job?', 'Did I post the wrong kind of figure? Are they laughing at me?'. The Social pressure is the same amongst Wargamers and Miniature painters as it is amongst anyone else. This is kind of constant grading of your Hobby output can turn what was supposed to be your opportunity to escape into a stifling, stress induction process, making you fear and despise the very thing that you love, all in the name of being 'better' or even the elusive position of 'the best'.

Twitter is an interesting example. The number of partially constructed Primaris marines that I've seen on there is mind numbing. Each one showing an near identical attempt at reproducing a technically perfect studio paint job. Line edging so neat that it looks like it was applied with a technical pencil. The lack of fun in these paint jobs is astounding. There is no creativity in applying colours in such a manner and the pics only serve to underline the pursuit of perfection that is part of the struggle. Next to these partial-primaris' are figures covered in attempts to show Non Metallic Metals on nearly every surface, no matter whether they should reflective or not. The actual study of the way light behaves when striking a solid surface is completely ignored in the pursuit of applying a 'technique' as egregiously as possible. Don't even get me started on airbrushing!
The point is that there is constant competition amongst posters to be showing off more and more technically perfect paint jobs in order to gain positive feedback, retweets and followers. The joy of painting up a favourite figure has become an attempt to recreate a technically correct scheme. The point of the exercise has changed form 'pleasing yourself' to 'getting it right' in front a world wide audience. No wonder taking part of a hobby has become something that causes us stress when we can't hope to reproduce these technically 'correct' paint jobs we see banded about on the interwebs.

Then there is the even more obvious stress producer is the competitive aspects of the games themselves. In essence a wargame is a battle between two people. One person must win and one person must lose. And no one likes to lose. The difference between playing a Wargame and rocking up for a game of Ludo is the amount of investment in money, time and effort you have put in before you actually play a game. The preparation vs playing time weighs heavily on the former meaning that the last thing many people want to do is build an army that is liable to lose. Of course this is a direct effect of the competitiveness that the tournament mentality brings to the game but no matter how hard you try, the mechanics of games tend to force you down that route. The idea that you would spend all that time creating an army without ensuring that it had a better than 50% chance of winning every match is a complete anathema to some gamers and this quest means that for many, this is the point of choosing an army. Without the knowledge that you have all the tricks you need to win there is simply no point in even starting a miniature. The ability to win comes before the enjoyment of the game. You reduce the randomness to the lowest point you can.


This is what we do to ourselves. The thing we have turned to as a way to relax has instead become another route for stress to creep into our lives. How many times have you sat and painted a figure because you 'have to' or you 'need to get it finished' or you 'just need to make it better'. When was the last time you painted a figure just cos you liked it?

As for playing a games, the best games are always the ones where the result isn't the point. If the only enjoyment you get from a game is the moment of victory then that makes the previous 3 hours a dull slog. A game should be a social event form start to finish, the unfolding story of the events on the battlefield being a conduit for a shared experience that both of you (or how ever many are playing) take something lasting away from. If your opponent(s) are not talking, laughing and cheering with you throughout the game then there is something wrong with the way you are both playing.

This silly little hobby with silly little figures and a silly massive price tag is just that. A Silly Hobby. But a Hobby nonetheless. If you aren't getting the enjoyment you want out of your Hobby then it's time that you took a look at what your doing.

Go have a dig in your boxes and find a figure you really want to paint. Move everything else off the work bench and just take your time and enjoy painting it. From start to finish. Don't share WIP's. Don't ask others opinions. Don't question if it's the 'right' figure. Just paint him till you are happy with what you've done. Then don't put it on the internet. Keep it for yourself.

Then, phone up that mate that you always have a great game with, that you haven't seem for ages, that you want to have a chat with. Organise a game with a scenario, with a story and bring along a bunch of figures that fit the fluff. Who cares what points they cost. When you meet up, glance at the two forces and adjust them by eye. You'll know whats right. Then sit back, roll some dice and talk bullshit with your mate.

That's what this Hobby is all about.

Enjoy it.