It was bound to happen sooner or later, considering my hobby activities of the last couple of years, but I have officially fallen into a bit of a funk with the hobby. It is a thing that happens to many of us but for me it has been several years since I have felt like this.
I have a general lack of excitement for just about all aspects of the hobby. I have managed to get in a bunch of games this year and have had fun playing but for whatever reason I don't feel excited about playing. Even planning for a game fails to get me excited about playing. The lack of consistent games or long term plans related to a game might be part of the issue but who knows?
The same is true of hobby related purchases. Generally, I look forward to planning projects and acquiring the models but lately I have had little motivation to purchase and this is likely do to a lack of focus. I just don't have any real compelling plans to keep me excited. It is true that I have some big projects in the works but for the most part the models have already been collected. This brings me to...
...painting. My painting production has been way off this year. I seem to be caught between doing what I want and doing what I need to do. Nothing really new here except I don't know what I want to do and the things I 'need' to do I don't really think they will pan out. This lack of painting activity has impacted the blog as it is mostly focused on the painting aspect of the hobby.
What to do about this? How do I get my gaming 'Mojo' back? In the past I have just stopped working on anything that I felt I needed to do and just grabbed the first models that got my attention and started painting. I am not sure this time around that will be of much help.
I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with games and potential projects. So far this year my gaming has been spread over 9 different game systems with 2-3 others that I would like to play but have not yet found the time for. In addition I have been tempted by several new games that I have managed to resist getting involved with. Add to that 2-3 new games coming down the pipe that I have some interest in and things are clearly getting out of control. In the past my gaming has been much more focused on 3-4 games systems total which helped keep all aspects of the hobby pointed in the same direction. This lack of focus on the game side has translated to the painting and purchasing side of the hobby.
The question remains - what do I do about this? Another approach I have taken in the past would be to look to my game friends for inspiration and focus. Unfortunately, many of them are just as flighty with their game projects and many are even worse.
Maybe I need to de-emphasize an aspect of the hobby such as purchasing, painting or playing. The purchasing part seems like the obvious place to start. If you have no motivation for any particular project then there is nothing to buy...or maybe there is. I just made a deal to day to buy some cast-off items from a friend. It was a good deal and there is certainly potential that these items will be used but none of it helps me regain my hobby focus. No am I not sure I can stop buy stuff in a general sense.
My painting has really slowed down this year so maybe stopping for a while would be the ticket. The problem with that approach is that I see this hobby as mostly a modeling and painting hobby so stopping that aspect is like giving up on the hobby. If I stopped painting completely I would be very likely to give up the hobby completely and that is something I am not prepared to do.
That leaves playing games. Ironically, this is the area I have had the most fun this year. I am averaging a game a week so far this year and I have really enjoyed the games while I was playing them. I am not sure having LESS fun is a good therapy.
There you have it. I am in a bit of a funk and I don't know what to do about it. Whine and complain I guess. At this point I am open to suggestions but I will likely just have to let this run it's course.
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