Around the shop lately, a lot of regular faces have been missing. Folks who normally come up every week to play have suddenly vanished. When we do see them again, they sheepishly explain that money is tight for them right now so they can’t afford any new armies, really can’t afford any packs of cards, etc., and so they haven’t been coming up. While we can certainly appreciate the toughness of the today’s economy (remember if the customers don’t have any money, neither do we…), that mind set is the opposite of what folks should have.
Just because you don’t have any disposable income to spend on your hobby, does not mean your shouldn’t still be involved with your favorite past time. When things are tough, you should make even more of an effort to stop by your local shop to play games with what you have, talk strategy and tactics, or just work on projects (painting, deck building, etc.). After all, we all love this hobby because of the joy it brings us – in tough times we need it even more. I know this may sound shocking coming from a business that needs folks to spend money to survive, but there is a bigger picture to be viewed here. When money is tight, and you can’t afford to buy any new stuff, you should take the situation as an opportunity to enjoy the other important aspects of our hobby – preparation, anticipation and playing!
The lack of resources to go shopping only means you now have a chance to pursue those projects you have always talked about, but never really had the time for. It gives you a chance to paint the armies you already have (who among us doesn’t have any unpainted lead/plastic?). It gives you an opportunity to research and learn new techniques for painting & basing your miniatures, or to get around to making that cool unique terrain you always wanted to build for your games (much of which can be built from recycled stuff around the house - a topic for another day). How about sorting through your cards to build a new and unique deck? Or going through a board game that you never finished reading the advanced rules for? The list goes on and on...
The break from shopping also gives you an opportunity to think about how you play your favorite games, develop alternate strategies and think about what would make a good game. Is there a better way to play your favorite deck? Is there another strategy you could try for that board game you never seem to be able to win? Is there another way to configure your army from what you already have? Can you come up with a new way to deploy the army to better utilize your assets?
Scenario setting is such an important part of any game, this would be a good time to develop your skills in this area as well. Is there a historical period or battle you have always been fascinated with? Can you create a scenario for your favorite game to allow you to explore it? Is there a variation on a published scenario for your favorite board game that would add an interesting twist? Are there restrictions on deck building (e.g. commons only, no creatures, no healing, etc.) that could make for an interesting little mini-tournament for you and your friends?
All of these things are of course a great prelude to the real point of our hobby – to play games! Playing games with friends and live opponents is the final piece that makes everything else worthwhile. And money or no, you can always do that with what you have already got (unless of course you have to pay people to play you, but that is another topic that really needs to be addressed by a different kind of professional… J).
While all of the activities we talked about above can easily be done at home, there is an even better place to enjoy them and get the most out of your efforts; a place where there are lots of other folks who share your passion, creativity and love of the hobby – the game shop!
Obviously your local game shop is a great place to play your favorite games, but it can also be a great meeting point for other projects as well. You can set up terrain making nights for your game, so that you and the other regular players can help each other design and build cool stuff for future games. How about scheduling a painting night? A basing & flocking night? A bits swap event for trading cool extra parts? A card trading and deck building night? A mini-tournament (not ‘sanctioned’, just for fun) for your favorite card game? Or maybe organizing a campaign, and then having campaign planning and play nights? (That is happening right now in our shop…) Many board games include rules for mini-campaigns – how about scheduling a series of events to play that out? All of these are a great way to enjoy your favorite games as well as a cost effective way to get the most out what you already have purchased.
The bottom line is to take advantage of the current economic environment to pursue all of those little projects you have always wanted to do, but never really had the time to. Sometimes a forced break from something is really a blessing in disguise. Remember though, when the money does return (and you know it will, it always does) you want to make sure you give back by supporting the local store that supported you - make as many of your purchases through them as you possibly can. This way they can continue to offer the same services to others who love our hobby but have hit tough times, as they offered to you. Now when you make those purchases though, you will have confidence of knowing that what you are buying won’t just end up on a wish list of projects. Eventually you will get the most out of it, simply because lately you have been doing exactly that for all of the stuff you had bought before!
Now, back to the fun…
Dan
