Why A Tabletop Game?

With Christmas fast approaching, the time seemed right to post a short blurb in favor of war gaming. So before you start dreaming about the latest X-Box product, hopefully I can shift your vision to a different type of entertainment.

1) War Gaming is a hobby. Vastly less expensive than video gaming over the long run and providing you with a wider array of outlets for creativity, table games allow you hours of nonrepetitive play time with friends as well as the luxury of painting in quiet. The modelling hobby quickly moves from building models to building terrain, and attention to detail and creativity can be stressed at every point. So while the joy of blasting the latest army of aliens will find you $60 poorer twelve hours later, consider that a similar investment in modelling yields far more hours of paint and play.

2) People. While the appeal of internet video games continues to grow, most people will readily admit that little to no actual conversation takes place online. Why not trade that $30 a month LIVE account for the opportunity to wage war, swap painting techniques or design your own campaign with REAL people. Board games do not require the constant attention video games do, and therefore can often serve to facilitate conversation. War gaming simply provides those who find Monopoly boring and Risk predictable with a better reason to gather round the table. After all, the only thing better than control of Boardwalk and Park Place is taking them by force, so much for rent!

3) Finish something. Too much of today's culture revolves around instant gratification. War gaming allows for none of this. Choosing an army type and developing a force that complements your strategy and style takes time and collecting the pieces takes even longer. Once undertaken a fully painted and based army can take between months and years to finish. The pride and joy that come from watching your force take the field after months of brushing is more satisfying than anything another high score can offer. Patience always yields positives and your army is never beaten because someone else has faster thumbs!

I'll clip the issue here, having no desire to wax on philosophically. Hopefully you've got something to think about before rushing off to save the earth for eight hours.