I travel back in time every year thanks to my Google Photos account. It’s a strangely nice way of doing it – every snap, everything that I felt needed to be photographed is there. Every strange sign, weird snaps taken in the midst of DIY, reference material, random receipts – it’s all stored there. And, as you might expect from someone who has built a big chunk of his life around all things wargaming, it’s got a fair number of photos of tiny men in combat poses.
One thing that is obvious from going through my photos is that this year, 2023, has not been the greatest for hobby doing. Some of this can be explained by me actually doing other stuff – the start of the year had a whole house move in it followed by months of fixing little things up (and there are still things to go). Life has also changed – I returned to working in the office meaning less time sat in front of a single set of screens with figures close to hand for every build process or lunchtime. We’ve slowly begun to transition to a post-COVID world where events happen and it’s another illness to be aware of meaning there are more things to go out and do. I’ve taken advantage of being closer to family and seen them all more, nipping out to catch up more frequently and be more helpful as events have gone on.
The year wasn’t completely barren either. I managed to play BPRE28mm with one of my best friends at work enough to understand vaguely what’s going on, we had a Smorgasbord of gaming back in January and a few other things in the year, I messed around with a few things like Star Wars and trying to get back into Chain of Command (and assembled some Aussies), BattleTech and more. I started the weekly News Stand article which is still going after over a third of the year and with only one major date slip. And of course, the NVG-equipped and peg-footed elephant in the room is the successful launch of Gunslinger, bringing out two full factions and a pair of excellent character Teams I’m happy to have played a major part in planning and covering (as well as further things planned).
And yet I reach the end of the year and I just kind of feel empty about it all.
This isn’t to say I’m not happy with a lot of the individual things I’ve done – I’m incredibly proud of Gunslinger and its releases, happy to see The News Stand doing numbers each week (and the blog as a whole keep going, increasing its views over last year). I’m even excited to see the Ultramodern Discord having reached the stage where it functions along well with only the occasional touch to keep it on the right path.
It’s more that I feel this year has been so flat in terms of actually doing things in The Hobby. By which I mean the core fundamentals of being a hobbyist – painting models, getting figures on the board to play cool games and (for me at least) writing about it. This blog is supposed to be the story of my adventures in wargaming, not simply a news stall for a niche within a niche or the promotional arm. I still enjoy writing, still enjoy passing on information to other people but I feel like this year has been very little of doing hobby things for me. Perhaps more concerning is how much stuff I’ve said I’m going to do and ended up just folding on it. Things like the Board of Shadowy Figures, or talking about the latest BPRE or InCountry stuff have all been floated and just haven’t been done. The lack of motivation or ability to get these things done has driven me mad in some ways, similar to how I feel I haven’t managed to provide adequate support to the patrons over at the Patreon aside from the weekly news posts. Simply put, I’m not really happy with how the year has progressed with the hobby.
In previous years, I’ve written long lists of my plans for the upcoming year, 90% of which doesn’t get done. This year it’s much simpler – do the things I enjoy. This year I’ve let myself get too distracted, attempting to do too many little side projects that distract from that is the core of what this blog is about. My goal for 2024 this year is just to do the hobby, little and often, and enjoy what I do in my free time and cover that. I hope you all will stick with me on it.
