True Confessions: Why I Am a Pseudo-Gamer

[Eric Walters]

What in the heck is a Pseudo-Gamer? It's a gamer who isn't REALLY a gamer. I think I've become a Pseudo Gamer because I talk about wargaming a whole lot more than I play them. I check all the websites (CONSIMWORLD, CONSIMWORLD Forum, CONSIMWORLD Social Website, Web Grognards, BOARDGAMEGEEK, and more), subscribe to just about every game magazine there is and read every of one them cover-to-cover, and yaks endlessly about wargames and wargaming. I listen to all the podcasts (my wife calls them "wargamer radio") while I'm doing other tasks on my computer or filing papers in my office.

But play? Who has time to play? I'm always getting badgered in a good-natured way by the two game clubs down here--but who can spare an ENTIRE SATURDAY to play a wargame? Especially when it's a good hour drive out and an hour drive back? But wait--I could always host events at my house! Or play opponents who live very close to my place! But nah...there's always too much I absolutely have to do. Or I'm out of town on business. Or my wife and I are gone to see friends and relatives. Or I have the "honey-do" list.

But I still buy those games. Oh boy I sure do. Especially the REALLY big ones. Like DG/SPI's second edition of WAR IN THE PACIFIC. I'm just so SURE I'll find time to play this! Maybe in a couple months. Honest... Okay, maybe less ambitiously, DG's ADVANCED PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS. That's more manageable, right? Monthly turns? And you start in 1937 for the campaign game? Who would want to play anything else but the FULL campaign game in all its glory??

Got WHERE THERE IS DISCORD and A VICTORY DENIED set up on my wargame table downstairs and I manage maybe a turn every three to four days, playing solitaire...when I'm in town.

Pseudo-gamer. Me. Mine.
If the label fits, wear it.
Sniff.

[Eric Walters]

Left the amtracs over at NAB Little Creek and didn't feel like swimming all the way over there with ASLRB V2, all my BEYOND VALOR and ARMIES OF OBLIVION stuff (it all might get wet). Sean sent pictures of the FESTUNG BUDAPEST event, so I should post them in the TAG group sometime today....

[Gunnyhighway]

Are you talking about an amphibious operation to play HASL BUDAPEST'45?

[Tom Meier]

Did flooding stop Noah??

When you get the chance to play the Budapest HASL, you'll love it!

[Eric Walters]

Well, today was going to be the day I broke my pseudo-gamer status, if only for a little bit. Sean Deller had a massive ASL fest at his incredible house in Smithfield, VA, to playtest some of Bill Cirillo's HASL BUDAPEST '45 scenarios. Of course, a nor'easter is inbound and we're under a coastal flood warning--and where do I live? Where there are floods! I could get out of here this morning, but I'd never make it back. Supposed to last for three days--until Friday night. I had to call and cancel. Not happy at all. So the pseudo-gamer label sticks. Time for some turns of WHERE THERE IS DISCORD so I can cheer myself up.

[Gunnyhighway]

It is indeed an interesting behaviour to buy to collect or amass (no political pun intended) things, where the only pleasure resides into acquiring then toying but not in the proper usage of what is acquired. I wonder what type of need does it satisfy?...
Could it be possible --and it is just a theory-- that some of us are sometimes esxperiencing somehow a little stress then would feel temporarely ANXIOUS?...Thus the acquiring behaviour would calm down that hypothetical experience of furtive anxiety?...Hence the acquiring behaviour would just be a way among many to care for ourselves, to show how much we care for our psychological needs. After all, some of us might be exposed to stressful agents in the course of our daily jobs?...Hey!...Just a theory, no need to answer!...To cop-out of stress they are a lot more unhealthy and uncaring ways, this one sounds pretty armless and then we get to talk about it!...What a liberation!...That is healing!....That is healthy!...That is Therapeutic!..oups!...did I use a bad word?...Is the "T" word allowed here?

[Mark Humphries]

I don't let anything get in the way of my gaming. Argghhh! :)

[Ted Henkle]

You can add me to the pseudo-gamer confession list. I work a rotating, 12-hour shift, usually from Sun-Wed or Wed-Sun. Even when I'm "off" on Saturdays, I'm usually swamped with the same issues mentioned above. And like everyone here I still buy boardgames and miniatures too!

This is one of the main reasons I'll write a gaming AAR or produce a wargame movie. This way I can eke out every drop of enjoyment from the games I managed to play.

[Eric Walters]

Well, I hope to get back into real gaming as we get close to the holidays. Will be at Sean Deller's playing Budapest HASL scenarios on Veteran's Day; then "Little Stalingrad" ASL mini-tourney on my 50th Birthday at Ryan Schultz's. WINTER OFFENSIVE won't be long off--so in January I'll sojourn to Bowie, and then PREZCON after that in Feb before I become a Pseudo Wargamer once again! LOL!

[Tom Meier]

Eric,

I'm absolutely crushed by this coming out of yours. I remember when I was just the Chogi and you got me back into wargaming, and then playing ASL, and then playtesting, and then designing, and starting game clubs, and, and, and....now I learn you aren't playing anymore!! Oh the Horror!

I'm off to the mountain to contemplate the meaning of life for a while.

:-)

[Jo Bader]

I am also a pseudo- gamer . I am not interisted in optimization and to much thinking about how to win.
I like to play, sometimes I like to buy. This kind of work that states that I have to win is more a kind of work rather than fun. So I like games where I can do what I like to do.