Nostalgia

Hi,

Had a chance to look through the new 40k rulebook today (7th edition!!  when did that happen?!?).  As per usual, this rapidly got me reminiscing about the glory days of 40k, which for me means 3rd edition.  My pedigree actually goes back much further, mind.  I was a proud owner of the Rogue Trader, and the beakie box was one of the first hobby-related purchases I ever made with my own, hard-earned money.  I can also remember pouring over White Dwarf when 2nd edition was in full swing, and articles on scratch-building Rhino variants were a monthly event.

Now with more morka.

The glory days, however, were just before, and during my time in Newfoundland.  I brought an Eldar army with me, and built an ork one while I was there.  They were my first completed armies for any game, and in the course of both projects, my hobby skills improved enormously.  Add in the fact that I got to play fun games, on a regular basis, with a terrific group of friends, and it's hard not to get a warm happy glow at the thought of breaking out the (ungodly number of) orks I have stashed in the Drawers of Shame.

Mostly orks

The thing is (and I'm pretty sure we all know it), when it comes to mechanics, to the "technology" of the rules, 40k is actually a shitty game.

There.  I said it.  You know it's true, though.  Every bad memory of the game I can dredge up stems from some ambiguously written, poorly defined, or under-tested element of the rules.  A 5 minute scan of the 40k tournament content on the web reveals unlimited nerd rage over how bad or broken GW rules tend to be.  I remember playing Warmachine for the first time, and being shocked at how much better the game was, simply because the PP crew had taken the time to write rules that were internally consistent and made sense.  Mind-blowing.

Technically superior.

And yet . . .

It's the orks of shame that I can never seem to get rid of, or to trade away.  And whenever a new 40k ediiton, or a new ork codex is released, I find myself toying with the idea of selling a kidney and picking up a copy.  So why?

Kijiji is a different story.

One thing I'm increasingly aware of is that given the right crowd of people, it doesn't much matter what game I'm playing, I'll have fun.  And even with a game I enjoy for itself, with the wrong crowd or context, I won't have fun (it's why I've not played in a tournament in years).  The one thing I think we tend to forget amidst all the rules debates and nerd rage is that gaming, whether mini, board, or otherwise, is a social activity.  Find yourself a good crowd, and it doesn't much matter what you play, you'll find a way to have fun.

I don't think this means I'm going to be abandoning any of the games I've really been enjoying to dive back into 40k, but I am feeling a little more generous towards GW of late.  They were one of my primary entries to the hobby, they have accumulated a vision that continues to inspire me, and at the end of the day, I still like the idea of dropping a couple hundred ork models on the table.  Waaagh for life ;)

FMB