Editorial: Can I Make Your Mess Too?
Maybe you stopped because it’s Tuesday and you dig my articles… or more likely you were passing by and started gawking at the vaguely creepy title. Regardless, we’re all here now, and I’d like to introduce you to my favorite guilty pleasure. Game rooms.
Or, more accurately, messy game rooms.
Brent here: I run a blog called Strictly Average. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone and that’s kind of a sore point with me so why are we dwelling on it?
Moving on (and don’t you feel awkward), I think there’s a science to blogging… or maybe I’m just interested in the absurd – who can tell? Let me just say this straight out and we’ll see how it settles.
Every time I post pictures of a crappy game room I draw big numbers.
Not Bell big, but you get the idea.
Since it works well with my theory that not every Blogosphere article has to be about 1) how to paint your miniatures or 2) how to play with ’em…
…look around the old ‘Sphere and tell me I’m wrong…
…I decided to see how you fine folks at the Bell of Lost Souls would respond to some game room pics. That now near-legendary article was called, Beating Back the Hobby Lethargy, and if you missed it the first time around then check it out.
Just beware, because there’s a Bjorn Counts-As for my Brotherhood army that is darn near pornographic.
You’ve been warned. So that article drew a very respectable 58 comments; still, I wondered if maybe the room wasn’t messy enough? I thought, “What if I find a room packed to the ceiling with even more metal and plastic crap? What if it’s darn near a gamer Nirvana?”
For your viewing (dis)pleasure, I’ve snapped pictures of a room once thought a myth, a local Man Room of the Game Room subtype, that is called…
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| Like many happily married men, Little Barrera is allowed one room of his house by a long suffering wife: one room to stuff with what the uninitiated might believe is ‘junk.’ |
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| I’ve uploaded these pictures in glorious detail. Just click on it and you, too can explore like I did! |
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| I’m not kidding. I was opening drawers and gawking at all the little treasures. |
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| It was pathetic. I’m very ashamed. (Is that a mop in the background..?) |
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| So Little Barrera has been working on his Vampire Counts army lately. My Bestigors were once in combat with a 75 strong unit of Zombies that weren’t there when the game began. |
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| This is an example of what I’m talking about. Sitting in a bucket were like 20 Wraith Guard. What’s the street value of these drugs? |
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| Here are bits for his old Scorpions Space Marines. I fought them the first time in 1993, I think. He salvages, he does. As you can probably tell, he throws nothing away. |
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| What he does is strip them… over and over and over and – well, you get the idea. He’s done this for years: as I’m something of an expert in human behavior and the social environment, I feel it’s safe to say… |
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| …aw, who am I kidding? Look at this mess! This is what happens when you leave Genestealers in the stripping bath so long the fluid evaporates. Yes, it’s salvageable, and no you don’t want that job. |
These pictures really don’t do the place justice. There is just an incredible amount of miniatures from across two decades.
That’s the most interesting part: the sheer accumulation! Little Barrera is a fairly typical collector – he’s just had more time to do it than most of you. He’s been playing this game since 1992 or so, when he was about 14-years old. I know, ’cause I was 16 and his older brother was teaching me the game. As I recall, we were both pretty crappy sports back then.
Here are the discussion questions, though of course feel free to chime in on whatever you want to talk about!
Are you a hoarder or a rotator?
(I’m coining a new phrase, rotator, to describe a gamer who recycles his armies via methods like Ebay and Bartertown… I’m special like that!)
How obnoxiously large is your collection? Do you have a game room to store it in?
What’s the oldest or most unique model in your collection?
Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?
Since you’ve stuck with me this far, here are some random pictures from Little Barrera’s Warmachine collection.
Gentlemen, Ladies, and Unicorns… until next Tuesday then.
