The Dirt – The “Infinity” Legacy I want to Leave
At some point I will no longer report on Infinity (hopefully not soon). What legacy do I want to leave?
Excuse the picture of my baby boy, Google. I wanted to catch your attention and the attention of casual Bell of Lost Souls viewers. Something happened to me a few weeks ago in an Infinity Tournament that made me feel like my tenure with this game has netted some amazing fruit with the next generation of gamers. I want to share that experience with you in this article because it truly is the legacy I want to leave. Before anyone asks, no, I’m not terminally ill. It’s just something that’s been on my mind.
The News – Doremicom’s History In Gaming – 40K
I know this is an “Infinity” article, but like most people over the age of 35, I entered table top wargaming with Warhammer 40K, and this was back in Rogue Trader days. As a high school kid, I did not have a lot of money, but one friend bought the books, and convinced me to buy the models for a different army so we could play. This experience was a lot of fun, I played imperial guard. I had 20 plastic miniatures assembled, and flushed out the rest of my force with lego men, metal D&D Ral Partha miniatures, and when that wasn’t enough, plastic army men. It’s what I could afford. On the third game I played, I finally beat the friend who owned the rule books. The moment it happened, he lifted the card table, and dumped the entire game onto the floor. The few GW miniatures I did own snapped and I would not find my way back to gaming for many years later.
I returned to gaming by accident. GW had just released 3rd edition, and on a fluke, I paid a dollar for a ticket for a professionally painted Space Marine Squad painted in Black Templar colors. I won. I then proceeded to buy enough miniatures to field 1000 points SM army, took the time to assemble and paint them, and brought them to the GW store. No one was interested in playing with me. All the time and effort to buy everything that was needed, assemble and paint it all, and to learn the rules resulted in me sitting on my hands for quite some time. For the duration of 3rd edition, I got in 3 games (just like Rogue Trader). Please understand that I’m not bashing GW here, I’m bashing the mental state of gamers that I was living near. Whenever you are not promoting your game, especially a game like table top wargaming, you are losing members. Period. Why I ever returned to wargaming is beyond me.
But I did at the end of 4th Edition (for Warhammer 40K). This time, it was different. I was surrounded by 5 friends who all had 40K armies, and who had an interest in teaching the game. And I still resisted for quite a few months. The burn from my earlier wargaming experience was just too fresh. All the time and money, effectively wasted, annoyed me to my core. During those first few games (when I finally gave in and fielded my Black templars) I still got trounced royally. However, after I got in my 10th game, I was hopeful that it was going to be an overall better experience then I had previously. The joy I was having, I wanted other people to be aware that they can have fun playing wargames, and so I made a YouTube Channel.
The Skinny – Doremicom On YouTube
Starting with massive Apocalyse 40K Battles, I sought to make battle reports entertaining, mainly because I did not expect anyone to see them but me. It was not until my fourteenth video that I finally got my first subscriber. Yes, I know his name, yes we have even collaborated on other videos. It was the first time that I realized that my attitude toward wargaming was actually being witnessed. Now my focus changed. I wanted to show, in each battle report, people competing and caring about each other at the same time. In other videos, for those getting into the hobby, I wanted to show inexpensive ways to continue. This included using inexpensive paints, scratch building units, and magnetizing other units to avoid duplicate expenditures. At my core, I wanted to grow the hobby.
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| Staying animated in your videos…. high energy is a good thing on YouTube. |
I realized quickly when I played games outside of my core group that people were either unintentionally or intentionally cheating ALL THE TIME. And when people learned a rule incorrectly, they perpetuated it. Veteran players did not go back and read the rule book thoroughly when 5th edition came out. Rules that were correct in 4th edition, no longer applied.
New players would talk to me about joining the hobby, paying money, getting everything ready, and being curbed stomped by players who had little interest in playing the game fairly or teaching knowledge beyond the rules. Tactics and strategies had to be learned by being crushed 10 times in a row first. So I changed my YouTube focus again. Now, I wanted to teach the rules. I wanted people’s first experience to be clean. I received countless emails and YouTube messages thanking me for providing a reference to get people into the game and away from people who were not staying current with the rules.
And then, after amassing 9000+ points of black templars. I watched as rules disparity grew to unbelievable levels during 5th edition. Spamming vehicle meta (with leaf blower lists) and the instant-disappear breaking core rule system rules introduced with Space Wolfs made me feel as though I had returned to my experience in 3rd edition. Suddenly I was left with pay to win scenarios. And lacking an updated codex, my Black Templars were no longer playable. I watched as articles began popping up disputing RAW (Rules as Written) meaning to allow players of various codexes a fighting chance. I was left with an uncomfortable question that I could not answer. Were these people cheating? For those of you who loved and still love 40K, I’m not trying to tell you that you’re wrong. Keep enjoying your game.
Over the first year of YouTube, quite a few games had been brought to my attention. Games that I dismissed. I did this not because I was trying to be a snob, but because I knew how much money I had spent on 40K, and I was not ready to spend that kind of money over and over on game systems that I did not know if there was an audience for. But mid-way through 40K 5th edition and the introduction of WarmaHordes Mk2, I decided it was time to take a look.
And I did so with an immediate bang. Posting a Warmachine Tutorial 3 weeks after getting my first game in. Then I took a road trip to Canada (to meet the MWG guys). Unfortunately the Canada part fell apart, but my stop in Ohio was a huge success. People drove in from as far as two hours away. And I brought them Warmachine. Four armies, painted. ready to play.
This culminated in a Warmachine game between 4 YouTubers (Tony from TheSustainableCenter, John from WargamePainting, Dale from BootlegPainting, and me).
During my tenure with Warmachine, and partly because I did not want to paint myself into a single corner like I did with 40K, I ventured into a few other games (Malifaux, Dystopian Wars, and Infinity). I truly enjoyed each of these games, but my focus switched to Infinity. It was just the right fit for me.
The Dirt – Doremicom, Infinity, and the Legacy
I jumped into Infinity at a slightly different pace then the other games. I forced myself NOT to post YouTube content until I had learned more than just the basics. I wanted it to be done right. And I’ve strived to keep that standard high. With the help of a handful of players, we have cultivated a local community that is rich with knowledge and a care for the opposition. I cannot tell you how much pride I feel knowing that I was a part of what has developed in my community.
Certain steps I’ve taken over the years:
- Demos – That are light, friendly, have nicely painted models (thank you Dennis and Karl), and balanced terrain.
- Learn your army days – where I give a new player unlimited mulligans and explain how I intend on countering their move. This allows a new person to learn their army’s strengths and weaknesses without being hammered.
- Tutorial videos on YouTube.
- Expressed appreciation to the extremely hard working individuals who provide terrain and show up regularly to play a game. Nothing is as rewarding as knowing on any given Thursday you can play a game.
- Kept the less competitive players involved by promoting non-tournament Infinity events.
- Returned to GenCon specifically to interact with new players. I want to know what struggles they are facing as they enter the game. Hopefully I have some easy steps they can take to overcome those issues.
Which brings me to the thing I talked about at the VERY beginning of the article. That thing that epitomizes the legacy I want to leave. Not only with Infinity, but with wargaming in general. I just have never experienced this outside of Infinity…..
I was in an Infinity Tournament, it was the last round. My opponent had recently become a member of our Infinity group. The winner of that match had a chance at breaking into the top 3 in the tournament. The loser of that match would end up somewhere between 4th through 8th. In each game turn, my opponent encouraged me to never give up and always go for the most objective points. I did the same. The points ping ponged back and forth in the match, culminating in a single die roll at the end of his turn that decided the entire outcome of the game. He had to roll an 11 or less, and succeeded with an 8. He ended up in 2nd place. I ended up in 4th. There’s no question the game was competitive. There’s no question that the game had so many epic moments (like running through a monofilament mine field to get to the objective on two occassions).
I have played games before where both players were friendly. I’ve just never experienced that level of competitive encouragement in a tournament. And it is definitely in my top 5 experiences in my wargaming life.
So that’s the news, the skinny, the DIRT on the Infinity Legacy I want to leave. Thank you for taking this trip with me. Only 5 more weeks until I have my new studio set up and a lot of new content will be making its way to YouTube. As always find me here, my YouTube Channel, or drop me a line or Infinity photos at my new email address [email protected] .
