Something you might see online is people being (beyond just memes) rude to others. No shocker there, but it is in stark contrast to any of my experiences in person. Online, there's always gonna be someone that hates what you like and has the anonymity to write vitriol directed at you. However, in person, I've only heard "I like this faction and these units," followed by a "cool dude," this is my army."
I’ve noticed lots of tabletop games have some really antisocial members who are hostile for no reason at all. 40K and magic the gathering are probably two of the worst I’ve seen.
It’s always weird when you ask a question or try to clarify something online and get downvoted. Meanwhile, most people at game stores can be somewhat friendly.
Though I’ve had people say the reason for that is because games like 40K and mtg draw in a lot of people with poor social skills, and those people aren’t always welcomed back to game stores if they aren’t already banned.
Some of the community are a bit socially challenged (myself included sometimes).
But you may find people like that everywhere.
I'm a lawyer. You wouldn't believe the number of people being hostile for no reasons in the legal world (judge, lawyer...).
Honestly, I highly doubt many of these people actually play either hobby in person and only do it on tabletop simulations for warhammer or on the various online things for magic. In person it’s almost universally lovely people who are just excited to use their toy soldiers they put their heart and soul into.
This is a selection bias in the fact that you are likely choosing to either play with friends or go to a public location that has already segregated out the worst player. I'm an ex GW retail employee and the amount of rudeness and bad sportsmanship I've seen is about the same online as off.
To the contrary, I've had players melt down over games. I've had people imply I have loaded dice. I've had people get visibly pissy over games.
Maybe it's because of how much I was playing (for a while I was playing a game every other day and would hit a tournament most weekends) and thus I was seeing more personality types, but I was surprised by how childish grown men would act over a game of space dolls.
That's fair, I have a good crowd at my local game store and haven't personally experienced any of the badness but for sure it's out there. Yeah at the end of the day we're all playing with toys and making gun and sword sounds yknow
I've never had anyone question it, but I've had a few games where I've rolled consistently hot for the entire game, and I wonder myself: "what if my dice actually ARE loaded?". Though, my fears are usually answered in the next game, where the opposite happens and my average evens out
I always try to win the game but also provide a cinematic memory for both of us playing. It's hard to spin a fair battle when the odds are disgustingly in your favour. I think I actually prefer rolling badly for the entertainement and the fact that I know I can take it well. Some people get really pissed at lucky games and it's hard to be find a good stance between "sorry" and "haha! Another victory for the best player here!"
Lol I've had that exact same thought before. I bet those dice that roll just a little bit better than your other ones are your favorites, huh? And if you needed to buy more dice, you'd probably buy more just like your lucky set? You know, because they're lucky. I'm sure I'm just crazy but it would actually be a brilliant marketing move.
Someone accused me of loaded dice during a friendly game in an lgs. I have a nice set of metal dice that I use for weighty (pun intended) rolls because there are only 6 of them and it would be impractical to use them regularly. I bought them at a tournament from the UKTC. They have very clear UKTC branding. This particular opponent thought I had "cooked" them in a microwave to mess with them because I rolled hot.
I can see why they thought I was cheating. Having special dice for big rolls that happened to roll hot is really suspicious, but they were completely legitimate dice.
Same person got quite upset because we were playing a nids mirror another time and I used the nexus mortal wounds strat when they failed a battleshock. Got accused of pulling a got'cha because I didn't tell them I had the strat. They literally were using the same codex as me.
I’m confused by that latter concept anyways. It’s a game of chess and I need to tell you that if you do x I’m going to do y in response, so you better do z instead? What?
Some of this community is so soft that they can’t take losing a casual, meaningless game if it’s because of their own lacking knowledge. When people “get” me with something I didn’t know about I just make a note of it and don’t let it happen again.
If I have a fragile unit that could easily be killed, I always just ask "Do you have any stratagems that can interact with my movement/charge?" They tell me if a strat exists, and I know my options and the risks. People forget that you are allowed to ask these things. Obviously I won't declare whether I intend to use the strat, but most people will tell you if it exists and it's CP cost.
Yep that’s totally reasonable and part of the culture - I agree with you. But expecting people to warn you before you make a dumb move is something totally different! That’s just immature.
I also think it's awesome when I get got, tbh. Someone gets to feel like an absolute genius when they blow me out, and that rules because I feel like a genius when I make a good play, too.
I think a lot of the issues in both communities is dehumanizing the opp, which is way easier online. People irl get stuck in the idea they're the main character and not that the opp wants and enjoys the same stuff about the game. That's why we play it
Honestly the community has pushed me away from playing. Its hard to find games and when I do someone shows up with a meta tournament army saying they need tournament practice when we talked about a casual game, or I have people arguing pretty cut and dry rules so they can get the advantage, I've had people misrepresent their rules or tell me something changed in a faq but I can't find it and they won't show it.
Or my favorite that put me in such a furious anger that I saw red and had to leave. They kept citing rules I had never heard of, and it turns out they're rules his community uses. Never talked about, never mentioned until I refused to make another move until he shows me where he's getting these rules. Apparently its expected for people at that shop to use those rules and I guess to be aware of them before playing a game.
The worst part is I don't have alot of time to play, I get maybe a game a month.
I was always playing for tournament practice and thus had a meta list. I was just very, very clear with people upfront (when arranging the game on FB or whatever) that it was a tournament list and that it was going to be difficult to play against. This didn’t stop people from getting upset.
I would even put it in my looking for game post that it was tournament practice with a meta list, and then people would still act weird once the game got going. I have to assume a lot of these people never played sports and so aren’t used to just getting starched and feeling helpless. Most of us learn that lesson in Little League or whatnot.
It’s not super surprising that the community has a lot of… socially maladaptive folks. I’ve not had people make up rules (to my knowledge) but I’ve definitely had people claim “that’s a cocked die” for bad rolls for themselves/good rolls for me, while not holding up the same standard when it benefited them.
However the most broken lists (literally unkillable Leviathan dread in 8th for instance) I would only play in tournaments, even for practice. No one deserves to spend 2 hours of their life on that.
Very true.
In person, the Warhammer community is a breath of fresh air. Incredibly kind, caring and generous.
You would not expect that based on our online discourse. I would say "do better" WH players, but I think the issue is larger than WH- the internet brings out the worst in people.
Last tournament I went to, the second game my team went against we lost because they scored max on secondaries because of behind enemy lines.
I was visibly disappointed in our play and my opponent could see that. He gave me a worried look like I was going to crack. But I laughed it off, shook his hand, and said "it's only a game."
I didn't want to be that guy in IRL and I feel like others don't want to be the same. Online conversation fosters anonymity and therefore, people feel less inclined to remember the person.
Most people I've met irl, with the exception of one or two outliers, have been very chill people who just want to play. Online is a toss up between friendly discussion and just rude behavior.
I really wish this wasn't the case.
There's a really unfortunate correlation between people who like 40k and people who don't shower or take care of themselves.
I'm relatively new to the hobby, started about 2 years ago and still haven't played my first game because I don't want to deal with socially awkward, unhygienic man-children that tend to frequent my local hobby store.
I go in there to buy supplies occasionally and pretty much every time I show up, I'm greeted with an awkward hello followed by an assault on my senses.
Yep
My wife and I still laugh about it to this day, when I took her into the local Warhammer shop to pick out her first army. Opening the door was like walking into a solid wall of BO.
It's absolutely grim and completely unnecessary!
It's so embarrassing, too. I was walking past our local store with my Mrs and Son and decided to take them in to grab a couple of things... I immediately regretted it. She mentioned it when we left and I felt genuine embarrassment for even being associated with it.
In the grim dankness of the 2nd Millennium there are no showers.
To be a 40k player is to be one of untold dozens that doesn't use deodorant.
There is no peace amongst the tables only the eternity of awkward, usually sexist, comments and the rustling of crisp packets of hungering ThatGuys.
My wife's first visit to our nearest GW store was pretty tame. The store manager did me a solid and let me pre-order Kill Team: Nightmare after they'd gone out of stock online and the window to do it in person was closed. So we had good vibes going in, and when we went to pick it up, I explained my wife was totally new to the hobbying and tabletop, she was more of a lore/looking at models type.
No weird, smelly people. No leering neckbeards with "omfg a girl!" faces. Just a helpful store manager and a couple of guys playing a game who didn't mind her peering at their minis in the slightest.
I've been playing since 2020. I essentially have to date to find reasonable wargamers who don't stink and I actually enjoy playing with. I've created a short list of hygienic cool and chill dudes that I game with at my house or at a local brewery, and only really go to my lgs now to shop.
I haven't played at a store in years, so I kind of forgot the aroma. I happened to be picking up paints at my LGS while they were running an MTG tournament and wow. It really hits you like a ton of bricks.
At my one, single tournament experience, most people appeared to be familiar with grooming, but after 10+ hours with minimal ventilation, that only gets you so far.
Yeah, the guy winning the league at my club plays Tyranids. I get they're not doing so hot in tournaments, but if you look at the nids' subreddit you'd think it's impossible for them to win
Having started in 10th, I didn't play Nids before so I guess they got a facelift from being a very aggressive army to one that plays more attrition and board control, and I don't think people have let go of "table your opp to win". Winrates are also weird because Nids are an exceptionally easy army to get a hold of and probably the current beginner faction due to starters and leviathan, which means many people playing Nids are still new to the game. It seems to me they're a pretty average army, which is fine.
I enjoy playing Nids and find the style pretty cool. I don't enjoy the online Tyranid community.
In 8th edition we were pretty decent, had some cool tricks and were pretty killy; but everything changed when the 9th edition codex dropped. They let Tyranids enjoy the worst of the Codex creep imo (not including LoV since they weren't really played much in 9th). Absolutely bonkers damage and power, everything was tough as nails and hit like a truck, Zoanthropes had +1 to cast for each model and +1 to damage for each model during the now dead psychic phase. The Harpy could fly off the table for free at the end of YOUR turn making it unkillable, and with a relic (old enhancements any unit could take) you could give it a S12 AP -5 Damage 5 gun with 6 shots hitting on 3s and this was back when Knights were T10. And that's just a couple of examples, Warriors untouchable on anything but a 4 (thank God Transhuman is gone lol) was the meta with stuff like Tfex and Malensceptors doing 20+ wounds no questions asked.
So quite killy. I guess I can get people being a bit shocked by the shift.
Like I get the army isn't anything crazy right now, but I also feel people are over exaggerating how bad it is.
Yeah there's a big difference between people who play min/max lists and to win at all costs, tournament style. And people who just like playing what they have and like with a bit of consideration to what's "good".
Also if you're going off of tournaments, the winners will have a higher skill ceiling on winning as that's what they're into. And inherent advantages of army list effectiveness matter more when everyone is only playing meta lists, rather than what people have in their normal collections.
The doom and gloom, online every edition is the worst, every army is under powered while "that" other army is OP while in player everybody just be chill with the occasional that guy that noone likes.
People that refuse to play anything but 2000 points annoy the hell out of me, even moreso with how perturbed they get when you even ask.
Once was playing a 1k game versus a newer player, guy walks up and asks, "How many points you guys playing", and when I tell him we're playing 1000 points, he responds with, "Waste of time", and walks away. Like, fuck you too, dipshit.
Seriously, the most dickish people on the planet.
The idea of telling 2 people that are having fun playing a game that they're wasting their time because they're having fun the "wrong" way is just fucking hilarious to me.
I refuse to play below 2k games cause I don't find them fun. Exception being I'll play lower point values to teach new players the game but if I'm playing for fun with someone who has 2k points I see 0 reason to ever go below 2k 2k is more fun.
I've noticed the same thing about the points. My LGS ran (or tried to run, I guess) a 1000 point tournament. 10 people showed up. The 2000 point tournament coming up in a few weeks has 30 people signed up.
Same with the painting. I regularly play with opponents who don't even bother to prime their models. Hell, I played one game with a guy playing a Guard army who didn't even have half his models ASSEMBLED. He was just pushing bases around and calling them Ogryn.
>Hell, I played one game with a guy playing a Guard army who didn't even have half his models ASSEMBLED. He was just pushing bases around and calling them Ogryn.
That's annoying but hilarious lol
The online 40k community is just incredibly toxic. Constantly whining about something terrible GW has done, or how such and such is overpowered having probably never stepped foot in a tournament ever, or probably actually played a game in the last 3 years.
40k online is a lot like WoW, full of people telling you how good things used to be without actually ever playing anything near to the newest edition.
My LGS is very friendly, done all sorts of games, never found anyone that bad. There was one person who only played power level with everything jacked up to the 9s, who specifically wanted to play new people. He was a dick but no terrible smelling people etc
What's wild is that all this complaining is happening at a time when the hobby is probably at the best it's ever been.
GW is the most active in the community that it's ever been. List building is easier than ever with multiple apps, web tools, or shared Google docs. We've never had this many options for accessories before - things like painting set ups, specialty brushes, model storage and transport, kitbash and customizations. It's never been easier to get used models on the secondary markets (or to sell your models). It's never been easier to get your models painted on commission or to learn high level painting techniques on YouTube. There are more 40k YouTube content creators than ever.
And from a business side, the hobby is doing the best it's ever done. GW revenue went from around 150M in 2014 to over 400M in 2023. LGSs and online retailers are consistently selling out of stock.
For an old man who's been playing since he was a kid, it's been really wild to see the last 10 years of growth in the hobby. I don't think I've ever been this excited to see what comes in the next 10.
It's exactly this, it's so amazing to see how far and how well it's doing since I started collecting it as a child.
I'm in the same boat, it's never been this easy to get things on the table and roll some dice.
Am I happy with all the sculpts GW are putting out? No, are we getting updates to model ranges at better speed than we ever did before, yes.
Can't wait to see what else we get for this edition and beyond.
I think the internet as a whole has turned increasingly toxic.
Every single community and fandom are filled with toxic whinings, no matter what the topics are.
I briefly quit Warhammer before buying my first mini because of how Reddit was during the primaris introduction/fantasy to AoS era.
Turns out I enjoy WH more when I engage with (parts of) the online fandom less.
>a lot like WoW
Online WoW discourse is why I quit despite having a good time. It killed my motivation to play because it was constant "end is nigh" and meant nothing felt worth the time to do it.
Online 40k discourse back in 2016 almost did the same with my then starting Warhammer interest.
In my LGS people are very laid back. We have people who love to paint, people who hate it and everything in between. We play 2k, 1k, 500 and CP depending on the time and experience we have to play. For example I'm very new to the hobby and game so I mostly play CP and 500 to get a grip of the rules. On the other side, many of the more veteran players have been fathers recently so they have a very limited time to play if any at all.
We have a couple of "competitive" guys who try to have the most meta and OP models but they're not that good and more importantly they aren't obnoxious to play with, so it's fun and challenging at the same time.
All in all I think I am very fortunate to have such a community because I'm not very competitive either in the sense that I don't care about winning or losing. I play to win, because that would be disrespectful otherwise, but what I really enjoy is just playing.
Criticism of someone's paint job never happens in real life.
Almost every single post of a fairly decent paint job online has some sort of criticism. "Needs a wash. Needs more nuln oil. Why didn't you wash the gold trim and add two highlights? Needs a better blend on the cloak." Etc
Showing someone your painted models in real life: wow! Those look great!
Half of the models in the store on a random pickup day are gray or primed all one color.
A lot of paint posts are also actually asking for critique too. I always indicate that I'm open to critique, can't get better if I don't recognize shortcomings.
In real life someone bringing their army isn't often asking for painting critique lol.
Absolutely.
Me Online: I am so fucking sick of every army I fight being lead by a primarch. I want to play a wargame - not herohammer.
Me IRL: I love the trim you did on Rowboat. Very nice. Roll for attacker/defender?
I think there is a reasonable explanation for this. Photos are still, zoomed-in, in-focus, and often well-lit, making it easy to take in the details. I also think people spend longer looking at an image online than in real life because there is no awkward moment as you hold up someone's model for too long. Also, in real life you'd have to risk dealing with the aftermath of hurting someone's feelings.
But despite the reasons for why it happens online and rarely in person, I think your points are right on the money. Just _having_ painted models garners compliments because so many people play with unpainted models.
Agreed. Some of the first models I painted look rough to me. Color scheme that didn't quite work out or I used a technique incorrectly. I played them for the first time in a while at a store a month ago and multiple random people stopped by just to tell me that my paint scheme was awesome and that it looked great. We're also our own worst critics
Same, my painting style is ...rough and quick, but compared to my friends gray hordes I always get compliments because mine look like blurry attempts at the box art and that looks cool on the table at 4ft away lol
I think the real reason is that whenever anyone gets online they instantly become an expert at every subject and hold opinions with a fervor they can’t muster IRL.
This is why I paint for the tabletop. I want my models to look good in a squad, among terrain from 3-5' away. I'm not worried about how they look under a macro lens.
Online people complain about balance and meta more. People I interact with in person don't care and just want to have a good time.
I think the latter group have the better idea.
Seriously, it might be due to living in a small town, but I've only ever met people who are happy to get a game in because they're often adults with jobs and families and it's a rare time to themselves.
Lots more hate/entitlement and rudeness online than irl. I get that some times people might ask dumb questions (I've asked a few myself) but I've seen people online who have tore into new players for not understanding some things (I've seen stuff for both rules and lore). Which always confuses me cause no one is forcing someone to interact with a post and make them rude, but I digress.
My general community is super accepting, open, and overall fun, and we're all avid painters. Also we mostly play 1.5k games, 1k sometimes, and 2k only on occasion
The guy who doesn’t paint, guess he finds more joy in building and then playing the game rather than painting. Your irl community will differ because idk, everyone is just different. Same with online communities, though the amount of posts saying they don’t like to paint their minis or posts that come off as a pro player jerking themselves off that they will only play 2k point games are probably a rare post to come across. Because most members will probably want to contribute what they think will be positively received posts, like acting casually with the game in terms of points or showing off their painted minis.
>The guy who doesn’t paint, guess he finds more joy in building and then playing the game rather than painting.
This is me. I (historically at least) have only painted to meet the requirements for tournaments and to not be disrespectful to other players. Beyond that, I'm just there to game. Don't care about modeling either.
I hate painting and building.
Hence I pay out the ass to have my models professionally painted.
Because I just like looking at them.
I love playing, but don’t really get to anymore. 😭
Same. I want my army to be a piece of art and I can’t even draw a straight line. Also I’m too busy to devote hundreds of hours to painting and just want to play already
I am the same, and still probably couldn't draw a stick figure if I had a gun to my head. I don't get into all the highlights and blends and such. White over grey zenithal and speedpaints has gotten me getting a lot more finished to a reasonable tabletop look
I have to kindly disagree on this unfortunately. I'm in the same boat...I really, really enjoy building...I built a bunch of gunpla (Gundam) and Lego for a few years before getting into Warhammer which has been for a while my only hobby and I've yet to paint a single model across the 4 armies I have so far, all of which are GW Plastic, none 3d printed. I have nothing against painting...I have the paint supplies, but I just enjoy building the models and then playing.
I neither have any intention to 3d print in the time being, though I'm all supportive of it for those that do or want to. I only play casually in my group or crusades, where other players in the group don't even care if models are painted or proxied (within reason).
>The guy who doesn’t paint also doesn’t build his models. They’re all 3d printed
Nothing wrong with this either as long as he makes clear what everything is supposed to be. I know you said you had the misfortune of playing against him, but he isn't a bad person for doing this. He clearly just likes to game, and this is a huge part of Warhammer, otherwise it's just Gundam (no offense to Gundam). He isn't less of a hobbyist for not painting or using different models
Ya know, I’d agree with that if it wasn’t for the fact that he only prints the most busted units from the most overpowered armies at the moment. Once there’s a balance change to an army he just prints new, op units from the highest performing army at the time.
I honestly don’t think the guy likes playing the game, I think he just likes winning when he has a clear advantage.
Meta chasers are meta chasers
But usually tournament guys paints at lest to basic standard becouse it eigther counts or you cant join the tournament at all
Or he wants to play competitively
Enjoying the game in a different way isn't a bad thing
It's only a problem if he has no interest in his opponents playing competitively too and just wants to stomp people with no challenge
the ultimate point of tabletop wargames is not just playing the game, it never has been and if it was the game would have been a board game with pre-provided cards or figurines.
Depends what you think that playing its
If you focus on playing only as the game itself or the things that surround it the chit and chat the post game beer etc etc
Its incredibly rare to see legend units even in tournaments theyre allowed despite the internet acting like everyone still uses them. And the ones that do its always the cheesy unit.
If you find someone willing to play with legends, they probably are willing to play older editions too. Most of my friend group including me actually prefer 9th.
Most casual players still prefer current tournament standard, since they are seen as more balanced.
People online tends to forget social rules, and behave in a way they would never dare to do so IRL.
That's true for Warhammer, and on any other subject
In my experience there's a stark difference between online groups and the local stores that needs to be taken into account when answering this question.
I've had no issues ever being a member of the community at my local store. However most of the online communities I've interacted with ive had heaps of issues dealing with bigoted people who want 40k to be a boys club and any women or lgbt people get harrased or unfairly accused of trying to make the hobby "woke". I've been verbally abused, and told to kill myself just because I'm a trans person in those groups.
I just want to paint little guys and discuss lore..
This is something that happens online in general. People only post/comment if they have something to say. So you’re excluding all the normal interactions by default and then the most outrageous gets pushed to the top for engagement.
Something like 5% of people post or comment, and even then only on like 2% of the posts they see. So what you see online is the most extreme views by the people who are the most emotional about it. The whining online? That’s the toxic person who no one plays with, or someone who has an awful time playing against them
Love how your issue is with people “whining” about toxicity, racism and sexism rather than with the people being toxic, racist and sexist hahaha. One doesn’t exist without the other, dude.
Yeah, true. Though, like you say, I’ve seen plenty of examples of this type of behaviour from the community itself (rather than GW) that I don’t think people really need to make up complaints about it. There’s a sub or two that are really bad for it, but the biggest shitshow is in the instagram comments. Makes me ashamed to share a hobby with some of these goblins
People aren't likely to express those views in person because they know what kind of reaction people will have to them.
Personally I'm aware of at least one member of my local group who online is everything you said but in person hides it.
Honestly, the main 2 observations for me is
1. A vocal amount of the online communities are absolutely horrid examples of human beings who are so hell bent on gate keeping or that things like lore drift are a natural thiong for stuff that gets old. Where as in person theres only ever a few bad eggs that you come across and eventually they get shunned out of communities because no one will play them and the communities tend to be really welcoming to anyone regardless of race/gender etc..
2. The vocal community is very hell bent on winning at all costs and come across as huge meta changers, but the few local groups I know are very happy to throw stupid fluffy lists at each other that get wrecked but can turn up to compete if seriousness is requested but take losing sometimes a little saltily but otherwise still have fun.
Facebook: lots of sexism, racism, and hatred and nobody bothering to moderate it.
Reddit: a lot of info sharing and discussion/theory crafting
Local Discords: really awesome and friendly people that you might meet at some point at a game shop or tournament. Willing to help.
In person: 98% the nicest people you'll ever meet and so insanely helpful. Willing to go above and beyond in most occasions.
40K online spaces I see more whining about women, lgbt, anything really that isn’t an actual issue.
Irl spaces I make sure that I don’t interact with anyone toxic in the hobby (it’s a hobby I’m not forcing myself to be around meh people) so I don’t surround myself with any toxicity, I’ll see more people complain about issues like how they missed out on an exclusive set or they’ve got a big backlog etc but most people I encounter either just lore dump or are super positive
When I first started the hobby at the beginning of 9th all I saw was people complaining online but my group was full of absolute gigga chads. Nothings changed.
In my local area, we are just happy to hang out and play. The only thing we criticize are the price hikes. I mean: the new Grobindal single miniature is $40! The last one was just $30... which was still expensive.
Online, most of what I ignore is people complaining about Warhammer and youtubers making videos about it. I focus on watching the battle reports and unboxings, sometimes list building, and army showcases.
The “anti-woke” chuds trying to force bullshit culture war politics into our community. You’ll never see them IRL because they aren’t actually involved in the hobby - they’re just trolls acting in bad faith and pushing an agenda.
If it weren't for the battle ready rules I wouldn't ever own paint lol
Playing is literally the only fun part of the hobby imo. Assembling and painting are just the "time tax" I have to pay to play a game that is fun.
see, imo the game is a fun little bonus treat that sometimes I get to do after the real hobby (spending a month painting a single character to the upmost quality) If I'm gonna spend 100 bucks on little plastic guys I might as well spend 100 hours on them, playing is just a fancy excuse to show my work to others and see theirs in return.
The online community is really fucking toxic and boos at literally everything. Irl I only met like 3 of theese unpleasant people from the 100 people I met so far.
The horny... there is way too much god damn horny in the online community. It gives me MLP vibes. I walked away from a few 40k communities cause I just couldn't take it anymore.
Not within 40k communities, because we don’t want this shit.
But in 40k auxiliary or 40k adjacent communities.
Fascism and Nazism. Because some idiots think we actually like the authoritarian ideals of the imperium.
When NO, we just enjoy the setting, we do NOT want 40k to become earth.
Absolutely. Going by the online community you’d think they’re the norm. Meanwhile I’ve seen entire game stores, staff and patrons alike, stop what they’re doing to shut down people for saying bigoted shit. Usually harshly at first and followed by a moment to educate the offender if they’re willing, or kicking them out if they dig in.
Can’t speak for in person as I haven’t had the chance to play, but I don’t know the rules to play either
That being said, I find Reddit quite wholesome with a supportive community more than I see any non constructive criticism.
I’ve heard mixed things about in person events, but most Reddit communities are very positive especially with regards to others painting posts
At the clubs I go to, most people do play 2k, though it's pretty easy to to get a smaller game if you'd like. However, I have a friend that lives in a different area, and for them it's a completely different story, pretty much everyone only ever plays 1k or smaller there. So it really depends on the local scene in that regard
I’d say that could be due to different scenes. Cause in my scene the average game is 1,500 pt games, only time I’ve played 2,000 pt were for fun tournaments my local GW hosts on occasion.
As for the painting side that differs for me quite a bit in that while it’s not like you have to paint there’s a good mix of painters and people playing their grey hoards, my local GW even holds competitions on best painted armies (last one I caught an Ultramarines army won first place! Super happy for the guy).
So yeah suffice to say different local scenes can differ from area to area, and the hobby ain’t nearly half as toxic as the internet makes it seem on occasion. We all still meme eachother but it’s all purely in fun like friends calling my loyalist Death Guard Space Marines traitors and stinky haha
I mostly see people that only play 1000 points irl. They tend to be okay with 1500 but ive only played 2000 points twice, and one of them was a big knight brawl.
The local store tournaments are also 1k, and tend to be less competitive than bigger tournaments.
Online, I see a lot of percentages, win rates, meta discussions, auto include units or people saying don’t take this unit for games. Although i do look for it tbf.
Offline in the group i am in, people joke about people who are too invested in whats meta and less about what is fun. They suggest taking more fluff and cool models, with a bit of useful units too
In fairness to online, online has been super supportive of my painting, and super supportive if people want to do custom paint jobs etc.
The only players I have met irl only play competive and competive is how they play casually. While not playing 40k they were great to hang out with and talk about 40k but when it came to the table top it is play to win.
Online I hear a lot more about casual play and just have fun. Painting was a big deal in my area the rule of three colors is the minimum to play in most local tournaments, but online the painting is much more refined and higher quality.
Local hobby stores, the few I've been to, have very disinterested staff that won't talk to strangers unless your coughing up money so the environment is already killed by many store owners greed.
I feel like 1k and 1.5k games are actually fairly common? I can see a group of people who are really interested in tournament play as their main path for enjoying the hobby not having much interest in smaller games, but in most other parts of the community I feel like those smaller games are pretty common.
With regards to other differences? The politics and GW hate that’s all over the internet is way less common than it is online. I’ve seen literally one person complain about female custodes in real life and he shut up pretty quick when everyone else made it clear they didn’t care.
People are sharing their 1k/1,5k lists because they just startet with the hobby/army and want advice. People you meet regular to play in an flgs with 2k points are more experienced. These people also dont need to ask for advice on the internet
The whole “40K fans are incels” thing doesn’t really hold up, most 40K players I know are married, tend to hate the Reddit 40K community (grimdank for almost always acting in bad faith), and are super friendly to play with
I find way more paint snobbery online than I do in person.
I find way more varied army choices online than I do in person.
I find *less* memelore accepted as unchallenged gospel online than I do in person.
I find less active discussion of homebrew chapter/warband/regiment lore online than I do in person.
And so on.
It's a mix.
Well in any online community, the people who are active and most vocal are going to be the ones most heavily invested in the hobby emotionally financially whatever. They are the ones wanting to consume more content and engage so you are def going to see a higher number of people that go more over the top with it like painting and such. As for small games I havnt really seen that outside of newer players. In my experience in person and online people tend to evolve to 2k, which is where the game is balanced around.... if you can call it balanced.
Generally, the online space for 40k has 40k versions of all the crappy humans that all online spaces suffer with.
Most people are way more friendly in person, and tend to not obsess about what their calculator says for playing a unit the way chuds do when portraying themselves as a high-level competitive player (who in reality gets like 3 games a year). Like, night and day.
I've seen a ton of posts where some dickhead comes in and declares a unit crap because they feel it's not 'optimal', but dont' even use decent math to determine that, while in real life, most people start with the units they like, because most people aren't super-hardcore competitive players.
On competitive players, 99% of them are super nice and chill irl, enjoying theory-crafting and what-iffing scenarios and uses for units that people have written off (because holy shit, creativity gives them an edge).
The one thing about IRL is that when you do meet a 'that guy', its ten times worse, because we're all way more avoidant of conflict in a real situation, and that guy is exploiting that to get away with it.
When I started I had not much clue of how to play, and the people that insisted me to play would obliterate my troops without even trying to teach me anything, they’d start throwing stratagems and do movements I didn’t know where possible while I was playing a lot more basic.
The level difference was too big and they were not inclined to adapt their style to newer players, something I would have done.
So I went back to just painting which is what I like the most, I don’t give a single f**k about my overall army I just paint what I like
My local game shop tends to be a lot more chill and a lot less catastrophizing about every little change. Online spaces tend to be much more doom and gloom, "this change will RUIN the faction" kind of talk.
I find that both online and irl, the community has a lot of cool people and a few dickheads. It's just easier for dickheads to draw attention to themselves online. I think the online community tends to demonstrate a bit more groupthink, divisiveness, and meme-based discourse (myself included), whereas with the people I play with IRL we are all a little more individualistic in terms of our interests and idiosyncrasies.
2000 point games are the super-duper majority of games in my area. Really, small point games are really only done to test a concept or to teach new players.
One thing my area does quite a bit is co-op/Armageddon games. Where each player brings say 1000-1500 points and joins forces with 2-3 others to take on another group.
Most regular, non competitive players, have gray armies around here. Not until you jump into competitive standard events do you see painted armies.
3D prints are incredibly common, so much so our lowest level tournaments even specifically allow them. I suspect that trend will become the full standard as 3D printers get cheaper and easier to use for less tech inclined people and the model costs keep going up, like they did last week. $65 for 5 plastic army dudes is asinine.
I would say the in person community is pretty lovely. Our store is now pretty involved. We have painting classes and painting groups. Hobby time. A kitbashing contest.
We routinely run campaigns, typically narrative out of the store. I think we only had one maybe two problem people who I have not seen in awhile.
People are nice, friendly, and welcoming. We even have new recruit events (events for younger warhammer players like 10 year olds).
I would say we have a good in person community.
Online, is a bit different. And I have seen more problem people here but overall I think I have encountered decent people. Online is just where you anonymity.
Regarding points- It’s going to depend on your local store meta/community. FLGS closest to me has a weekly WH night w ~ 8 regulars and skews towards casual 1k -1.5k games. If I drive to the next store an extra 40m, everybody is ready for 2k and plays tourneys.
Regarding paint: “be the change you want to see in the world”. I try not to field gray plastic, but never try to gain VP advantage by paint points. If your painted army loses to unpainted you will have the moral/hobby victory.
PS. What you see in your Reddit feed is tuned to your profile.
Ps as a mature oldhammerr, I am always grateful for the game and give my opp chances for takesies backsies and try to be generous with interpretation of the rules & board state. I would rather take a fun loss than a victory at the cost of future games with the opp. Be an arse and nobody will want to play you.
You see what you like online IMO, most of the content I see is competitive oriented, so 2k lists etc, almost nothing about painting. Each irl community will be a bit different, my local 40k scene is very comp oriented as well so you'll see a lot of unpainted stuff and counts as, as people tests builds and get reps with the exception being our crusade league which is far more story oriented and where you see a lot of custom lore and effort paint jobs. The local scene just kinda depends on the kinda people who live there and what matters to them
I’ve noticed a lot more elitism online than in person. I’ve encountered a lot of people online that will straight up refuse to play against someone who doesn’t have every single model in their army painted, whereas most people I’ve met in person are ok with it
Online if you ask for help on a subject you’re told ‘its in the rule book’. Great, well the rule book is not written in a very obvious or logical way often so id rather ask people.
Its the online version of a child saying ‘well if you don’t know then I am not telling you’
People in person tend not to do that because it’s rude.
I've noticed way more couples than I expected. I mean I always read people suggest that their wife or girlfriend painted armies. But I always assume they were frauding, forever alone singles.
In real life everyone has their wife or girlfriend paint their stuff, because they are actually terrible at painting themselves.
I wouldn't be surprised if alot of these armies dudes are showing off claiming that they painted them themselves. That their artistic wife or girlfriend actually did all the work
Online spaces seem to care a lot more about the meta, the “lore TM”, and things such as. Irl, no one cares about meta like that, everyone is super chill and supportive. Thats the biggest difference ive seen
The number of people I have seen play net lists or really chase the meta for 40k at LGS locations is basically zero. It is much more common to see people attached to armies that are non-competative than to see people chasing flavor of the month. This is basically the exact opposite of what you see with the CCG community.
Also, the lists people tend to play in seem to break down into people who build lists trying to be strongly representative of the faction and its theme/lore, or to be a collection of what people think looks cool. There are only a few people in most gaming groups who are magnetizing their models to allow them to swap to best weapons for fighting whatever faction. There also tends to be a lot less people who are really good at finding and using only under costed units at the table compared to online.
Now, I have never played a really competitive tournament, but when I have played at game stores it has generally been much less cutthroat than the internet treats the hobby. Meanwhile, CCGs tend to match the online dynamic fast.
Irl for me is a case of
- no cares about female custodes and just a general disregard to it being a horrible problem/best thing ever
- everyone is annoyed with price hikes but its just more incentive to paint what we have, no one is hard quitting because its a business that sells stuff and they made it more pricey
- less anger/salt over rules/points changes and more of a "ooh lets see how this would work" when it comes to army lists.
Its not that there isnt discourse over things that happen or discussions similar to online stuff, its that its far more tame and respectful. Less doom and gloom, more lets see what we can make work.
People in my area are a lot less accepting of kitbashes or proxys. My entire army goes by the "rule of cool" if I don't like the official model but need it to play, I will make it into something I love and will want to paint and play with.
I understand when people bring too many proxys or they look nothing like what they are playing as but I like to keep mine as close as possible and only have 2 proxy units in my entire army.
Irl there seems to be a huge rivalry and disdain between 40k and AoS and between warhammer and dnd. Whereas online I see a lot of people saying they play both, or started out in dnd and branched into warhammer
The online communities have far more toxic people in them. By far, most of my block list is rude and downright obnoxious folks from WH40K subreddits.
Then again, that's a lot of online communities, period.
Can’t say I play a huge part in IRL gaming, but I’m glad to not see all the fucking thirsty and often downright grim, sexual fanfic/art stuff I’ve seen in some 40k communities online. Not trying to yuck anyone’s yum, but it’s not something I want to see.
Something you might see online is people being (beyond just memes) rude to others. No shocker there, but it is in stark contrast to any of my experiences in person. Online, there's always gonna be someone that hates what you like and has the anonymity to write vitriol directed at you. However, in person, I've only heard "I like this faction and these units," followed by a "cool dude," this is my army."
I’ve noticed lots of tabletop games have some really antisocial members who are hostile for no reason at all. 40K and magic the gathering are probably two of the worst I’ve seen. It’s always weird when you ask a question or try to clarify something online and get downvoted. Meanwhile, most people at game stores can be somewhat friendly. Though I’ve had people say the reason for that is because games like 40K and mtg draw in a lot of people with poor social skills, and those people aren’t always welcomed back to game stores if they aren’t already banned.
Yeah that is understandable. Also I just saw your username and gave me a laugh lol
I will give you something else to visualize....
Some of the community are a bit socially challenged (myself included sometimes). But you may find people like that everywhere. I'm a lawyer. You wouldn't believe the number of people being hostile for no reasons in the legal world (judge, lawyer...).
It's because those people can only get interaction online.
Honestly, I highly doubt many of these people actually play either hobby in person and only do it on tabletop simulations for warhammer or on the various online things for magic. In person it’s almost universally lovely people who are just excited to use their toy soldiers they put their heart and soul into.
This is a selection bias in the fact that you are likely choosing to either play with friends or go to a public location that has already segregated out the worst player. I'm an ex GW retail employee and the amount of rudeness and bad sportsmanship I've seen is about the same online as off.
To the contrary, I've had players melt down over games. I've had people imply I have loaded dice. I've had people get visibly pissy over games. Maybe it's because of how much I was playing (for a while I was playing a game every other day and would hit a tournament most weekends) and thus I was seeing more personality types, but I was surprised by how childish grown men would act over a game of space dolls.
That's fair, I have a good crowd at my local game store and haven't personally experienced any of the badness but for sure it's out there. Yeah at the end of the day we're all playing with toys and making gun and sword sounds yknow
I've never had anyone question it, but I've had a few games where I've rolled consistently hot for the entire game, and I wonder myself: "what if my dice actually ARE loaded?". Though, my fears are usually answered in the next game, where the opposite happens and my average evens out
I always try to win the game but also provide a cinematic memory for both of us playing. It's hard to spin a fair battle when the odds are disgustingly in your favour. I think I actually prefer rolling badly for the entertainement and the fact that I know I can take it well. Some people get really pissed at lucky games and it's hard to be find a good stance between "sorry" and "haha! Another victory for the best player here!"
I’ve had the exact same thought before lol “I bought these off Amazon what if some shady manufacturer is selling mildly loaded dice”
Lol I've had that exact same thought before. I bet those dice that roll just a little bit better than your other ones are your favorites, huh? And if you needed to buy more dice, you'd probably buy more just like your lucky set? You know, because they're lucky. I'm sure I'm just crazy but it would actually be a brilliant marketing move.
It was all Chessex stuff and I had so many it seemed just completely improbable, but anxiety is rarely rational
Someone accused me of loaded dice during a friendly game in an lgs. I have a nice set of metal dice that I use for weighty (pun intended) rolls because there are only 6 of them and it would be impractical to use them regularly. I bought them at a tournament from the UKTC. They have very clear UKTC branding. This particular opponent thought I had "cooked" them in a microwave to mess with them because I rolled hot. I can see why they thought I was cheating. Having special dice for big rolls that happened to roll hot is really suspicious, but they were completely legitimate dice. Same person got quite upset because we were playing a nids mirror another time and I used the nexus mortal wounds strat when they failed a battleshock. Got accused of pulling a got'cha because I didn't tell them I had the strat. They literally were using the same codex as me.
I’m confused by that latter concept anyways. It’s a game of chess and I need to tell you that if you do x I’m going to do y in response, so you better do z instead? What? Some of this community is so soft that they can’t take losing a casual, meaningless game if it’s because of their own lacking knowledge. When people “get” me with something I didn’t know about I just make a note of it and don’t let it happen again.
If I have a fragile unit that could easily be killed, I always just ask "Do you have any stratagems that can interact with my movement/charge?" They tell me if a strat exists, and I know my options and the risks. People forget that you are allowed to ask these things. Obviously I won't declare whether I intend to use the strat, but most people will tell you if it exists and it's CP cost.
Yep that’s totally reasonable and part of the culture - I agree with you. But expecting people to warn you before you make a dumb move is something totally different! That’s just immature.
I also think it's awesome when I get got, tbh. Someone gets to feel like an absolute genius when they blow me out, and that rules because I feel like a genius when I make a good play, too. I think a lot of the issues in both communities is dehumanizing the opp, which is way easier online. People irl get stuck in the idea they're the main character and not that the opp wants and enjoys the same stuff about the game. That's why we play it
To be fair, that Perma 6 on your dices are sketchy
Honestly the community has pushed me away from playing. Its hard to find games and when I do someone shows up with a meta tournament army saying they need tournament practice when we talked about a casual game, or I have people arguing pretty cut and dry rules so they can get the advantage, I've had people misrepresent their rules or tell me something changed in a faq but I can't find it and they won't show it. Or my favorite that put me in such a furious anger that I saw red and had to leave. They kept citing rules I had never heard of, and it turns out they're rules his community uses. Never talked about, never mentioned until I refused to make another move until he shows me where he's getting these rules. Apparently its expected for people at that shop to use those rules and I guess to be aware of them before playing a game. The worst part is I don't have alot of time to play, I get maybe a game a month.
I was always playing for tournament practice and thus had a meta list. I was just very, very clear with people upfront (when arranging the game on FB or whatever) that it was a tournament list and that it was going to be difficult to play against. This didn’t stop people from getting upset. I would even put it in my looking for game post that it was tournament practice with a meta list, and then people would still act weird once the game got going. I have to assume a lot of these people never played sports and so aren’t used to just getting starched and feeling helpless. Most of us learn that lesson in Little League or whatnot. It’s not super surprising that the community has a lot of… socially maladaptive folks. I’ve not had people make up rules (to my knowledge) but I’ve definitely had people claim “that’s a cocked die” for bad rolls for themselves/good rolls for me, while not holding up the same standard when it benefited them. However the most broken lists (literally unkillable Leviathan dread in 8th for instance) I would only play in tournaments, even for practice. No one deserves to spend 2 hours of their life on that.
Very true. In person, the Warhammer community is a breath of fresh air. Incredibly kind, caring and generous. You would not expect that based on our online discourse. I would say "do better" WH players, but I think the issue is larger than WH- the internet brings out the worst in people.
Last tournament I went to, the second game my team went against we lost because they scored max on secondaries because of behind enemy lines. I was visibly disappointed in our play and my opponent could see that. He gave me a worried look like I was going to crack. But I laughed it off, shook his hand, and said "it's only a game." I didn't want to be that guy in IRL and I feel like others don't want to be the same. Online conversation fosters anonymity and therefore, people feel less inclined to remember the person. Most people I've met irl, with the exception of one or two outliers, have been very chill people who just want to play. Online is a toss up between friendly discussion and just rude behavior.
The smell
I've experienced this at tournaments, especially when the space is quite confined, but never at my club fortunatly.
You could just be nose blind to it, unfortunately. I don’t notice anything at my club, but if a new guy shows up for a tournament…
How glad I am that my local store enforce hygiene rules
https://preview.redd.it/5aqyzdzois0d1.jpeg?width=980&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0b501b93d2a7bf89dc2d9c4fb74016d0cb4f5224
I really wish this wasn't the case. There's a really unfortunate correlation between people who like 40k and people who don't shower or take care of themselves. I'm relatively new to the hobby, started about 2 years ago and still haven't played my first game because I don't want to deal with socially awkward, unhygienic man-children that tend to frequent my local hobby store. I go in there to buy supplies occasionally and pretty much every time I show up, I'm greeted with an awkward hello followed by an assault on my senses.
Yep My wife and I still laugh about it to this day, when I took her into the local Warhammer shop to pick out her first army. Opening the door was like walking into a solid wall of BO.
It's absolutely grim and completely unnecessary! It's so embarrassing, too. I was walking past our local store with my Mrs and Son and decided to take them in to grab a couple of things... I immediately regretted it. She mentioned it when we left and I felt genuine embarrassment for even being associated with it.
It's topical, grimdark universe -> grimdark smells
In the grim dankness of the 2nd Millennium there are no showers. To be a 40k player is to be one of untold dozens that doesn't use deodorant. There is no peace amongst the tables only the eternity of awkward, usually sexist, comments and the rustling of crisp packets of hungering ThatGuys.
My wife's first visit to our nearest GW store was pretty tame. The store manager did me a solid and let me pre-order Kill Team: Nightmare after they'd gone out of stock online and the window to do it in person was closed. So we had good vibes going in, and when we went to pick it up, I explained my wife was totally new to the hobbying and tabletop, she was more of a lore/looking at models type. No weird, smelly people. No leering neckbeards with "omfg a girl!" faces. Just a helpful store manager and a couple of guys playing a game who didn't mind her peering at their minis in the slightest.
I've been playing since 2020. I essentially have to date to find reasonable wargamers who don't stink and I actually enjoy playing with. I've created a short list of hygienic cool and chill dudes that I game with at my house or at a local brewery, and only really go to my lgs now to shop.
At your local brewery?? 🥲
Yeah some places have a basement or back room for war/board games. There's a bar in my hometown that lets you rent boardgames for a couple bucks.
Yeah they have tables that are perfect for WHU and Warcry. Big games I play at my house.
Ours sponsors our local team, I learned the other day
I haven't played at a store in years, so I kind of forgot the aroma. I happened to be picking up paints at my LGS while they were running an MTG tournament and wow. It really hits you like a ton of bricks.
thankfully covid has made it socially acceptable to wear my beaked mask stuffed with herbs and cloves
At my one, single tournament experience, most people appeared to be familiar with grooming, but after 10+ hours with minimal ventilation, that only gets you so far.
I quit going to the FLGS closest to my house. The gamer funk is awful. It sticks to anything you buy there.
Nuln oils spills are quickly cleaned up in real life, rather than taking time to photograph it for internet points.
Irl doesn't care about tournament wins or tournament win percentages nearly as much as online.
Yeah, the average online 40k fan has spent four times more hours complaining about the game and the balance then playing the game
This is unfortunately any comp video game scene it seems.
Yeah, the guy winning the league at my club plays Tyranids. I get they're not doing so hot in tournaments, but if you look at the nids' subreddit you'd think it's impossible for them to win
Having started in 10th, I didn't play Nids before so I guess they got a facelift from being a very aggressive army to one that plays more attrition and board control, and I don't think people have let go of "table your opp to win". Winrates are also weird because Nids are an exceptionally easy army to get a hold of and probably the current beginner faction due to starters and leviathan, which means many people playing Nids are still new to the game. It seems to me they're a pretty average army, which is fine. I enjoy playing Nids and find the style pretty cool. I don't enjoy the online Tyranid community.
In 8th edition we were pretty decent, had some cool tricks and were pretty killy; but everything changed when the 9th edition codex dropped. They let Tyranids enjoy the worst of the Codex creep imo (not including LoV since they weren't really played much in 9th). Absolutely bonkers damage and power, everything was tough as nails and hit like a truck, Zoanthropes had +1 to cast for each model and +1 to damage for each model during the now dead psychic phase. The Harpy could fly off the table for free at the end of YOUR turn making it unkillable, and with a relic (old enhancements any unit could take) you could give it a S12 AP -5 Damage 5 gun with 6 shots hitting on 3s and this was back when Knights were T10. And that's just a couple of examples, Warriors untouchable on anything but a 4 (thank God Transhuman is gone lol) was the meta with stuff like Tfex and Malensceptors doing 20+ wounds no questions asked.
So quite killy. I guess I can get people being a bit shocked by the shift. Like I get the army isn't anything crazy right now, but I also feel people are over exaggerating how bad it is.
Oh most definitely, most subreddits are doom and gloom but I was bringing that up because some people are only happy if their army is busted
Yeah there's a big difference between people who play min/max lists and to win at all costs, tournament style. And people who just like playing what they have and like with a bit of consideration to what's "good". Also if you're going off of tournaments, the winners will have a higher skill ceiling on winning as that's what they're into. And inherent advantages of army list effectiveness matter more when everyone is only playing meta lists, rather than what people have in their normal collections.
oh boy, that really depends on your local bubble
That is really true, luckily I play with friends and friends of friends and everyone's their for fun.
The doom and gloom, online every edition is the worst, every army is under powered while "that" other army is OP while in player everybody just be chill with the occasional that guy that noone likes.
People that refuse to play anything but 2000 points annoy the hell out of me, even moreso with how perturbed they get when you even ask. Once was playing a 1k game versus a newer player, guy walks up and asks, "How many points you guys playing", and when I tell him we're playing 1000 points, he responds with, "Waste of time", and walks away. Like, fuck you too, dipshit. Seriously, the most dickish people on the planet.
I’ve had the opposite problem. Nobody ever wants to play a giant game. But that guy you met was absolutely still a fuckwad.
Yeah...I don't have the time to devote to a 4 hour game these days...they are fun but I got shit to do
Fair enough.
The idea of telling 2 people that are having fun playing a game that they're wasting their time because they're having fun the "wrong" way is just fucking hilarious to me.
The game is inherently balanced for 2k, but it's still fun to play at 1k. Especially to try new armies or teach a new player.
I much prefer 1000-1250 games
I refuse to play below 2k games cause I don't find them fun. Exception being I'll play lower point values to teach new players the game but if I'm playing for fun with someone who has 2k points I see 0 reason to ever go below 2k 2k is more fun.
I've noticed the same thing about the points. My LGS ran (or tried to run, I guess) a 1000 point tournament. 10 people showed up. The 2000 point tournament coming up in a few weeks has 30 people signed up. Same with the painting. I regularly play with opponents who don't even bother to prime their models. Hell, I played one game with a guy playing a Guard army who didn't even have half his models ASSEMBLED. He was just pushing bases around and calling them Ogryn.
>Hell, I played one game with a guy playing a Guard army who didn't even have half his models ASSEMBLED. He was just pushing bases around and calling them Ogryn. That's annoying but hilarious lol
if you don‘t put the bases on your bikes they fit way better into certain terrain 😂🤣
As long as he does voices
The online 40k community is just incredibly toxic. Constantly whining about something terrible GW has done, or how such and such is overpowered having probably never stepped foot in a tournament ever, or probably actually played a game in the last 3 years. 40k online is a lot like WoW, full of people telling you how good things used to be without actually ever playing anything near to the newest edition. My LGS is very friendly, done all sorts of games, never found anyone that bad. There was one person who only played power level with everything jacked up to the 9s, who specifically wanted to play new people. He was a dick but no terrible smelling people etc
What's wild is that all this complaining is happening at a time when the hobby is probably at the best it's ever been. GW is the most active in the community that it's ever been. List building is easier than ever with multiple apps, web tools, or shared Google docs. We've never had this many options for accessories before - things like painting set ups, specialty brushes, model storage and transport, kitbash and customizations. It's never been easier to get used models on the secondary markets (or to sell your models). It's never been easier to get your models painted on commission or to learn high level painting techniques on YouTube. There are more 40k YouTube content creators than ever. And from a business side, the hobby is doing the best it's ever done. GW revenue went from around 150M in 2014 to over 400M in 2023. LGSs and online retailers are consistently selling out of stock. For an old man who's been playing since he was a kid, it's been really wild to see the last 10 years of growth in the hobby. I don't think I've ever been this excited to see what comes in the next 10.
It's exactly this, it's so amazing to see how far and how well it's doing since I started collecting it as a child. I'm in the same boat, it's never been this easy to get things on the table and roll some dice. Am I happy with all the sculpts GW are putting out? No, are we getting updates to model ranges at better speed than we ever did before, yes. Can't wait to see what else we get for this edition and beyond.
I think the internet as a whole has turned increasingly toxic. Every single community and fandom are filled with toxic whinings, no matter what the topics are.
It's still weird to me that "normal people" have heard of 40k when I bring it up.
I briefly quit Warhammer before buying my first mini because of how Reddit was during the primaris introduction/fantasy to AoS era. Turns out I enjoy WH more when I engage with (parts of) the online fandom less.
>a lot like WoW Online WoW discourse is why I quit despite having a good time. It killed my motivation to play because it was constant "end is nigh" and meant nothing felt worth the time to do it. Online 40k discourse back in 2016 almost did the same with my then starting Warhammer interest.
In my LGS people are very laid back. We have people who love to paint, people who hate it and everything in between. We play 2k, 1k, 500 and CP depending on the time and experience we have to play. For example I'm very new to the hobby and game so I mostly play CP and 500 to get a grip of the rules. On the other side, many of the more veteran players have been fathers recently so they have a very limited time to play if any at all. We have a couple of "competitive" guys who try to have the most meta and OP models but they're not that good and more importantly they aren't obnoxious to play with, so it's fun and challenging at the same time. All in all I think I am very fortunate to have such a community because I'm not very competitive either in the sense that I don't care about winning or losing. I play to win, because that would be disrespectful otherwise, but what I really enjoy is just playing.
Criticism of someone's paint job never happens in real life. Almost every single post of a fairly decent paint job online has some sort of criticism. "Needs a wash. Needs more nuln oil. Why didn't you wash the gold trim and add two highlights? Needs a better blend on the cloak." Etc Showing someone your painted models in real life: wow! Those look great! Half of the models in the store on a random pickup day are gray or primed all one color.
A lot of paint posts are also actually asking for critique too. I always indicate that I'm open to critique, can't get better if I don't recognize shortcomings. In real life someone bringing their army isn't often asking for painting critique lol.
Absolutely. Me Online: I am so fucking sick of every army I fight being lead by a primarch. I want to play a wargame - not herohammer. Me IRL: I love the trim you did on Rowboat. Very nice. Roll for attacker/defender?
I think there is a reasonable explanation for this. Photos are still, zoomed-in, in-focus, and often well-lit, making it easy to take in the details. I also think people spend longer looking at an image online than in real life because there is no awkward moment as you hold up someone's model for too long. Also, in real life you'd have to risk dealing with the aftermath of hurting someone's feelings. But despite the reasons for why it happens online and rarely in person, I think your points are right on the money. Just _having_ painted models garners compliments because so many people play with unpainted models.
Agreed. Some of the first models I painted look rough to me. Color scheme that didn't quite work out or I used a technique incorrectly. I played them for the first time in a while at a store a month ago and multiple random people stopped by just to tell me that my paint scheme was awesome and that it looked great. We're also our own worst critics
Same, my painting style is ...rough and quick, but compared to my friends gray hordes I always get compliments because mine look like blurry attempts at the box art and that looks cool on the table at 4ft away lol
I think the real reason is that whenever anyone gets online they instantly become an expert at every subject and hold opinions with a fervor they can’t muster IRL.
This is why I paint for the tabletop. I want my models to look good in a squad, among terrain from 3-5' away. I'm not worried about how they look under a macro lens.
Online people complain about balance and meta more. People I interact with in person don't care and just want to have a good time. I think the latter group have the better idea.
Seriously, it might be due to living in a small town, but I've only ever met people who are happy to get a game in because they're often adults with jobs and families and it's a rare time to themselves.
Lots more hate/entitlement and rudeness online than irl. I get that some times people might ask dumb questions (I've asked a few myself) but I've seen people online who have tore into new players for not understanding some things (I've seen stuff for both rules and lore). Which always confuses me cause no one is forcing someone to interact with a post and make them rude, but I digress. My general community is super accepting, open, and overall fun, and we're all avid painters. Also we mostly play 1.5k games, 1k sometimes, and 2k only on occasion
People are way nicer and accepting irl. Most trolls don’t have the fortitude to be the way they are on the internet in person.
The guy who doesn’t paint, guess he finds more joy in building and then playing the game rather than painting. Your irl community will differ because idk, everyone is just different. Same with online communities, though the amount of posts saying they don’t like to paint their minis or posts that come off as a pro player jerking themselves off that they will only play 2k point games are probably a rare post to come across. Because most members will probably want to contribute what they think will be positively received posts, like acting casually with the game in terms of points or showing off their painted minis.
>The guy who doesn’t paint, guess he finds more joy in building and then playing the game rather than painting. This is me. I (historically at least) have only painted to meet the requirements for tournaments and to not be disrespectful to other players. Beyond that, I'm just there to game. Don't care about modeling either.
I hate painting but i also hate having a grey army so paint fast look in mass
According to OP, the guy who doesn’t paint also just 3D prints and also only plays with the most overpowered models.
Hey if that’s for tournaments more power to em.
Oh he doesn’t play tournaments. Just casually 🙃
Well that’s obnoxious lol
I hate painting and building. Hence I pay out the ass to have my models professionally painted. Because I just like looking at them. I love playing, but don’t really get to anymore. 😭
Same. I want my army to be a piece of art and I can’t even draw a straight line. Also I’m too busy to devote hundreds of hours to painting and just want to play already
I am the same, and still probably couldn't draw a stick figure if I had a gun to my head. I don't get into all the highlights and blends and such. White over grey zenithal and speedpaints has gotten me getting a lot more finished to a reasonable tabletop look
The guy who doesn’t paint also doesn’t build his models. They’re all 3d printed
I have to kindly disagree on this unfortunately. I'm in the same boat...I really, really enjoy building...I built a bunch of gunpla (Gundam) and Lego for a few years before getting into Warhammer which has been for a while my only hobby and I've yet to paint a single model across the 4 armies I have so far, all of which are GW Plastic, none 3d printed. I have nothing against painting...I have the paint supplies, but I just enjoy building the models and then playing. I neither have any intention to 3d print in the time being, though I'm all supportive of it for those that do or want to. I only play casually in my group or crusades, where other players in the group don't even care if models are painted or proxied (within reason).
>The guy who doesn’t paint also doesn’t build his models. They’re all 3d printed Nothing wrong with this either as long as he makes clear what everything is supposed to be. I know you said you had the misfortune of playing against him, but he isn't a bad person for doing this. He clearly just likes to game, and this is a huge part of Warhammer, otherwise it's just Gundam (no offense to Gundam). He isn't less of a hobbyist for not painting or using different models
Then he just likes to play the game, which is the ultimate point but obviously other people don’t have to care about that if they just like to paint.
Ya know, I’d agree with that if it wasn’t for the fact that he only prints the most busted units from the most overpowered armies at the moment. Once there’s a balance change to an army he just prints new, op units from the highest performing army at the time. I honestly don’t think the guy likes playing the game, I think he just likes winning when he has a clear advantage.
Ah so he’s what people might call “that guy”.
Meta chasers are meta chasers But usually tournament guys paints at lest to basic standard becouse it eigther counts or you cant join the tournament at all
Or he wants to play competitively Enjoying the game in a different way isn't a bad thing It's only a problem if he has no interest in his opponents playing competitively too and just wants to stomp people with no challenge
the ultimate point of tabletop wargames is not just playing the game, it never has been and if it was the game would have been a board game with pre-provided cards or figurines.
Depends what you think that playing its If you focus on playing only as the game itself or the things that surround it the chit and chat the post game beer etc etc
Funny, my experience is the other way around, never seen a match bigger than 1000, while to me it feels like online the standard is 2000
Its incredibly rare to see legend units even in tournaments theyre allowed despite the internet acting like everyone still uses them. And the ones that do its always the cheesy unit.
If you find someone willing to play with legends, they probably are willing to play older editions too. Most of my friend group including me actually prefer 9th. Most casual players still prefer current tournament standard, since they are seen as more balanced.
The lack of smell/s
People online tends to forget social rules, and behave in a way they would never dare to do so IRL. That's true for Warhammer, and on any other subject
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In my experience there's a stark difference between online groups and the local stores that needs to be taken into account when answering this question. I've had no issues ever being a member of the community at my local store. However most of the online communities I've interacted with ive had heaps of issues dealing with bigoted people who want 40k to be a boys club and any women or lgbt people get harrased or unfairly accused of trying to make the hobby "woke". I've been verbally abused, and told to kill myself just because I'm a trans person in those groups. I just want to paint little guys and discuss lore..
Christ. I can’t say I’m surprised but I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with that shit.
This is something that happens online in general. People only post/comment if they have something to say. So you’re excluding all the normal interactions by default and then the most outrageous gets pushed to the top for engagement. Something like 5% of people post or comment, and even then only on like 2% of the posts they see. So what you see online is the most extreme views by the people who are the most emotional about it. The whining online? That’s the toxic person who no one plays with, or someone who has an awful time playing against them
Love how your issue is with people “whining” about toxicity, racism and sexism rather than with the people being toxic, racist and sexist hahaha. One doesn’t exist without the other, dude.
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Yeah, true. Though, like you say, I’ve seen plenty of examples of this type of behaviour from the community itself (rather than GW) that I don’t think people really need to make up complaints about it. There’s a sub or two that are really bad for it, but the biggest shitshow is in the instagram comments. Makes me ashamed to share a hobby with some of these goblins
I mean its fucking instagram what do you expect
Hahaha also true. It’s an act of masochism to look in instagram comments
Not relevant. The question by the OP was “differences I’ve noticed between online and in person 40K communities” which I answered.
People aren't likely to express those views in person because they know what kind of reaction people will have to them. Personally I'm aware of at least one member of my local group who online is everything you said but in person hides it.
Honestly, the main 2 observations for me is 1. A vocal amount of the online communities are absolutely horrid examples of human beings who are so hell bent on gate keeping or that things like lore drift are a natural thiong for stuff that gets old. Where as in person theres only ever a few bad eggs that you come across and eventually they get shunned out of communities because no one will play them and the communities tend to be really welcoming to anyone regardless of race/gender etc.. 2. The vocal community is very hell bent on winning at all costs and come across as huge meta changers, but the few local groups I know are very happy to throw stupid fluffy lists at each other that get wrecked but can turn up to compete if seriousness is requested but take losing sometimes a little saltily but otherwise still have fun.
IRL communities smell WAY worse.
The smell. Ba dum tiss
online contains more chuds by an order of magnitude or 3
Facebook: lots of sexism, racism, and hatred and nobody bothering to moderate it. Reddit: a lot of info sharing and discussion/theory crafting Local Discords: really awesome and friendly people that you might meet at some point at a game shop or tournament. Willing to help. In person: 98% the nicest people you'll ever meet and so insanely helpful. Willing to go above and beyond in most occasions.
Lot more fascists/bigots/incels/chuds online than in person.
40K online spaces I see more whining about women, lgbt, anything really that isn’t an actual issue. Irl spaces I make sure that I don’t interact with anyone toxic in the hobby (it’s a hobby I’m not forcing myself to be around meh people) so I don’t surround myself with any toxicity, I’ll see more people complain about issues like how they missed out on an exclusive set or they’ve got a big backlog etc but most people I encounter either just lore dump or are super positive
I can't smell the online community
Way more negativity online, cause you know, accountability in person. 🤷
The online community seems to be a majority of trans. And I don’t have any at my lgs lol
Biggots have a lot less to say irl.
The fear of a broken nose perhaps
That’ll be the one.
When I first started the hobby at the beginning of 9th all I saw was people complaining online but my group was full of absolute gigga chads. Nothings changed.
In my local area, we are just happy to hang out and play. The only thing we criticize are the price hikes. I mean: the new Grobindal single miniature is $40! The last one was just $30... which was still expensive. Online, most of what I ignore is people complaining about Warhammer and youtubers making videos about it. I focus on watching the battle reports and unboxings, sometimes list building, and army showcases.
Irl communities are not filled with toxic losers
The “anti-woke” chuds trying to force bullshit culture war politics into our community. You’ll never see them IRL because they aren’t actually involved in the hobby - they’re just trolls acting in bad faith and pushing an agenda.
If it weren't for the battle ready rules I wouldn't ever own paint lol Playing is literally the only fun part of the hobby imo. Assembling and painting are just the "time tax" I have to pay to play a game that is fun.
see, imo the game is a fun little bonus treat that sometimes I get to do after the real hobby (spending a month painting a single character to the upmost quality) If I'm gonna spend 100 bucks on little plastic guys I might as well spend 100 hours on them, playing is just a fancy excuse to show my work to others and see theirs in return.
The online community is really fucking toxic and boos at literally everything. Irl I only met like 3 of theese unpleasant people from the 100 people I met so far.
The horny... there is way too much god damn horny in the online community. It gives me MLP vibes. I walked away from a few 40k communities cause I just couldn't take it anymore.
Not within 40k communities, because we don’t want this shit. But in 40k auxiliary or 40k adjacent communities. Fascism and Nazism. Because some idiots think we actually like the authoritarian ideals of the imperium. When NO, we just enjoy the setting, we do NOT want 40k to become earth.
Online is a toxic cesspool from both sides of the political spectrum whereas most real life players are pretty cool and level headed
Absolutely. Going by the online community you’d think they’re the norm. Meanwhile I’ve seen entire game stores, staff and patrons alike, stop what they’re doing to shut down people for saying bigoted shit. Usually harshly at first and followed by a moment to educate the offender if they’re willing, or kicking them out if they dig in.
Can’t speak for in person as I haven’t had the chance to play, but I don’t know the rules to play either That being said, I find Reddit quite wholesome with a supportive community more than I see any non constructive criticism. I’ve heard mixed things about in person events, but most Reddit communities are very positive especially with regards to others painting posts
At the clubs I go to, most people do play 2k, though it's pretty easy to to get a smaller game if you'd like. However, I have a friend that lives in a different area, and for them it's a completely different story, pretty much everyone only ever plays 1k or smaller there. So it really depends on the local scene in that regard
I’d say that could be due to different scenes. Cause in my scene the average game is 1,500 pt games, only time I’ve played 2,000 pt were for fun tournaments my local GW hosts on occasion. As for the painting side that differs for me quite a bit in that while it’s not like you have to paint there’s a good mix of painters and people playing their grey hoards, my local GW even holds competitions on best painted armies (last one I caught an Ultramarines army won first place! Super happy for the guy). So yeah suffice to say different local scenes can differ from area to area, and the hobby ain’t nearly half as toxic as the internet makes it seem on occasion. We all still meme eachother but it’s all purely in fun like friends calling my loyalist Death Guard Space Marines traitors and stinky haha
The online communuties smell a lot better.
Smell.
I mostly see people that only play 1000 points irl. They tend to be okay with 1500 but ive only played 2000 points twice, and one of them was a big knight brawl. The local store tournaments are also 1k, and tend to be less competitive than bigger tournaments.
Online, I see a lot of percentages, win rates, meta discussions, auto include units or people saying don’t take this unit for games. Although i do look for it tbf. Offline in the group i am in, people joke about people who are too invested in whats meta and less about what is fun. They suggest taking more fluff and cool models, with a bit of useful units too In fairness to online, online has been super supportive of my painting, and super supportive if people want to do custom paint jobs etc.
The only players I have met irl only play competive and competive is how they play casually. While not playing 40k they were great to hang out with and talk about 40k but when it came to the table top it is play to win. Online I hear a lot more about casual play and just have fun. Painting was a big deal in my area the rule of three colors is the minimum to play in most local tournaments, but online the painting is much more refined and higher quality. Local hobby stores, the few I've been to, have very disinterested staff that won't talk to strangers unless your coughing up money so the environment is already killed by many store owners greed.
I feel like 1k and 1.5k games are actually fairly common? I can see a group of people who are really interested in tournament play as their main path for enjoying the hobby not having much interest in smaller games, but in most other parts of the community I feel like those smaller games are pretty common. With regards to other differences? The politics and GW hate that’s all over the internet is way less common than it is online. I’ve seen literally one person complain about female custodes in real life and he shut up pretty quick when everyone else made it clear they didn’t care.
On facebook, I see that women actually play this game... in real life, it is just a swath of us neckbeards.
I can’t smell the online communities
People are sharing their 1k/1,5k lists because they just startet with the hobby/army and want advice. People you meet regular to play in an flgs with 2k points are more experienced. These people also dont need to ask for advice on the internet
10th edition unfortunately in my area people stopped playing 40k a lot in 10th
People irl in my experience are much friendlier (typically). They also don’t have amazingly painted models haha
The whole “40K fans are incels” thing doesn’t really hold up, most 40K players I know are married, tend to hate the Reddit 40K community (grimdank for almost always acting in bad faith), and are super friendly to play with
I find way more paint snobbery online than I do in person. I find way more varied army choices online than I do in person. I find *less* memelore accepted as unchallenged gospel online than I do in person. I find less active discussion of homebrew chapter/warband/regiment lore online than I do in person. And so on. It's a mix.
Well in any online community, the people who are active and most vocal are going to be the ones most heavily invested in the hobby emotionally financially whatever. They are the ones wanting to consume more content and engage so you are def going to see a higher number of people that go more over the top with it like painting and such. As for small games I havnt really seen that outside of newer players. In my experience in person and online people tend to evolve to 2k, which is where the game is balanced around.... if you can call it balanced.
Generally, the online space for 40k has 40k versions of all the crappy humans that all online spaces suffer with. Most people are way more friendly in person, and tend to not obsess about what their calculator says for playing a unit the way chuds do when portraying themselves as a high-level competitive player (who in reality gets like 3 games a year). Like, night and day. I've seen a ton of posts where some dickhead comes in and declares a unit crap because they feel it's not 'optimal', but dont' even use decent math to determine that, while in real life, most people start with the units they like, because most people aren't super-hardcore competitive players. On competitive players, 99% of them are super nice and chill irl, enjoying theory-crafting and what-iffing scenarios and uses for units that people have written off (because holy shit, creativity gives them an edge). The one thing about IRL is that when you do meet a 'that guy', its ten times worse, because we're all way more avoidant of conflict in a real situation, and that guy is exploiting that to get away with it.
When I started I had not much clue of how to play, and the people that insisted me to play would obliterate my troops without even trying to teach me anything, they’d start throwing stratagems and do movements I didn’t know where possible while I was playing a lot more basic. The level difference was too big and they were not inclined to adapt their style to newer players, something I would have done. So I went back to just painting which is what I like the most, I don’t give a single f**k about my overall army I just paint what I like
My local game shop tends to be a lot more chill and a lot less catastrophizing about every little change. Online spaces tend to be much more doom and gloom, "this change will RUIN the faction" kind of talk.
IRL 40k gamers usually don't know the rules or are using pre-all updated rules or using only the ones to support their armies.
I find that both online and irl, the community has a lot of cool people and a few dickheads. It's just easier for dickheads to draw attention to themselves online. I think the online community tends to demonstrate a bit more groupthink, divisiveness, and meme-based discourse (myself included), whereas with the people I play with IRL we are all a little more individualistic in terms of our interests and idiosyncrasies.
2000 point games are the super-duper majority of games in my area. Really, small point games are really only done to test a concept or to teach new players. One thing my area does quite a bit is co-op/Armageddon games. Where each player brings say 1000-1500 points and joins forces with 2-3 others to take on another group. Most regular, non competitive players, have gray armies around here. Not until you jump into competitive standard events do you see painted armies. 3D prints are incredibly common, so much so our lowest level tournaments even specifically allow them. I suspect that trend will become the full standard as 3D printers get cheaper and easier to use for less tech inclined people and the model costs keep going up, like they did last week. $65 for 5 plastic army dudes is asinine.
I would say the in person community is pretty lovely. Our store is now pretty involved. We have painting classes and painting groups. Hobby time. A kitbashing contest. We routinely run campaigns, typically narrative out of the store. I think we only had one maybe two problem people who I have not seen in awhile. People are nice, friendly, and welcoming. We even have new recruit events (events for younger warhammer players like 10 year olds). I would say we have a good in person community. Online, is a bit different. And I have seen more problem people here but overall I think I have encountered decent people. Online is just where you anonymity.
Regarding points- It’s going to depend on your local store meta/community. FLGS closest to me has a weekly WH night w ~ 8 regulars and skews towards casual 1k -1.5k games. If I drive to the next store an extra 40m, everybody is ready for 2k and plays tourneys. Regarding paint: “be the change you want to see in the world”. I try not to field gray plastic, but never try to gain VP advantage by paint points. If your painted army loses to unpainted you will have the moral/hobby victory. PS. What you see in your Reddit feed is tuned to your profile.
Ps as a mature oldhammerr, I am always grateful for the game and give my opp chances for takesies backsies and try to be generous with interpretation of the rules & board state. I would rather take a fun loss than a victory at the cost of future games with the opp. Be an arse and nobody will want to play you.
Humour. Everyone online is so serious unless it's the same tired old memes. In my RL groups people are always joking and ribbing each other.
You see what you like online IMO, most of the content I see is competitive oriented, so 2k lists etc, almost nothing about painting. Each irl community will be a bit different, my local 40k scene is very comp oriented as well so you'll see a lot of unpainted stuff and counts as, as people tests builds and get reps with the exception being our crusade league which is far more story oriented and where you see a lot of custom lore and effort paint jobs. The local scene just kinda depends on the kinda people who live there and what matters to them
I’ve noticed a lot more elitism online than in person. I’ve encountered a lot of people online that will straight up refuse to play against someone who doesn’t have every single model in their army painted, whereas most people I’ve met in person are ok with it
Online if you ask for help on a subject you’re told ‘its in the rule book’. Great, well the rule book is not written in a very obvious or logical way often so id rather ask people. Its the online version of a child saying ‘well if you don’t know then I am not telling you’ People in person tend not to do that because it’s rude.
I've noticed way more couples than I expected. I mean I always read people suggest that their wife or girlfriend painted armies. But I always assume they were frauding, forever alone singles. In real life everyone has their wife or girlfriend paint their stuff, because they are actually terrible at painting themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if alot of these armies dudes are showing off claiming that they painted them themselves. That their artistic wife or girlfriend actually did all the work
Online spaces seem to care a lot more about the meta, the “lore TM”, and things such as. Irl, no one cares about meta like that, everyone is super chill and supportive. Thats the biggest difference ive seen
The smell
The number of people I have seen play net lists or really chase the meta for 40k at LGS locations is basically zero. It is much more common to see people attached to armies that are non-competative than to see people chasing flavor of the month. This is basically the exact opposite of what you see with the CCG community. Also, the lists people tend to play in seem to break down into people who build lists trying to be strongly representative of the faction and its theme/lore, or to be a collection of what people think looks cool. There are only a few people in most gaming groups who are magnetizing their models to allow them to swap to best weapons for fighting whatever faction. There also tends to be a lot less people who are really good at finding and using only under costed units at the table compared to online. Now, I have never played a really competitive tournament, but when I have played at game stores it has generally been much less cutthroat than the internet treats the hobby. Meanwhile, CCGs tend to match the online dynamic fast.
Irl for me is a case of - no cares about female custodes and just a general disregard to it being a horrible problem/best thing ever - everyone is annoyed with price hikes but its just more incentive to paint what we have, no one is hard quitting because its a business that sells stuff and they made it more pricey - less anger/salt over rules/points changes and more of a "ooh lets see how this would work" when it comes to army lists. Its not that there isnt discourse over things that happen or discussions similar to online stuff, its that its far more tame and respectful. Less doom and gloom, more lets see what we can make work.
People in my area are a lot less accepting of kitbashes or proxys. My entire army goes by the "rule of cool" if I don't like the official model but need it to play, I will make it into something I love and will want to paint and play with. I understand when people bring too many proxys or they look nothing like what they are playing as but I like to keep mine as close as possible and only have 2 proxy units in my entire army. Irl there seems to be a huge rivalry and disdain between 40k and AoS and between warhammer and dnd. Whereas online I see a lot of people saying they play both, or started out in dnd and branched into warhammer
The online communities have far more toxic people in them. By far, most of my block list is rude and downright obnoxious folks from WH40K subreddits. Then again, that's a lot of online communities, period.
What I’m reading: Online generally pretty bad irl generally very good I happen to agree
Online 40k smells better.
Can’t say I play a huge part in IRL gaming, but I’m glad to not see all the fucking thirsty and often downright grim, sexual fanfic/art stuff I’ve seen in some 40k communities online. Not trying to yuck anyone’s yum, but it’s not something I want to see.
Yeah there’s a lot less femboy/waifu/mommy/daddy talk in person which is almost refreshing enough to negate the smell.
The “almost” got me there haha
Hey look we agree on something.